Levitical Journey

Blessings to you this wonderful Sunday afternoon. Today we started our new series entitled:

The corporate worship was absolutely incredible. As always, I pray that our offering was acceptable to God. Speaking of that offering, God has really been speaking to me lately through, of all books, Leviticus. The Creative Arts teams have heard reference to this a couple of different times over the last few weeks. So, I thought I'd share those thoughts with you as well.

First of all, I realize that we are no longer living under Levitical law...THANK YOU JESUS! Literally, I give thanks to God for sending His son as the ultimate atoning sacrifice. However, I still believe that there is much to be learned in the study of the old testament sacrifices. They were so incredibly specific about the ways in which each sacrifice was made. Rightfully so considering the "instructions" came directly from God Himself! Can you imagine if God spoke to us regularly like He did Moses? The very thought sends a multitude of emotions through my tiny skull. WOW, what it must have been like. I digress.

Anyway, God has really been speaking to me lately about how incredibly messy the Levitical offerings were. To put it mildly, LOTS OF BLOOD & GUTS! Check out the link above to read it for yourself. I mean, there was blood everywhere. Shouldn't our offerings today be at least a little messy. Can you honestly say that your offerings to God have been in any way a sacrifice? Instead, are we offering up half-hearted laughable "trinkets", that more than likely don't make it past the ceiling! Whoops, sorry for meddling. 

But here's where God really put the whammy on me. On several occasions God instructs the priests to "scrub the entrails & legs clean". Why, in the midst of such slaughter, were they to scrub the sacrifice clean. Now I know that I'm making a bit of a generality here, but God really spoke to me through this. In the midst of the act of sacrificial offering, God wants to bring purity. Once again, do we really want the "stuff" of our lives to be made clean through our offering? Or would we really rather throw up our little trinkets & be done with it.

To wrap up this Levitical journey, I wanted to share with you the best (in my humble opinion) & most frequent phrase in Leviticus...

A PLEASING FRAGRANCE TO GOD. 

This simple yet profound phrase comes at the end of each sacrifice. Can you imagine the stench each sacrifice must have had?! Not to mention that multiple sacrifices were made at a time. To man...a foul smell. To God...a pleasing sacrifice. 

Pretty heavy stuff from a book that most simply skim through. As He is still speaking to me, I pray that all of our offerings will forever be changed. May we all soon be lifting up a "pleasing fragrance" to the heavens. 

On a different note, I told several of you that I would hopefully be posting a video of last week's choir piece "Miracle". Unfortunately, for some reason, my macbook won't read the DVD. It has a little scratch on it & my fine-tuned machine is a bit cranky that way. I will continue to post videos & audio as they become available. Hopefully, I will be posting some audio from this morning's service soon. We shall see after I edit the service tonight for our podcast. Speaking of the podcast, don't forget that you can always download each week's service from the FBC website. 

Until next time...

I've discovered something!

I ENJOY TOO MANY THINGS!!

Blogging, for instance. I loved getting started with this about a year ago. I loved designing the site, creative writing, teaching, yada, yada, yada. Now, like many things, it has become one more thing...that I enjoy doing...but have trouble juggling with the other things I love.

So, here's the deal, in an effort to balance all of my loves (i.e. my wife, kids, songwriting, recording those songs, videography, photography, blogging, etc...etc...), I will continue to blog, but not quite as often. Honestly, I see this becoming primarily a teaching tool, with bits of my other passions thrown in.

Speaking of other things that are thrown in. I've added a new band & book to my sidebar. Check them out. Your best bet to stay in tune to Me-Log is to subscribe. That way, as frequent (or infrequent) as I post, you will get an e-mailed version of the post that will direct you to the site.

Before I sign off for today, I do want to share with you what my small group talked about last night. Like last semester, we are still studying the mystery of worship. Only this time, we are diving a little deeper into the personal aspect of it. As many of you know, Romans 12:1 is my favorite, or some may call it, my life verse. Let's look at it:

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices,
holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship."

I love this verse!! Let's start at the beginning. What does it mean..."in view of God's mercy"? More simply put, what is mercy? We concluded that it was simply getting what we don't deserve, as well as not getting what we do deserve. The Word says that our acts are as filthy rags. If that's so, we deserve the trash heap! Although, due to God's mercy, we don't get it. In fact, we get the opposite...ETERNAL LIFE!! What does that speak to you?? I'll tell you what it says to me. It screams I LOVE YOU!

Let's go a bit further. Why does it tell us to offer our bodies? Why not our hearts? I think we can all agree that our flesh is what consistently gets us into trouble. We HAVE to give that flesh over to Christ's will for us. Also, the body encompasses the heart & soul. The way I see it, it's a package deal.

"Holy and pleasing to God". WOW! Isn't that what worship is truly about...pleasing our heavenly father. Worship should be our response to our loving, giving, merciful Creator. THANK YOU DADDY!

It ends with this statement..."This is your spiritual act of worship". Not, this might be, but THIS IS! We are commanded to live our lives in this way. So, here's my challenge to you. When it gets difficult, when you think you can't go any further, funnel your worship through His mercy. What more could He give for you? NOTHING! He deserves what we can offer him.

I concur with Paul as he stated, "I urge you brothers". It's of ETERNAL importance.

BLESSINGS!!