DEVOTIONS

 February 24, 2023
 Daily Reading – Leviticus 23-24 / Mark 4:1-20

 

 GOD’S WORD:

Leviticus 24:22 Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for one of your own country: for I am the LORD your God.

 

 GETTING INTO GOD’S WORD:

    Right or Wrong. Or better stated, who is right and who is wrong? This has been an age-old question on a variety of topics. Sometimes it can be a matter of personal preference. Who is right or wrong when it comes to eggs scrambled, over easy, poached, or no eggs at all? It really only matters to the person making that choice. It affects no one else but them. (Well, and maybe the chicken. However, you get the idea.) Yet in life there are some issues that demand a right or wrong verdict. Our courtrooms today are full of cases where two opinions collide, and a final decision must be made. Who, or what is right?

 

    Some have made the claim that the Old Testament is a Jewish book. It is a book written for the Jewish people only. However, today’s verse shares that God is a God of everyone. That equal laws of protection, and where need be a punishment, are afforded to all mankind. If someone will respect and obey the laws and live in accordance to them, they will be protected by those who are given the charge of enforcing these laws. However, if a person chooses to live outside of the laws and breaks those laws, they forfeit all the rights of protection and privilege. Their actions condemn them and a just punishment is then handed down based upon laws broken. Whether governments want to admit it or not, most have taken the law of the Lord for the basis of their Legal system. God’s Word is our Consistent Rule of order in life.

 

 GETTING GOD’S WORD INTO ME:

    Some will read God’s Word as a book filled with rules and punishments. Others read it as a guideline to life and God’s promise of protection. I guess that would depend on which side of God’s outline for life, you choose to want to live on.

 

Is God’s Consistent Ruling ever wrong?

 

 

 February 23, 2023
 Daily Reading – Leviticus 20-22 / Mark 3

 GOD’S WORD:

Leviticus 20:6 And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people.

 GETTING INTO GOD’S WORD:

    Curiosity about the unknown has been around forever. What comes after death? What happens to our soul when we die? Can we contact people beyond the grave? God’s Word actually answers all these questions, however, that never seems to satisfy the majority of people. To that end, we have any number of people willing to exploit the curiosity and often the heartbreak of other people. There are fortunetellers, psychics, paranormal mediums, and the list goes on and on. God’s warning to His own is abundantly clear, STAY AWAY. Do not seek the devil and his crowd for an answer to something that God and God alone controls. At a minimum they are liars and fakes. At their worst they are in cohorts with demons and evil spirit. In both cases they are extremely dangerous untrustworthy.

    This is nothing new. God’s warning to the children of Israel was because He knew the people in the land they were going to, did these things. Later in Leviticus 20:23 it says, “And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.” Did you read that? God cannot stand them. Connecting with the Devil and his crowd is never the right answer for any question. Many of these tricksters are very good at what they do. Our curiosity must be restrained and we as believers must trust only in God and His Word.     

 GETTING GOD’S WORD INTO ME:

    If you are curious about eternity, do not ask a liar to tell you the truth. The bible says the devil is a lair. (John 8:44) Seek the truth from the truth. Jesus is the truth. (John 14:6)

If you know someone is a liar,
can you trust them when they say
they are telling the truth?

 February 22, 2023
 Daily Reading – Leviticus 18-19 / Mark 2

 

 GOD’S WORD:

Leviticus 18:3 After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances.

 

 GETTING INTO GOD’S WORD:

    As a young boy, I remember being told, “look both ways before you cross the road.” It was good advice back then. It is still good advice today. If you simply look in one direction, you may miss a danger coming from the other way. God gives us a similar warning in today’s verse. A caution in our pathway of life that is required.

 

    God’s warning to the children of Israel is a good warning for us today. He said, do not do what you use to do in the life you came out of. Everything they knew, they knew from watching the Egyptians over the years. How they sacrificed to idols and worshiped various things they called gods. God said, do not do that anymore. Likewise, in the future ahead, God warned, there will be people doing things that are also displeasing to Him. They have an entirely different way of doing things, but different does not mean right. Do not do that either. Look both ways. To your past as well as to your future, there are dangers in either direction. In Leviticus 18:5 God says; “Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the LORD.” In other words God was saying, listen to what I tell you, do that, and life will be so much better, I know what I am talking about, I am God. You know, that was good advice then, and is good advice today. Our past life, filled with sin is not where we need to be. Nor any of traps Satan places ahead. Our caution is required.

 

 GETTING GOD’S WORD INTO ME:

    Looking both ways is a great idea. However, there is another direction in which we should look. Isaiah 26:3 says,“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.” Look Up!

 

Are you looking in every direction today?

 

 

 February 21, 2023
 Daily Reading – Leviticus 15-17 / Mark 1:21-45

 

 GOD’S WORD:

Leviticus 17:11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.

 

 GETTING INTO GOD’S WORD:

    Talk about being ahead of science, this verse points hundreds of years past medical science of the day. In fact, it points all the way into eternity.

 

    In the Middle Ages there was a practice known as “bloodletting.” Blood was drained out of a person to get rid of diseases. If they did not to drain too much blood, sometimes it helped. However, in many cases it never worked because, well, people just died. A form of bloodletting was called “Leeching.” To suck the poison out of a body they would adhere blood sucking leeches to people. That was not very successful either because, one too many leeches and people died. Evidently, they had not read this part of the Bible. Life is in the blood.

 

    God wanted people to know how important the blood was way back in Old Testament times. It all pointed to the day when the blood of Jesus, which paid for man’s sin would be shed. The remission of our sin took the blood, and therefore the life of God’s only Son Jesus. Hebrews 9:22 tells us; “And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.” When Jesus died as the sacrificial Lamb of God, the Jewish people should have understood what just happened. As far as that goes, we too who have all of God’s Word and no excuse for not understanding. “…it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.”

 

 GETTING GOD’S WORD INTO ME:

    Today’s verse points hundreds of years ahead to Jesus, Our Coming Remission. Once applied it is complete. Hebrews 10:18 says; “Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.” It is FINISHED.

 

Have you placed your sins under the blood?

 

 

 February 20, 2023
 Daily Reading – Leviticus 14 / Mark 1:1-20

 

 GOD’S WORD:

Leviticus 14:14 And the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot:

 

 GETTING INTO GOD’S WORD:

    We have all heard of people who tie a string around their finger so that when they look at the string, it reminds them to do something. A few years back someone came up with the idea of a bracelet that many people wore. On the bracelet it said, “What Would Jesus Do?” It was a reminder for people to think about their Christian Character in the things they do. People have planners, text alerts, sticky notes, and all sorts of things to try to remind them of various things.

 

    In our verse today, and in fact in many verses referring to sacrifice in the Old Testament, we find them marking the right ear, right thumb, and the big toe on the right foot with blood. This for them was a reminder as well. First of all, being the right side was the symbol of power or strength. The ear pointed to all that they might hear. The thumb resembled all that they might do. The great toe helped them to think of everywhere they might go. Finally the blood reminded them of the sacrifice made to the Lord. When they would feel the crust of blood on their ear, see the blood on their hand and toe, it was to remind them that they were set apart for the work of the Lord.

 

    All of this pointed to the blood that would be shed by Christ as the final sacrifice for man. As believers in Christ we too have been anointed by the blood of Christ to be mindful of what we listen too, what we do, and where we go. 

 

 GETTING GOD’S WORD INTO ME:

    All that we do in service to the Lord is to be done in His strength, not our own. We are then to use His strength to give our all for Him in all we do. His Holy Spirit is Our Continual Reminder.

 

What might help you to remember that
what you listen to, do, and where you go, matters?