Good morning students. I apologize that I am not with you this morning but having a large family means that sometimes it takes a while for an illness to work its way through. I will be in this afternoon though.
As we continue our journey through Leviticus we come upon chapter 22 which deals with respecting the things that are holy, belonging to Yahweh. Nothing imperfect can be in the presence of the Lord. We see this demonstrated time and again. Every priest and every tool used for worship could not be defiled and if they were then there was a method that had to be followed to purify them once more.
The lesson we should take from this is that Jesus Christ did an incredible thing when he redeemed us. Admit it, we tend toward the bad things, the wicked things, the vile things. It is our nature to put ourselves first and to do the things that bring us the most pleasure. We cannot be in the presence of the Holy One, Yahweh. It is only because of Jesus' sacrifice that we can be made pure. We ourselves are not holy. We are holy only because Yahweh has declared that over us. What was broken is now fixed. What was garbage has been renewed. We will be able to stand in the presence of the Holy One only because of what the Father has done to make it possible. We should never forget it.
Not forgetting brings us to the next chapter which deals with the many festivales
Yahweh established for hispeople. Festivales are a time of celebration. Living in Montreal we should understand festivales. It seems like we have a festivale for every day of the summer. These festivales celebrate different aspects of our culture going from laughter to jazz. Some fesitivales celebrate various cultures, such as the Caribean Festivale.
Yahweh established feasts and festivales as a means of helping his children remember where they came from, who they were, who he is and where they were going. It is unfortunate that many of us look upon these things as religious. Festivales still have a great purpose in our relationship with Jesus. Christmas is a festivale; a time of remember the greatest gift we have ever been given. Easter is a festivale; remembering and celebrating the the salvation Jesus earned for us on the cross. This is how we pass on to our children an understanding
of these two very important dates. There are many similar festivales that we should celebrate simply for the act of remembering.
We are a people who enjoy celebrating. We have parties and celebrations for birthdays, for engagements, for marriages, for the birth of babies, for wedding anniversaries, for death and so on. We do not consider these celebrations religious or rigid. We recognize them for what they are, an event to mark something of significance. So too should we consider the important celebrations of the significant things of Jesus in our lives. What is wrong with having a celebration to mark the day of our salvation? Why not celebrate the birth of the Church at Pentecost? There are an incredible number of things we could and should celebrate when it comes to the wonder and might of our incredible God.
Have a great day and remember to give God the glory for all the incredible things he is doing in your lives.
As we continue our journey through Leviticus we come upon chapter 22 which deals with respecting the things that are holy, belonging to Yahweh. Nothing imperfect can be in the presence of the Lord. We see this demonstrated time and again. Every priest and every tool used for worship could not be defiled and if they were then there was a method that had to be followed to purify them once more.
The lesson we should take from this is that Jesus Christ did an incredible thing when he redeemed us. Admit it, we tend toward the bad things, the wicked things, the vile things. It is our nature to put ourselves first and to do the things that bring us the most pleasure. We cannot be in the presence of the Holy One, Yahweh. It is only because of Jesus' sacrifice that we can be made pure. We ourselves are not holy. We are holy only because Yahweh has declared that over us. What was broken is now fixed. What was garbage has been renewed. We will be able to stand in the presence of the Holy One only because of what the Father has done to make it possible. We should never forget it.
Not forgetting brings us to the next chapter which deals with the many festivales
Yahweh established for hispeople. Festivales are a time of celebration. Living in Montreal we should understand festivales. It seems like we have a festivale for every day of the summer. These festivales celebrate different aspects of our culture going from laughter to jazz. Some fesitivales celebrate various cultures, such as the Caribean Festivale.Yahweh established feasts and festivales as a means of helping his children remember where they came from, who they were, who he is and where they were going. It is unfortunate that many of us look upon these things as religious. Festivales still have a great purpose in our relationship with Jesus. Christmas is a festivale; a time of remember the greatest gift we have ever been given. Easter is a festivale; remembering and celebrating the the salvation Jesus earned for us on the cross. This is how we pass on to our children an understanding
of these two very important dates. There are many similar festivales that we should celebrate simply for the act of remembering.We are a people who enjoy celebrating. We have parties and celebrations for birthdays, for engagements, for marriages, for the birth of babies, for wedding anniversaries, for death and so on. We do not consider these celebrations religious or rigid. We recognize them for what they are, an event to mark something of significance. So too should we consider the important celebrations of the significant things of Jesus in our lives. What is wrong with having a celebration to mark the day of our salvation? Why not celebrate the birth of the Church at Pentecost? There are an incredible number of things we could and should celebrate when it comes to the wonder and might of our incredible God.
Have a great day and remember to give God the glory for all the incredible things he is doing in your lives.
*images from www.photobucket.com
9 comments:
Wow! i think i can do what ever i can and yeah I'm sick and its hard to read and think about you stomic so yeah... but i did read it....
We look at celebrating Easter, Christmas, etc., as tradition, but it really is just celebrating what happened in the past. We need to change our outlook in life.
Well i guess that it's true we should learn to celebrate more thingd in life, things that thanks to God were possible.
God can make Anyone pure. Thats amazing. If you think about the worst person in the world god make him absolutly pure. We should always make christmas and easter a great significance to us.
I never though about celebrating the day I got saved, partially because I do not know exactly when it was, being under five at the time. It is a really nice idea. We wouldn't even need to receive presents because the one present we got on that day would be good enough for us.
Note: I believe it is spelled "festival", although that might be a different word entirely.
I love celebrations! =D I would love to go to all these celebration things we have in Montreal, but I never get to... =( .... in this devotions, you started by talking about respecting, then festivals and celebrations.... oh yeah, and remembering... that is what the festivals were about, right? Remembering.... which I think you already stated.... oh well....
I look at Christmas, Thanksgving, and Easter as holidays, but never as festivals for remembering. Niki's right, I see it as a tradition.
I like celebrations. I really dont see o celebration different from what they really are. Christmas is when Jesus was brought into the world to teach us the right way to live. Easter is when He died for us, and thenksgiving is giving thanks for all that he has done for us so far. But we do change it around and turn it into something non-religious.(Christmas and Santa Claus)
I think that I so use to celebrate those event that I don't always thing about it and what it mean.
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