Deny Yourself

Leviticus 23:26-29
The LORD said to Moses, "The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves, and present an offering made to the LORD by fire. Do no work on that day, because it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before the LORD your God. Anyone who does not deny himself on that day must be cut off from his people.

Luke 9:23-25 23
Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?

Leviticus 20:23-26

You must not live according to the customs of the nations I am going to drive out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them. But I said to you, "You will possess their land; I will give it to you as an inheritance, a land flowing with milk and honey." I am the LORD your God, who has set you apart from the nations.

" 'You must therefore make a distinction between clean and unclean animals and between unclean and clean birds. Do not defile yourselves by any animal or bird or anything that moves along the ground—those which I have set apart as unclean for you. You are to be holy to me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.

Leviticus 20:7-8

Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the LORD your God. Keep my decrees and follow them. I am the LORD, who makes you holy.

Consecrate is to give entirely to a specific person, activity, or cause. wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

Holiness is the state of being holy, that is, set apart for the worship or service of God or gods. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy

Proverbs 1:7

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and discipline.

This is an amazing scripture to me. Every time I read it, I am impacted by it. This morning it hit me that there will be times when a fool is to foolish to understand that they are being given wisdom. Plus I am always cut by the fact that the Bible says I am a fool becuase I don't like discipline.

Leviticus 18

The LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'I am the LORD your God. You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices. You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the LORD your God. Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. I am the LORD.
Leviticus 18:1-5

I really liked this verse. It is a message of how the Israelites needed to be set apart from the customs of the cultures around them. I think this can be a problem that I face that I want to be accepted by society and have the things that other people value. Though what is especially interesting is the line, "Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them." I know that on one hand it says that obeying Gods commands will enable you to live. But I also think it is saying that it is not just a matter of obeying specific commands but also having the commands guide your life.

Leviticus 10

"This is what the LORD spoke of when he said:
" 'Among those who approach me I will show myself holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honored.' " Aaron remained silent.

This scripture speaks so deeply to me. The first thing that I thought of was how this relates to our example as Christians and how we must honor him in all we do. It also caused me to think about going out on a date as a Christian. My belief is that Christians should only date Christians with similar belief about Gods word. Which can be very hard because there are people who go to my Church that have very different beliefs than I do.

It also made me think about how the scripture doesn't command us to show God as holy or honor God. The scriptures says that regardless of whether you want to honor God or not he will be honored.

Trouble In the Book Of Exodus

I intended to write this blog daily as I went through the Bible, but since my time has been limited I have not been able to do that. With my second job and all my other commitments I have was moving right along with reading but as you might have noticed never really blogging. But lately I have been having trouble staying motivated.

Every one claims that people stop when they get to Leviticus, though I think that might be an overstatement. I am having trouble reading about the Tabernacle in the book of Exodus. I must redouble my efforts! So I don't go off track completely. I will also make every effort to write more.

1 Peter 1:3-9

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.