more from God on offerings....

....I have moved onto chapter 2 of Leviticus today.  I prayed myself to a place where God would reveal how my relationship with Him can be seen through the list of laws that He sent forth for His chosen people.  After all, I am a child of  the King and therefore all parts of the Word are given for instruction and obedience. So I dived into "The Grain Offering."

* it must be a finely grained flour. It shall have oil and frankincense poured over it. A handful to be offered on the altar with the remainder given to Aaron and his sons, the priests.

(Frankincense is an oil from the Boswellia tree which has to mature from 8-10 years before you can harvest it's resin like oil. It is such a hardy tree that is has been found growing out of solid rock formations. It is  an edible perfumed oil that has also been used for medical usage.)

These are the verses and the instructions that were given:
V1-3...uncooked grain     V4-10....various cooked grains   V11-13...ingredients to be or not to be used: leaven (which was refused) and salt (which was required)     V14-16....early grain offerings

As with the Burnt Offering the Grain Offering also produced a "soothing aroma to the Lord"

These two offerings were most often performed together.  But since the Grain Offering did not require blood, it was not a part of atonement.  Grain was hard to come by in the middle of the desert so having  grain, oil and frankincense was a SACRIFICE for the offerer. 

What was it purpose?  WORSHIP. The act of this sacrificial offering praised God for His provisions daily.  (get it, daily)  It was a combined reminder of how the offerer needed to obey and please God out of his sacrifice not abundance.

As I read my Bible and gather biblical scholars views on these offerings I see where this takes me in 2011.  It takes me  to a simple list of  "must be's"....my worship must be:  authentic...pure...sacrificial...and  personal. (Note: this offering was to be done daily as the Burnt Offering was to be done)

Do I daily offer up to God my complete needs?

Do I sacrifice time , money and self so I can minister to others in their need?

Am I pure in my thoughts and motives?

AM I always reaching upward for that personal one on one time with God?

And since I have to answer honestly, I have to say, not always. But after today's study I realized I have to get better at this. Already The Book of Law is revealing to me my shortcomings and ways I can keep a "soothing aroma to the Lord" as a way to offer the best of ME to my God.

2Cor. 9:10 states " Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, will supply and multiply your seed and increase your harvest of righteousness."

The Book of Law...

...after a question in small group the other night, my sweet husband challenged me to find the answer. It was brought up that the Talmud laws were ones that man made and they far out weighted the original laws that God gave to the Israelites.  The question?  How many laws are in the book of Leviticus? And so I decided to compare them to what we are doing today as believers, not Jews but Christ believers. This will be my record of each law.

Leviticus 1: The Burnt Offering (1 Astrix = the offerer  2 Astrix = priest)
*unblemished cattle, sheep, goats or turtledoves/pigeons---the very best of these were to be offered
**Priest would bleed out the animals and sprinkle blood upon the altar
**Skin animal, lay head and parts upon the altar of wood
* washes out the inners of animal then gives these as well to the priest for the burnt offering

As it burns  V9 states it is a "fire offering of a pleasing aroma to the Lord."

This Burnt Offering was a personal/private offering between man and God.

 It was: the first altar you saw as you entered the tabernacle,  the most common of offerings, to be observed daily (am /pm), purified the offerer, the only offering that was totally consumed. (other offerings helped to feed the priest), to help the offerer understand his need for atonement ( reconciliation of God and man) not so much for forgiveness (willingness to forgive) , to symbolize O.T. faithfulness in God and the intention to love God with his heart, soul, mind and strength.

So if I could take away anything from this first law it would be....

My need: to have a daily personal time with God especially when I wake up and fall to sleep, to remember I need to be pure and unblemished before Him b/c He is a Holy God, to be totally "sold out" to this relationship b/c of what God sacrificed on the cross in my behalf, to recognize my need for my Savior, to give my all to follow Christ with all my heart, soul, mind and strength, to keep this FIRST in my life (and all else will fall into place)

Sounds pretty hard to do, can it be done?  I am an imperfect soul who accepted Christ on the cross for the forgiveness of my sins.....past present and future sins. I am so glad that I do not have to work out my salvation in the sense of always trying to stay on Gods good side..I work out my salvation b/c I want others to know of His great love for them.. I am free in Christ!  I am no longer in bondage and I hope what I do daily is a pleasing aroma to the Lord!

        

Cruise, recital, VBS, baby boy makes it all complete....

...but not enough time to capture it all! In a nutshell, we became grandparents AGAIN! And this time it is a beautiful baby BOY! After 4 grand granddaughters, who are the sparkle in our eyes, we were blessed with a boy....and the sparkle gets brighter with a tint of boyish blue!

After I was blessed to babysit the granddaughters while momma and dad went on a cruise for their long awaited 11th anniversary, I got back home to find us leaving again for the girls dance recital. Oh how I wish we could of been there the week before to watch the Gymnastic recital of LB but time is a hard thing to work with when you live 14 hrs away. Both recitals went well, LB is on her way to the Olympics one day on the uneven bars, with KK and AA finishing up to loud applause after ballet n jazz. Of course we can not wait to see little EG finding her place in the creative art or sports venue world.

After the recital weekend we arrived back home and started working on VBS. VBS was so different this year and I am so proud of Steve for taking it out of the box. He wrote the lessons this year and had a fabulous staff to carry everything out to the inth degree. (can't say enough for volunteers) The kids enjoyed a sports/drama/art/techie VBS week and many kids made decisions to accept Christ. Plus there was so much fun being made in the process. I was stretched to organize drama tract (b/c I knew I would be in Georgia during this week) God gave me the words to create a video drama skit that I have never before done IN MY LIFE! Thank you Jesus!

We received the call we had been praying for on June 6, 2011. "Mom, she is in labor." And with that we were packing for Georgia! It was a long week but so worth it when we saw how God planned Jill and Warren's family. This little one is so pretty! (can you say that about a boy?) But there are no other words to describe him, he is a pretty baby. I was so fortunate to stay for 3 wks and 4 days! My arms still miss this sweet baby falling asleep. My nose misses the smell of baby lotion and the feeling of softness of his skin on my fingers. But I can deal with these small things. Why? B/C my heart carries him with me, my minds knows that God revealed His choice for our daughters family and we will have these memories to share forever!

So I tip my prayerful heart to a loving God who gave 2 faithful people hope in a family unit. Little Baker is now apart of our family forever. I say words of praise to God for protecting our granddaughters and giving them experiences they will treasure in their hearts. I am thankful that even though a job was taken away from our son, God is AT WORK providing another one for him. I have ahusband who is not afraid to climb out of the box to make things right for kids and volunteers to enjoy and In all these things I leave my trust! And that dear friends makes it all complete!