One Year Bible, February 26

LEVITICUS 19:1-20:21
Chapters 18-20 are about holy relationships. God demands holiness toward Himself and toward other people. This requires a "separated lifestyle" - we are not to look like unbelievers. God is interested in every aspect of lives and every area of our daily walk. The Bible sees life as an integrated whole - and thus every aspect of our lives is to be holy.

Certain sexual sins had the death penalty, probably because intimate contact contaminates the spirit as well as the person. 2 Cor 7:1 says, "Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God."

Holiness is a command, not an option. Lev 20:7-8 says "Sanctify yourselves and be holy". God is establishing "ownership". He is like a jealous Husband. When I got married, my husband sanctified me to himself; and I also sanctified myself to him. This is what God demands. Being made holy requires a relationship with God of interaction and obedience. A sanctified person manifests Jesus, as His nature "surfaces" in us.

Holiness in our experience is a process of becoming freer and freer from sinning, as He mingles His life with ours. Our inner self takes on the inner self of Jesus as the "old man/self" is crucified/mortified. So sanctification is two-sided: the growth and maturity of the "new man", and the weakening and killing of the "old man". Sanctification integrates us soul and body and spirit and brings order to our lives of disorder. I "sanctify myself" when I love God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength, obeying Him by faith. My inner self changes as I obey, walking further and further away from sin and self and putting on Christ. As I obey God, I experience "Christ in me".

RESPONSE:   Belonging to God should effect every part of my life. Holy behavior is described as treating people with mercy and justice. I can't be stand-offish and still show mercy and compassion. But if I act like everyone else, I can't be a source of mercy or justice. God, help me get into the thick of life through obedience to You. I want to live meaningfully, in cooperative contact with God all the time. I will talk to You, and I expect Your grace to operate through me.

MARK 8:11-38
Wow! This chapter is full of interesting and important revelations. First of all, this whole passage is a warning about what produces spiritual dullness - the inability to understand spiritual revelation. Jesus asked, "Do you not yet understand?” Jesus refused to try to prove anything to the Pharisees any more, leaving them in their blindness and their stubborn unbelief. The Pharisees were incredibly blind because their evil doctrine (legalism) was all outward and external, never touching the heart. Herod was blind to Truth because of his lawlessness and self-serving that wouldn't allow him to repent. Warning: The same things will dull our spirits and harden our hearts.

Jesus fed the Israelite 5000 with 12 baskets of "crumbs" left-over (the healing that the Gentile woman asked for - "crumbs beneath the table") and He fed the Gentile 4000 with 7 baskets of "crumbs" left-over. 12 and 7 were known factors to Jews, refering to rulership and completeness or totality, both numbers repeated often in the Tabernacle, etc. Those were the signs!

Then, there is the healing of the blind man - done in a double whammy - as another sign to the disciples, who were spiritually blind. They needed their eyes opened in two stages. The first stage was in Peter's answer as to Who Jesus is. They saw His greatness and His glory, but not the totality of Him - the Ruler Who must die. Jesus began to open their eyes (second touch) to what He was really about, and what they must be about if they wanted to continue to follow Him. Verse 32 says, "He spoke plainly" - He detailed the rejection, and who would do what to Him.

Peter's reaction was based on his mindset - totally self-preserving. "Spare Yourself! You deserve better than that!"   Self-preservation is demonic!   In fact, if we continue in it, we will betray the Lord ("be ashamed of My and My Words"). Our "mindset: includes all our "affections" (Gal 5:24), our motivations and reasonings. If they are not marked with death, they will pervert our path.

NOW the disciples can tell about Jesus (v.30)! Their eyes are totally opened to what that means - they have received the double-whammy! 

RESPONSE:   What I appreciate about the way the Bible is written, is the way all the content "hangs together" - and it explains the next part, and the next part, and the next. That said, I believe that legalism will kill us, but lawlessness might kill us quicker. Both will keep us from seeing the Truth. Getting caught up in either one will make us spiritually dull and hardhearted. Self-preservation is a deterrent to following Jesus and will cause us to put temporal things ahead of spiritual realities. We can either lose our lives, (give them as living sacrifices) or we can waste them! There is no other choice out there!

PSALM 42:1-11
Psalms 42-72 are called "Exodus" Psalms and are about "redemption" - how God calls us out of the world and delivers us in our troubles. The Name of God that is most used in this section of Psalms is "Elohim" - the Adored One, the Worshipped One.

Psalm 42 is a "Maschil" - "instructions": it is supposed to teach us something - what to do when we are depressed. The answer to a bad mood is, "Hope thou in God;" wait for God. He is working out His purposes and if you stay "in faith" and don't lose it, you will yet praise him. Psalm 42 and 43 go together, as you will see, because the cure didn't happen until the middle of Psalm 43.

We must refuse to succumb to a bad mood. Do something about it. There are times when it looks like God is doing nothing. He just lets us wait. Those times of delay are the times that test our faith. And so the Psalmist remembered how God helped him in the past. Then he said that the deeps in God call out to the deeps in man.  The the depths of the love of God, and the depths of the joy of God (v.8) call for the echo in our own depths.  But the torturing doubt still comes: "Why have You forgotten me?" But you see, God is our only real hope.   to be continued.............

PROVERBS 10:17
We influence others for good or for evil, just by the way we live. The important thing to notice here is that the person who takes correction shows the way to Life. (This form of correction is "to correct with blows".)

RESPONSE:   Children don't always do what you say, but they do do what you do! So, even when we aren't meaning to instruct, we are.  When we don't take instruction, we are actually leading someone to do the same and will end up in the wrong place. I know that I didn't start really growing in faith until I got to where I could take correction without getting mad, or getting my feelings hurt. How can we ever stop doing things the wrong way, if no one can tell us anything? It is a sign of maturity when we stop getting offended when we are corrected. Some people never grow up in that area and are a disappointment to others in their spiritual growth. I don't like correction any more than the next guy, but the older I get, the more I realize that I don't know it all! I want to lead people to Life.  Someone is watching you!