Tag Archives: the cross

Numbers 28-30; Old Testament Sacrifices and Jesus

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I’m sure I say this every time I read passages describing the required Old Testament sacrifices but… there was so much blood! Thirteen bulls one day, twelve the next, then eleven, etc. Not to mention two rams and four lambs a day for a week. Oh, and don’t forget the daily goat sacrifice.

That’s a lot of blood being shed there at the temple.

We talked about the cross yesterday in Sunday School. Jesus did what the blood of millions of bulls could not do. His precious blood was shed once and for all. He laid down his life willingly, intentionally, painfully, and gloriously for the forgiveness of every sin every person has ever committed or will commit.

“It is finished,” He cried. Debt paid. Period.

All the requirements of Old Testament sacrifices were fulfilled in that one amazing act. The Old Testament sacrifices paint a picture of what Jesus did there on the cross. Sin is serious business. The consequence for sin is death, and without the shedding of blood God cannot forgive sin.

Praise Jesus! His blood was shed so that you and I can know the freedom that comes from accepting His grace, receiving the forgiveness He bought, and walking with the God of Creation, having Him living right in us.

Thanking God for the cross today.

 

Leviticus 13-14; Free To Fly

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You don’t have to dig very deep in order to see Jesus through the laws God gave Moses for the children of Israel. He’s in there!

One of my favorite pictures of Christ within the Old Testament Law is found in Leviticus 14:1-7. It’s actually about how a person healed from a disease is able to be pronounced clean. If you read this you’ll find water and blood, wood, hyssop and scarlet yarn, life and death… and life.

It’s about two birds. One bird is killed and its blood dripped into fresh water. The other bird is kept alive, tied to cedar wood with hyssop and red thread, then dipped seven times into the mixture of water and blood.

Then (and this should make your heart soar) the bird still dripping with the bloody water, is released, free to fly the heavens once again.

We know Jesus died on a wooden cross, His blood shed, water poured out of His side. We know He took our sins on Himself, the perfect sacrifice… and then He flew! With Him He took my sin away as far as the east is from the west, never to be remembered ever again.

It’s a picture of me: dead in sin, alive in Christ, free from the chains of sin, free to fly.

Leviticus 2-4; Many To One

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Maybe it’s because we are approaching Easter. But I can’t help but think of Jesus as I read the instructions for the Old Testament Jews’ sacrifices for sins. The yeast, the oil, the lamb without defect, the blood.

So much blood.

The sinner had to lay his own sacrifice on the altar. And so do I. My godly mother’s faith couldn’t save me. I had to obey God myself.

The dear people in the Old Testament had to repeat those sacrifices year after year. There were many, many sacrifices made on those altars. But Jesus fulfilled the requirements for the forgiveness of sin with His own precious blood.

Jesus became my sacrifice that day He hung on the cross.  One perfect sacrifice.

I am overcome with love and gratitude for my Savior.

November 13 – Mission Accomplished

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Luke 23; John 18-19

“It is finished.” (John 19:30) Jesus had completed the mission He had set His mind to before creation. If He was going to create man with the ability to choose, God was going to provide a way back to Him when those very choices tore us away.

Everything that occurred in the ancient world happened to point men and women to Jesus. The Law was given to show us what holiness would look like. The consequences spelled out there, and carried out in the lives of the Jewish people, show us how serious God is about unholiness. And it proves we are unable to claim holiness on our own. Fallen man – that’s you and me – have no place in God’s Holy Presence.

But Jesus.

We only get a glimpse of what it cost Jesus to fulfill the Law’s requirements on our behalf. The Man took on God’s hatred of my sin, of billions and billions of people who have walked this earth. He suffered everything that we had coming to us. He fulfilled the prophesies from hundreds of years before to reinforce that Jesus is The Great I AM.

At exactly the right moment, Jesus said “It is finished.” And then He died. Account paid. Sins forgiven. Mission accomplished.

I pray you have accepted what Jesus did on your behalf that day He hung on a cross. Your sins – YOUR’S – are forgiven. All you have to do is ask Him to forgive you. “It is finished.”

November 12 – Humbled

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Matthew 27; Mark 15

Every time I read the account of Jesus’ last few hours on this planet, I am humbled. He endured it all for love of me. He quietly listened to the lies, was punched and kicked and spit on. He heard every insult, and felt the pain of those nails tearing through His flesh. He even experienced what happens when God the Father turns away.

It takes about ten minutes to read about it. But Jesus lived it one minute after another, one long hour after another. Jesus suffered excruciating pain, and died a humiliating death – because He loves me that much.

I believe that as He breathed His last, His mind went ahead to 2016, and He saw my face. And your’s. That’s why He did what He did. He died so we could be forgiven.

Charles Wesley wrote a hymn the speaks to me every time I hear it. In it he asks a question: Can it really be that Jesus Himself shed His blood for me, the one who cause His pain in the first place?

The angels can’t even understand the depth of love that put the Immortal God on the cross to die. Jesus left heaven, took on mortality, and emptied Himself of everything except His love for me. And it’s by His grace that forgiveness found me.

It was like I was imprisoned by sin, chained to desires and actions that caused me pain. But I met Jesus, and those chains fell off, my heart was free. I’m alive in Him. I’m clothed in His righteousness. I got up off my knees a free woman, and followed Jesus.

Now I don’t fear judgment. Jesus, His righteousness is mine. I can boldly approach the God of the Universe, washed clean by Jesus’ blood. And I can claim the Son of God as my own!

Amazing love! How can it be, that You… my God… should die for me?

I am humbled. I am grateful. I love my Savior!

October 30 – The Mission

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Luke 17:11-18:14

Jesus hadn’t completed His earthly mission yet, and He was talking about His second one. His focus went beyond the cross right into eternity. He would die on that cross, but what would follow was going to be incredible.

Some day Jesus is going to come back, and life on this earth will be over. We who know Him will leave these broken bodies behind, our cares and worries, our hardships and sorrows will all be forgotten when we hear that shout and see our Savior coming down from heaven.

We won’t even wait for Him to land. We’ll be caught up and meet Him in the sky. Can you even imagine?

I believe that was the day Jesus spoke about here in Luke. The cross, as determined as He was to get there to pay sin’s debt once and for all, was the means to attain the ultimate goal – eternity with me in His Presence. Forever with all of us who loved Him and accepted His grace while in this life.

Jesus is coming again. He’ll gather up those of us who repented of our sin, who allowed Him to cover us with His precious blood. We’ll see Him face to face!

Oh, glorious day.

August 6 – God’s Anger

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Nahum

Nahum begins his oracle by telling us how jealous, vengeful, and angry God is. Nothing PC about that these days when we’d rather talk about God’s love. Nahum tells us the Lord “will by no means leave the guilty go unpunished.” (1:3)

Some of us, when we hear that think, “Good! ISIS will get what they deserve. Homosexuals, atheists, Michigan fans (ok, it’s a joke. I’m from Ohio and it’s almost football season) will get what’s coming to them. I hope they suffer!”

But God is talking about you, too. He won’t let any of YOUR sins go unpunished, either. But, you say, “I’m not a terrorist, haven’t committed adultery or stolen anything big. I’m a nice guy, a good neighbor, a church goer.” That may be well and good. Except for the fact that the Bible says ALL have sinned, ALL have fallen short of God’s standard of holiness. And, dear one, you are included in ALL.

You have sinned. That makes you guilty. And God has said more than once that He will not let the guilty go unpunished. sin=guilt=punishment.

Period.

Scripture tells us that Jesus felt the extent of God’s wrath, He took on Himself God’s vengeance, and went willingly to the cross to take your punishment because YOU ARE GUILTY. God was angry at YOU for the sins you commit. But He took His anger out on His guiltless Son instead.

Oh, you don’t have to accept His forgiveness. (Not sure why you’d want to face God’s wrath on your own, though) But rest assured that your sins demand God’s wrath. Your sins.

My prayer is that you’ll accept what Jesus did for you when He felt the pain of the Father’s anger toward you. There is no reason why you need to feel that anguish or pay that price when it’s already been done for you. And all you have to do is ask God to forgive you, to repent and let God change you.

He will. And then, instead of His anger, you’ll really understand His love!

July 31 – Really Good News

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Isaiah 49-53

How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace, and brings good news of happiness, who announces salvation, and says to Zion, “Your God reigns!” (52:7)

So many people want to limit the Good News to peace or happiness. Peace and happiness are certainly contained in the Good News. But the really good Good News is salvation, and the knowledge that Our God Reigns!

I hope you read Isaiah 53 today. It’s an amazing account of what Jesus did while in a human body here on earth. And it was written by Isaiah a long… LONG time before Jesus was born.

Every time I read this chapter I am blown away by it’s accuracy. If you ever had doubt that Jesus is who He said He is, read Isaiah 53 and ask yourself who but God could fulfill every detail.

Thank You God, for telling us in advance what Jesus did. And thank You Jesus, for going to the cross, for being despised and rejected, for being lied about and spit upon, for dying like a common criminal, yet being totally innocent, for pouring Yourself out to death – for me. You bore my sins. You carried my sorrows. And because You did – I live. There can be no doubt. You are God. You are MY God. And my God reigns! That’s really good news!

June 14 – Lovingkindness That Lasts Forever

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2 Chronicles 6-7, Psalm 136

It’s kind of hard to read about God’s lovingkindness after the murder of 49 homosexuals in Orlando over the weekend. It’s understandable that people who don’t know God might look at Him as cruel in situations like this. And sometimes Christians say things that really don’t help.

I’m taking a chance here. Not wanting to make matters worse, I think we need to look at God’s lovingkindness, especially in light of this tragedy.

The 136th Psalm is like a congregational reading. The leader reads a phrase, and the people respond with, “For His lovingkindness is everlasting.” But look at some of the phrases that received that response:

Verse 10: To Him who smote the Egyptians in their firstborn

Verse 15: But He overthrew Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea.

Verse 17: To Him who smote great kings

How can God’s lovingkindness be seen in the deaths of babies and kings, or 49 homosexuals?

I think God’s lovingkindness is revealed in the fact that we all haven’t met the same fate. There isn’t a one of us who deserves ANY good thing from God. He is holy. He has given us rules to live by, and we’ve broken every one. We’ve ignored Him. We lie about Him. We serve other gods, and have placed ourselves as gods.

We deserve God’s wrath. But His lovingkindness has me still breathing today. And His lovingkindness wants to use this Orlando tragedy to speak to your heart, to draw you to Him.

Some of you will step further away from  Him out of anger. Don’t do it. God didn’t kill those people. An evil man did. Satan would have you focus on the situation, and ignore God’s love to you, personally.

Here’s a picture of God’s lovingkindness: It’s Jesus, bruised and beaten, hanging on a cross because YOU sinned. He died because YOU deserve death. He offers Himself to YOU today because of His everlasting lovingkindness.

I heard someone say those 49 people got what they deserved because of their sin. But wait. If that’s how God works, you’d be taking a bullet, too. And so would I.

Here’s another example of God’s lovingkindness: It’s found in 2 Chronicles 7:14. It says if we repent, God promises to heal our land. It’s the same promise we find in I John 1:9. If we confess our sins, if we repent, He WILL forgive. He WILL cleanse us.

And that’s a lovingkindness that lasts forever.

Dearest God, Thank You for who You are. You are good. You are kind. You are full of grace. You love us with an enduring love that sent Jesus to the cross. I pray for the families and friends of those who were killed in Orlando. Dear Father, wrap your arms around them. May they be drawn to You, find strength in You, recognize Your lovingkindness even in their pain. I pray that many people will come to Your saving grace because of this tragedy. May we who know You represent You in a way that honors You. I also pray that we who know You will humble ourselves, repent of sin in our lives, and open the path for You to heal our land.

June 13 – The Holy Spirit In Us

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I Kings 8, II Chronicles 5

When Solomon dedicated the new Temple, the glory of the Lord filled the House. Oh, to have been one of the thousands who witnessed that cloud filling the Temple! That would be a sight you’d not soon forget. God’s glory, present, and visible.

Church yesterday was almost that for me. First we sang, “Blessed Assurance,” “And Can It Be,” “Victory in Jesus.” The special music was a quartet singing “He Touched Me.” All of it old school. And all of it prepared us to hear a message about the unfailing love of God.

God’s Presence was as real yesterday as it was in Solomon’s day. The same Spirit that filled that temple, filled our hearts in Bellville, Ohio.

In light of the most recent Muslim terrorist attack on our country, I am hearing a lot about “love.” One person even said that if we stopped considering Muslims as the enemy, and loved them like God loves them, none of this would happen.

In a sense, that’s true. But not in the sense this person intended. Love is not acceptance. God’s love, which is a blanket that covers the whole world, is not salvation. God’s love sent Jesus to the cross because He is that serious about sin.

If we loved Muslims with the same love God has for them, we would stop at nothing to introduce them to the Savior. Love is not the answer. Tolerance is not the answer. The Person of Jesus Christ is the only answer to our world’s unrest.

Talk about Amazing Love. How can it be that God would love me so much He’d die for me? The victory is in Jesus who seeks each of us, who bought our salvation with His precious redeeming blood. We can have the Blessed Assurance that this same Jesus whose Spirit filled Solomon’s Temple thousands of years ago, is ours when we are born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

What does it mean to love like Jesus loves? What does it mean to have His Holy Spirit in us? It means we look at the world through His eyes. We see all people as individuals He died to redeem. It means we realize the truth that, without Him, they have no hope. It means allowing Him to live and speak through us so that those who don’t know Him, will recognize their need and fall on their knees in repentance.

Holy God, thank You for wanting to fill my heart with Yourself, like you filled Solomon’s Temple so long ago. Thank You for loving us so much You’d die to save us. May we who know You allow You to fill us, to strengthen us, to make us bold and obedient servants, so that all people will come to You. I pray for the families touched by the deaths in Orlando. May Your Spirit minister, may Your children reach out, and may hearts be drawn to the Savior, for their good and Your glory.