Sunday, July 21, 2013

An Acceptable Offering Unto Our God.

Shalom,
On this occasion, they offered the sin offering: a young calf. It had to be without blemish, then the burnt offering , also without blemish, and the peace offering. I can't go into much detail. We just read it. But, the point I want to focus on is “without blemish.” Yeshua shed His blood. He is the Lamb of Adonai who takes our sin. And He was the perfect sacrifice for our sins. His love makes us respond to Him, that as He offered himself for us, so must we also offer ourselves holy unto Him. But how can we be holy? It is really hard in our culture. Nevertheless, Adonai has provided a way. He always makes a way where there seems to be no way. Do you agree? So He says in Romans 12:1. It's an urgent plea for us to offer ourselves. It's a response to God's love to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing unto God. This is our worship, with understanding, knowing the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and of wisdom and departing from evil—that is intelligence!

So, He gave us His Ruach, His Spirit, and when we humble ourselves before Him, He can really do marvels with us. You see, Isaiah 57:15 says, “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made.”

One day, I woke up and God put in my heart to read the book of Malachi. I had an amazing time with God that morning. In a way a had a reconciliation with my Abba, even though I didn't know I needed one. I thought I was OK; but God showed me otherwise. This was amazing to me because I understood Adonai's frustration with those who were giving him imperfect offerings. So I found that sometimes we don't have the proper respect and fear of Adonai, and we despise Him and take Him for granted. But He does not want that. The portion reads, “But cursed is the deceiver which hath in his flock a male and voweth and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing for I am Great King, saith the Lord of Hosts, and my Name is dreadful among the heathen.” You see we have to respect Him. And it's a serious matter. We have to go to Him fully. That's why our worship is our intelligent service because we come to Him humbling ourselves in His presence.
In Matthew 5, one of my favorite parts of the Bible, Yeshua gave the beatitudes. He said, “Blessed are the pure in heart for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.” Have we come to see how meaningful this is? The pure in heart. Psalm 51:17 says, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart O God Thou wilt not despise.” This is how God does good for us because He takes pleasure in us. So, we are to be followers of God as His dear children, walking in love as Messiah has loved us and has given Himself as an offering, and being a sweet-smelling sacrifice to Adonai, and not giving place to the devil and to the flesh. Because as Rabbi Neil taught us, with God, it is always about our heart.

Adonai has called us to be a royal priesthood. In this reading we see that when we humble ourselves before His presence and we become that living sacrifice, then in response to our obedience, God blesses us. We see at the end of this portion how they had a wonderful encounter with the Lord. It says, “And Aaron lifted up his hand toward the people and blessed them and came down from offering the sin offering and the burnt offering and the peace offering and Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the congregation and came out and blessed the people and the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the people and there came a fire out from before the Lord and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat which when all the people saw they shouted and fell on their faces.” What joy to think that when we do what we are commanded, we will be rewarded with the presence of God Almighty, El Gibor. God bless you. Shalom.