Category Archives: Purposeful / Intentional

Compassionate, Grace / Forgiveness, Holy / Set Apart, Obeying God, Praise / Worship / Glorify God, Purposeful / Intentional, Thankfulness

Serve Him In Joy Rather Than Guilt or Obligation

There are times when we may feel an emotional desire to dedicate our lives, the lives of our family, and / or property to the service of the Lord. It appears to have been somewhat common in Israel, perhaps associated with gratitude for some healing or blessing or to ask for such healing during tough times. Perhaps someone just moved with joy to dedicate their lives to the Lord. We can conclude from Leviticus 27, however, that people may have had second thoughts after the emotions passed or settled down a bit. God gave Moses a set of rules for redeeming such things or persons that had been consecrated to God so that people could have a way to still honor God, but exit the formal dedication / consecration.

As always, our loving Father is wise. He does not want anyone to feel trapped into serving Him, but rather to do so willingly on a continuing basis. He does not want a single point in time commitment to be driving us to serve Him out of guilt or obligation. He wants us to serve Him continually out of love… always in free choice to submit to Him and love Him or not.

Leviticus 27

Rules concerning Valuations

     1Again, the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2“Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When a man makes a difficult vow, he shall be valued according to your valuation of persons belonging to the LORD. 3‘If your valuation is of the male from twenty years even to sixty years old, then your valuation shall be fifty shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary. 4‘Or if it is a female, then your valuation shall be thirty shekels. 5‘If it be from five years even to twenty years old then your valuation for the male shall be twenty shekels and for the female ten shekels. 6‘But if they are from a month even up to five years old, then your valuation shall be five shekels of silver for the male, and for the female your valuation shall be three shekels of silver. 7‘If they are from sixty years old and upward, if it is a male, then your valuation shall be fifteen shekels, and for the female ten shekels. 8‘But if he is poorer than your valuation, then he shall be placed before the priest and the priest shall value him; according to the means of the one who vowed, the priest shall value him.

      9‘Now if it is an animal of the kind which men can present as an offering to the LORD, any such that one gives to the LORD shall be holy. 10‘He shall not replace it or exchange it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good; or if he does exchange animal for animal, then both it and its substitute shall become holy. 11‘If, however, it is any unclean animal of the kind which men do not present as an offering to the LORD, then he shall place the animal before the priest. 12‘The priest shall value it as either good or bad; as you, the priest, value it, so it shall be. 13‘But if he should ever wish to redeem it, then he shall add one-fifth of it to your valuation.

      14‘Now if a man consecrates his house as holy to the LORD, then the priest shall value it as either good or bad; as the priest values it, so it shall stand. 15‘Yet if the one who consecrates it should wish to redeem his house, then he shall add one-fifth of your valuation price to it, so that it may be his.

      16‘Again, if a man consecrates to the LORD part of the fields of his own property, then your valuation shall be proportionate to the seed needed for it: a homer of barley seed at fifty shekels of silver. 17‘If he consecrates his field as of the year of jubilee, according to your valuation it shall stand. 18‘If he consecrates his field after the jubilee, however, then the priest shall calculate the price for him proportionate to the years that are left until the year of jubilee; and it shall be deducted from your valuation. 19‘If the one who consecrates it should ever wish to redeem the field, then he shall add one-fifth of your valuation price to it, so that it may pass to him. 20‘Yet if he will not redeem the field, but has sold the field to another man, it may no longer be redeemed; 21and when it reverts in the jubilee, the field shall be holy to the LORD, like a field set apart; it shall be for the priest as his property. 22‘Or if he consecrates to the LORD a field which he has bought, which is not a part of the field of his own property, 23then the priest shall calculate for him the amount of your valuation up to the year of jubilee; and he shall on that day give your valuation as holy to the LORD. 24‘In the year of jubilee the field shall return to the one from whom he bought it, to whom the possession of the land belongs. 25‘Every valuation of yours, moreover, shall be after the shekel of the sanctuary. The shekel shall be twenty gerahs.

      26‘However, a firstborn among animals, which as a firstborn belongs to the LORD, no man may consecrate it; whether ox or sheep, it is the LORD’S. 27‘But if it is among the unclean animals, then he shall redeem it according to your valuation and add to it one-fifth of it; and if it is not redeemed, then it shall be sold according to your valuation.

      28‘Nevertheless, anything which a man sets apart to the LORD out of all that he has, of man or animal or of the fields of his own property, shall not be sold or redeemed. Anything devoted to destruction is most holy to the LORD. 29‘No one who may have been set apart among men shall be ransomed; he shall surely be put to death.

      30‘Thus all the tithe of the land, of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD’S; it is holy to the LORD. 31‘If, therefore, a man wishes to redeem part of his tithe, he shall add to it one-fifth of it. 32‘For every tenth part of herd or flock, whatever passes under the rod, the tenth one shall be holy to the LORD. 33‘He is not to be concerned whether it is good or bad, nor shall he exchange it; or if he does exchange it, then both it and its substitute shall become holy. It shall not be redeemed.’”

      34These are the commandments which the LORD commanded Moses for the sons of Israel at Mount Sinai.

Do not let your commitment to God be driven by a one time commitment and a sense of guilt or obligation. Instead, take time to evaluate your motives in serving Him. Serve Him willingly and out of love and obedience. Serve Him with joy!

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Have you submitted your life to Jesus Christ? Are you living today filled with the peace and joy of truly knowing and following Jesus Christ? Learn more about salvation through The Message of the Cross.

Fear / Reverence for God, Grace / Patience, Help / Serve Others, Kindness / Gentleness, Love, Mercy, Purposeful / Intentional, Share the Good News

Are We To See the World As Black and White?

Let me begin by saying racism is ugly. Hating someone (or liking them more than others) just based on their skin color is wrong.  Jehovah has created a great diversity of people across the globe which we can celebrate in much the same way in which he has created so many different beautiful landscapes and environments ranging from desert, tundra, forest, tropical, plains, etc. Mountains and valleys.

There is a fundamental flaw in the world view of man that Satan loves to exploit. As humans we have basic “tribal” instincts. We identify with others who are similar to us. It can be a sports team like NY Mets or NY Yankees… even in the same city there is rivalry over the sports identity. It is said you can’t be a fan of both… why not? Man made division and false choices of loyalty. Many seem to take the same approach with grouping themselves and identifying primarily by the color of their skin or other attributes such as wealth or lack of it. While these differences can be helpful to understand in terms of where someone may be “coming from” in their life experience, the Father never intended for these to be the divisions by which we identify ourselves.

Many will quickly call to nationalism as a common identity… e.g. we are all part of the same country for example. This also serves good purpose, but should not be our primary identity. Our primary identity according to scripture is in terms of whom we serve… who is our master. Is it our Creator? or is it our nation? or a group of people with similar skin color or likes such as sports? We can only truly have one primary identity. The others must necessarily be secondary or even tertiary.

Now to be clear, I speak to followers of Christ… who persecute none but rather are called to act in love to reach out to all. This does not mean accepting and endorsing sinful behavior that is rebellious to God, as that is not showing love to those who are lost. We are to be the light of the world and lead others to the Father through Christ. To do so, we must highlight what is right and what is wrong. (If a building is on fire and someone inside refuses to acknowledge it, I do not show love by telling them they are ok to stay there. Similarly I do not show love by telling people it is ok to remain in sin and rebellion to God through their life choices and behavior and attitudes.)

Galatians 3

 27For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.

Because of the human sinful condition and because so many continue to reject Christ as the way to the Father, there will be hate. It need not come from the Christian, but it will come from those who reject Christ towards those who love Him. We should remember that God’s people were previously enslaved in Egypt (and are actively persecuted in many countries around the world still today). We should have mercy and show grace to those strangers, those who have different beliefs than we do, and not mistreat them because they are in a minority. (That does not mean we endorse or support their false beliefs, but we do not oppress them.)

Exodus 22:21-24

      21“You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. 22“You shall not afflict any widow or orphan. 23“If you afflict him at all, and if he does cry out to Me, I will surely hear his cry; 24and My anger will be kindled, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.

John 3:16-21

    16“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17“For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. 18“He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19“This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. 20“For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21“But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”

As followers of Christ we can not change others, but we can live our lives as a shining light to guide them to Christ and thus to Jehovah. We can pray for our communities, states, country and the world. Pray for God to move among the people and stir up revival and spread the glory of the gospel to all the corners of the world. If you serve the Lord, remember to identify first as part of the body of Christ rather than white or black, rich or poor, man or woman, etc. That will set the tone for the rest of your behaviors and attitudes to guide your life on the right path much better than trying to follow man’s divisions of people. Remember, there is no greater joy for us as believers than to welcome new members into our body of Christ! All are welcome, but they must submit to Christ wholeheartedly and reject the way of the world.

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Have you submitted your life to Jesus Christ? Are you living today filled with the peace and joy of truly knowing and following Jesus Christ? Learn more about salvation through The Message of the Cross.