Saturday night study: Leviticus 4:1-6:30

Leviticus 4:1-6:30

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Chapters four and five of Leviticus cover the last two offerings:

• Sin Offering
• Trespass Offering

These were to be offered when sin was committed intentionally or unintentionally.

So why did the Children of Israel need to make sacrifices? Because sin prevents us from having a relationship with God, and He HATES sin.

The word 'sin' is something we should try to understand. It literally means "to miss the mark" or "to fail at trying to reach a goal."

God told us in order to have a relationship with Him, the true and living God, the creator of the universe, we need to be sinless, but He also knows how frail and feeble a people we are. We can never meet the mark of perfection on our own. Romans 3:23 says, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." The Bible tells us that sin requires a blood sacrifice. The Children of Israel had to sacrifice cattle, sheep, goats, turtledoves or pigeons. Imagine how much more careful you would be about sinning, if every time you did, you had to sacrifice an animal! The Israelites truly understood the cost of sin every single time they missed the mark.

PRAISE GOD! We live under the New Covenant - the covenant of GRACE! (Just so you know, the Old Covenant is the Old Testament and the New Covenant is the New Testament.) That means we no longer have to sacrifice innocent animals, although sin still requires payment (Romans 6:23). When we have Jesus as the Lord of our life, God doesn't see our sin. He sees the blood of the Lamb - His Son - that was poured out at the bottom of a cross to pay our debt to God. Our sins are cleansed and forgiven because of Jesus Christ!

Now if that isn't good news, I don't know what is! We can have peace with God and live forever with Him in heaven if recognize our sin and accept Jesus as our sacrifice.

Saturday night study: Leviticus 1:1-3:17

Leviticus 1:1-3:17

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Leviticus can be a difficult book to study. It covers many of the laws and practices under the original covenant with God. We live under the New Covenant thanks to Jesus Christ coming as the ultimate sacrifice for our sins (Jeremiah 31:31-34). However, understanding the old one does several things for us:

• Reminds us to be thankful we no longer live in this manner. Jesus paid the price.
  
• Teaches us the difference between 'covering up' sin (over and over) and 'cleansing us from' sin (once and for all).
• As we read the rest of the Old Testament, we will study this time of sacrifices and what each one means.
  
• Helps us better understand the teachings of Jesus and the New Testament. The book of Leviticus is quoted many times in it.
  
• Gives us more insight into the Jewish culture.
  

The first three chapters of Leviticus cover three of the five main sacrifices:

• Burnt Offering
• Grain Offering
• Peace Offering

Each one is a representation of how we are to offer ourselves to God today. The Burnt Offering is similar to our salvation. We offer our entire self. Our lives are given to Him with nothing held back. The Grain Offering is much like our works for Him. They are completely separate from salvation, but are important in the service of God. The third is my favorite - the Peace Offering. It is an example of communion with God. The Bible says it is like "food." God's portion is on the altar and the remainder of it would be eaten by the the offerer. What a beautiful picture of sharing a meal with God!

Austrian Schnitzel Haus

In celebration of Tina's 39th birthday, she chose an Austrian restaurant.

Here Baby Wayne and Jonathon are looking, OH, so thrilled! Our reservation wasn't
until 8:00 PM, our waiter didn't show up until 08:20. By the time the food was served,
we were all ravenous!

Although we have to admit, dinner was worth the wait!


Tina and Janettey. It is ALWAYS a good time when the four of us go out.



Jagerschnitzel , Mixed Salad, and a plain schnitzel. Mmmmm good!

Gold Class Movies

Gold Class is a special movie theater here. There are 20 some-odd fully reclining Lazy Boy-ish chairs inside, as well as a waiter! You can order all kinds of food like salt and pepper squid, Asian skewer plate, chicken tenders, chicken satay, tandoori chicken wrap, bruschetta, salmon gravalax, nachos, fisherman's platter, gourmet pizza, affogato, lemon and lime tart, cocktails, wines galore, champagne, hot chocolate, etc. The list just goes on and on. It is about $35 per person and that doesn't include the FOOD! An added bonus is that you don't have to sit and watch 30 minutes of commercials (not to be confused with PREVIEWS) before your movie starts. Jonathon's colleague gave us these tickets as a thank you.



Ahhhh, this is the life!

Jonathon LOVED the VIP treatment.


This was heaps of fun. We will definitely have to do this again when the new National Treasure movie opens in December!

Saturday night study: Exodus 39:1-40:38

Exodus 39:1-40:38

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This was the last week in Exodus. What a wonderful ending to an incredible book! I am fascinated by how many times these chapters mention "as the LORD had commanded Moses." It would appear that the Children of Israel built the Tabernacle, the items in it, the court yard and made the garments exactly as God asked. So what was their reward for their obedience? Verse 34 of chapter 40: "...the glory of the LORD filled the Tabernacle."

We are told when we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, we become the Temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). His glory fills us if we simply obey (Romans 10:9).

After we are saved, God wants to continue meeting with us; however, He wants our obedience more than any sacrifice we can make (1 Samuel 15:22). So what does it mean to obey after we are saved? First, we are to be baptized and to be a witness of what God is doing in our lives (Matthew 28:19-20). After that, God has a special purpose for each one of us. That purpose is revealed to us by His Word. Read it every day!