Mar 19 God’s Plan

These amazing assemblies that You had the Israelites learn and observe Lord, are more than just feasts and festivals for celebration’ sake.  They are the blueprint of Your plan for salvation and will play out to the end of the age, the end of the earth.

In this time of uncertainty, it is good to remember that You have a plan, and that Your plan is good.   And it reminds us to look beyond today.

These feasts have meaning in themselves, but are also prophetic of what is to come.

As Passover commemorates Your deliverance of the Israelites from death, by the blood of the lamb on the doorposts – Jesus IS that Passover Lamb.  His blood allows me to be delivered from eternal death: separation from You.

Firstfruits being offered to the Lord show that the Israelites trust the Lord to bring in the rest of the harvest – Jesus IS the firstfruit of the risen!  He was dead and is now alive, just as all who believe and die will rise to eternal life with Christ.

The Festival of Weeks is 50 days after Firstfruits.  It celebrates the bringing in of the first harvest –50 days after Jesus rose there was the first outpouring of the Holy Spirit: Pentecost.

The Feast of Trumpets called Israel together to prepare for the Day of Atonement, which was ten days later.  It is not tied to any historical event in Israel’s past.   And thus has not yet been fulfilled.

Believers look to the book of Revelation:  when the trumpet sounds and Jesus returns to call the living and the dead to rise for eternal judgment.

Father, how amazing that You laid out this plan, all before the foundations of the earth.

You knew all that it would take to reconcile Your people to You after sin entered the world.  And You have laid the groundwork for my understanding of what has happened, and what is to come, in these festivals and holy days.

Thank you that You reveal Your plan to man.  Thank You that Your plan is good and true; and that I can trust You to have the sovereignty and power to make it so.

Help me be mindful of the fullness of my history as a believer, both in the Old and New Testaments.  And prepare me for all that is to come.

Reveal Your plan to me for my life, and lend me Your strength to be obedient to it.   Amen

Numbers 28:16-29:40

Nov 7 New Covenant for Eternity

Father, even with the detestable ways Your people sinned; so much so that You compared them to an adulterous, unfaithful wife; You promised them restoration.

You made a way of atonement for them.  Not as we might see the restoration of an individual from one day to the next, but as a people, Your people.

You are so much more long-sighted than we humans are.  We can barely see to the next day, but You look throughout eternity and see things from a different perspective.

Paul saw this new covenant.  What You gave Your people in the wilderness was a shadow of what was to come.  You showed them how to approach You in the Tabernacle – only through the earthly High Priest who was born into the line of Aaron, and who offered blood sacrifices.  What Paul saw, and what I have as a believer, is a new High Priest!  You!

With a shadow, something real has to cast that shadow.  Moving toward the light, you see the shadow first.  The old covenant was but a shadow.  The something real, is when You became the High Priest as You walked the earth as the Lord Jesus Christ, and made atonement for my sin with Your perfect blood sacrifice!

Paul quotes Jeremiah, saying “The days are coming…when I will make a new covenant…I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts.  I will be their God and they will be my people.”

It hasn’t happened for all of Israel yet, but it has happened for me! 

Thank You Father, that I am in You, and that I have You in me!  Thank You for putting Your law in my mind – for bringing Your Word to me – for placing me in a country and at a time when I can read and study Your Word freely and openly.  Thank You that I was born to parents who worshipped You and gave me that example, worshipping and serving You.

Thank You Father, that You are in heaven now, on Your throne – in the true Tabernacle.  A day will come when You return to earth in all Your glory.  That is the light we are moving toward.

I long for the day when I will see You face to face.  When every knee will bow and all will know that You are Lord.  And I will praise You forever!  Amen

Ezekiel 16:42-63; Hebrews 8:1-13

Mar 19 God’s Plan

These amazing assemblies that You had the Israelites learn and observe Lord, are more than just feasts and festivals for celebration’ sake.  They are the blueprint of Your plan for salvation and will play out to the end of the age, the end of the earth.

In this time of uncertainty, it is good to remember that You have a plan, and that Your plan is good.   And it reminds us to look beyond today.

These feasts have meaning in themselves, but are also prophetic of what is to come.

As Passover commemorates Your deliverance of the Israelites from death, by the blood of the lamb on the doorposts – Jesus IS that Passover Lamb.  His blood allows me to be delivered from eternal death: separation from You.

Firstfruits being offered to the Lord show that the Israelites trust the Lord to bring in the rest of the harvest – Jesus IS the firstfruit of the risen!  He was dead and is now alive, just as all who believe and die will rise to eternal life with Christ.

The Festival of Weeks is 50 days after Firstfruits.  It celebrates the bringing in of the first harvest –50 days after Jesus rose there was the first outpouring of the Holy Spirit: Pentecost.

The Feast of Trumpets called Israel together to prepare for the Day of Atonement, which was ten days later.  It is not tied to any historical event in Israel’s past.   And thus has not yet been fulfilled.

Believers look to the book of Revelation:  when the trumpet sounds and Jesus returns to call the living and the dead to rise for eternal judgment.

Father, how amazing that You laid out this plan, all before the foundations of the earth.

You knew all that it would take to reconcile Your people to You after sin entered the world.  And You have laid the groundwork for my understanding of what has happened, and what is to come, in these festivals and holy days.

Thank you that You reveal Your plan to man.  Thank You that Your plan is good and true; and that I can trust You to have the sovereignty and power to make it so.

Help me be mindful of the fullness of my history as a believer, both in the Old and New Testaments.  And prepare me for all that is to come.

Reveal Your plan to me for my life, and lend me Your strength to be obedient to it.   Amen

Numbers 28:16-29:40

Nov 7 New Covenant for Eternity

Father, even with the detestable ways Your people sinned; so much so that You compared them to an adulterous, unfaithful wife; You promised them restoration.

You made a way of atonement for them.  Not as we might see the restoration of an individual from one day to the next, but as a people, Your people.

You are so much more long-sighted than we humans are.  We can barely see to the next day, but You look throughout eternity and see things from a different perspective.

Paul saw this new covenant.  What You gave Your people in the wilderness was a shadow of what was to come.  You showed them how to approach You in the Tabernacle – only through the earthly High Priest who was born into the line of Aaron, and who offered blood sacrifices.  What Paul saw, and what I have as a believer, is a new High Priest!  You!

With a shadow, something real has to cast that shadow.  Moving toward the light, you see the shadow first.  The old covenant was but a shadow.  The something real, is when You became the High Priest as You walked the earth as the Lord Jesus Christ, and made atonement for my sin with Your perfect blood sacrifice!

Paul quotes Jeremiah, saying “The days are coming…when I will make a new covenant…I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts.  I will be their God and they will be my people.”

It hasn’t happened for all of Israel yet, but it has happened for me! 

Thank You Father, that I am in You, and that I have You in me!  Thank You for putting Your law in my mind – for bringing Your Word to me – for placing me in a country and at a time when I can read and study Your Word freely and openly.  Thank You that I was born to parents who worshipped You and gave me that example, worshipping and serving You.

Thank You Father, that You are in heaven now, on Your throne – in the true Tabernacle.  A day will come when You return to earth in all Your glory.  That is the light we are moving toward.

I long for the day when I will see You face to face.  When every knee will bow and all will know that You are Lord.  And I will praise You forever!  Amen

Ezekiel 16:42-63; Hebrews 8:1-13

Mar 19 God’s Plan

These amazing assemblies that You had the Israelites learn and observe Lord, are more than just feasts and festivals for celebration’ sake.  They are the blueprint of Your plan for salvation and will play out to the end of the age, the end of the earth.

They have meaning in themselves, but are also prophetic of what is to come.

As Passover commemorates Your deliverance of the Israelites from death, by the blood of the lamb on the doorposts – Jesus IS that Passover Lamb.  His blood allows me to be delivered from eternal death: separation from You.

Firstfruits being offered to the Lord show that the Israelites trust the Lord to bring in the rest of the harvest – Jesus IS the firstfruit of the risen!  He was dead and is now alive, just as all who believe and die will rise to eternal life with Christ.

The Festival of Weeks is 50 days after Firstfruits.  It celebrates the bringing in of the first harvest –50 days after Jesus rose there was the first outpouring of the Holy Spirit: Pentecost.

The Feast of Trumpets called Israel together to prepare for the Day of Atonement, which was ten days later.  It is not tied to any historical event in Israel’s past.   And thus has not yet been fulfilled.  Believers look to the book of Revelation:  when the trumpet sounds and Jesus returns to call the living and the dead to rise for eternal judgment.

Father, how amazing that You laid out this plan, all before the foundations of the earth.

You knew all that it would take to reconcile Your people to You after sin entered the world.  And You have laid the groundwork for my understanding of what has happened, and what is to come, in these festivals and holy days.

Thank you that You reveal Your plan to man.  Thank You that Your plan is good and true; and that I can trust You to have the sovereignty and power to make it so.

Help me be mindful of the fullness of my history as a believer, both in the Old and New Testaments.  And prepare me for all that is to come.

Reveal Your plan to me for my life, and lend me Your strength to be obedient to it.   Amen

Numbers 28:16-29:40

Nov 7 New Covenant for Eternity

Father, even with the detestable ways Your people sinned; so much so that You compared them to an adulterous, unfaithful wife; You promised them restoration.

You made a way of atonement for them.  Not as we might see the restoration of an individual from one day to the next, but as a people, Your people.

You are so much more long-sighted than we humans are.  We can barely see to the next day, but You look throughout eternity and see things from a different perspective.

Paul saw this new covenant.  What You gave Your people in the wilderness was a shadow of what was to come.  You showed them how to approach You in the Tabernacle – only through the earthly High Priest who was born into the line of Aaron, and who offered blood sacrifices.  What Paul saw, and what I have as a believer, is a new High Priest!  You!

With a shadow, something real has to cast that shadow.  Moving toward the light, you see the shadow first.  The old covenant was but a shadow.  The something real, is when You became the High Priest as You walked the earth as the Lord Jesus Christ, and made atonement for my sin with Your perfect blood sacrifice!

Paul quotes Jeremiah, saying “The days are coming…when I will make a new covenant…I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts.  I will be their God and they will be my people.”

It hasn’t happened for all of Israel yet, but it has happened for me!

Thank You Father, that I am in You, and that I have You in me!  Thank You for putting Your law in my mind – for bringing Your Word to me – for placing me in a country and at a time when I can read and study Your Word freely and openly.  Thank You that I was born to parents who worshipped You and gave me that example, worshipping and serving You.

Thank You Father, that You are in heaven now, on Your throne – in the true Tabernacle.  A day will come when You return to earth in all Your glory.  That is the light we are moving toward.

I long for the day when I will see You face to face.  When every knee will bow and all will know that You are Lord.  And I will praise You forever!  Amen

Ezekiel 16:42-63; Hebrews 8:1-13

Nov 7 New Covenant for Eternity

Father, even with the detestable ways Your people sinned; so much so that You compared them to an adulterous, unfaithful wife; You promised them restoration.

You made a way of atonement for them.  Not as we might see the restoration of an individual from one day to the next, but as a people, Your people.

You are so much more long-sighted than we humans are.  We can barely see to the next day, but You look throughout eternity and see things from a different perspective.

Paul saw this new covenant.  What You gave Your people in the wilderness was a shadow of what was to come.  You showed them how to approach You in the Tabernacle – only through the earthly High Priest who was born into the line of Aaron, and who offered blood sacrifices.  What Paul saw, and what I have as a believer, is a new High Priest!  You!

With a shadow, something real has to cast that shadow.  Moving toward the light, you see the shadow first.  The old covenant was but a shadow.  The something real, is when You became the High Priest as You walked the earth as the Lord Jesus Christ, and made atonement for my sin with Your perfect blood sacrifice!

Paul quotes Jeremiah, saying “The days are coming…when I will make a new covenant…I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts.  I will be their God and they will be my people.”

It hasn’t happened for all of Israel yet, but it has happened for me!

Thank You Father, that I am in You, and that I have You in me!  Thank You for putting Your law in my mind – for bringing Your Word to me – for placing me in a country and at a time when I can read and study Your Word freely and openly.  Thank You that I was born to parents who worshipped You and gave me that example, worshipping and serving You.

Thank You Father, that You are in heaven now, on Your throne – in the true Tabernacle.  A day will come when You return to earth in all Your glory.  That is the light we are moving toward.

I long for the day when I will see You face to face.  When every knee will bow and all will know that You are Lord.  And I will praise You forever!  Amen

Ezekiel 16:42-63; Hebrews 8:1-13

Nov 7 New Covenant for Eternity

Father, even with the detestable ways Your people sinned; so much so that You compared them to an adulterous, unfaithful wife; You promised them restoration.

You made a way of atonement for them.  Not as we might see the restoration of an individual from one day to the next, but as a people, Your people.

You are so much more long-sighted than we humans are.  We can barely see to the next day, but You look throughout eternity and see things from a different perspective.

Paul saw this new covenant.  What You gave Your people in the wilderness was a shadow of what was to come.  You showed them how to approach You in the Tabernacle – only through the earthly High Priest who was born into the line of Aaron, and who offered blood sacrifices.  What Paul saw, and what I have as a believer, is a new High Priest!  You!

With a shadow, something real has to cast that shadow.  The reality of what made the shadow of the old covenant, is when You, Yourself became my High Priest when You walked the earth as the Lord Jesus Christ, and made atonement for my sin with Your perfect blood sacrifice!

Paul quotes Jeremiah, saying “The days are coming…when I will make a new covenant…I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts.  I will be their God and they will be my people”.

It hasn’t happened for all of Israel yet, but it has happened for me!  I have You in me, as the Holy Spirit.

Thank You Father, that I am in You, and that I have You in me!  Thank You for putting Your law in my mind – for bringing Your Word to me – for placing me in a country and at a time when I can read and study Your Word freely and openly.  Thank You that I was born to parents who worshipped You and gave me that example of worshipping and serving You.

Thank You Father, that You are in heaven now, on Your throne – in the true Tabernacle.  I long for the day when I will see You in all Your glory.  When every knee will bow and all will know that You are Lord.  And I will praise You forever!  Amen

Ezekiel 16:42-63; Hebrews 8:1-13

Nov 23 Mold me, make me holy

Father, You gave Ezekiel a recap of the physical sacrifices that were to be offered to You, when and where and how in specific detail. For You are a Holy God and the offerings and sacrifices provided atonement and consecration for Your people then.

Now comes Peter writing to remind believers that now they “are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices…” The Israelites had to go to a specific place, the Temple, and have their sacrifices presented by priests. But now believers’ bodies are the ‘temple’ and believers, themselves, are the priests. And the sacrifices offered are the spiritual sacrifices of praise, and a contrite heart.

You are Holy because of who You are. But believers are made holy not by the sacrifices of goats and lambs with flour and oil; but “with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect”. Believers “purify yourselves by obeying the truth…born again…through the living and enduring Word of God”.

Further, Peter tells me to be holy in all I do: to “prepare [my] mind for action; be self-controlled”. And “as an obedient child, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance”. “Rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander of every kind.”

How do I do this?

Psalm 119 answers this, and so it has become my prayer. “Teach me, O Lord, to follow Your decrees; then I will keep them to the end. Give me understanding and I will keep Your law and obey it with all my heart. Direct me in the path of Your commands; for there I find delight.

Turn my heart toward Your statues and not toward selfish gain. Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to Your Word.”

Father, let me live and walk and worship according to these Words. Let me be taught by You. Break down whatever habits or tendencies I have that war against Your precepts or keep me from following Your path wholeheartedly. Enrich me through Your unfailing love. I lift my hands to You. Amen

Ezekiel 45:13-46:24; I Peter 1:13-2:10; Psalm 119:33-48

Nov 7 New Covenant for Eternity

Father, even with the detestable ways Your people sinned; so much so that You compared them to an adulterous, unfaithful wife; You promised them restoration. You made a way of atonement for them. Not as we might see the restoration of an individual from one day to the next, but as a people, Your people. You are so much more long-sighted than we humans are. We can barely see to the next day, but You look throughout eternity and see things from a different perspective.

Paul saw this new covenant. What You gave Your people in the wilderness was a shadow of what was to come. You showed them how to approach You in the Tabernacle – only through the earthly High Priest who was born into the line of Aaron, and who offered blood sacrifices. What Paul saw, and what I have as a believer, is a new High Priest! You!

With a shadow, something real has to cast that shadow. The reality of what made the shadow of the old covenant, is when You, Yourself became my High Priest when You walked the earth as the Lord Jesus Christ, and made atonement for my sin with Your perfect blood sacrifice!

Paul quotes Jeremiah, saying “The days are coming…when I will make a new covenant…I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people”. It hasn’t happened for all of Israel yet, but it has happened for me! I have You in me, as the Holy Spirit.

Thank You Father, that I am in You, and that I have You in me! Thank You for putting Your law in my mind – for bringing Your Word to me – for placing me in a country and at a time when I can read and study Your Word freely and openly. Thank You that I was born to parents who worshipped You and gave me that example of worshipping and serving You.

Thank You Father, that You are in heaven now, on Your throne – in the true Tabernacle. I long for the day when I will see You in all Your glory. When every knee will bow and all will know that You are Lord. And I will praise You forever! Amen

Ezekiel 16:42-63; Hebrews 8:1-13