THE ONE YEAR BIBLE CLUB

  THE song that Frank Sinatra may very well be most remembered for may just be, "I did it my way". Not so much because it was such a wonderful song (although it was pretty good) but more so due to the irony of the song and how it's meaning played out in his life. Frank Sinatra did not leave behind a legacy anyone would want to follow in. It was certainly a life of failure, misery and destruction. He was an alcoholic, divorced, scattered children, scattered relationships and involvement with the mob. He died a broken, miserable and lonely man, but yet today, the radio stations will still play one of Frank's greatest hits, "I did it my way". So what does this have to do with today's reading....well we read that the children of Israel are offering sacrifices in the open fields and God commands them to stop doing this or be cut off from His people. God is telling Moses, "you tell these people they are not to make sacrifices in the open field but are to ...

It's always pretty amazing when the Old Testament reading coincides with the New Testament reading. In the Old Testament we have Jehovah giving all the requirements for the cleansing and forgiveness of uncleanness; then in the New Testament we have Jehovah, incarnate, giving us the deeper issues of uncleanness. Jesus explains to us uncleanness comes from what's inside the heart of a man/woman. We know that before Jesus ever spoke to the disciples about uncleanness being stored in the heart, He warned us through the inspired Word in Proverbs that we "should guard our hearts with all diligence, for out of it springs the issues of life." God gives us insight into the heart; that it is more than a muscle that pumps oxygen and blood through our bodies, but is actually a container that holds both evil and good. Psychologists try to deal with the mind when attempting to heal and help a patient. However, they are ignorant that therapy for the mind; pis not therapy for the hea...

   Have you had a long day for Jesus? Has he spent you for all the energy that you had? If He has, then He will say to you, “I have not asked of you what I myself have not given”. Jesus had such a large crowd of people around him that He and his disciples cannot even sit down to eat. And so they endure, they get through and finally Jesus suggests that they climb into the boat and get to a place where they can get some food in their stomachs and get some well over due rest. We know that when we are being exhausted physically and deprived of food at the same time, it’s a bad combination. It can make the most pleasant among us to be quite mean, moody and ill tempered. Well, at least we can say, there’s an end to the madness, they will get to their remote location, eat and maybe laugh about the whole, crazy event. However that’s not the case, our text says, they crowd saw them in the boat and ran along the shoreline to “meet them” on the other side. Can you imagine the anger ...

   How interesting...or perhaps uninteresting this reading on boils, leprosy and every other manner of disease. What's the point?! Well, there's a very practical application especially considering they did not have doctors back then, I'm sure the Israelites' loved this instruction, it would save many lives. Hmmmm, the saving of many lives...by separating the clean people from the unclean people, lives could be saved. The clean people would not be infected and the unclean people could be healed. Yes this instruction from God was very practical but it was also very spiritual. Notice it was the Priest who "pronounced" if you were unclean. This was not left to the individual to determine for obvious reasons. "Pronounce" is a big word, it describes a definitive statement, it is judgmental in a sense. So let's put all this together now, we have a God who separates the clean from the unclean, he pronounces those that are unclean and commands them to be ...

   Our text says as she went and spent a great deal on the Dr.'s not only did she not get better, she grew worse. It's hard to believe that that was written a couple of thousand years ago and not just last week. "Spending more and more money at the Dr.s, but yet getting worse". I guess that's been happening for quite a long time. I can relate to this, can you? And this is not a slam against Dr.s either. I am very glad for Doctors, where would we be without Doctors. We know even one of Jesus' disciples was a Doctor, Dr. Luke. Yes doctors have their place, but as believers in Christ, surely Jesus has His place too; when it comes to healing. Where do we find the balance? We know that good hearted, but misguided people have died, refusing professional, medical treatment. However this woman has not only, not refused, but she has paid large sums of money to be healed and still no healing; but yet in one simple act of faith and touch of Jesus she is healed instantane...

    Moses, as directed by God of course, instructs Aaron to bring his sin offering too! " Oh yeah, that's right, I have sin also....I almost forgot!"  It's easy as a Priest/Pastor to become focused on other people's sins, as that is what we often have to deal with. The danger is we become focused on other people's sins and can forget that we also have sin. This can create two problems. The first problem is it can create a frustration in us and lack of empathy towards those that are sinning. Secondly it can cause us to be out of touch with our own sin. The more we concentrate on other people's sins, the less we are aware of our own sins. Moses, wisely instructs Aaron to bring an offering for his own sins. Aaron is the Leader, he is the Priest, he is the Holy one being used by God, but he must also be reminded that he too has sin. This is not just an issue that can cause the demise of leaders, but also that of a churches, marriages and ministries. The more w...