I loved helping Maggie set up her new blog. Her first post reminded me of this verse. Please stop over at her blog and welcome my beautiful niece. Kindly click on here name. :)



Thanks and Happy Friday!
xoxo

My Year of Jubilee

I'm not going to lie. Reading Leviticus was not warm and fuzzy for me. It is about Holiness and the very clear instructions were spelled out as to how the people were to handle sin of any kind in that time. The laws reminded me how seriously God takes our sin.

As hard as it was to read, here are some of the verses that stood out to me this week:

"You are to wash the internal organs and the legs with water, and the priest is to bring all of them and burn them on the altar. It is a burnt offering, a food offering, an aroma pleasing to the LORD." (Lev 1:13)

I read where "an aroma pleasing to the LORD" is a way of saying that God accepted the sacrifice because of the people's attitude. God knows our attitude when we ask forgiveness. Do you remember being a child and being told by your parents to say you were sorry? Sometimes I wasn't really sorry. God knows our heart and he knows when we are sincere or when we aren't.

“‘In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to their own property." (Lev 25:13) The Year of Jubilee was meant to be celebrated every 50 years. You can read all about it here.

I've noticed that many people from Michigan love to retire in Florida or someplace warm. At the end of their life though, they usually return to the place they were born. I've seen it happen in my own family. I never realized it was Biblical. It just seems natural.

I can relate to the Year of Jubilee since I will be celebrating my 50th birthday next week. Actually I will be celebrating this birthday many times (grin)! But there is something about it that has made me reflect deeply and ask myself (with the help of The Holy Spirit) how I want to live differently in the next 50 years. Am I loving God with all my heart, soul and mind? Am I really trusting Him with my life and with every decision? Am I going to Him first? Am I loving His children like He does? Am I dying to myself or living selfishly? Am I honest and trustworthy? Do I gossip? Do I forgive easily? Am I compassionate, generous and genuine? Do I "get it"? Am I pointing people to Jesus? Am I giving Him all of the credit for anything good that comes my way? Am I taking care of my body/His temple? Am I a faithful servant? Am I Martha or Mary? Am I respecting my husband? Am I making anything other than Him my idol? Do I make it a habit of being grateful in all circumstances? For me it is so much more than a celebration. God has been SO good to me in these 50 years!

"The LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: ‘Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy." (Lev 19:1-2)

In His Love and with Gratitude for a wonderful 50 years,
Angie

even a quick Thankful Thursday helps! :)

61- my job and the fact that I still love it
62- music in my car at a loud volume
63- coffee
64- a nice house to entertain people
65- a brand new day; Joy comes in the morning!

Are you sure?

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." (Gal 5:22-23). 


It's impossible to have any of these if I don't believe in the depths of my soul that I am really, really, really loved by God first. Why would he choose to love me when I fail in these areas so often? Do I really believe? It's something to think about and I sure know I can't love the way He loves on my own. I need more of Him and less of me. 


I love the words to this song by David Phelps:

Dear Lord, I'm on my knees again
I come to you because you understand
I've tried so hard, but I just can't change myself
That's why I know I need your help

So here I am, this in my plea
My only hope is your love for me
I'm reaching out so desperately
Come take my hand, take all of me
Just as I am

Oh Lord, you make what's broken new
Why can't I just learn to follow you
I want, I want to know you to feel you in my soul
I surrender all control

So here I am, this in my plea
My only hope is your love for me
I'm reaching out so desperately
Come take my hand and take all of me

Just I am not afraid to follow you where you lead me
I can leave the past behind me
I'm forgiven and I'm free

So here I am, this in my plea
My only hope is your love for me
I'm reaching out so desperately
Come take my hand and take all of me
Just as I am

Oh, your love for me
I'm reaching out so desperately
Come take my hand and take all of me
Just as I am

Do you really believe God loves you?
  

Third week of scriptures for sisters and nieces

By Maggie

This week’s readings were harder for me to understand but I will do my best.

Exodus 23:1-2 “You must not pass along false rumors. You must not cooperate with evil people by lying on the witness stand. You must not follow the crowd in doing wrong.”

I so often in life find myself sitting around with my friends while they are in a conversation talking about others and I join them rather than getting up and not including myself in that conversation or even better telling them it is not the right thing to do and is hurtful to the other person. It is not the right thing to do but we often find our self in that situation. I actually just recently found myself on the other end of it. I was in the other room and heard someone that is close to me talking about me. I was extremely hurt and now am asking God to help me forgive that other person. I think that God has our best interest in mind when he tells us not to do these kinds of activities.

Exodus 9-14 I really like how important prayer was to Moses. This passage shows us that through prayer anything is possible. We just need to remember to ask God for what we need. I also think that I often remember to pray for things I need but forget to thank God for his many blessings on my life. This coming week I am going to focus on thanking God for his many blessings on my life.

Exodus 34:6 “Yahweh! The Lord! The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness”

I want to be slow to anger. I find myself getting angry very easily. God is so good and loving.

I had a very hard time reading the rest of Exodus. I guess I don’t understand why the descriptions were so in depth in the bible. All the measurements were so hard to follow and understand. What can I learn from all of the rules on how to give sacrifices and how to build the temples? I feel like I am really missing something in these scriptures.

This was in my bible and kind of helped me but I still feel like I’m missing something.

Exodus 40 Exodus began in gloom and ends in glory. The Israelites were once Egyptian slaves making bricks without straw. Now they’re free and on their way to the land God promised them. This parallels our progress as Christians. We begin as slaves to sin, are bought at a price by God, and end our lives on Earth with the promise of living with God forever. Is that a promise you’re counting on?

Leviticus 1-5 Again I had a hard time reading through these chapters as well. The one thing that stood out to me as I read this was that I am so thankful that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. I could not imagine having to give sacrifices for our sins. The song that stood out to me this week was by Carrie Underwood. It’s called Jesus take the wheel. Although it’s about a girl getting into a car accident I really feel like it fits in my life at this time. I want to surrender my entire life to God and have Jesus take the wheel in my life.

Scriptures for Sisters #4

It's Sunday night and I'm glad I have Mag holding me accountable to do my post about our readings. I really loved reading all of the details in building the Tabernacle, but his week Exodus Chapter 34 hit me the most.

"And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, "maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.” Exodus 34:6-7

As I was reading the bottom of my study Bible regarding these verses it talked about children suffering for the sins of their parents. They asked us to consider child abuse and alcoholism as well as selfishness and greed. This bothers me... a lot! I have always considered alcoholism as sickness; not sin. To me it is mental illness (that needs to be treated immediately!). Children definitely suffer because of these sins; there is no question about it. I know God is a forgiving, loving God and can handle any kind of stronghold, especially alcoholism, anxiety and addictions. To me it just seems children suffer enough when they have a parent who is hurting them as a result of their illness. I believe it is genetic (please don't judge me) and I just don't understand why it is treated as sin... that needs to be punished. And what if we are married to an alcoholic - and the whole "in sickness and in health" part? I feel so sorry for spouses, children of alcoholics and victims of child abuse. I have no words to describe how terrible this is for them. It was also interesting that selfishness and greed were compared to it; they just don't seem the same. Those don't seem to hurt my children and grandchildren the same; or is it just as serious? Yes!

"Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God." (Exodus 34:14)

This verse helps me better understand the issue above. I love that He is a jealous God and that He does not want us to worship any other god than Himself. I think too many of us use alcohol, anxiety, people, money, food, addictions, etc. as our God. We trust these things for comfort more than we trust God to help us feel better. He loves us SO much that He wants/needs/requires us to trust Him to get us through the trials and storms in our lives. Life is hard; it's not supposed to be easy; this is not Heaven. We are to trust Him in these difficult times and totally depend on Him to get us through the rough times. I love that He is jealous... for us!

" But whenever he entered the LORD’s presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out." (Exodus 34:34)

Moses' face was radiant after spending time with the Lord. Isn't that so cool?! He felt the need to cover it with a veil so he would not scare anyone. I love how he removed the veil when he was in the Lord's presence; when he was speaking with him. When we are desperate for God in our life it is necessary to be completely honest with Him and not hide behind anything. He already knows what's going on in our life, but it helps to be real and share our deepest worries and concerns with HIm. He can be trusted. I just love that; I just love Him.

Happy THANKful Thursday!

43- sump pumps going out when we are in town... and before a flood
44- learning how to do a spreadsheet
45- having the money to pay the plumber
46- salisbury steak dinner my sister-in-law cooked
47- having small dinner gatherings so we can really talk
48- dinner with friends
49- being free to spontaneously help at a friend's dental office
50- a nice work schedule
51- baby showers
52- text message pictures
53- having the money to buy airplane tickets
54- old blogging friends stopping by for a visit here
55- those days where I get a lot accomplished
56- those days when I feel I can put an outfit together
57- mild winter days
58- looking down and seeing my mother's hands typing this post
59- a clean bathroom
60- a book about marriage that EVERYBODY should read: The Meaning of Marriage. by Tim Keller.

Do you have your own Thankful Thursday list going?