Let God Be Magnified

Question: “I recently received one of those forward e-mails that I felt needed to be researched more. When I started looking into the topic there was some specific scripture that I was unclear on. The specific scripture is Exodus 35:2 & Leviticus 24:16 and why God would instruct death in a situation. I do understand that this is old testament and before we were bless with the grace of Jesus, but I don’t understand why God could be so different then.”

In reference to your question the simple answer is this: The Old Testament shows what God thinks about sin, and the New Testament shows what God thinks about sinners.

The relationship in the Old Testament that Israel had with God as His special people was very much a conditional relationship. Blessings were always bestowed corporately upon Israel when they, as a nation, obeyed God. Oppositely, they were cursed when Israel, as a nation, disobeyed Him. A great example of this is in Leviticus 26 were there are many “if-then” conditional statements. Verse 3 says, “If you walk in My commandments….” which is followed by the “then” of verse 4 where a blessing is promised. And this continues throughout the first 13 verses of that chapter. All of these are conditional blessings. IF they were able to do what He asked, God would bless them. When you get to verse 14 you see the phrase “But if you do not obey Me….” where there are cursings promised for Israel, as a Nation, for disobeying God. However (!) God’s grace is shown even here when you look at verse 40. After Israel sinned, or transgressed as the OT expresses sin, if they confessed their iniquity then He would return to them for “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” as 1 John 1:9 states.

However, don’t confuse this with a works based salvation because this only relates to blessings and curses. Salvation has always been based on faith [see Galatians 3:5-9 and the story of Abraham. By faith he believed God when He said He would give Abraham an heir and bless him (Genesis 15:1-6) even though he was advanced in age. The work of circumcision (Genesis 17:9-11) was performed after his saving faith in God (…accounted to him for righteousness) so therefore he was declared righteous before his works were performed (Romans 4). Nonetheless, works did follow after his salvation as an expression of his faith (James).]

I transgress a little, sorry.

The reason that God would instruct death for those situations is because of His holiness. It was to show how hideous and offensive sin is to God. It was to show the penalty for sin and to show how grievous of an act it was. This shows how serious sin is to God. But more importantly, it shows what an awesome work our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ did for us on the Cross! In fact the entire purpose of the Law was to lead us to Christ. What?! Check out Galatians 3:

“What purpose does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made..” – Galatians 3:19

“But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” – Galatians 3:23-25

Whatever God’s plan was, He used the Law to bring us to a point where we could understand what Jesus did for us. In the beginning Israel didn’t know exactly why the Law was organized the way it was. What was apparent, however, was that God is holy and is to be feared. As children, we obey our parents because they tell us to do so. When we rebel, we are punished. When we follow their rules we are rewarded with peace, security, and safety. Sometimes we don’t know why they want us to do the things they ask of us but we do them anyway. As we grow older we begin to see the answers as to why they made us do these things. I think the same is true with God and His people. He brings them to a certain point and let’s them know a little more. Then He brings us to another point, and He lets us know a little more. So we, hopefully, go from doing what He asks of us because He says so, to doing what He asks of us because we love Him.

I hope that made some sense.

One last thing: God does not change. Would you agree?

“For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.” – Malachi 3:6

Then if He does not change He still feels the same way about our sin. His character as revealed all throughout the Old Testament has not changed. Therefore He hates sin the same way today as He did during the time of Abraham. The only thing that is different? Grace. But we must still fear the Lord and His righteousness. Do not take lightly the forgiveness that we have in this age of grace when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. We must still confess our sins and respect Him through proper choices. Our penalty has already been paid, so we will not die in that way. But we will miss out on the spiritual blessings that are ours as we walk in holiness and righteousness before God – peace, love, joy, patience, etc….

In the end, it all comes down to God’s holiness. And in the end it all comes down to God Himself:

“Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ…” – Romans 16:25

“Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling,
And to present you faultless
Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,
To God our Savior,
Who alone is wise,
Be glory and majesty,
Dominion and power,
Both now and forever.
Amen.” – Jude 24,25

I hope that helped. Let me know if you have any further questions.

Later Eriek

Everyone –

I want to challenge you thinking. Go to this website: http://www.nomoretithing.org/index.html.

Please, leave your preconceptions at the door. Walk in with an open mind and open heart to what he has to say. The site is very well written. In it he discusses the Biblical proofs (or lack thereof) of tithing – especially for believers in the age after the cross and after the Law (as compared to the Old Testament Law)

What you can expect to see, and as the author sums up by the author Matthew Narramore, is this:

“When your doctrine is cleansed of tithing and soundly based on the finished work of the cross, you will enter a whole new level of spiritual strength, authority, and boldness. You will experience a new dimension of love and gratitude toward God for all he has done for you in Christ. You will begin to taste the glorious freedom of real life in Christ. You will start to be fully alive in Christ as you were created to be. It will be the beginning of a lifelong journey toward full-satured maturity as a son of God in Christ.

The gospel is the message of the finished work of Christ and our sharing with him of his resurrected life. If we would preach that message we would see more faith, more commitment, and more action from Christians. We would also see more money given to support the work of God than the tithing message has ever produced.

By the grace of God, let’s leave the obsolete mentalities and patterns of living that were given to men who lived before the resurrection. Let’s enter the realm of true spiritual life in Christ and begin to express his life through us now. The glorious life that God intended is far better than the status quo of religion, but we have to turn loose of the old to enter into the new.”

If nothing else, please read his FAQ section (http://www.nomoretithing.org/nmt_faq.htm). God wants us to be cheerful givers, but we should not be restrained or choked by the idea of 10% or a mandatory tithe.

On another note, as I was reading Malachi tonight, I came across a verse that I think I want to be my “life verse” and in so telling you I hope to be held accountable. Malachi is writing as the Lord describes His servant Levi:

“True instruction was in his mouth and unrighteousness was not found on his lips; he walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many back from iniquity.” – Malachi 2:6

Later

Eriek

Everyone –

As I was reading Leviticus this morning, I came to the realization that three times in Scripture God offers the sacrifice for his children. Usually the children of Israel had to come to the temple and offer their sacrifice before the Lord in order to atone for sin, as a burnt offering, fellowship offering, etc. But in these three cases God does all the work and we receive the benefit:

1. Adam and Eve

- Genesis 3 shows how Adam and Eve eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (“..she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.” vs 6b)

- they sinned by doing what God told Adam not to do (Genesis 2:16,17. note: Eve hadn’t been created yet)

- according to Hebrews 9:22 there is no remission of sins without the shedding of blood for the life is in the blood (Leviticus 17:14)

- so the question has to be asked: How did they atone for their sin?

- Answer: God provided, see Genesis 3:21

- an animal was slaughtered, sin was atoned for, and the result was the garments of skin for clothing (since they knew they were naked, Genesis 3:10,11)

- note: God has mercy even amidst our sins as He made clothing for them to cover their shame (see Romans 5:8 where it starts, “While we were yet sinners….”)

2. Abraham and Isaac

- Genesis 22 tells of the story of Abraham offering up Isaac as a sacrifice for God

- he did this because God asked him to: Genesis 22:1,2

- as a reminder, a burnt offering was offered to the Lord and nothing of it remained as it was totally consumed by the fire (Leviticus 1)

- note: this a picture, a type, of the sacrifice that God gave for us when He willingly offered up His Son, Jesus, in our place

- just as Abraham was going to offer up Isaac, God stops him, and reveals a ram caught in a thicket (verse 13)

- just as Abraham said, “God will provide” (verse 8) He did and substituted the ram for the Isaac. The grace!

- the goat was a totally acceptably burnt offering before the Lord (Leviticus 1:10)

- the burnt offering was a type of our Lord Jesus in that it represented total devotion to God (all is burnt up; it was totally consumed by fire)

3. Jesus on the Cross

- “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:29

- Leviticus 16 talks of the Day of Atonement for Israel

- Once a year, the High priest would go into the temple and offer a sacrifice before the Lord, confess the sins of Israel, and their sins would be forgiven and atoned for

- in this case, it is a type of which Christ is the subject. Jesus is typified by the goat that is sacrificed for their sins

- however, as a priest does this year over year our Jesus, as High priest, only had to do this once because His sacrifice was altogether sufficient and permanent (see Hebrews 9:11-14, 24-28; 10:1-14)

- Christ atoned for our sins on the hill of Calvary

- but what about the picture of Christ as a the Lamb?

- Revelation 5 is a picture of the throne room in Heaven wherein we see Christ: “And I saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slain…” verse 6

- we see that Peter in his letter shows Jesus as “a lamb unblemished and spotless” who “was foreknown before the foundation of the world” (1 Peter 1:18-21)

- and again, in Revelation 13:8 we see Jesus as the Lamb who was slain

-all of this is to show us a picture of the type that God had already established: the Passover Lamb

- Exodus 12 tells the story: Israel is in Egypt and Moses is there telling Pharaoh to let his people go into the wilderness so that they may worship God. Pharaoh’s heart is hardened and he refuses. God, in turn, sends all these plagues upon Pharaoh and he still refuses to submit to God (sound like the book of Revelation? See Revelation 9:20,21) Anyway, the last plague that God is sending on the people is to kill all the firstborn in Israel, people and cattle included.

- Why? See Exodus 9:7

- God instructs Moses to have the people of Israel do the following:

a. gather a lamb for each person (Exodus 12:2)

b. unblemished, male, a year old (verse 5)

cool note: the “lamb” could either be from the sheep or the goats (remember the Day of Atonement used a goat)

c. kill the lamb at twilight (verse 6)

d. put the blood on the doorposts (verse 7)

- why?

“The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and not plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.” – Exodus 12:13. See also verse 21-28

- in the end, God provided and we benefited. But it must be by faith. For if you doubt that Jesus is who He says He is, then you call God a liar. And to call God a liar is to turn your back on Him. And although God is full of Grace and Mercy, when you turn your back on Him you close the door. That is why in Hebrews 3:7-13 there is always “Today” to come to the Lord.

When is the best time to plant a tree? Yesterday. The next best time? Today. Come to God today through Jesus Christ while it is still today. For tomorrow may never come and it will be too late.

“Isaac spoke to his Abraham his father and said, ‘My father!’ And he said, ‘Here I am, my son.’ And he said, ‘Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?’ Abraham said, ‘God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burn offering, my son.’ So the two of them walked on together.” – Genesis 22:8

Take care

Eriek

Everyone –

I’m amazed at how much God has revealed to me as I study Leviticus – and I’m only through 5:13! The pictures of Christ are plastered throughout every word of this book. But the biggest blessing has got to be that I’m reminded, in a literal way, of how Holy God is and how righteous are His ways and how He demands a certain standard. We’ve got it easy since we live in the Age of Grace where God is building His church as a witness for Him on the earth. But the believers during the day of Moses had immense requirements to appease the wrath of God and to be forgiven of their sins.

To say that God doesn’t take sin lightly is an understatement. He required an offering to be made for the slightest offence – touching anything unclean human or otherwise; when you make an oath to God and forget that you made it; and the list goes on and on. It would be of the effect that every time you sinned you had to get rid of something valuable to you in order to atone for your wrongdoing. Can you imagine sinning unintentionally and having to give up your TV or your furniture for life? Come on! We have no idea of the true weight of sin and the total offense it is to God when we commit it. We live in a time when we sin and can essentially say a heartfelt “I’m sorry” and go on. And thank God for it! I don’t think that we as people today fully understand the weight that was released by Jesus when He died for the sins committed by us when He willingly went to the cross.

At the beginning of the commentary that I’m reading on Leviticus (“The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament” by John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck) it states that the book of Leviticus was one of the first books read by a Jewish child yet it is probably least read by common day believers. And as I’ve seen so far, it is probably one of the most important Old Testament books to fully understand the weight and importance and significance of the work of Christ as our High Priest to God as He dealt with sin. I don’t think we can adequately worship our creator (John 1:3; Ephesians 3:9) until we know Him in a deeper sense. And this book allows us to do just that.

And if this book was one of the first books that a Jewish child went to, why don’t we, as believers in this Age of Grace, comb the Scriptures more to learn what He desires us to do? The expectations of holiness and purity that God demanded upon those of old has not changed in the sense that God does not change (Hebrews 13:8). Yet, He does not require us to perform the works of the Law because He has already fulfilled them through His Son Jesus Christ! How then should we not want to worship Him MORE because of this great gift? Yet we live in a society of easy Christendom which demands no effort on our part but lays it all on God. “He saved us when I said those words so we’re good to go, right?” Wrong, sort of.

“What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? … Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. But someone may well say, ‘You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.’ You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?” – James 2:14,17-20

The picture that James is painting is a parallel between believers before Christ and those after Him. Before Him, believers where required to do something as an outward action for their inward faith. Their work was to sacrifice as God told them to do (they believed what He said = faith) and their sins would therefore be atoned for and forgiven. In contrast, since the Law was fulfilled in Christ and we are no longer required to do those works for atonement, James suggests that we should still do works to show our inward faith. These works are not for salvation, but because we already have salvation and we are compelled by love and joy to do works. God still desires that we walk with Him. And the only way for a person to really know if what they have is true, is walk in that faith. Do you have head knowledge or heart knowledge? You’ll know when conflict, persecution, or strife comes into your life because of your faith in Christ. So why not “train” for that day, because it will come, and “work out” your faith by living Christ daily and maintaining a strong fellowship with Him?

We should do more and we can do more. Read. Pray. Tell others about Him. Read. Pray. Repeat…

Later

Eriek

Everyone –

Now we’re on to the Grain Offering in Chapter 2 of Leviticus. There are a few things that become clear about God’s character as you read of these sacrifices:

1. God is holy: He requires things to de done a certain, specific way. Anything outside of these parameters would be offensive to Him.

a) it must have flour mixed with oil and incense (the latter being all that distinguished it from everyday flour)

b) if baked, the flour must have no leaven in it (leaven, today, would be like baking powder. It’s what makes the cakes fluffy and rise).

c) they all must have salt in them.

2. God is merciful and full of grace: He gives several ways to give the offering, in this case the grain offering. He allows four different forms so that no matter the social-economic status of the worshipper they will be able to offer a sacrifice to God.

The grain offering, to the believer, probably represented the daily supplement of their needs by God and their dedication to God during their daily lives since it used their normal foods and cooking methods. In this offering, one portion was taken out by the priest, the memorial portion, and it was burned on the altar. The rest of the food went to the priest for his daily food. Of note, however, was the fact that salt must be included in each grain sacrifice. Salt in the Near East was regarded as not being destructible by fire. And since salt is generally regarded in Scripture as a reminder or symbolic of the Covenant made by God with the Israelites the grain offering with salt is symbolic of God’s eternal covenant with Israel as it pertains to their daily needs and care.

“All the offerings of the holy gifts, which the sons of Israel offer to the Lord, I have given to you and your sons and your daughters with you, as a perpetual allotment. It is an everlasting covenant of salt before the Lord to you and your descendants with you.” – Numbers 18:19

“Do you not know that the Lord God of Israel gave the rule over Israel forever to David and his sons by a covenant of salt?” – 2 Chronicles 13:5

As a type of the picture of Christ the grain offering is seen in this way:

1) it points to the substitutionary value of His death on the cross (this is because of it’s association with burnt and fellowship offerings)

2) Flour = speaks of his perfect, well-balanced humanity

3) Oil = the Holy Spirit who overshadowed Him at the Incarnation (Luke 1:35)

4) Frankincense (incense) = points to the moral fragrance of His person

5) No leaven = illustrates His separateness from sin

Of note, is that Jesus uses the image of the “death” of a head of grain to bring forth fruit to illustrate His death:

“And Jesus answered them, saying, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” – John 12:23,24

In the end I’m convinced already that as we go through this life we will need to sacrifice something of worth to worship the Holy God. We are in an age of Grace right now where our sins are forgiven when we confess, repent and ask for that forgiveness. We don’t need to kill and animal, or burn something at the alter as a way of attaining that forgiveness and regaining again the fellowship with the Father. However, every offering that the Israelites gave cost them something whether that be resources, time, money, or whatever. It was never without some personal cost. And I think the same goes for us today. To walk away from sin is contrary to our nature. We want to do that sin otherwise we wouldn’t have done it. There is sacrifice in leaving that which, to the flesh, “feels good.” There is sacrifice in our daily lives that needs to be offered up to God as we walk with Him. That’s why in Romans it says:

“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” – Romans 12:1

After which follows the verse that we are so aware of:

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of you mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” – Romans 12:2

I think that God very much has in mind for us to offer sacrifice today, spiritual instead of physical (animal, grain, etc) offerings. But like the believers of that day, they offered it willingly because they loved the Lord their God. We should offer up our sacrifice in the same way. For we all know that “God loves a cheerful giver.”

Later Eriek

Everyone –

I thought, “Which book is the least desirable for me to read in Scripture?” And I immediately thought, Leviticus. It seems so mundane and repetitive.

But then I remembered a conversation I had with a friend the other day about how the Law was a tutor that led people to Christ. How? Because the Israelites were so used to performing sacrifices over the hundreds of years that when Christ came as the Lamb of God “to take away the sins of the world,” His action and sacrifice would be meaningful and carry an impact. It’s importance would be readily seen. Because, if you recall, sin had to be atoned for by the slaying of a lamb or a calf, etc, to atone for the sin of the person or group of people. So when Christ came and A) Willingly offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice B) on their behalf the impact of His action, once properly realized, would carry an amazing impact. So that is how the Law leads us to Christ because it paints a picture of what Christ did for us.

Anyway, so I’m reading Leviticus 1 this morning. And as you read on you find out that burn offering has some special significance to Christ.

The burn offering is unique in the following ways:

1) it is wholly consumed on the alter. Nothing is left over

2) it generally followed a sin/guilt offering by the believer

3) in the end God gets everything and the believer gets nothing

4) the believer was the one who actually killed the animal. It was the priest’s responsibility to place it on the altar, etc

What you see, in the end, is that while sin had to be atoned for during the sin offering, fellowship also needed to be restored. This is where the burnt offering comes in as usually followed the sin/guilt offering. The burn offering shows the complete dedication to the Lord following the atoning of sin. In a way it’s like saying, “thank you God for taking away my sin. I restore my worship of You as You desire and deserve.” So by giving all of the offering to God (remember, it was all consumed by the fire) it represents the total (“all consumed”) devotion to God once again. God get’s everything (both in worship and sacrifice of the animal).

But the real picture comes into play when you look at Christ. Hebrews 9:13,14 says:

“For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

Here you see that Christ was without spot. In terms of the burnt offering you see that He fulfilled completely the will of His Father. He gave everything to Him on His walk on earth to fulfill what God had planned. His burnt offering was his complete dedication to the accomplishment of God’s will.

One final note: did you see that it was the believer’s duty to slay the sacrifice? After we confess our sins and restore fellowship with God, we must then repent (“turn around”) from our old ways. There is an action required for us to do in order to maintain fellowship with God. Slay that which keeps you from fellowship from God as your willing sacrifice to Him. Don’t walk in your old ways. Seek first the Kingdom of God….

Later Eriek

Everyone –

This is from a book by Sir Robert Anderson entitled, The Coming Prince. He is considered one of the best theologians in the 20th Century and he died in 1917. This passage, while a bit complex, does two things:

1) It strengthens your faith about God and His Word. Scripture always is accurate even if we, as a society, can’t prove it (upon first glance) or show it to be true now.

2) It fills you with the awe as to the overwhelming grace and love that God has for His sons and daughters in Christ.

I hope you like it. Make sure to read the final note that sums it all up.

He writes:

“According to the book of Kings, Solomon began to build the temple in the 480th year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt (1 Kings 6:1). This statement, than which none could, seemingly, be more exact, has sorely puzzled chronologers. By some it has been condemned as a forgery, by others it has been dismissed as a blunder; but all have agreed in rejecting it. Moreover, Scripture itself appears to clash with it. In his sermon at Pisidian Antioch (Acts 13:18-21) St. Paul epitomizes thus the chronology of this period of the history of his nation; forty years in the wilderness; 450 years under the Judges, and forty years of the reign of Saul; making a total of 530 years. To which must be added the forty years of David’s reign and the first three years of Solomon’s; making 573 years for the very period which is described in Kings as 480 years. Can these conclusions, apparently so inconsistent, be reconciled?

If we follow the history of Israel as detailed in the book of Judges, we shall find that for five several periods their national existence as Jehovah’s people was in abeyance. In punishment for their idolatry, God gave them up again and again, and ‘sold them into the hands of their enemies.’ They became slaves to the king of Mesopotamia for eight years, to the king of Moab for eighteen years, to the king of Canaan or twenty years, to the Midianites for seven years, and finally to the Philistines for forty years. But the sum of 8 + 18 + 20 + 7 + 40 years is 93 years, and if 93 years be deducted from 573 years, the result is 480 years. It is obvious, therefore, that the 480 years of the book of Kings from the Exodus to the temple is a mystic era formed by eliminating every period during which the people were cast off by God.” (pp. 81-83)

THE BEST PART (from the notes):

“The Israelites were nationally God’s people as no other nation can ever be; therefore they were dealt with in some respects on principles similar to those which obtain in the case of individuals. A life without God is death. Righteousness must keep a strict account and sternly judge; or grace may pardon. And if God forgives, He likewise forgets the sin (Hebrews 10:17); which doubtless means that the record is wiped out, and the period it covers is treated as though it were blank. The days of our servitude to evil are ignored in the Divine chronology” (notes, p. 83).

Isn’t that AWESOME!?

If you ever doubted and needed additional proof that God’s forgiveness is total then I hope this helped you. God’s forgiveness is amazing and wonderful. When He says that He casts our transgressions as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12), He means it! When it is said of God that He can cast our sins into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19), then He is able!

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” – 1 John 1:9

The life of a Christian should model the love of God seen here and also the love seen through Christ Jesus since He is “the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature” (Hebrews 1:3). Forgiveness, probably the greatest gift He could give, should likewise be mirrored in our actions and attitudes.

Later Eriek

this is from: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56726

Christians in Iraq, including converts from Islam and people involved in mixed-faith marriages, are being crucified by Muslim terrorists, according to a Dutch member of Parliament studying the war-torn country.

Several Iraqi Christians “are nailed to a cross and their arms are tied up with ropes. The ropes are put on fire,” Joel Voordewind told BosNewsLife, an online news agency focusing on Christians and Jews in difficult circumstances.

According to the site, Voordewind described how a person, who “survived” a crucifixion, “even showed holes in his hands,” apparently from nails.

Voordewind said victims of the crucifixions are “in most cases Christian converts who abandoned Islam or people who, religiously speaking, are involved in mixed marriages.”

He did not specify how many Christians have been crucified in recent weeks and months, as an official report is expected soon. Voordewind is slated to present his findings to Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Maxime Verhagen within the next few days.

The report comes as thousands of Christians are said to be fleeing Iraq due to ongoing threats and violence against them. Just yesterday, over 80 people were killed in bomb blasts in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk. Most of the casualties resulted from a suicide truck bomb which detonated near the offices of the Kurdish political party led by Iraq’s President Jalal Talabani.

BosNewsLife says Voordewind was part of a Dutch delegation visiting several countries in the Mideast, including Syria, where several lawmakers held talks with the terrorist group Hamas.

Please pray for these people. I can’t imagine the persecution these people endure. They truly know what it means to give everything to Christ our Lord. Let not their deaths be in vain – encourage one another and yourselves knowing that these people who are passed are present with the Lord this very moment. Be bold for Him and honor Him as He deserves and desires. He is worth it.

later Eriek

Everyone -

I was reading a paper recently on the role of the Holy Spirit both before and after Pentecost and on the way to making his thesis statement the author, Richard B. Gaffin, Jr, made a statement that I found profound and succinct in how we should view ourselves:

“The ‘main point’ of Scripture and the Christian religion – if I may risk putting it that way and without intending to polarize among equally valid considerations – is not the Christian but Christ, not our experience but his work, not our needs but God’s triune glory. Only were that is appreciated do Christian identity and experience, both individually and corporate, come to stand in the right light.”

I thought it was a very good way of putting into perspective what is important in our daily lives. I hope it blesses you all.

Later Eriek

Did you know how much God loves you? He has always loved us. He would do anything for us. Most of all, He yearns for us to walk with Him. Look at this example of His love. I bet you never before looked at this situation like this:

God said to Adam,

“From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat from it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:16,17, NOTE: “die” here speaks of spiritual death. Physical death comes because we don’t have access to the other tree in the garden, the Tree of Life [see Gen 3:24]).

So Adam was told not to eat of that specific tree. Yet he did as his wife, Eve, took of the fruit and “gave also to her husband with her, and he ate” (Gen 3:6, underline added). What was the consequence of eating of the tree? – “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen 3:5). The main point is that they are aware for the first time that they are sinners. When a person becomes aware that they are a sinner, they are held accountable to that sin. Paul writes, “for the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23, again “death” here is a spiritual death).

Once they were aware of their sin, notice what Adam and Eve do to themselves: “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings” (Gen 3:7). You see, the first thing a person does when they become aware that they are a sinner, is they try and fix it themselves. They are aware that judgment is being held over their heads and they try to appease that conviction. Here we see Adam and Eve performing a work. It’s probably the first example of Works vs. Grace.

But oh how God loves us and the grace He gives to us over and over again.

In Hebrews 9:22 it says,

“And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” God provides for Adam and Eve a sacrifice to appease His own wrath against their sin. See:

“The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21). Where did he get the skins from? He had to shed blood in order to give the skin to them for clothing. He sacrificed and animal. So not only do we see God’s grace towards them by clothing them, but He also provides a sacrifice for them. Which He does again when He gives us His Son for the ultimate sacrifice – the sacrifice that took away all sin.

“Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD,” – Hebrews 10:11,12

Isn’t our God just awesome!? Isn’t His grace all sufficient?

later Eriek

“Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
And let us exalt His name together.” – Psalm 34:3

Jesus. It is that name that is above every other name. All of the Old Testament looks forward to Him and all the New Testament looks back on Him. He is the center of all things and I love Him.

This journal that you are reading is going to be an adventure. There is no preset course that we are going to take. We will go as the Lord leads us. To do otherwise would be foolish and unfruitful.

What we will do here is worship Him through thoughts, ideas, conversations, and debate. To grow with Him is to know Him better. He never meant for us to know everything about Him when we were saved. God always has a process that He goes through in everything He does. Creation was a specific process for He could have just brought everything into being at once and skipped the seven days. Why did He do it that way? Because it’s in God’s character to go through a process. There is a purpose behind everything He does. And so it is with us. This journey that He has us on is a process and through it He will reveal Himself to us in deeper ways than before.

And as He reveals Himself to us, it gives us an opportunity to praise Him, to worship Him, to exalt and magnify His name. How’s the old song go? “It’s not about me, it’s all about you, Jesus.” And so it will be here.

However, because this journal comes from me there will be opinions. I will always do my best to back up what I have stated with Scripture if it calls for it. Mostly, however, it will be things that I have read and wish to share with you. When God reveals Himself in a deeper way you want to share it with others so that they will know it, too. As Jesus said:

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.” – Matthew 5:14,15

I encourage you to post comments to the entries. If something speaks to you praise God for it. If something doesn’t make sense then post a question for us to contemplate and answer. Regardless of what it is please praise God for it and not me – Through Him and by Him and for Him are all things. All glory belongs to Him. All I ask is that we realize that as we go on this journey we all come from different places in our walk with the Lord. Some of us just met Him. Others have known Him for a long time. And there will be some who don’t know Him at all. Let grace rule your hearts in all matters.

…let us exalt His name together.

Later, Eriek