Daily Reading

Leviticus 1

• Rules for the Burnt Offering. I find it interesting that the goat's death removes the sin from the people. In another it says that blood must atone for sin, so that makes sense for the goat's death, but what is really interesting is that God finds the smell pleasing. 

Leviticus 2

• Rules for the Grain Offering. It says that the Grain Offering is the most holy part of the offerings. I can't help but think of the similarities between communion today and the Grain Offering. And if you consider Leviticus 1 and that the juice represents the blood of Christ, then there is a TON of similarities between communion and these two chapters.

Leviticus 3

• Rules for the Fellowship Offering. It doesn't say why someone would need to make a Fellowship Offering...

Leviticus 4

• Rules for the Sin Offering. God knew that there would be a King someday, as he has rules of what a ruler must do when he sins.If someone sins by accident, then they are guilty.

Leviticus 5

• Rules for Special Types of Accidental Sins. "When anyone is guilty of any of these things, he must tell how he sinned." Confession was something that happened in the Old Testament. We are responsible for our sin. 

Leviticus 6

• Rules for lying, stealing, and other sins. Very interesting stuff. The general response is to return and make amends by paying an additional 1/5 of the value. Then there is the rules for the Whole Burnt Offering, the Grain Offering, and Sin Offering. 

Bread and Wine: A Look at Communion - PART III

Welcome to Monday! I can't believe the Giants actually won! That was an amazing game last night. I wanted the Giants to pull off the upset, predicted it in my sports blog, and they pulled it off. How weird.

On another note, something rather sad and unfortunate, my boss (actually, my previous boss, by only a week) passed away yesterday. I just wasn't expecting it to happen so quickly. I knew he was sick and his health wasn't well, I just didn't expect to go to work and here that news.

Psalm 37:23-27

If the LORD delights in a man's way, he makes his steps firm; though he stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand. I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread. They are always generous and lend freely; their children will be blessed. Turn from evil and do good; then you will dwell in the land forever.

Proverbs 30:7-9

"Two things I ask of you, O LORD; do not refuse me before I die: Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the LORD ' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God."

Mark 14:22-26

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take it; this is my body."

Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, and they all drank from it.

"This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many," he said to them. "I tell you the truth, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God."

When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

It is awesome to see how the bread and drink come together. There is still plenty of scriptures in the Old Testament that tie together with communion. Drink and bread appear in roughly over 200 scriptures. Bread alone appears in over 250 passages. It is clear that God wants me to have an understanding of communion. And while I may not be an expert by any means, I do know that it is a time to reflect on the great thing that God has done for me, being Jesus Christ and deliverance from sin.

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Bread and Wine: A Look at Communion - PART II

This is an extension of the POST #600, which you can access here: Bread and Wine - A Look at Communion. I felt I only touched the tip of the iceberg on this topic, so I am not sure how long I will be doing this topic, but I could jump back to it now and again, if anything to keep it fresh.
Now, I found this scripture rather interesting.

Genesis 14:18-20

Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram, saying, "Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand." Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

OK, so it is like the first communion. There was bread and juice from the vine. And then contribution took place, as Abram gave a tithe.

But I read this and something struck me... first off: the scripture...

Exodus 12:1-30

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, "This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire—head, legs and inner parts. Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the LORD's Passover.

"On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—both men and animals—and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

"This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD -a lasting ordinance. For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat—that is all you may do.

"Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And whoever eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel, whether he is an alien or native-born. Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread."

Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, "Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. Not one of you shall go out the door of his house until morning. When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.

"Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. And when your children ask you, 'What does this ceremony mean to you?' then tell them, 'It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.'" Then the people bowed down and worshiped. The Israelites did just what the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron.

At midnight the LORD struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well. Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.

The significance of this passage is HUGE. First off, the passover was a celebration of the Jews leaving Egypt. God looked over the Jews and struck down the Egyptians. In the same way, being a disciple of Christ, God looks over our sins and on judgment day, strike down those not saved. And that should be a double-edge sword, since it is a disciple's duty to share their faith. If someone gets struck down, that is reason for sadness, like that the Egyptians felt of their lost ones. The good news is that being a disciple, I'm saved.

Jesus is the Passover Lamb. The reason the Jews celebrated (and they did celebrate and not mourn) was to remember what God did for them. The reason we have communion is to celebrate what God did for us and remember the ultimate sacrifice. The bread and wine were once symbols of being quick to get out of dodge, per se, but now it is more symbols of the cross (flesh and blood). This is all I can think of for now... I am sure there will be an edition #3 in another week or so... Johnny Out.

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Bread and Wine: A Look at Communion

Bread and Wine: A Look at Communion

I had an idea sometime last week about studying about the bread and juice.

Matthew 6:9-15

"This, then, is how you should pray: 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.' For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Matthew 4:1-4

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread."

Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God."

Deuteronomy 8:3

He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

John 6:1-59

Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick. Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. The Jewish Passover Feast was near.

When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?" He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.

Philip answered him, "Eight months' wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!"

Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up, "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?"

Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down, about five thousand of them. Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.

When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, "Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted." So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, "Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world." Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.

When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them. And a half miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were terrified. But he said to them, "It is I; don't be afraid." Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.

The next day the crowd that had stayed on the opposite shore of the lake realized that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not entered it with his disciples, but that they had gone away alone. Then some boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the people had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus.

When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, "Rabbi, when did you get here?"

Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval."

Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?"

Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."

So they asked him, "What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'"

Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."

"Sir," they said, "from now on give us this bread."

Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."

At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." They said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I came down from heaven'?"

"Stop grumbling among yourselves," Jesus answered. "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: 'They will all be taught by God.' Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."

Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"

Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever." He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

This scripture in John, from John 6:5 to John 6:58, the word "bread" is used seventeen times. And that doesn't include the word "manna" and "loaves" and "food", which also encompass the word bread. Those would also be satisfactory searches on this subject. This is going to become a series, simply because I cannot dig enough that would satisfy me. And I have dabbled into the wine/juice a little today, but not really all that much. So much to look at. I will look more into it once I finish the "Sin List" series. Johnny Out.

I finally achieved the "600 Mark". I will have another countdown for #700 later on this year... hopefully in four months.

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Communion

May 27, 2007

Communion

I had the pleasure of delivering communion today at our house church. This is what I covered…

Genesis 6:5-7 (NCV)
The Lord saw that the human beings on the earth were very wicked and that everything they thought about was evil. He was sorry he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the Lord said, “I will destroy all human beings that I made on the earth. And I will destroy every animal and everything that crawls on the earth and the birds of the air, because I am sorry I have made them.”

Genesis 6:11-13 (NCV)
People on earth did what God said was evil, and violence was everywhere. When God saw that everyone on the earth did only evil, he said to Noah, “Because people have made the earth full of violence, I will destroy all of them from the earth.”

Genesis 7:4 (NCV)
Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth. It will rain forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe off from the earth every living thing that I have made.

Genesis 7:17-24 (NCV)
Water flooded the earth for forty days, and as it rose it lifted the boat off the ground. The water continued to rise, and the boat floated on it above the earth. The water rose so much that even the highest mountains under the sky were covered by it. It continued to rise until it was more than twenty feet above the mountains. All living things that moved on the earth died. This included all the birds, tame animals, wild animals, and creatures that swarm on the earth, as well as all human beings. So everything on dry land that had the breath of life in it died. God destroyed from the earth every living thing that was on the land -- every man, animal, crawling thing, and bird of the sky. All that was left was Noah and what was with him in the boat. And the waters continued to cover the earth for one hundred fifty days.

In the time of Noah, everyone was evil. Imagine everyone being evil. Imagine your family, friends, public officials, the people you see at the grocery, everyone is evil. Every thought, evil little itty bitty thing that they do, is evil and wicked. This isn’t a compliment of what happened. People talk about being wicked now and it is a compliment. And because these things happened then, God flooded the world. God looked at them and they did not have a bit of good in them, so he whipped them away with a flood. So what happened is this: All Sin – No Repentance – New Start. The flood is like a baptism that “cleans” the earth and gives it a new start.

Matthew 13:47-50 (NCV)
“Also, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was put into the lake and caught many different kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled the net to the shore. They sat down and put all the good fish in baskets and threw away the bad fish. It will be this way at the end of the world. The angels will come and separate the evil people from the good people. The angels will throw the evil people into the blazing furnace, where people will cry and grind their teeth with pain.”

Matthew 25:40 and 45 (NCV)
“Then the King will answer, ‘I tell you the truth, anything you did for even the least of my people here, you also did for me.’” … “Then the King will answer, ‘I tell you the truth, anything you refused to do for even the least of my people here, you refused to do for me.’”

The angels will come and separate the evil people from the good people. This is comforting simply due to the fact that there are good people to take out of the group. They separate the righteous from the unrighteous. And the scriptures from Matthew 25 show a detail of what the righteous and the unrighteous do. The righteous will even do the smallest of things for the “lowest” or “least” of people. That is an indication of how loving and serving the righteous person is for God. They do the little things that end up making a huge difference. The unrighteous will not do these things. What I believe to be interesting is that the unrighteous will still serve, but it will be “big” things, like in groups or such, and will not necessarily take on an individual effort. The unrighteous will make a show to look righteous, but will be far from it. But the fact still remains; there are righteous people out there in the midst of the unrighteous people.

1st Peter 3:18-22 (NCV)
Christ himself suffered for sins once. He was not guilty, but he suffered for those who are guilty to bring you to God. His body was killed, but he was made alive in the spirit. And in the spirit he went and preached to the spirits in prison who refused to obey God long ago in the time of Noah. God was waiting patiently for them while Noah was building the boat. Only a few people -- eight in all -- were saved by water. And that water is like baptism that now saves you -- not the washing of dirt from the body, but the promise made to God from a good conscience. And this is because Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. Now Jesus has gone into heaven and is at God’s right side ruling over angels, authorities, and powers.

The water is like baptism – it cleans you from sin. In fact here it says that baptism saves you. It is a promise from me to God from a good conscience.

Hebrews 5:7-10 (NCV)
While Jesus lived on earth, he prayed to God and asked God for help. He prayed with loud cries and tears to the One who could save him from death, and his prayer was heard because he trusted God. Even though Jesus was the Son of God, he learned obedience by what he suffered. And because his obedience was perfect, he was able to give eternal salvation to all who obey him. In this way God made Jesus a high priest, a priest like Melchizedek.

The focus on this scripture right now is this: he (Jesus) was able to give eternal salvation to all who obey him. This is why the criminal on the cross next to Jesus could be saved without baptism. Jesus could give it to him, because he could. I follow Jesus, who gives salvation to the obedient, then I would do what the Bible says and be considered righteous. I do not follow what the Bible says, then I am not following Jesus and would be considered unrighteous. It’s that black and white. Jesus is the High Priest. He is the ultimate example. Communion is about remembering him and my conversion to him. Johnny Out.