Leviticus 11

Here are the famous food laws.

It's important to remember what they were for, though. The Hebrews weren't tot make a distinction between clean and unclean animals  because God didn't want them eating pigs. He wanted to make a distinction between them and d everyone else.

Five foods I miss the most

Fred Hoeker and Stephen Arterburn were wrong: anything done for 21 days does not necessarily become a habit. I've not eaten anything in nearly a year and a half, and it's almost all I think about.

Regardless, here are the five foods I think about most:

5. Cereal -- I'm no Jerrry Seinfeld, but I like me some cereal. For the record, my favorites are Raisin Bran and Apple Cinnamon Cheerios.

4. Bacon -- Bacon, or "meat candy", is good. That is all.

3. Pancakes -- I've actually always preferred waffles, but the last few months I've craved pancakes.

2. Donuts -- not Krispy  Kreme, which is right down the road, but Blueberry Cake donuts from Dunkin'.

1. Bread -- From biscuits to tortillas to pizza crust, I almost always want bread.

Now you know what's on my  mind.

Leviticus 10

this wasn't something unseen or unthought-of. Nadab and Abihu didn't bring some new and amazing thing Yahweh hadn't seen.

They broke the rules, plain and simple, God sets certain conditions, and he expects them to be obeyed. Where not, the transgressors pay a price.

The incredible thing is that Nadab and Abihu's father and brothers were forbidden from mourning because they served God first. The fact that I find it incredible says more about me than about God.

Leviticus 9

The tenure of the first priests began with their own atonement.

everyone has sinned and needs to be made right with God. Everyone. Even Aaron and his sons.

D

Review: THE ODYSSEY by Homer

the writings of Homer were considered holy in Ancient Greece. They're still thought of as some of the best stories ever written. I say this as anp introduction and to show I know what I'm getting into.

What amazes me is how modern this book seems, even in an old translation. The main character doesn't even appear until several chapters in, and the parts everyone thinks they know -- the monsters -- are told largely in passing, in flashbacks. The only problem i have with the translation is that it uses Latin names for some characters and Greek for others, but this was common inVictorian Classical translations.

Overall, I enjoyed this. While the translation isn't exactly timeless, the story is.

Leviticus 8

it took a week to ordain Aaron and his sons as priests.

They were told to stay in the front of the tabernacle the whole time. This chapter says they did all theLord commanded.

Q

something I just don't get about Calvinism

some people say that Calvinism kills missions. I know that's not true. What I don't get is why.

I understand that if God chose people to be saved, then they will be. I get that missionaries will go whether they want to or not. I even understand that wanting to is an irresistible gift from God.

What I  don't get is why this isn't deterministic. It's no good calling it a mystery. Calvinism claims to explain everything.

Leviticus 7

Peace offerings were just a way of saying thanks to God.

How much does God do for us every day? How often do we thank him?

It's not a bad idea.

Addendum to yesterday: it's been brought to my attention that I wasn't clear enough yesterday. Here's my logic:

If the people obeyed the law, they wouldn't owe offerings for breaking it. The priests ate from the offerings. Therefore if there are no offerings, the priests would starve. They were in the position of hoping people disobeyed the law so they would need atonement.

Let me explain what "completely paralyzed" means

Some people don't seem to understand when they're told about me, so I'll help you out.

All I can do is move my eyes. I can't speak, swallow, or move anything else voluntarily. I can' say hello, shake your hand, or even turn my head to look at you.

I'm literally paralyzed from the eyeballs down.

Please don't ask me to do things I can't do. Please don't make me show off, either.

Thank you.

Leviticus 6

The priests were in an impossible situation.

If the people did what they were supposed to, the priests would starve. If the people kept the law, there would be no need for offerings. Fortunately, the law was impossible to keep.

Review:TEN INDICTMENTS AGAINST THE MODERN CHURCH by Paul Washer

this is either a long serm or a short book. It's actually the the former. After the sermon became popular, a transcript of it was produced and distributed as a free Kindle book.

I've mentioned before that Washer is my favorite preacher, and this is the first sermon I heard by him. He is unsparing in his criticism of what American Christianityhas become, especially as regards evangelism. He is honest, sometimes brutally so, about the way things were done in Scripture.

Some may doubt the need for or wisdom of such negative messages in our age. I think we need to be drawn back to the Bible every now and then. Both the audio and the transcript are available for free, and I recommend both highly. 

Things I don't have to defend

I just have to talk about Christ.

I don't have to defend the Crusades, blue laws, slavery, imperialism,witch trials, the Inquisition, white shirts, racism, hatred of Jews, papal infallibility, any particular denomination, infant baptism, Mariology, a certain style of music, or the King James Version.

I just have to tell people about Christ.

Leviticus 5

God makes provision for the very poor in his law, as well as giving the guilty a means of expiating their tguilt.

He's such a good God.E

Leviticus 4

one of the main points of this chapter is usually overlooked and contained in these four words: if anybody sins unintentionally.

The sacrificial system was never meant to allow people to act any way they wanted and buy God off with some livestock. Why do we think we can sin all the way to Heaven and buy God off with a "conversion" when we were kids.

Leviticus 3

Notice that only a few parts were actually sacrificed.

It wasn't so much the gift as what it meant to the giver

Q

Leviticus 2

Does God really like the smell of burning meat and bread?

Some would say no, that the offerings were the result of contact with other cults. Those of us who believe in pllenary inspiration, though, think that if it says "sweet savor" or something like that then God meant it to.

Q

Leviticus 1

And here we start Levicus, the most hated and feared book in all of Scripture. I'm not going to lie. There is going to be some hard reading ahead. You can do it, though.

The interesting thing to me about this chapter is that the book starts with offerings. Worship is the first concern of God and the first duty of his people.

Good things and not bad

"Shall I accept good things from the Lord and not bad?"

Job asked that of his friends almost 4000 years ago. If they'd been smarter, they would have shut up right then. The  Book of Job certainly would have been shorter.

Lora quoted it to me not long after I'd woken up after my stroke. In so doing, she may have saved my life. I know she saved my soul.

I was a very angry person when I first realized what had happened. I questioned everything I knew about God. Then Lora asked me that fateful question.

Suddenly my whole outlook changed. I stopped thinking about what all I'd lost and realized how much I'd been taking for granted. 

Sometimes it hits me what I can't do, and it hurts. When I think of what's left, though, I realize I'm a very blessed man.

Exodus 40

The tabernacle is built to God's specs, and to shoe his approval he moves inn. That's pretty much the chapter.

Let's look at where we've been so far. If you've read along, on A Chapter a Day a,and this blog, then you've read two of the longest books in the Bible. I didn't even make it through the first one without having a stroke. It gets easier, I promise.

Review: THE 9/11 MACHINE by Greg Enslen

The events of September 11, 2001 are undoubtedly the most important of my life. They're also a huge hook to draw people like me in.

I actually liked this book a lot, though it had a couple of problems. First, it gets a bit repetitive, though given the plot it's hard to see how that could be avoided. Second, this is a very well-written and well-researched novel, which makes lines like "the  coasts of Afghanistan" even more mystifying. Afghanistan is landlocked, so it has no coast.

I'd still recommend this book, especially to those interested in 9/11.

Exodus 39

one thing that's repeated is that the Israelites did everything God said.

Much of the Bible revolves around them not listening, but every now and then  they obeyed. 

Exodus 38

If the last chapter was all about the inside onf the tabernacle, this one is about the outside.

There's not much else to say. They keep building the tabernacle. That's it.

W

I understand Paul better now

If nothing else, my condition has given me a lot of time to think. One thing I've thought a great deal about is  the New Testament, especially two things Paul said

One thing he wrote that I've never really understood is when he called himself the chief of sinners. Now I think I do. Only Paul knew what went through Paul's mind. Regardless of whether he acted on his thoughts or not, he knew what he really was on the inside.

I also never got "to live is Christ and to die is gain". I could tell you what the phrase meant. I knew the churchy things to say about it. What I didn't understand is how a person could mean that. 

I think I do now. Paul knew the truth. He knew what he was, and that Christ had saved him anyway. If you're a Christian, he did it for you, too. He even did it for me. How can I keep from praising him? As for the second part, think about it for a minute. The worst thing that can happen to me or Paul in a medical sense is that we die. But if that happens, a Christian gets to spend a blissful eternity with his Savior. Since Paul's been gone a while now, I'll go ahead and speak for both of us.

That's some gain right there.

Exodus 37

Though the tabernacle was in many ways a communal project, when it came to he ark, altars, lampstand, and incense, God entrusted the work to Bezalel, already chosen and equipped for the building of the tabernacle.

Exodus 36

Notice that the contribution was so great that Moses had to tell the pe people to stop.

I've heard preachers use this to guilt people into giving. If a preacher needs to do this, one of two things are either you aren't donning God's work, or yyou're talking to unsaved people.

God's people will give to his work.

They're not all dirges

The last few times I've been watching during the singing. It seems like professing Christians sing like they have guns to their heads.

Comedian Eddie Izzard noticed this and asked, "Why." I'm not as funny as he is, but I'm also not an English transvestite, for whatever that's worth. I wonder the same thing, though. Why do the people who should be the happiest generally sound like they're headed to the gallows?

I heard "I'll Fly Away" sung like a dirge. That's just not right.

If you're a Christian, you've been saved from an eternity of torment to an eternity of bliss. Think about how long eternity is. It's longer than that. Definitely longer than that. Longer than two of those put together.

The idea should make us happy and thankful. We should be amazed that all he asks in return is worship. Worship isn't an onerous duty, but an expression of thanks and an acknowledgement of something greater than us.

Exodus 35

god may have only chosen two people by name to build the tabernacle, but it was the work of the entire nation.

It seems that everyone wanted to contribute something, even if it was just an earring.E

Review: CRIME AND PUNISHMENT by Fyodor Dostoevsky

along with Tolstoy's War and Peace, this iis considered one of the greatest Russian novels of all time. It's most interesting for what it isn't. Though it's about a murder, it it isn't a whodunit, because the reader knows the whole time the murderer and the motive.

Despite the title, it also isn't a prison novel; the "punishment" referred to is entirely internal. It merely follows the main character from a double murdrer to his confession several days later. The bulk of the novel is devoted to his physical, mental, and relational breakdowns.

To be honest, I didn't much like it. I thought it was too long, with too many characters. I doubt my opinion will change anyone else's, but now you have it.

exodus 34

The Israelites knew that Moses had been speaking with God, because his face shone.

When God's people are in communion with him, people notice,

Exodus 33

God will do whatever he wants. He's all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-good. He's God.

You're not, and neither am I. He is.

My five favorite hymns

Actually, I know not all of these are technically hymns, but deal with it.

1. "Come Thou Fount"

2. "It Is Well with My Soul"

3. "How Deep the Father's Love for Us"

4. "This Is My Father's World"

5. "I am Bound for the Promiised Land"

For anyone who's interested, "Amazing Grace" and "I'll Fly Away" are nos. 6 & 7.

Exodus 32

We should all be appalled at Aaron.

The people did it? The calf just came out? Aaron had the same problem as most people: he was more afraid of men than of God