Women in the Word

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5/27/2015 12:17 am  #71


Re: Leviticus

Leviticus 26

Scripture
“Do not make idols or set up carved images, or sacred pillars, or sculptured stones in your land so you may worship them. I am the LORD your God. (‭Leviticus‬ ‭26‬:‭1 NLT)

Application
This makes me reflect on what the modern day idols are we constantly come up against that causes a wedge between us and God. The following is not inherently bad, but when we make them a priority  and obsession above all, it becomes an idol.
-amassing wealth
-overconsumption
-celebrity/fandom
-relationships.

We must always reconnect to the source when we find ourselves putting to much emphasis on things other than God.

Scripture
I will send you the seasonal rains. The land will then yield its crops, and the trees of the field will produce their fruit. Your threshing season will overlap with the grape harvest, and your grape harvest will overlap with the season of planting grain. You will eat your fill and live securely in your own land. (‭Leviticus‬ ‭26‬:‭ 4-5‬ NLT)

Observation
God will bless us abundance in our lives like he says he will when we obey him. And repent of our sins.

 

5/28/2015 7:24 am  #72


Re: Leviticus

Leviticus 26
Observations

We see a conditional covenant of blessing in the land: if you (vs 3) then I (vs 4), confirm covenant (vs 9).
 
Verses 11-13: I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you.  And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.  I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves. And I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.
 
God says He will dwell with them (vs 11), walk among them (vs 12), be their God, they will be His people. This is intimate relationship.
 
God did this so that they would no longer be slaves.
 
Verse 23: And if by these things you are not reformed by Me, but walk contrary to Me,
 
The purpose of these bad things was not retribution, but discipline to turn them back to God, to bring them back into relationship.
 
Verse 31: I will not smell the fragrance of your sweet aromas.
 
God will not receive their prayers and worship because they are not walking in obedience with God and have rejected His statutes.
 
If they confess (vs 40), humble themselves (vs 41) and accept guilt (vs 41) then they will be reconciled.
 
We see God’s faithfulness in the end. Verses 44-45 say that even when God is chastising them yet He will not utterly forsake them.
 
Application
 
God has offered His Son as a saving sacrifice so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; He broke the power that sin had over us so that we could walk in integrity.
 
Verse 14-15 But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant,
 
Verse 19:  and I will break the pride of your power (ESV).  I will break down your stubborn pride (NIV).  I will break down your arrogant spirit (NLT).
 
When we fail to obey God it is pride . We show that we will not listen to Him because we want our own way and we despise His laws and prefer our own laws and our own morality. We really think we know better than God and we can pick and choose what to obey or minimize certain things or just ignore them all together because it is not what we want, or hold onto things that give us pleasure.
 
Then we expect Him to accept our prayers and worship. Yet, He does not and we wonder why He seems far from us. But we have rejected Him first. We have rejected His standards and we have rejected to offer to walk in relationship with Him. We have chosen to walk our own way then get upset when we realize that God is not on the path next to us instead of us walking next to God on His path.
 
Trials have many reasons. Sometimes they are just the natural results of living in a fallen world where bad things happen to everyone . Sometimes it is a result of our own poor choices that may be forgiven but still hold consequences. Sometimes it is a trial to strengthen us spiritually, to refine us. Sometimes it is a birth pang – a part of the process to get us to another point on our journey. And there are other reasons as well.
 
However, sometimes it may be for chastisement: the discipline of God to bring us to repentance. This is what we see here – God says He might do these things if He needs to in order to bring Israel back to obedience and back to relationship.
 
How do we respond to the chastisement of God? Does it make us bitter or does it drive us back to God, back to our knees to repent, confess, humble, listen, obey, and thus be reconciled with God and be brought back into relationship with God.

Last edited by TBG (5/30/2015 8:17 am)

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5/28/2015 7:32 am  #73


Re: Leviticus

itsjenniferrose wrote:

Leviticus 26

Scripture
“Do not make idols or set up carved images, or sacred pillars, or sculptured stones in your land so you may worship them. I am the LORD your God. (‭Leviticus‬ ‭26‬:‭1 NLT)

Application
This makes me reflect on what the modern day idols are we constantly come up against that causes a wedge between us and God. The following is not inherently bad, but when we make them a priority and obsession above all, it becomes an idol.

This is so true. Especially the statement that not all things that we make idols are bad inherently. But is our elevating them above God that is the problem. Definitely a challenge for me to prioritize and value other things over God.

One of my meditation verses is Hebrews 12:1 - let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us

Notice that he mentions two separate things - every weight and sin. So the weights are not necessarily sin. But the weights are things that prevent us from doing a good job in running our race or enduring through a long race. I think of it as the imagery of a marathon. This life is a spiritual marathon and we want to not give up and reach the finish line. But there are a lot of things that would make it hard for me to run a marathon race with that are not bad. For instance, would I try to run a marathon race with my computer in my arms? No. Computers are not bad but they would sure make it hard for me to run a marathon.

So, what are those things that are making it hard for us to persevere spiritually, what are those things that hinder our spiritual walk?

 

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5/28/2015 8:11 am  #74


Re: Leviticus

Just catching up with some of the past post and boy have I missed out on some powerful discussions!

Theresnoplacelike Home wrote:

I think we don’t always realize when we stray from God that we are going towards a path of destruction that is ruled by Satan.

You see when we are on the fence it is easy to slowly engage in demonic activity because so much of the world is that. Whether its gossip, pride, inhospitality, bitterness, anger, we are engaging in behaviors that are not pleasing to God. And can eventually led to our demise.

It is so easy to make those small compromises. And besides those are just small sins anyway, right? (sarcasm) So yes, so easy to justify and minimize these sins but you are so right they lead to destruction just as surely as any others.

But the statement that really hit home and was just so powerful was

Theresnoplacelike Home wrote:

Sacrificing to demons has many layers. It is not just an activity. It is an attitude of the heart that says yes to sin and no to God. Because you see you can’t have it both ways.

That is such a convicting statement. Everytime we say yes to sin in our hearts we say no to God and give our resources to demons. Wow.

itsjenniferrose wrote:

Application
Habits for us to form are study and mediation of the word, relying on God for all the answers through prayer and worship.  Keep these at the forefront of our minds will help us resist temptation from the idols of this world that keep getting more and more esteemed through social media. We have to learn to shut off at some points and connect with God.

Here's a great scripture from Galatians I love to medicate on
19 It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on. This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom.

22 But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely. (Galatians 5:19, 22 MSG)

I love that translation. It just brings that passage to life and just really illustrates the futility of lives without God. And you are so on point about the need for the Word, prayer and worship to keep us focus on God and not on the world.

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5/30/2015 8:17 am  #75


Re: Leviticus

Leviticus 27
Things devoted to God must remain God’s. We were redeemed by the blood of Christ who purchased our salvation so that we would be God’s own special people, a people belonging to and dedicated to God. How serious it is if we then give ourselves over to serve sin rather than serving God.
 

     Thread Starter
 

5/31/2015 2:18 am  #76


Re: Leviticus

Levictus 27

Scripture
“One-tenth of the produce of the land, whether grain from the fields or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD and must be set apart to him as holy. (‭Leviticus‬ ‭27‬:‭30‬ NLT)

Application
God is all about sacrifice here. He makes it clear to set aside 10% of our fruits. It forces us to have faith but also give back to the community in which we live. I may not always give 10% of my earnings, but I always try to give something. Whether it's my time or money to give back for all the wonderful things God has done for me.

 

5/31/2015 2:24 am  #77


Re: Leviticus

Your application makes such a good point t about our walk with Christ, our regard for sin and our response to the chantisement. I think anytime I have felt off course, I've humbly repented and try to realign myself. We may repeatedly get off track, but as long as we continue to course correct with God, that's what matters.

TBG wrote:

Leviticus 26
Observations

We see a conditional covenant of blessing in the land: if you (vs 3) then I (vs 4), confirm covenant (vs 9).
 
Verses 11-13: I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you.  And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.  I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves. And I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.
 
God says He will dwell with them (vs 11), walk among them (vs 12), be their God, they will be His people. This is intimate relationship.
 
God did this so that they would no longer be slaves.
 
Verse 23: And if by these things you are not reformed by Me, but walk contrary to Me,
 
The purpose of these bad things was not retribution, but discipline to turn them back to God, to bring them back into relationship.
 
Verse 31: I will not smell the fragrance of your sweet aromas.
 
God will not receive their prayers and worship because they are not walking in obedience with God and have rejected His statutes.
 
If they confess (vs 40), humble themselves (vs 41) and accept guilt (vs 41) then they will be reconciled.
 
We see God’s faithfulness in the end. Verses 44-45 say that even when God is chastising them yet He will not utterly forsake them.
 
Application
 
God has offered His Son as a saving sacrifice so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; He broke the p
 
When we fail to obey God it is pride . We show that we will not listen to Him because we want our own way and we despise His laws and prefer our own laws and our own morality. We really think we know better than God and we can pick and choose what to obey or minimize certain things or just ignore them all together because it is not what we want, or hold onto things that give us pleasure.
 
Then we expect Him to accept our prayers and worship. Yet, He does not and we wonder why He seems far from us. But we have rejected Him first. We have rejected His standards and we have rejected to offer to walk in relationship with Him. We have chosen to walk our own way then get upset when we realize that God is not on the path next to us instead of us walking next to God on His path.
 
Trials have many reasons. Sometimes they are just the natural results of living in a fallen world where bad things happen to everyone . Sometimes it is a result of our own poor choices that may be forgiven but still hold consequences. Sometimes it is a trial to strengthen us spiritually, to refine us. Sometimes it is a birth pang – a part of the process to get us to another point on our journey. And there are other reasons as well.
 
However, sometimes it may be for chastisement: the discipline of God to bring us to repentance. This is what we see here – God says He might do these things if He needs to in order to bring Israel back to obedience and back to relationship.
 
How do we respond to the chastisement of God? Does it make us bitter or does it drive us back to God, back to our knees to repent, confess, humble, listen, obey, and thus be reconciled with God and be brought back into relationship with God.

 

 

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