Sacrifice

I was trying to dust cat hair off my jacket when an elderly lady walked past and looked at me. I remarked that my cat was shedding and everything seemed to be covered in hair. She said to me that I was so fortunate to have a cat because she lived in a retirement home where pets aren’t encouraged. I thought about it and agreed that having a few hairs now and again is a small price to pay for the companionship that a cat brings. Everything comes at a price.
2 Samuel 24:24, But the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burned offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
David had taken a census of the people when it did not please God for him to do so. So God gave David a choice between three punishments.
1. Three years of famine
2. Fleeing before his enemies for three months
3. Three days of pestilence in the land
David decided it would be better to be punished by God than by man and choose the three days of pestilence. Seven hundred thousand people died on the first day from Dan to Beersheba. When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem, God stopped him.
Verse 16 and 17, “It is enough, now stay your hand.” And the Angel of the Lord was at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking the people, and said, “Behold, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me and against my father’s house.”
Then the prophet Gad came to David and told him to build an altar on the threshing floor. The sacrifice that David made there stopped the sickness and the plague was stopped in its tracks.
What I learn from this is that David made a sacrifice and that the sacrifice cost him. If something doesn’t cost us anything, financially, emotionally or in any other form, it is not a sacrifice. The other thing that I see is that David got a breakthrough when he had made the sacrifice. Sometimes we go through a hard time and we decide to fast, so that we can get a breakthrough, but after a day we are hungry and nothing has happened, so we decide that fasting doesn’t work. We might start reading our Bibles and praying, but as soon as we start going through difficulties we stop because we think that God has forgotten all about us. Why should we read our bibles when it doesn’t make a difference anyway. Isn’t that what people say? I have heard it. We want to see the results immediately and we don’t want to sacrifice. Reading our bibles and praying daily is a sacrifice. We sacrifice the time we would have used watching television or surfing social media. Or we get up early and sacrifice our sleep. And when we have done that for a couple of months and nothing significant seems to be happening we throw in the towel and declare that this is a waste of time and we could be doing better things with our time.
Noah took 100 years to build the ark. Do we have that kind of resilience? Do we have the endurance to believe right up to the end even if we don’t see the results we think we ought to be seeing.
Romans chapter 11 tells of what people did by faith. It lists a whole lot of Old Testament heroes. But verse 39 and 40 says, And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
God promised Abraham that he would have as many descendants as the stars in the sky and never gave up his faith, even though he never even got to see his grandsons. Joseph kept believing and at the end of his life said that the Israelites would return home, and instructed that his bones be taken along. He never saw his homeland again. Moses never set foot in the promised land even though he led the Israelites all the way there. He never stopped believing. Look at what happened to Jesus’ apostles; all were martyred and died violent deaths, except John who was exiled on Patmos, and they never stopped praising God through all their persecution.
We have to start thinking about what is really important in our lives. What sacrifices do we need to make to please God. Note: I said to please God, not to win His love. He has always and will always love us unconditionally. We have to get our lives in order because time is running out.

Wine?

A young boy asked me what was wrong with drinking alcohol if you didn’t get drunk. Well, I don’t drink alcohol. I don’t smoke and I don’t do drugs. I hardly ever take pain killers or prescription drugs. I try to follow a healthy diet. I don’t know if all these things are linked – for example, I don’t need meds because I live a healthy lifestyle. I hope so, or I’d like to think so. I have also forgiven everyone I could think of who has ever offended me, or rather, who I have taken an offence from.  I never started smoking, I didn’t even try once because the smell of smoke has always been offensive to me.

I used to drink the occasional glass of wine, maybe when we went out for a meal. When my husband, who had never been a heavy drinker, stopped drinking ten years ago I had a decision to make. Would I stop or would I still have a glass of wine now and again? I opted to stop out of respect for the decision he had made. I kept to my resolve, but for different reasons.

I don’t see anything basically wrong with drinking a little alcohol occasionally, but because alcohol can be addictive it can easily cause problems that I don’t want to handle. Therefore it was an easy decision for me to make.

The other reason is that I do not want to lead others astray.

Romans 14:13, Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way.

Say, I drink one glass of wine once a week. That’s all. That’s my limit. But, what if the only time an impressionable young person sees me is when I am drinking that glass of wine. What is he or she going to assume? It’s easy to say that they shouldn’t be making assumptions and that they should find out the facts. Unfortunately that’s not how life works. People make assumptions. You and I make assumption. All the time! This person could very plausibly think that I drink one glass of wine every day, but he could just as easily assume that I drink multiple glasses of wine daily. Then he could say, “She is a Christian and she drinks wine, which means I can drink wine too.” So this young soul embarks on a journey of consuming alcohol, becomes addicted, abuses his wife and causes a death because of driving under the influence.

It it my fault?

That is a question I never want to have to answer. Ever!

Do I think that I am important enough to be an example to others? Of course I do. I am the Kings daughter that makes me important. It also makes me an ambassador for the Kingdom of God. Obviously people are going to be looking at me.

1 Peter 2:5, And now God is building you, as living stones, into his spiritual temple; what’s more, you are God’s holy priests, who offer the spiritual sacrifices that please him because of Jesus Christ.

If not drinking alcohol is what I can do to please God and to be an example and not to lead others astray, then it is a miniscule sacrifice compared to the mercy God shows me every day.

We have to wear the crowns we have been given, and anticipate those we will be given at judgement and live a life of love.

Blood Sacrifice

I attended a ladies camp in2014 and it was a wonderful experience. I knew all the ladies who attended; they were all from our church. It was comfortable and anointed. Then in 2014 a friend of mine decided the two of us would attend a camp hosted by ladies from a church in Port Elizabeth. We didn’t know any of them. I did not think it was a good idea, but my friend wouldn’t take no for an answer and almost dragged me to the camp. I arrived feeling way out of my depth but I tried very hard to pretend to be at ease. I don’t think I was successful at all. This first evening, during praise and worship, one of the ladies came to me and asked if I needed prayer. She prayed for me and we are still friends. I met other ladies at that camp who have become very important role players in my life. Beautiful, sincere, caring and Godly people.

God also showed me at that camp that I was wearing a mask and He made it clear that I was to get rid of that mask. It was a very liberating camp and I am able to look back and see how a lot of things in my life at present stem from attending that camp. He did it with dignity and with compassion and didn’t make me feel uncomfortable once I yielded to Him. The other important thing I learned at that camp was that nothing happens by accident and that I should never look at seemingly random incidents as such. I learned to join the dots. Just like one of those pictures that teach children to follow number sequences and a picture emerges once all the dots are connected.

If we look at all the prophecies in the Old Testament we see a pattern emerging and by the time the New Testament we are ready for the Messiah to save the Jewish nation. There is also a trail of blood which flows through the Bible.

Genesis 3:21, Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

Was this the first blood sacrifice? Did God slaughter the animal the skins originated from and did it’s blood atone for their sin?

When Cain murdered Abel, the Lord said to Cain in Genesis 4:10-11, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.”

After the great flood when Noah and his family were allowed out of the ark, Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings to the Lord. With that offering came the sign of the rainbow.

Moses was given all the laws and commandments concerning blood sacrifice and the correct ways of making offerings. The Holy of Holies in the temple was covered with a veil and only the High Priest was allowed to enter into it once a year, on the day of atonement, to offer the blood of sacrifice and incense. The Holy of Holies contained the Ark of the Covenant. On this day the sins of the people were atoned for. There is a tradition that says when the High Priest entered he had a rope tied to his foot and bells attached to his waist. If he was unworthy of entering and God struck him dead, the sound of the bells would indicate him falling to the floor and he could be pulled out using the rope, as nobody else was allowed to enter. I don’t know if any priests actually died in the process.

When Jesus came to earth and was crucified, He became the last and ultimate sacrifice.

Matthew 27:51, And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;

The Holy of Holies was now made accessible by the blood of Jesus so that every person who believes in Jesus has the honour of being able to appear before God personally. We have been redeemed by the blood that Jesus shed for us. We don’t have to go through a priest, we can go directly to God in Jesus name. We have been made free because all the dots have been joined. No more blood sacrifices, no condemnation and no guilt. Jesus died once for all. Amen