05/16 – 05/20/2016Leviticus 19:Holiness & Social Justice
Update:Unlike many of the passages we have considered thus far in Leviticus, Chapter 19 is not one of those chapters that’s “fulfilled in Christ.” It’s a very rich chapter, so we’re going to slow down and take three week with it. This week, in Leviticus 19:1-14 God tells us that holiness impacts our relationships.
If you are not familiar with the content and rituals of Leviticus already, because it contains so many things that are foreign or alien to us, I would strongly encourage you to:
1)Have a Study Bible on hand when you are doing the devotions – especially if you are haven’t yet listened to previous Sunday’s sermon. We’ll try to touch base on some “explanation” in the Reflections Questions section, but we can’t cover everything.
2)Keep up with the sermons on-line if you are out of town on a Sunday. It is worth it, but Leviticus requires a lot of work. In the Daily Devotions, we won’t be able to cover all the details, explanations, and reasons. You’ll have to lean on the sermons for those. If you have difficulty downloading the sermons from our website, just let me know.
3)Trust that, as the week unfolds, the devotions will cover/explain many of the things in the passage, i.e., don’t get paralyzed by having to understand what everything means on Monday.
Song for this week– Jesus I My Cross Have Taken
Where possible we will use songs that are live recordings of our worship singing at Church of the Redeemer. You should be able to access them by clicking the link. You can also download them to your computer, phone, etc. (Please copy & paste rather than drag & drop).
Some Recommendations
The goal of the study/reflection questions is to help you get into the text and meet Christ in it, i.e., to worship and meet with God. Avoid engaging with these questions as if it’s a “quiz” where the goal is to get the “correct answer” and then move onto the next question. My prayer, goal, and hope is that the questions will help open up the Word of God – what it means and what it is saying – in order that you might meet God, experience Christ, and hear from the Holy Spirit.
1) I do recommend the full liturgy for each day.
2) The “Bible Study” reflection questions for each day of the week are inserted towards the end of this document. Most often the questions will require time of reflection and pondering in order to find answers or to let the answers sink in to our souls. Be prepared to not rush through them. The goal is to experience/hear from God.
3) Sing the song! (Really) Each week we focus on two songs. Download them to your phone or iPod so you can listen repeatedly during the day. When we sing, our mind, body, heart, emotions, and will are all engaged in worship! If this week’s songs do not appeal to you, substitute a personal favorite.
Opening Prayer
O God, Eternal King and Father of all mercies,
whose light divides the day from the night
and turns the shadow of death into the morning:
To know you is eternal life
and to serve you is perfect freedom:
Drive far from us all wrong desires,
incline our hearts to keep your law,
and guide our feet into the way of peace;
that we may do your will with cheerfulness during the day,
and when night comes, rejoice to give you thanks;
through Jesus Christ, our risen and reigning Lord,
to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit,
be honor and glory throughout all ages. Amen.
Confession(Matthew 22:36-40)
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Most holy God, you call us to be holy as you are holy. But we fall short every minute of every hour of every day.
We do not wholly honor you with our lives, but instead we make excuses for our sin and presume upon your forbearance and mercy.
We presume upon your forbearance and mercy by not taking your holiness seriously.
Forgive us for leaning upon such cheap grace rather than realizing that sin requires death.
You desire for us to consecrate ourselves to you completely so that you might purify us in your holy fire, ridding us of all our sin.
Most holy God, accept our humble confession, consume it as our sacrifice to you, and direct our hearts to the Cross of Jesus Christ where your holy wrath was poured out wholly and completely so that we might be accepted before you.
Absolution (from Romans 6)
What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Intercession
Pray this week for your own self, your community, church, city, and this world to know the resurrection of Jesus in accepting the good news of the gospel. Pray by name those you want God to bring into his kingdom.
Scripture Readings & Reflection
Monday
1)Read Leviticus 19:1-14.
2)Leviticus 19 will get into some very specific and practical areas and details about what it means to live a holy life. However, right at the beginning of the chapter God gives us the critical foundation and core center of holiness. Review Leviticus 19:1-8.
3)v1-4 What 3 things does God first identify as critical to holiness?
- What should these things look like as they are fleshed out in our lives.
- How are you doing with these things? Ask God to speak to you about them. Take your time.
(NB Respecting, revering, and honoring parents is good discipleship for learning to do this same with God, i.e., if you can’t obey your parents or submit to them, you might have a real hard time doing so with God!)
4)Review v5-8. These verses initially sounds very strange in this place. After 10+ chapters, we’re back to instructions for sacrifices!? Here’s the point: The Peace Offering was the high point/culmination of the sacrifices, i.e., it was the one that they all led up to. The Peace Offering was kind of an “At Peace With God Party,” i.e., it was a significant feast and celebration of the participants harmony with God. The instructions here are to ensure that the celebration and feasting is focused on their relationship with God rather than “meals for the rest of the week.”
5)The rest of Leviticus 19 will get very specific about what it means to be holy in our relationships with others and with our resources, but all of that flows out of the core of our relationship with God. In closing take some time to reflect and meditate on what the Peace Offering communicates to us about God’s heart and desires: God desires to live in harmony and joy with his people, it’s a celebration and a feast. This is CRITICAL to everything. Reflect, picture, and imagine the big celebration feast that the Prodigal’s Father threw for his returned son. This is God’s love for you in Jesus Christ. Accept it and let it in.
Tuesday
1)Yesterday we began with the important foundation and critical center of holiness, i.e., our intimacy with the God who desire intimacy with us. Today, and for the rest of the week we will consider how selfishness is at odds with holiness and how holiness requires social justice.
2)Read Leviticus 19:1-14.
3)Today we’ll focus on v11-14. Go through each verse and consider (in practical and specific ways) how
- Selfishness drives these actions.
- How selfishness destroys harmony and beauty (beautiful relationship/community) by “stealing” something from others.
- How holiness is about harmony, intimacy, and beauty.
4)v11-12 When we lie, tell ½ truths, and cover it up with promises or pledges, what is it we don’t want people to know/see? How does this prevent/destroy beauty and harmony?
5)v14 Makes clear that God sees and hears the things that we might get away with or appear to get away with here on earth. Review v11-14 again, but first ask God to speak to you, show you yourself, and to search your heart.
6)Ask God to help you let people know you and see you as you really are and, especially when you have failed or messed things up, for his strength to resist the temptation to hide in lies or ½ truths.
7)Close with the Closing Prayer below.
Wednesday
1)Yesterday we considered how selfishness “takes” or steals something from other people, i.e., the truth about ourselves, their dignity, and/or other things that belong to them. Today we consider how selfishness can also “withhold” from others. As we consider these things, keep the concept of “holiness” before you as God’s word expands our understanding of holy living.
2)Read Leviticus 19:1-14.
3)Review v9-10. Remember, this falls under the heading of being holy as God is holy. (NB “sojourner = alien, i.e. temporary resident, new comer, immigrant.)
4)Picture this beautiful scene and provision that God made in v9-10. Consider the following from the perspectives of the wealthy, the poor, and the ones in between (the workers).
- What message does this holy corner of land communicate?
- Why not just harvest it all and give some of the money to the poor?
5)This commanded practice was above and beyond the tithing required by the Old Testament Law. What does that teach us about “being Holy as God is Holy”?
6)Ask God to speak to you and show you what it would look like for you to live more in accordance with these principals.
7)Close with the Closing Prayer below.
THURSDAY
1)Today we continue the reflections begun yesterday: holiness means not selfishly withholding our blessings from the world.
2)Read Leviticus 19:1-14, pay special attention to v9-10 in the context of the whole chapter.
3)Life today is lived at a very fast pace and often we live with little to no margin, i.e., we max out our time and a most, if not all, of our income gets spent. When we get more time or more income, we soon spend it and continue living with little to no margin. Leviticus 19 calls us to live differently. What if Lev 19:1-14, and especially v9-10 were what God’s people were known for on this earth! Consider that for a few moments.
4)Take some time to remember and celebrate opportunities you have had to give your time, talents, and/or resources to the poor or immigrants. Celebrate this!
5)Take time to remember and celebrate times where, in weakness or in in need, that God has provided for you through the loving care of others. Celebrate this!
6)Ask God to speak to you about margin with (at least) your financial resources and your time. How is he calling you to live, love, and serve differently from the world around you?
7)Close with the Closing Prayer below.
FRIDAY
Three options today:
1)If you are not one who does well with celebrating and enjoying God’s grace and receiving his desire to feast with and enjoy you,
- Read Leviticus 19:1-8 and then
- Read the Parable of the Prodigal Son and focus in on the “Peace Offering” the Father celebrates.
2)If any particular day of this week’s Worship Devotions was hard, disruptive, or avoided, revisit it and ask God to speak to you and meet you.
3)Consider more and pray for our call to Social Justice as God’s holy people.
- Luke 4:16-20
- James 2:1-17
- Luke 14:7-24
Song-Jesus I My Cross Have Taken
To be transformed by God's mercy and grace into a community of priests engaged in his redeeming work in Atlanta and the world.
10/26-10/30 2015Reviving Mortification: Complacency vs Adventure
1. Jesus, I my cross have taken,
All to leave and follow Thee.
Destitute, despised, forsaken,
Thou from hence my all shall be.
Perish every fond ambition,
All I’ve sought or hoped or known.
Yet how rich is my condition!
God and heaven are still my own.
2. Let the world despise and leave me,
They have left my Savior, too.
Human hearts and looks deceive me;
Thou art not, like them, untrue.
O while Thou dost smile upon me,
God of wisdom, love, and might,
Foes may hate and friends disown me,
Show Thy face and all is bright.
3. Man may trouble and distress me,
’Twill but drive me to Thy breast.
Life with trials hard may press me;
Heaven will bring me sweeter rest.
Oh, ’tis not in grief to harm me
While Thy love is left to me;
Oh, ’twere not in joy to charm me,
Were that joy unmixed with Thee.
4. Go, then, earthly fame and treasure,
Come disaster, scorn and pain
In Thy service, pain is pleasure,
With Thy favor, loss is gain
I have called Thee Abba Father,
I have stayed my heart on Thee
Storms may howl, and clouds may gather;
All must work for good to me.
5. Soul, then know thy full salvation
Rise o’er sin and fear and care
Joy to find in every station,
Something still to do or bear.
Think what Spirit dwells within thee,
Think what Father’s smiles are thine,
Think that Jesus died to win thee,
Child of heaven, canst thou repine.
6. Haste thee on from grace to glory,
Armed by faith, and winged by prayer.
Heaven’s eternal days before thee,
God’s own hand shall guide us there.
Soon shall close thy earthly mission,
Soon shall pass thy pilgrim days,
Hope shall change to glad fruition,
Faith to sight, and prayer to praise.
To be transformed by God's mercy and grace into a community of priests engaged in his redeeming work in Atlanta and the world.
10/26-10/30 2015Reviving Mortification: Complacency vs Adventure
Closing Prayer
O God, Eternal King and Father of all mercies,
whose light divides the day from the night
and turns the shadow of death into the new morning:
Show me this day what sin and shame looks like in my life:
that I might be freed from its ugliness, lies, and loneliness,
that I might grow in appreciation for the Cross of Christ.
Guide my feet in the way of humility so that:
forgetting about myself I may serve others,
owning your grace, I might be more gracious,
entering into the resurrected life you secured for me, I might more fully alive.
Create in me a new and contrite hearts so that,
I may receive from you full pardon and forgiveness;
through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
List of Deep Desires
Distorted/Deceptive Desires
- Distorted desire: you long for impact and you take control or manipulate to get it or you long for intimacy and you look to pornography
- Deceitful desire: when you look to any material, experiential, positional, or relational desire to satisfy a deep desire.
- Only God can truly satisfy a deep desire.
Godly Deep Desires
- Purpose, to be part of something larger, transcendence
- Relationship: to love and be loved, to pursue and be pursued, community, family
- Impact, significance
- Honor, respect, valued, understood
- To protect and provide, to be protected and provided for, security
- To come through: duty, to hear “well done”
- Beauty and creativity
- Justice and freedom
- Peace, wholeness, completion, home
To be transformed by God's mercy and grace into a community of priests engaged in his redeeming work in Atlanta and the world.