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Today is Thursday February 11, 2010 and we are reading through the Bible in a year. Today's message comes from the reading of the Book of Leviticus, chapters 26-27. If you would like to read the chapters along with us here online you can Click Here to read them or copy & paste this URL onto your browser: http://www.readytofollow.com/bible-february-11

Title: Bible Study: Earning God's Respect
As we close out of the book of Leviticus, God reveals to the Israelite's the blessings in store for them as long as they live in obedience to Him. “Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the LORD your God. Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD. If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;...........For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you. And ye shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new. And I set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.” - Leviticus 1-3,9-12. God loves it when we are completely faithful to Him and He will respect and bless us for it. However, He will not respect and bless when we do things that take His place, we are not to worship or bow down before anything except our God any anything else causes Him to lose His respect for us. This includes hobbies, sports, and careers that take place before Him. Now, one thing I would like to clear up is that some people have no choice and have to work when they want to be in church. God understands this and does not reprimand a person for trying to come to church and wanting Him in their lives. What God does not respect is someone who can not get up and go to church because he partied too much the night before. Anything that is more important to you than God becomes your idol or the thing you worship and God will not respect you for that. God also addresses what happens to those who live in disobedience to Him. “And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant: I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you.” - Leviticus 26:15-17. So, here is the thing that gets God so angry. God gives us all the free will to chose to live His way or the way of the world. That means we either choose God or the world. We can not choose to have both, we can not choose to follow God when we feel like it and live in the world the rest of the time. Once we say that we will be committed to God we need to be committed to God, that means that we slowly lose the things of the world and gain the things of God. God loves us and wants the best for us, if we choose to follow Him it needs to be wholeheartedly or we will suffer.

The rest of this chapter reveals prophecies of what the Israelite's would face by living in disobedience to God, it was not the present generation that would suffer, it was their future generations that would suffer. Think about it. Have you ever suffered for something that you had not done? This was usually a result of being around the person that caused the trouble. Often we suffer things over someone else's wrong doings and this is why generations of Israelite's suffered over the centuries. However, God's suffering does not last forever as long as we are faithful to Him. “If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me;.......... And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God. But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the LORD.” - Leviticus 26:40, 44,45. God knows our hearts and He knows that at times we will err as we have this flesh, but He knows the difference between those who humbly seek Him for forgiveness and want Him in their lives. He is faithful and just to forgive all our iniquities. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” - I John 1:9.

The last chapter of Leviticus reveals the vows the committed people made to God. “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When a man shall make a singular vow, the persons shall be for the LORD by thy estimation. And thy estimation shall be of the male from twenty years old even unto sixty years old, even thy estimation shall be fifty shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary.” - Leviticus 27:1-3. When a person vowed to commit himself to God a value was placed on that person according to their gender and age. This was a way for the Israelite's to cover a debt or gain income, for a certain period of time. This is what we today would know as working for a person or company, he or she gets paid according to their work ability. Since men between the age of 20 and 60 had the most strength and ability they were paid the most for their work. Although we are not bound to this law today, the concept of it still applies. In other words, once we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and commit ourselves to Him, we make a vow with God. This means that everything we do for Him has a value, do not mistake this as salvation, one can not earn his salvation, that is a gift that no one can earn or get that taken away from them. It is the things that we do for Him in our daily lives after we are saved and commit ourselves to Him that are valued. For instance, I am a self employed website designer, since I am made a vow to live my life for God I can not just build any website, it must be something that lines up with God's Word. I could just take any offer as I would have a lot more money by doing so, but if I did that I would be breaking my commitment to God. However, if I stand my ground, God values that and blesses me for that by giving me work that lines up with His Word. You see, when we live in obedience to His Word, God respects that and we are of great value to Him. If we want to earn God's respect we need to daily search our hearts and think about the things we do. If they do not line up with God's Word then we need to start making some changes in our lives. Although we as Christian's are not bound to the laws given here in the book of Leviticus we need to read all of it as well as every one of the books in the Bible. Every law was given as a way for the Israelite's to live a joyful life of peace and morals away from the corruption of the world. We too would benefit from learning of the things that we need to stay away from that corrupt us. As I have said before, there is nothing going on today that has not already been covered in this book. When we read all of God's Word we learn what God loves and not only do we earn His respect, we receive many blessings as we learn to live the way He intended for us to live.

Enjoy the rest of your day/night and God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina

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