"DARKNESS COVERS THE EARTH"

Isaiah 60:2 Says, "See darkness covers the earth and thick darkness the people."

Has there ever been a time any darker? Have you ever seen evil any more rampant than in our world today? All you have to do is listen to the news. The news today is filled with slaughter of innocent children, not to mention the murder of millions of the unborn. So much murder, violence and drugs. We hear talk of cloning and designer babies. I am astounded by things that I hear on the news each day. You think, how could this world get any darker?

Could this possibly be the time that the prophet Isaiah is speaking of?

Yet the scripture tells us that at the same time "darkness covers the earth and deep darkness the people," that we are to "arise and shine" He tells us, "for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord arises upon you."

This speaks of God's church. This is a dark time for the world, but an exciting time for God's people.

I am sure that your are thinking, "How can it be exciting when we as Christians are being persecuted?" The Bible tells us during times of persecution that God's people grew in number.

I believe what happened in the physical in the Old Testament, happens for us in the spiritual today when we trust Him and believe His Word. Scripture tells us, "it was given to us for an example." I believe as we draw closer to the Lord and grow in Him, God's church will arise and shine. Then we will begin to grow in number as others come to the light of His glory. Jesus said, "If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto Me."

What did it say again? "Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord arises upon you." WE are to be the light in this dark world.

It is time for God's people to rise up and be "the Church", "the Bride" spoken of in Ephesians 5:25. This scripture tells us that, "Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her, to make her holy, cleansing her by washing her with water through the Word, to present her to Himself as a radiant Church, without stain wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless."


That is what is happening to us as we study Leviticus,. We are being washed by the water of the word. We are being "cleansed and made holy" as He ministers to us through His Word. What a timely study!!

The world needs to see Jesus and the only way is through you and me. We are that light for this dark world. As we go through Leviticus and apply the sacrifices to our lives we will look more and more like our Savior and His glory will arise over us. Hallelujah!

Leviticus Chapter 3


In chapter 3 we find another offering called the Fellowship Offering or Peace Offering. This offering is the third of the voluntary offerings. It was given to express gratitude to God. It symbolized peace and fellowship with God. We know that Christ is the only way to fellowship with God and we will see Him in this offering.


We are told that "He is the way the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except by Him." Only through the blood and sacrifice of Jesus can we commune with the Father.


The only way Israel could have fellowship with God was to follow the instructions given to them. We can appreciate Jesus so much as we see Him in the sacrifice and know that He fulfilled each and every requirement for us.



So how can these requirements apply to our lives today as we offer up our lives as a living sacrifice?

We read again in Chapter 3, as in chapter one, the sacrifice had to be from the herd or the flock. In other words it was to be personal or something that belonged to the person offering the sacrifice.

As we seek to die daily to become that living sacrifice, we must ask the Lord to search our hearts and show us the things in our lives that keep us from being a reflection of Him.

Often pride is one of the greatest hindrances. I know that it has been in my life. It is one of the greatest tools the enemy uses. It is also one of the things that God says He hates. It has to be eliminated for others to see Jesus in us. For you see Jesus was a servant to all. If we are to be like Him, we are to be servants and not just to those whom we want to serve, but to all.


Maybe you have problems with jealousy, envy or strife or not being able to forgive. Whatever it is that keeps others from seeing Jesus in you , confess it and ask forgiveness. He will help you overcome it when you lay it on the altar. When we strive to put them on the altar crying out to the Lord for strength, we will begin to look more like our Savior to the world.


Jesus hang naked on that cross, exposed for the world to see. In Him there was no pride, selfishness, envy, jealousy, or unforgiveness to keep him from fulfilling the will of His Father. He died for the very ones that persecuted Him and hung Him on that cross.


We see again as in chapter one with the Burnt Offering, it had to be an animal without defect. Jesus fulfilled that requirement. He was without sin, without defect We will never be perfect, but we must strive for our lives to be a reflection of His, going from glory to glory.


There is a Chorus called "I Will Call Upon the Lord." The words are, "I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised. So shall I be saved from my enemies." Since doing this study I keep wanting to say, "I will magnify the Lord, who is worthy to be praised. Then shall I be saved from my enemies."

Who are our enemies? We sometimes think of our enemies as people, but the Bible tells us we fight not against "flesh and blood." Our enemies are not people as Satan would lead us to believe. Our true enemies are the things that keep us from reflecting Jesus in our lives. So I shall sing "I will magnify the Lord, who is worthy to be praised. Then shall I be saved from my enemies."


We are told in Verse 2, that the one making the offering had to lay his hand on the head of the victim. As was said previously in Chapter 1 , this was an act of transferring sin from the person to the sacrifice. Just as when we accept Jesus as our Savior, we transferred our sin to Him. It was our sin that killed Him.


We also see in Verse 2 that it had to be at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.........at the door. It had to be offered at the door. Jesus Christ is the Door. "He is the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except by Him." (John 14:6)


This is God's way of saying it had to be on His terms not ours. We can't work or earn our way by doing good deeds. We can't think that just because we are basically good people, that we will be accepted into the Kingdom. We can't think that just because we go to church every Sunday and work for the Lord that we are Christians.


What are God's terms? You must confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that He died on the cross and was raised from the dead. You must confess that you have sinned and ask for forgiveness. The Bible tells us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. You must be willing to repent or turn from your sin and receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior.


The Bible tells us, "That if you confess with your mouth , 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved" (Romans 10:9-10).


I am sure you are thinking that most people who are doing this study should know the plan of salvation. You would be surprised at the number of people in the world who think just because they are good people, who have always gone to church, that they are automatically a Christian. There are many who fill our churches, who have not had a true conversion experience.

We have to come on God's terms and that is through Jesus Christ, He is the only way ...He is the Door.

The second part of verse 2 talks about "the blood being sprinkled on the altar." Blood had to be shed from the first time man sinned in Genesis chapter 3. Adam and Eve attempted to cover themselves with fig leaves to hide their sin. God covered them with the skin of an animal. This was the first time blood had ever been shed.


People try to cover their sin in many ways today. Sometimes they just try to ignore it and act as if they had not sinned. Others will try to cover up their sin by doing good deeds. But we know that the only way sin can be atoned for is by shed blood. That was done for us once and for all when the Lamb of God shed his blood on the Cross of Calvary.


The first part of verse 3 tells us that from the Fellowship offering, he is to bring a sacrifice made by fire. In the Bible fire represents judgement. Jesus was judged for our sins.


We also see in the scriptures that fire can also represent "fiery trials." We discussed fiery trials at length in Chapter 2. We are told that in this life we will have trials and tribulations. When we offer them up to the Lord, trusting Him to bring us through, we will overcome. We are told that "we will overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death." (Rev. 12:11).


The second part of verse 3 states, "all the fat that covers the inner parts or is connected to them, both kidneys with the fat on them near the loins, and the covering of the liver, which he will remove with the kidneys.


I am sure you are thinking how ugly, yucky and gross all of this sounds. Why all of these details? How in the world could this apply to me?


That is what our sin looks like to God. Sin is ugly to God! The details of our sin is important to God. Things we want to dismiss and would prefer not to look at, and view as unimportant, are important to God.

God wanted the fat that covered the inner parts as sacrifice. The fat was considered the best, it was the choice portion.

We talked about the inner parts in Chapter1. He wanted them exposed and washed. Now we see that He desires the fat (the best) around the inner parts. The inside was important to God. There was no mention of the outside. He was concerned about the inside.

When we talk about the inner parts how can this apply to our life and Jesus life?

What about your life on the inside, in the inner parts? Psalm 51:6 says, "Surely You desire truth in the inner parts."

God wants us to be truthful about what is in our hearts. It is hard to be truthful with ourselves and admit our faults. Pride sometimes keeps us from admitting the truth about ourselves and confessing that there are areas in our Christian walk where we fall short.

Many times instead of laying them on the altar and asking forgiveness and repenting, we shrug them off. We hate to admit the truth and examine our hearts as we are told to do.

I have been guilty of this in my own life. I was aware that there were areas in my life that were not pleasing to the Lord. I was guilty of having bad attitudes, convincing myself that I was justified in my feelings. The Holy Spirit would convict me, but I would often pay little attention to His promptings.

My heart breaks when I look over the years in my life and see the missed opportunities to show Jesus to someone, because I was more concerned about self and refused to examine my heart.

If we want to look like our Savior we must be truthful in the" inner parts." God desires the best that we can give.

What about Jesus? Do you know Him in the inner parts? Do you know Him intimately? .

In Genesis we are told that Adam knew Eve and they bore fruit. They bore the fruit of the womb. The word knew used here meant "intimate. "

When we have an intimate relationship with our Father, we will bear the fruit of the Spirit.

We are told that, "the world will know that we belong to Him by the fruit that we bear."

Jesus said, "Many will come to me in that day saying, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in your name?" Then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you.' (Matt. 7: 22)

In today's language many will say,"I sang in the choir, I taught Bible School, I gave to the poor, I worked in the church, I served on committees. I did many wonderful things for you Lord."

Do you know Him? If you do you will bear fruit. You won't have to strain to bear the fruit of the Spirit. It will grow naturally from your life. Does a tree have to strain to bear fruit?

It takes spending time with someone to get to know them. You can't get to know someone by waving at them once a week.

When we spend time with Him and in His Word, we will come to know Him in the inner parts.

That is what is so wonderful about these studies in Leviticus, we are learning the character and the nature of Jesus. We are getting to know Him in the "inner parts."

In verses 6-12, we see the same requirements if it is to be a lamb from the flock that is offered. In verses 12-16, again the same requirements if a goat is to be the sacrifice.

Whatever the sacrifice, God desires our best.


In verse 17, we read, " This is a lasting ordinance for the generation to come wherever you live; You must not eat any fat or any blood.


Isn't it strange that those very things are harmful to us in our diet today?

GOD BLESS.

Leviticus Chapter 2

LEVITICUS CHAPTER 2

The study of Leviticus shows us all the requirements Israel had to go through to achieve forgiveness of sin. Jesus fulfilled all them for us as the sacrificial Lamb of God. We can learn from these sacrifices and offerings how to become more like Christ in our Christian walk.

Our prayer will be "Lord help us to die daily so that Your Son can live through us."

I am so excited about Chapter 2 that I can hardly wait to share it with you. It is amazing how something written by the hand of God thousands of years ago can speak so explicitly to our lives today.

Yet Paul tells us in 1Cor. 10:11, "These things happened unto them for example." They are examples for us to learn and grow by.

Jesus prayed in John 17, "Sanctify them by the truth; Your Word is truth. As you have sent Me into the world, I have sent them into the world."

In Chapter 1 we talked about the "Burnt Offering." It was to make payment for sins. It showed a person's devotion to God in the offering......we saw Jesus Christ and His devotion to His Father in the offering.

We too can show our devotion to our Lord as we offer up our lives as a living sacrifice, as we lay everything at the altar. Everything in our lives is exposed before Him as we search our hearts as the Psalmist did, saying, "Search me and try me, if there be any thing wicked in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

Burning flesh was a sweet aroma to the Lord. Flesh is a word used to describe that "old sinful nature" that we are born with. When we truly offer up our lives as a living sacrifice, we will become "a sweet smelling savor" to the Lord, dying to that old sinful nature.

In Chapter 2 is another offering called the "Grain Offering." In this offering we see Jesus in His humanity. He was fully God and fully man. It represents His life here on earth, the trials and the sifting He went through.

As we read verses 1-3, we see again much detail, and as we noted before details are important to God. In our busy lives we tend to over look details, but to God details are important, especially in how we live our lives.

1. When someone brings a grain offering to the Lord, his offering is to be of fine flour. He is to pour oil on it, put incense on it 2. and take it to Aaron's sons the priests. The priest shall take a handful of the fine flour and the oil together with the incense, and burn this as a memorial portion on the altar, an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the Lord. 3. The rest of the grain offering belongs to Aaron and his sons, it is a most holy part of the offerings made to the Lord by fire.

I am sure you are thinking, "How in the world could all this apply to me?" Well we are going to see just how awesome God's Word is........He is speaking to us today just as He was speaking to Israel thousands of years ago.

The scripture tells us it had to be of fine flour. Just to look at flour you would think it is so fine, how could there possibly be any need for sifting. At least it appears that way.

Jesus told Peter, "Satan desires to sift you as wheat." Sometimes we think we are "fine" "we're okay".......no need for sifting, yet God sees things in our lives that we don't see. I am sure Peter thought he had it all together.

After all he was walking and talking with the Master every day. How could there be anything in his life that needed to be sifted? Peter thought he was "okay." But Jesus knew Peter had some things that needed to be sifted out of his life before he could be used. I am sure that Peter would have never ever imagined that He would deny the Lord. He thought he was "fine."

Sometimes because we go to church, participate in Bible Studies, sing in the choir, do all the things we think a good Christian should do, we are like Peter. We think how could there be anything in our lives that would call for us to be sifted. We think we are "fine," we think we are "okay."

Can you imagine the guilt Satan put Peter through? The pounding he received, he was crushed over what he had done. He was truly sifted. Yet God sees things in us that we don't see, things that keep others from seeing Jesus in our lives.

But then, after the sifting, remember what happened? Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit. He preached and three thousand were saved in one day. Boy what a difference sifting and a little oil makes!

Now what did it say about the grain offering? Pour oil on the fine sifted flour. We know that oil represents the Holy Spirit, and incense represents the prayers of the saints. The Scripture says, "it is an offering made by fire," fire symbolizing purifying.

What does this say about the "fiery trials" in our own lives? Sometimes it is hard for us to understand why we have to go through some of the trials we have in our lives. We want to say "Lord, why is this happening to me?"

Yet when we submit ourselves unto the Lord in the midst of our fiery trials, praying and trusting Him, He will use it for our good and His glory.

When we say, "Lord I trust you, even though I don't understand," then our "trials," "our sifting" is anointed by the "Holy Spirit (oil)," and will be used for His glory.

Jesus knows, just as He knew about Peter, that there are some things that need to come out before He can use us in the capacity that He desires. Remember what He told Peter, "Simon, Simon, Satan has desired to sift you as wheat,. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back you will strengthen your brethren." (Luke 22:31) Boy did he ever strengthen the brethren......look what happened at Pentecost!



Yes, when we come through our trials , we can strengthen others that God places in our path.

Rick Warren put it so well when he said, "Life is a series of problems (trials). Either you are in one now, you are just coming out of one, or you are getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is "God is more interested in your character than your comfort. God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making you happy." We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is "to grow in character and Christ likeness."

That is what this study is all about, "becoming more like Jesus" so the world can see Him. His life was a living sacrifice. He too, was sifted. He went through a sifting in the wilderness before His actual ministry began.

He was sifted in the wilderness for forty days, when He was tempted to turn the stones into bread to satisfy His own hunger. He was tempted in every way in His life here on earth. His life had many trials, but He passed every test.

The Father would say, "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." Will He be able to say of you and of me, "well done thy good and faithful servant"?



In verses 4 through 10, we are told the grain offering had to be made without yeast mixed with oil. Yeast in the scriptures represents sin and oil represents the Holy Spirit.

Jesus had the Holy Spirit, and in Him there was no sin. When we are truly filled with the Holy Spirit, He can help keep us from sin.

In verses 11 through 13, we find that not only was the offering to be without sin, but also there was to be no honey in the offering.

Honey is a sweetener that breaks down when the temperature goes up. That is why there was to be no honey.

How does that apply to us? We can pretend to show love and be a sweet person, but if it is not real love produced by the fruit of the Spirit, it will break down under the pressure of the fiery trials in our lives.

We can be sweet, loving people by our own power, but only the Holy Spirit can produce in us the real fruit that will last in times of trial. Haven't we all at one time or another tried to be sweet, nice, loving people in our own power, only to see it fail in the midst of a trial? Only the power of the Holy Spirit can make us into that sweet, loving person we desire to be.

Salt was another ingredient that was to be with the meal offering. "Col. 4:6, "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you might know how you ought to answer every man."

Believers are called "the salt of the earth." Salt makes you thirsty. Our lives should make others thirsty for God.

Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth , but if salt loses it's flavor, how shall it be made seasoned? It is then good for nothing, but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men." Matt 5:13

I wonder if this is not the problem we are having today, if maybe as believers we have lost our saltiness. Why are we not seeing more people coming to the altar, more people accepting God's salvation? Could it be that we have lost our "flavor"?

The Bible says "taste and see that the Lord is good." When others "taste Him" through our lives, does it make them thirst and hunger for more?

Verses 14 through 15 speaks of crushed heads of new grain mixed with oil and baked. This was typical food for the average person, even a poor person could afford this offering. In other words there was no excuse for not making this offering......anyone could make it.

We can all give to the Lord an offering made by fire, when we submit to Him, trusting Him through our fiery trials, letting the purifying process take place.

Then we will be "an aroma pleasing to the Lord."

WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

All of the sacrifices we see in Lev. should make us so thankful for what Jesus did for us. He fulfilled all of it on the cross.

Not only should it make us more thankful, but also more conscious of our sin. Some of the little things that we do, that sometimes we just shrug off, such as bad attitudes, judgement of our fellow man, pride, gossip, jealousy. I don't know about you but I am speaking for myself, I am guilty. I can look back and see that I have committed all these sins and not really thought a lot about it. I just dismissed it as being human. Yes, I realize His grace covers me, but that makes me want to all the more be a living sacrifice for Him.

We wonder why the world is in the shape it's in ....why so much darkness? It is because we the Church are "the light of the world," and we have let our light diminish.

After 911, most of the people who came into the churches, left and didn't stay. It was because they didn't see Jesus. He wasn't there. He said "If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto Me" We are the only way the world can see Jesus .....in the way we live our lives and show Him to the world.

I believe God is doing something through the study of Lev. and other studies similar that I see going on in other churches and groups. When you see God doing the same thing simultaneously, you can bet He is up to something. To those who are listening, He is calling them to a deeper walk with Him.

He is cleaning us up ......"washing us with the water of His Word, so that He may present us (the Church) to Himself as a radiant Church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless." Eph. 5:26

Yes, He is coming back for a Bride that is totally in love with Him!!!

LEVITICUS: GOD TEACHING HIS PEOPLE HOW TO WORSHIP AND WALK WITH HIM

I am doing a study of the Book of Leviticus that I am very excited about. It has been and is continuing to be a life changing study for me.

I am not a theologian, I can only share what the Holy Spirit is speaking to me as He is washing me with water through the Word (Ephesians 5:26- 27). Water is a symbol of the Word in the Bible. By meditating on His Word in the study of Leviticus, I am learning what constitutes true sacrifice. I see the heart of God for His people, for you and for me.

The Message Bible says "I'll pour water over you and scrub you clean. I'll give you a new heart, put a new spirit in you. I'll remove the stone heart from your body and replace it with a heart that's God willed not self willed. I'll put My Spirit in you and make it possible for you to live by My commands (Ezekiel 36: 26-27).

Leviticus focuses on the worship and walk of God's people. "You shall be holy for I the Lord your God am holy"(Lev. 19:2).

We know that the way to God is only through blood sacrifice and that sacrifice was made through His Son Jesus. Please stay with me here and don't think I am getting into legalism. I am aware that it is by grace that we are saved and not by any work that we can do.

In the sacrifices that God commands Moses to have His people make, we see a picture of Jesus and the sacrifice that He made for us. But we also see the heart of God for us in our lives that we may become "a living sacrifice" offered up to Him. This is my heart's desire, I want my life to be a picture of Jesus.

It is not anything that we have to do, because the ultimate sacrifice has been made through Jesus Christ. Yet those of us who are seeking the heart of God can receive much from these scriptures.

Each sacrifice is very detailed. Details that you would think would have very little meaning for us as God's people( Christians) today, yet you will be surprised at what God wants to say to us today through those details.

Leviticus shows God's people how to fulfill their priestly calling. 1Peter 2:9 tells us as born again children of God we are all called to be priests. In other words all of us have a ministry.

Pray that God will speak to your heart through these sacrifices as we realize that Christ fulfilled everyone of them. And that we will be encouraged to offer up to Him our lives as a living sacrifice, so that the world may see Jesus in us. That is what the world needs, they need to see Jesus. Then revival will begin.

I will be excited to hear how these scriptures touch your heart as the Holy Spirit speaks to you through them.


Leviticus Chapter One

The scripture tells us that the Lord called to Moses from the Tent of Meeting. In other words Moses was where he needed to be to hear from God. Are you where you need to be to hear God's voice?

Do you have a special time set aside just to spend with Him, meditating on the scriptures, sitting at His feet? Jesus said "My sheep listen to My voice; I know them and they follow Me"(John 10:27). Moses was where he was supposed to be and God spoke to him.

In our busy life styles it is hard to find time to be still long enough to hear from God. We are always on the go with good intentions of spending time with Him. Too often that time is put off till the end of the day, when most of us are too tired to meditate on His word and wait patiently to hear His voice. The sad part is we so need to hear His voice and gain the strength that can only come through feeding upon His word.

It is the "Bread of Life" nourishment for our souls. We could not survive indefinitely without physical food, we would die. God gives us spiritual nourishment through his word. That is why we see so many Christians who are spiritually weak. It is essential that we spend time in Bible study and time with the Lord in order to survive. Then when the enemy comes in, and he will, we will have the strength to fight him, using God's Word(the sword of the Spirit).

I am sure most of you know that, but it doesn't hurt to be reminded. Now let's get to some meat of the Word.

God then began to give instruction for the first of five offerings. This offering was called the "Burnt Offering." This was a voluntary offering, one you did not have to give.

They were to bring an animal from the herd or the flock, a male without defect. Jesus was without defect, in Him there was no sin. It had to be from the herd or the flock. This meant it had to be domesticated. It couldn't be some wild beautiful animal such as an elk or deer. It had to be from the herd or from the flock. Something that belonged to them. It had to mean something to them, an animal that belonged to them.

You know often we want to say we have sacrificed something to God that looks good to us. Something we think looks beautiful. It may look good to us and even to other people, but really it wasn't much of a sacrifice. The dictionary says that a sacrifice means "to suffer a loss." We often find it hard to even turn over our plates and sacrifice a meal. ( I don't know about you, but fasting is hard for me). God wanted it to be a sacrifice......it had to mean something to the person who was offering it.

He was to lay his hand on the head of the animal. It signified a transfer of obligation to suffer sin. This act made it personal. Something had to die because of that person's sin. Blood had to be shed. An innocent victim would have to die, because a sin had been committed. The animal would be put to death in the place of the individual. The individual himself would have to slaughter the animal.

This is what happened when we accepted Jesus as our Savior, we designated Him as a sacrifice for our sin. Our sin killed Him. He died in our place for our sin.

This act of transfer of sin to an innocent animal made them more sensitive to their sin. They had to actually lay their hands on the head of the innocent victim. Are we sensitive to our sin? Or do we just have the attitude "I'm not too bad, God knows my heart."

Are we aware of the bad attitudes, sins of jealousy and pride in our lives, or do we just shrug them off as insignificant? Do we really realize that these sins killed our Savior and that He was the innocent victim? We see through these sacrifices how ugly sin is and how much God hates it. Sin causes death, the death of happiness, the death of joy, the death of relationship.

Because we are saved by grace, I think we don't take sin as seriously as we should. Jesus suffered and died for every bad attitude, for every time we walked in pride and stubbornness.

If there is one message God wants to get across through these scriptures, it is that sin is ugly and He hates it. It was your sin and my sin that killed His Son.

I have been praying that God would help me to recognize my sin, and not just shrug it off and dismiss it. I have asked Him to help me be aware of bad attitudes and the pride in my life (one of my big issues).

God's instructions in verse 6 was to skin the animal and cut it into pieces. This was so that every piece would be exposed. Do your realize that every part of Jesus life was exposed? He hang naked on the tree, nothing was hidden, everything exposed. Even his prayer life was exposed. There are things we say in prayer that we would not want another human being to hear. Everything in his life was exposed.

In Psalm 139: 23-24, the Psalmist says,"Search me O God and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts and see if there is any wicked way in me." Our sin needs to be exposed and confessed. We need to acknowledge that we have sinned and repent. Sometimes we sense the Holy Spirit convicting us of some attitude or wrong doing. We think, well it's okay God's grace covers my sin. But God hates it my friend. He hates sin, He makes that clear through these scriptures. Sin causes death.

In verse 7, the priest were to put fire on the altar and arrange the wood on the fire. This speaks of the cross (wood) and judgement (fire) ....of the sacrifice Jesus made when He went through the fire of judgement being judged for our sins.

In verse 9, the priest were to wash the inner parts and the legs with water and burn all of it on the altar.

How is it with you inside in the inward parts? Sometimes that is the hardest part .....to look on the inside and confess that you are wrong, to ask God to expose your sin. Psalm 51:6 says, "Surely You desire truth in the inner parts." It is hard to admit that your attitude was bad or that you may have been acting in pride, or that maybe your motives in a certain situation were not right.

The inner parts and the legs needed to be washed with water. We need to be washed with the water of the Word in the inward parts, and our legs so that our walk with God will be a pure and holy walk.

All of it had to be burned or consumed on the altar. Have you put it all on the altar? We all remember the old hymn "I Surrender All." But have you really surrendered everything? Have you laid it all on the altar, holding nothing back?

9b "It is a burnt offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the Lord." When I think of an offering made by fire, I think of the fiery trials we go through, things we don't understand, but we trust God anyway. Offering our trials up to Him as a sacrifice, trusting Him that it will be for his glory and our good. He purifies through the fire and cleanses us with water through the Word, when we are trusting Him as we go through the trying times.

Verse 14 tells us that it could be an offering of birds, pigeons or turtle doves. This was so that no one was left out. If you couldn't afford a bull, lamb or goat you could bring a bird. Anyone could afford a bird. In other words there was no excuse for not making a sacrifice. But keep in mind this was all voluntary.

Verse 16 said, " He is to remove the crop." this was considered the useless part of the bird. God wants the best of our lives. Sometimes we offer Him what seems to be the easiest. He said, "They honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me." God wants our hearts. He wants the best.

We see so much detail involved in the sacrifices. Everything had to be done a certain way. He wanted everything done just right. We live in such a busy world that we pay little attention to details, but God is interested in the details of our lives. Things we easily dismiss are important to God. Scripture tells that "it is the little foxes that spoil the vine." "It is the "little sins" we that consider unimportant that cause us to bear bad fruit, and after "all aren't we are identified as belonging to Him" by the fruit that we bear? There is no little sin to Him. Sin cost the life of His precious Son. God hates sin whether we consider it as small sins or big sins. He hates sin. He shows us this over and over in Leviticus.

Lord, Thank you for Your amazing grace that covers our sin. Help us Lord to examine our lives and be aware of our sin. Reveal to us anything that is not pleasing to you, so that we may confess and repent. Help us to look more like Your Son, so that we can show Him to the world. Help us to offer up lives that we may be a living sacrifice, an aroma pleasing to you.

Ephesians 5:2 "Walk in love as Christ has also loved us and has given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor."