The life is in the blood...

I'm reading through the Bible Chronologically with my church. It's been so sweet. Right now we are in Leviticus. As strange and hard to understand as some of the ancient practices and sacrifices are, I'm so amazed to see so many pictures of Jesus foreshadowed in the Old Testament.

Check this out:

Leviticus 17:11
"For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement..."

Ephesians 5:1-2
"Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma."

Leviticus 17:14
"For as for the life of all flesh, its blood is identified with its life... the life of all flesh is its blood..."

I like this verse especially... we sing about it, we pray it, but it is so cool, to me at least, to see it in scripture and understand it better. Before Jesus, my life was identified with my fleshly works and that was only going to lead to destruction and eternal separation from God. But when I accepted the sacrifice of Jesus on my behalf, my life became identified with HIS blood. His atonement on my behalf transfers me from the bondage of my flesh into His glorious kingdom. Wow.

1 John 1:7
"but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin."

... pour the blood of Jesus over me...

Motives...

"Purify my motives" has been the theme of my prayers of late. So often we get so crazy busy and into so many different things. Life can be exciting and tragic. It can go full speed ahead or be painfully slow... and every step of the way there are decisions to make.

I find I often get caught up in things, opportunities, people, and I'm going full force ahead until I come to a screeching halt usually resulting in me tripping and falling on my face... I look up and realize I'm back at the foot of the cross and I've forgotten to ask my Savior if I was pushing forward in His plan or trying to make my plan be His plan.

Praise the Lord His mercies are new every morning.

The Lord's plan is perfect... He has promised to never leave me or forsake me. He has promised to give me a future and a Hope. The God who spoke light into existence, who breathes power into the wind, and controls the tides of the ocean, looks at me and says: "I love you."

Tonight that took my breath away. I was at the same prayer meeting I've been going to for the last month. With the same people, interceding for a new ministry in Ventura. But I was where I know I need to be be at this moment. And the second I entered into worship, I heard that voice, I felt that calming hand, I knew... I have a Savior who died and rose again for me. He loves me and cares about what I care about... and He is in control. I don't have to force or make anything happen... I just have to be obedient to Him moment by moment. Whom shall I fear? For the Lord, my God, is for me and not against me.

and then... prayer was over.

As I stood up this sweet women of God asked if she could pray for me and the Bible study I am prayerfully starting in September. I of course agreed. She had barely gotten her fist sentence out and I was in struck in awe of how good my Jesus is. Tears of joy flowed down my face because everything she thanked the Lord for in my life were things I had been praying would be so... this very morning I asked the Lord for certain things to be evident in my life and for specific requests, and she covered it all! I sought the Lord, I stopped, I asked for His will to be done, and here He was affirming His work in my life. Wow.

Thank You Jesus. Your will be done... not mine... never mine... here I am Lord... use me that others might glorify Your name... whatever that looks like... here I am.

A Slave for Christ

Leonard Dober wondered if Jesus had thought the cross too much; then he remembered Jesus’ prayer in the garden ended, “Not my will, but yours, Father.” Leonard’s task seemed impossible, but he was pursuing God’s will and not his own.

Leonard Dober determined that God’s call to him was to reach slaves in the Virgin Islands. He planned to reach these men and women by selling himself as a slave and working alongside others each day while sharing Jesus’ love with them. The thought of being a slave frightened and sickened him. He dreaded the treatment he would receive. “But Christ was willing to die on the cross for me,” he thought. “No price is too high to serve him.”

It wasn’t the slave masters who were Dober’s harshest persecutors, but rather fellow Christians. They questioned his call to minister to slaves and ridiculed him as a fool for his plan. But Dober would not be dissuaded. He arrived in the Virgin Islands late in the 1730s.

When he became a servant in the governor’s house, he feared that this position was too far removed from the slaves to whom he had come to minister. So he left and moved from the governor’s house to a mud hut where he could work one-on-one with slaves.

In just three years, Dober’s ministry included more than thirteen thousand new converts.