Day 8 of 90 Devotion

Dearest e-votees-

Day eight of our cover to cover voyage through the Bible. Leviticus begins in incredible priestly detail. If you care to follow along you can find links to the assigned Bible passages at:

www.christthegoodshep.org/biblein90days.html

Peace,
Karl

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Day 8 Readings: Leviticus 1:1-14:32

This assigned reading reminds me of some of my worship and liturgy texts from seminary. There in excruciating detail is what is to be done or not done in worship. Some of the bits make sense (or at least seem to) while others seem to be quite arbitrary. The penalties for coloring outside the lines seem quite steep—death or being isolated or completely cut off from community.

In retrospect there are patterns that are established that Jesus in his life, death and resurrection seemed to complete or fulfill.

It is mind-boggling to ponder how much animal blood was spilled, how much flesh was burned up and all the other materials that were sacrificed in these practices.

Two of Aaron’s sons were killed for not offering the proper sacrifice on the altar. Surely things are not nearly so severe when our worship is lacking. Thanks be to God for that.

It is hard to know how to take something of value for us from this much more primitive, blood-drenched and tedious worship. Thankfully Jesus has brought it to a halt (as did the Romans when they destroyed the Temple in 70 AD).


God your some of your forms and instructions for worship seem so very foreign to us. Thank you that Jesus brought Temple and blood-sacrifice to an end. Help us trust in him declaring us “clean” and stir us to live lives of grateful sacrifice in response to you.

Day 7 of 90 Devotion

Dearest e-votees-

Day seven of our cover to cover voyage through the Bible. Exodus done, 64 books left to go. If you care to follow along you can find links to the assigned Bible passages at:

www.christthegoodshep.org/biblein90days.html

Peace,
Karl

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Day 7 Readings: Exodus 29:1-40:38

There are some who relish in the detailed plans of a building or craft project. Materials, dimensions, procedures and relative positions allow work to be done well and according to expectations.

This latter part of Exodus feels like the ultimate set of assembly instructions from IKEA.

The people of Israel donate their materials, their time and construct this portable tent which foreshadows Solomon’s Temple which foreshadows our very bodies being the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit.

So tragic that when these plans were being given out the people were already slipping into idolatry. So tragic that Aaron, God’s chosen priest, would so quickly agree to fashion a golden calf from the castoff jewelry of the people to serve as their God. So tragic that Moses turned the first two tablets of the Law into rubble in disgust.

The consequences on the people were immediately tragic (3,000 slain by the sword-wielding Levites) and chronically tragic (idolatry plagued the people in the ensuing years).

Where are we in the scope of this story? Are we eager to give all that we have and share our talents to serve God fully? Are we mindful of the gift of the temple of the Holy Spirit that is our body that is at least as exquisitely designed and fashioned as the sanctuary in the wilderness? Are we quick to dispense with God’s instructions and “buy” our idol of choice and with it all the plagues and ensuing troubles?

God still desires us to worship. God still wants us to do things according to God’s plan. God still affords us ways to be restored when we wander and transgress. God still wants to be in relationship with us.

The object of our worship, the fulfillment of God’s plan, the means of restoration when we wander and transgress and the best means of relationship with God are all found in one person—Jesus of Nazareth.


God your plans are good and right. At times we adhere and at others we flee. Keep sending your presence into our midst to guide and restore us. Thanks and praise and worship be to you. Amen.

Day 6 of 90 Devotion

Dearest e-votees-

Day six of our cover to cover voyage through the Bible. If you care to follow along you can find links to the assigned Bible passages at:

www.christthegoodshep.org/biblein90days.html

Peace,
Karl

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Day 6 Readings: Exodus 15:19-28:43

Having been delivered from the hands of the Egyptians God begins to set up provision of food, order and ritual for God’s people:

• Water from the rock and bread from heaven are given (forerunners of baptism and communion?)
• Laws and practices are given (many of which limit abuse and put a hedge of protection around the vulnerable)
• Forms for worship and divination of God’s will are established (tabernacle is forerunner of Temple which is forerunner of our own bodies housing the Holy Spirit)

How quickly we forget God’s provision and seek the delicacies of the oppressor’s land or hoard limited supplies for ourselves and neglect God’s instructions. We grieve God when we so quickly fall into disobedience. God’s mercies and grace are new every morning. Will we wait until morning? Perhaps there is a reason we pray for daily bread in the Lord’s Prayer.

How quickly we seek our own advantage and prey upon the most vulnerable taking what is theirs while enslaving them and scapegoating them. God’s heart is with the aliens, the widows and the foreigners. We who have been cut off shouldn’t so quickly forget what that pain was like. God, through Moses, gives the basic guidelines of life in the 10 Commandments and other laws of communal living. Do we receive them as gift or burden?

God gives us ways to make offering, prayer, supplication and seek God’s will. God shows us how to be in relationship. We have always had trouble living into these forms. Jesus revealed these forms were forerunners of relationship with him. Will we let God show us how to let our bodies, our minds, our times and our lives be places where God can dwell and be glorified?


God, you provide for us so very thoroughly and we push back with dissatisfaction and distrust and disdain. Renew our hearts and our lives that we might reflect your heart and the life you intend for us. Amen.

Day 5 of 90 Devotion

Dearest e-votees-

Day five of our cover to cover voyage through the Bible. It’s time for the Exodus. If you care to follow along you can find links to the assigned Bible passages at:

www.christthegoodshep.org/biblein90days.html

Peace,
Karl

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Day 5 Readings: Exodus 1:1-15:18

God’s deliverance through the hands and office of Joseph has faded into the past. The Hebrew people have been enslaved by Pharaoh. God has chosen Moses to be his agent of deliverance:

· Moses disqualifies himself as “one with trembling lips” and compels Aaron into service
· Moses does what God requires and still Pharaoh rejects the request for 9 plagues (with God’s hardening of his heart involved)
· Moses et al finally depart while celebrating the first Passover (forerunner for communion)
· Moses et al safely escape the clutches of the Egyptians, the pursuing army doesn’t fare nearly so well

God will call us into service (word “vocation” comes from Latin for “calling”). We may disqualify ourselves or press others into service.

We may do exactly as God requires and stirs and see little result. The call is to be faithful and let God worry about the effective.

When God’s time is right the fruits and the celebrations of God’s labor will be made manifest. It is our joy to regularly celebrate what God has and what God will do.

We will escape whatever clutches at us safely. Eternal life has begun and we have already been snatched from the hands of death. Those who beset will have God to contend with.


God, help us to know your calling. Help us to lean on your strengths and giftings and not our own understandings and posturings. Help us trust you for your results, in your time to your glory. Thank you that our fates are securely and graciously in your hands. Amen.

Day 4 of 90 Devotion

Dearest e-votees-

Day four of our cover to cover voyage through the Bible. Genesis is done; only 65 more books to go. If you care to follow along you can find links to the assigned Bible passages at:

www.christthegoodshep.org/biblein90days.html

Peace,
Karl

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Day 4 Readings: Genesis 40:12-50:26

In the aftermath of the horrible dealings with their brother Joseph, Jacob’s other sons experience God’s gracious provision:

• They are received graciously by Joseph (with some chicanery as well, after all Joseph is his father’s son)
• They are restored into family even though they cruelly abandoned Joseph (to a cistern and then to slave traders)
• They are given opportunities to practice self-sacrifice and honor in place of their earlier self-serving cowardice
• They are given land for their families and blessings from their father Jacob

We can treat our brothers and sisters (those created in God’s image) just as cruelly as did Joseph’s brothers. We can take from them what is not ours. We can discard them when their perceived usefulness is spent. We can misrepresent their stories. We can leave them for as good as dead in a cistern or in the hands of foreign slave traders or affixed to a cross.

Yet God is not done writing the story. Joseph forgives and restores.

Yet the author of life adds to the dialogue with “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they are doing.” Jesus forgives and restores.

Perhaps we are part of such a story. We have been treated unjustly. We have been stripped of our dignity or our possessions or our will to live. Perhaps we have been left on some trash heap to breathe our last. Yet God is not done with our stories. We have been called into eternal life which begins now. We are forgiven. We are restored. We are invited to step into the role of Joseph and be gracious to those who would work us harm. We are invited to emulate our Lord and pray for those who behave as our enemies. God would use us as agents of forgiveness and restoration.


God, you have elevated us to places of honor as you did with Joseph. You have called us to take up our cross as you did with Jesus. Your will is that we would be forgiven and restored. Your will is that we would forgive and restore others who are just as needy as we. Help us to abide in your will. Amen.

Day 3 of 90 Devotion

Dearest e-votees-

Day three of our cover to cover voyage through the Bible. If you care to follow along you can find links to the assigned Bible passages at:

www.christthegoodshep.org/biblein90days.html

Peace,
Karl

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Day 3 Readings: Genesis 28:20-40:11

We continue to see the consequences of those acting in self-serving and deeply sinful ways:

• Joseph’s brothers selling him into slavery and ridding themselves of the one they loathed
• Onan refusing to fulfill the duties of a widower’s brother
• Judah hypocritically seeking the comfort of a prostitute and then wanting to have his daughter-in-law killed for illicit sex (which was unbeknownst to him with her)
• Shechem raping Dinah and Dinah’s brothers exacting a horrific revenge
• Potiphar’s wife falsely accusing Joseph and having him imprisoned

God remains true to the promise, as reminded by the rainbow, not to destroy humanity by the flood again.

These horrible stories set up God’s work that will happen through Joseph saving many (“What you intended for evil, God used for good.”). These harsh stories of judgment and false accusation set up the patterns that Jesus will walk through as God come to be with us—Emmanuel. The enslavement that is coming soon in Egypt sets up the Passover which prompts the Seder Meal which becomes Holy Communion. In the midst of the broken and painful parts of life God stays true, God enters and God delivers.

The cost of sin is great as is evidenced in the tragic aftermath of these stories and certainly, too, on the cross. But God’s love is bigger than our sin and in that love and grace we find salvation (healing and saving).


God turn our hearts from our self-serving and deeply sinful ways. Shield us from the full measure of the consequences of our sins and the sins of others. Lead us to take up our crosses and follow after you—all to your glory. Amen.

Day 2 of 90 Devotion

Dearest e-votees-

Day two of our cover to cover voyage through the Bible. If you care to follow along you can find links to the assigned Bible passages at:

www.christthegoodshep.org/biblein90days.html
Peace,
Karl

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Day 2 Readings: Genesis 17:1-28:19

How quickly into our journey we start to see the broken and fallen parts of our humanity:

* Abraham and Isaac passing their wives off as their sisters
* Jacob conning Esau out of his birthright and their father's blessing
* Sarai sending Hagar and Ishmael away in spite
* Laughing in face of God's promises

Yet in the midst of our broken moments, God continues to break into the world and bring promises to bear.

How is your journey of faith going? Is all well or are your broken and fallen parts all too close to the surface? The good news is that God knows us so very well and continues to love and choose us in spite of our failures. ...in spite of our trying to orchestrate things in our own strength and wisdom. ...in spite of our mocking disbelief.

As demon mentor Screwtape puts it all so well (speaking of God as the Enemy):

For we never forget what is the most repellent inexplicable trait in our Enemy; He really loves the hairless bipeds He has created, and always gives back to them with His right hand what He has taken away with His left.

God continues to bless and love us in spite of, at times, our worst efforts. May we continue to grow in God's loving and blessing ways.


God shape us into people of your covenant. Give us hearts to be gracious and forgiving to others who are just as broken and fallen as we are. Amen.