“For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.” Leviticus 17:11
Having put off some yard work, it was time to ‘git-r-dun,’ So I threw the weedeater in into the truck. As I did, the thought hit me, “do you have enough gas in that thing to do the job?” Being Christmas season, and carrying a wishful attitude, I answered my own question with…”SHUUUUURRRRR!” Besides…I was in a hurry and remembered filling it up…sometime before. And you know what’s coming!
Had I lived in a northern region of the USA, I’d not even be DOING yard work in December. But Florida, ‘the land of flowers,’ has different rules. Here, grass growth slows down, but weeds never do! After I cut lawn. all that was left to do was the trimming! I fired up the weedeater and trimmed about 17 feet before I heard…brrrrrrrr-rrrr-rr! Outta gas! My thoughts? “Eh…I’m tired anyway. And besides, there’s always tomorrow!” It is a common and deadly combination of thoughts!
The Old Testament, in a VERY small nutshell, has God telling Israel that sin is unacceptable to Him and it MUST be atoned for! It’s the REASON for the commandments. Leviticus can put me to sleep, reading all the definitions, instructions and penalties for sin’s DEADLY effect. The one today made the point clear that MAN was responsible to both BRING the offering God had demanded, and then sacrifice it at the alter. A process that NEVER ended, or even WORKED!
It is important to me that I REMEMBER Christmas because THIS is the BIG EVENT that took the whole Law thing and put ‘the Fix’ on the ONLY one who could possibly make the process effective! And God had just the right Lamb!
Babies and death are NEVER put together. In fact, most people would find even the suggestion horrific! But MAN doesn’t really comprehend the horror of what sin DOES…that would make the bringing of those 2 concepts together. So I, like all mankind, have this tendency to minimize my wrongs and half heartedly expect it to be enough to satisfy my perfect enough for my Heavenly Father! Brrrrrrrr-rrrr-rr!
There is an old song that says, “He reached down to my level, when I I couldn’t get up to His.” It describes Christmas PERFECTLY. God sent his SON to DO what I couldn’t…or WOULDN’T! Jesus came to Die for ME and MY failures. Not His own. This season reminds me that I have got to STOP assuming that sin has no lasting consequence. AND STOP assuming that Jesus took care of it all anyway! Half Hearted Worship…ESPECIALLY at Christmas, is NOT acceptable to Him!
