Exodus 29, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: A Pat on the Back

How often do you see people more concerned about getting a job done right than they are about saving their necks? Too seldom, right?  But when we do-when we see a gutsy human taking a few risks-ah, now that's a person worthy of a pat on the back. So…
Here's to the woman whose husband left her with a nest of kids to raise and bills to pay, but who somehow tells me every Sunday that God has never been closer.
Here's to the single father of two girls who learned to braid their hair.
Here's to the girl who was told to abort the baby but chose to keep the baby.
Here's to the doctor who treats more than half of his patients for free.
Here's to all of you reckless lovers of life and God.
So what if you forgot about pleasing the crowd. Most of us aren't even in your league.
From In the Eye of the Storm

Exodus 29

Consecration of the Priests

 “This is what you are to do to consecrate them, so they may serve me as priests: Take a young bull and two rams without defect. 2 And from the finest wheat flour make round loaves without yeast, thick loaves without yeast and with olive oil mixed in, and thin loaves without yeast and brushed with olive oil. 3 Put them in a basket and present them along with the bull and the two rams. 4 Then bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance to the tent of meeting and wash them with water. 5 Take the garments and dress Aaron with the tunic, the robe of the ephod, the ephod itself and the breastpiece. Fasten the ephod on him by its skillfully woven waistband. 6 Put the turban on his head and attach the sacred emblem to the turban. 7 Take the anointing oil and anoint him by pouring it on his head. 8 Bring his sons and dress them in tunics 9 and fasten caps on them. Then tie sashes on Aaron and his sons.[a] The priesthood is theirs by a lasting ordinance.

“Then you shall ordain Aaron and his sons.

10 “Bring the bull to the front of the tent of meeting, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on its head. 11 Slaughter it in the Lord’s presence at the entrance to the tent of meeting. 12 Take some of the bull’s blood and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger, and pour out the rest of it at the base of the altar. 13 Then take all the fat on the internal organs, the long lobe of the liver, and both kidneys with the fat on them, and burn them on the altar. 14 But burn the bull’s flesh and its hide and its intestines outside the camp. It is a sin offering.[b]

15 “Take one of the rams, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on its head. 16 Slaughter it and take the blood and splash it against the sides of the altar. 17 Cut the ram into pieces and wash the internal organs and the legs, putting them with the head and the other pieces. 18 Then burn the entire ram on the altar. It is a burnt offering to the Lord, a pleasing aroma, a food offering presented to the Lord.

19 “Take the other ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on its head. 20 Slaughter it, take some of its blood and put it on the lobes of the right ears of Aaron and his sons, on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the big toes of their right feet. Then splash blood against the sides of the altar. 21 And take some blood from the altar and some of the anointing oil and sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments and on his sons and their garments. Then he and his sons and their garments will be consecrated.

22 “Take from this ram the fat, the fat tail, the fat on the internal organs, the long lobe of the liver, both kidneys with the fat on them, and the right thigh. (This is the ram for the ordination.) 23 From the basket of bread made without yeast, which is before the Lord, take one round loaf, one thick loaf with olive oil mixed in, and one thin loaf. 24 Put all these in the hands of Aaron and his sons and have them wave them before the Lord as a wave offering. 25 Then take them from their hands and burn them on the altar along with the burnt offering for a pleasing aroma to the Lord, a food offering presented to the Lord. 26 After you take the breast of the ram for Aaron’s ordination, wave it before the Lord as a wave offering, and it will be your share.

27 “Consecrate those parts of the ordination ram that belong to Aaron and his sons: the breast that was waved and the thigh that was presented. 28 This is always to be the perpetual share from the Israelites for Aaron and his sons. It is the contribution the Israelites are to make to the Lord from their fellowship offerings.

29 “Aaron’s sacred garments will belong to his descendants so that they can be anointed and ordained in them. 30 The son who succeeds him as priest and comes to the tent of meeting to minister in the Holy Place is to wear them seven days.

31 “Take the ram for the ordination and cook the meat in a sacred place. 32 At the entrance to the tent of meeting, Aaron and his sons are to eat the meat of the ram and the bread that is in the basket. 33 They are to eat these offerings by which atonement was made for their ordination and consecration. But no one else may eat them, because they are sacred. 34 And if any of the meat of the ordination ram or any bread is left over till morning, burn it up. It must not be eaten, because it is sacred.

35 “Do for Aaron and his sons everything I have commanded you, taking seven days to ordain them. 36 Sacrifice a bull each day as a sin offering to make atonement. Purify the altar by making atonement for it, and anoint it to consecrate it. 37 For seven days make atonement for the altar and consecrate it. Then the altar will be most holy, and whatever touches it will be holy.

38 “This is what you are to offer on the altar regularly each day: two lambs a year old. 39 Offer one in the morning and the other at twilight. 40 With the first lamb offer a tenth of an ephah[c] of the finest flour mixed with a quarter of a hin[d] of oil from pressed olives, and a quarter of a hin of wine as a drink offering. 41 Sacrifice the other lamb at twilight with the same grain offering and its drink offering as in the morning—a pleasing aroma, a food offering presented to the Lord.

42 “For the generations to come this burnt offering is to be made regularly at the entrance to the tent of meeting, before the Lord. There I will meet you and speak to you; 43 there also I will meet with the Israelites, and the place will be consecrated by my glory.

44 “So I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar and will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests. 45 Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. 46 They will know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion  
Thursday, August 28, 2014

Read: John 13:1-11

Jesus Washes His Disciples’ Feet

It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

2 The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

7 Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

8 “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

9 “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

10 Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” 11 For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.
Insight
In ancient Israel, the task of foot-washing was necessary because of the open shoes worn in streets filled with dirt and refuse. Because it was such an unpleasant task, it was usually assigned to the lowest servant in the house. Here Jesus Himself performed this menial job (John 13:3-5).
A Picture Of Humility

By Bill Crowder

God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. —James 4:6

During the Easter season, my wife and I attended a church service where the participants sought to model the events that Jesus and His disciples experienced on the night before He was crucified. As part of the service, the church staff members washed the feet of some of the church volunteers. As I watched, I wondered which was more humbling in our day—to wash another person’s feet or to have someone else wash yours. Both those who were serving and those being served were presenting distinct pictures of humility.

When Jesus and His disciples were gathered for the Last Supper (John 13:1-20), Jesus, in humble servanthood, washed His disciples’ feet. But Simon Peter resisted, saying, “You shall never wash my feet!” Then Jesus answered, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me” (13:8). Washing their feet was not a mere ritual. It could also be seen as a picture of our need of Christ’s cleansing—a cleansing that will never be realized unless we are willing to be humble before the Savior.

James wrote, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6). We receive God’s grace when we acknowledge the greatness of God, who humbled Himself at the cross (Phil. 2:5-11).
My faith looks up to Thee,
Thou Lamb of Calvary, Savior divine;
Now hear me when I pray, take all my sin away,
O let me from this day be wholly Thine! —Palmer
The most powerful position on earth is kneeling before the Lord of the universe.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, August 28, 2014

The Purpose of Prayer

. . . one of His disciples said to Him, ’Lord, teach us to pray . . .’ —Luke 11:1

Prayer is not a normal part of the life of the natural man. We hear it said that a person’s life will suffer if he doesn’t pray, but I question that. What will suffer is the life of the Son of God in him, which is nourished not by food, but by prayer. When a person is born again from above, the life of the Son of God is born in him, and he can either starve or nourish that life. Prayer is the way that the life of God in us is nourished. Our common ideas regarding prayer are not found in the New Testament. We look upon prayer simply as a means of getting things for ourselves, but the biblical purpose of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself.

“Ask, and you will receive . . .” (John 16:24). We complain before God, and sometimes we are apologetic or indifferent to Him, but we actually ask Him for very few things. Yet a child exhibits a magnificent boldness to ask! Our Lord said, “. . . unless you . . . become as little children . . .” (Matthew 18:3). Ask and God will do. Give Jesus Christ the opportunity and the room to work. The problem is that no one will ever do this until he is at his wits’ end. When a person is at his wits’ end, it no longer seems to be a cowardly thing to pray; in fact, it is the only way he can get in touch with the truth and the reality of God Himself. Be yourself before God and present Him with your problems— the very things that have brought you to your wits’ end. But as long as you think you are self-sufficient, you do not need to ask God for anything.

To say that “prayer changes things” is not as close to the truth as saying, “Prayer changes me and then I change things.” God has established things so that prayer, on the basis of redemption, changes the way a person looks at things. Prayer is not a matter of changing things externally, but one of working miracles in a person’s inner nature.

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, August 28, 2014

Enough - #7209

In the "olden days" if I had wanted to keep our home warm for the winter I would have had to go out and chop wood. I'm not sorry I missed that. But when I was little, my Dad had to shovel coal into a furnace so we could get heat, with a little help from me of course...very little. And then our home back in New Jersey had oil heat, and we always had enough heat. I didn't have to worry about running out of oil. And I didn't have to go get any. Our heating company always seemed to know when our supply was low. So for me that meant no chopping, no shoveling. Someone always made sure we never ran out.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Enough."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Corinthians 12:7-8. Paul talks about bearing an almost unbearable burden in his life. He says, "To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me."

Later Paul mentions his thorn in the flesh when he talked about weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecution, difficulties-in other words, hard times. But he was able to handle every life stress because of one promise God gives him in the middle of his agony. Oh, and He gives it to you too. Second Corinthians 12:9, "But the Lord said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest upon me."

I've studied five semesters of New Testament Greek, and I don't remember all of it. But I remember enough to know how to look up what God said in the original language. In the Greek, word order is very important. And so God leads off usually with a word that He wants you to remember. That's the emphasis word. And this comes alive in the Greek, this verse, with "My grace is sufficient for you." Here's how it puts it in the Greek, "Enough for you, My grace." Wow! The secret of surviving every stress physically, emotionally, financially, spiritually: "Enough, My grace."

Remember the hymn, "Through many dangers, toils and snares I have already come. Tis' grace that's brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home." But up front is the word "grace." God wrote in indelible ink "Enough". God has promised there will always be enough grace. Grace is distributed at the moment you need it in the amount you need it. On a scale of one to ten, let's say you're facing a challenge that's a number three. You'll get number three grace. If it's a five, it's a five grace. In those moments when you've hit one of life's tens, God has a promise to keep. Grace to the tenth power.

It was like our oil company. Sometimes our tank ran low, but it didn't run out. Someone made sure we always had enough. If you belong to Jesus, you have the ultimate someone doing that for you. Grace isn't some mysterious or religious cloud. God's enough comes in the practical form that we need it. He's committed to see that you have it. If you need financial grace, God says He's going to see that you have enough.

Grace might come in the form of a person, or an idea, or a word of encouragement. Maybe some unexpected help or some advice you need, or a place to stay, transportation. See, God's grace is customized grace to what you need right now. That could be emotional grace, or physical grace. How many times the Lord has filled me with His strength when my strength was gone. It's always enough, and He's never late.
Like the fuel company I depended on for a warm house, your Lord is constantly monitoring what kind of grace you need and when you need it. And He said "to come boldly to the Throne of Grace to get grace to help you in your time of need." So, whatever you're facing, you're guaranteed that His grace will be enough and will be amazing.