Leviticus 21 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: We Know He Came - December 16, 2021

Spiritual beings populate the stories of Scripture. Angels singing. Demons infecting. Heavenly hosts fighting. Ignore the armies of God and you ignore the heart of Scripture. Ever since the snake tempted Eve in Eden, we’ve known there is more to this world than meets the eye.

We know less than we desire about these beings. Their strategies and plans we can only imagine. If Satan could preempt Christ in the cradle, there’d be no Christ on the cross. Don’t you think he tried?

The conflict was, no doubt, far grander and more dramatic than anything we can fictionalize. But while we can only imagine if such a war occurred, we can be sure of this: we know who won. Because we know he came.

Leviticus 21

Holy Priests

God spoke to Moses: “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron. Tell them, A priest must not ritually contaminate himself by touching the dead, except for close relatives: mother, father, son, daughter, brother, or an unmarried sister who is dependent on him since she has no husband; for these he may make himself ritually unclean, but he must not contaminate himself with the dead who are only related to him by marriage and thus profane himself.

5-6 “Priests must not shave their heads or trim their beards or gash their bodies. They must be holy to their God and must not profane the name of their God. Because their job is to present the gifts of God, the food of their God, they are to be holy.

7-8 “Because a priest is holy to his God he must not marry a woman who has been a harlot or a cult prostitute or a divorced woman. Make sure he is holy because he serves the food of your God. Treat him as holy because I, God, who make you holy, am holy.

9 “If a priest’s daughter defiles herself in prostitution, she disgraces her father. She must be burned at the stake.

10-12 “The high priest, the one among his brothers who has received the anointing oil poured on his head and been ordained to wear the priestly vestments, must not let his hair go wild and tangled nor wear ragged and torn clothes. He must not enter a room where there is a dead body. He must not ritually contaminate himself, even for his father or mother; and he must neither abandon nor desecrate the Sanctuary of his God because of the dedication of the anointing oil which is upon him. I am God.

13-15 “He is to marry a young virgin, not a widow, not a divorcee, not a cult prostitute—he is only to marry a virgin from his own people. He must not defile his descendants among his people because I am God who makes him holy.”

16-23 God spoke to Moses: “Tell Aaron, None of your descendants, in any generation to come, who has a defect of any kind may present as an offering the food of his God. That means anyone who is blind or lame, disfigured or deformed, crippled in foot or hand, hunchbacked or dwarfed, who has anything wrong with his eyes, who has running sores or damaged testicles. No descendant of Aaron the priest who has any defect is to offer gifts to God; he has a defect and so must not offer the food of his God. He may eat the food of his God, both the most holy and the holy, but because of his defect he must not go near the curtain or approach the Altar. It would desecrate my Sanctuary. I am God who makes them holy.”

24 Moses delivered this message to Aaron, his sons, and to all the People of Israel.

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Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Thursday, December 16, 2021

Today's Scripture
Galatians 3:26–4:7
(NIV)

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of Godm through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christn have clothed yourselves with Christ.o 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free,p nor is there male and female,q for you are all one in Christ Jesus.r 29 If you belong to Christ,s then you are Abraham’s seed,t and heirsu according to the promise.v

4 What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. 2 The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. 3 So also, when we were underage, we were in slaveryw under the elemental spiritual forcesa of the world.x 4 But when the set time had fully come,y God sent his Son,z born of a woman,a born under the law,b 5 to redeemc those under the law, that we might receive adoptiond to sonship.b e 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Sonf into our hearts,g the Spirit who calls out, “Abba,c Father.”h 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

Insight

Paul isn’t abolishing all ethnic, economic, or gender distinctions in the church (Galatians 3:28). Rather, in speaking of our salvation, Paul says God treats everyone on the same basis: All have sinned—“we are all prisoners of sin” (3:22 nlt; see Romans 3:23). Everyone needs to repent (Acts 2:38; 3:19). We’re all saved in the same way—by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8–9). “In Christ Jesus [we] are all children of God through faith” (Galatians 3:26). In Jesus, God embraces us equally (1 Corinthians 12:13; Colossians 3:11). While we enter God’s family by being “born again” (John 3:3; 1 Peter 1:3, 23), Paul uses the concept of adoption to describe our standing in the family so we can immediately claim our status and enjoy our full privileges as His children—“God has made you also an heir” (Galatians 4:7). We’re “heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17). By: K. T. Sim

What Are You?

In Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.
Galatians 3:26

When I walked into the ice cream shop with my five-year-old biracial son, the man behind the counter glanced at me and stared at my child. “What are you?”

His question and harsh tone triggered the all-too-familiar anger and heartache I’d experienced growing up as a Mexican-American who didn’t fit stereotypes. Pulling Xavier closer, I turned toward my Black husband as he entered the store. With eyes narrowed, the store clerk completed our order in silence.

I prayed silently for the man as my son listed the flavors of ice cream he wanted to try. Repenting of my bitterness, I asked God to give me a spirit of forgiveness. With my light-but-not-white complexion, I’d been the target of similar glares accompanying that same question over the years. I’d struggled with insecurities and feelings of worthlessness until I began learning how to embrace my identity as God’s beloved daughter.

The apostle Paul declares that believers in Jesus are “all children of God through faith,” equally valued and beautifully diverse. We’re intimately connected and intentionally designed to work together (Galatians 3:26–29). When God sent His Son to redeem us, we became family through His blood shed on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins (4:4–7). As God’s image-bearers, our worth cannot be determined by the opinions, expectations, or biases of others.

What are we? We’re children of God. By:  Xochitl Dixon

Reflect & Pray

When have you doubted your value as a person due to the opinions, expectations, or biases of others? How does knowing all God’s children are His image-bearers help you love those who are different from you?

Father God, please help me to see myself and others through Your eyes. Help me love with Your heart as I come into contact with people who are different from me

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, December 16, 2021
Wrestling Before God

Take up the whole armor of God…praying always… —Ephesians 6:13,18

You must learn to wrestle against the things that hinder your communication with God, and wrestle in prayer for other people; but to wrestle with God in prayer is unscriptural. If you ever do wrestle with God, you will be crippled for the rest of your life. If you grab hold of God and wrestle with Him, as Jacob did, simply because He is working in a way that doesn’t meet with your approval, you force Him to put you out of joint (see Genesis 32:24-25). Don’t become a cripple by wrestling with the ways of God, but be someone who wrestles before God with the things of this world, because “we are more than conquerors through Him…” (Romans 8:37). Wrestling before God makes an impact in His kingdom. If you ask me to pray for you, and I am not complete in Christ, my prayer accomplishes nothing. But if I am complete in Christ, my prayer brings victory all the time. Prayer is effective only when there is completeness— “take up the whole armor of God….”

Always make a distinction between God’s perfect will and His permissive will, which He uses to accomplish His divine purpose for our lives. God’s perfect will is unchangeable. It is with His permissive will, or the various things that He allows into our lives, that we must wrestle before Him. It is our reaction to these things allowed by His permissive will that enables us to come to the point of seeing His perfect will for us. “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God…” (Romans 8:28)— to those who remain true to God’s perfect will— His calling in Christ Jesus. God’s permissive will is the testing He uses to reveal His true sons and daughters. We should not be spineless and automatically say, “Yes, it is the Lord’s will.” We don’t have to fight or wrestle with God, but we must wrestle before God with things. Beware of lazily giving up. Instead, put up a glorious fight and you will find yourself empowered with His strength.

Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

God does not further our spiritual life in spite of our circumstances, but in and by our circumstances.  Not Knowing Whither, 900 L

Bible in a Year: Amos 4-6; Revelation 7

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, December 16, 2021

Today's Storm, Tomorrow's Strengths - #9114

Besides all the other upheaval of 2020, it was like a record year for hurricanes. They went through the entire English alphabet of names, then they started on the Greek alphabet! It's reminiscent of those two massive hurricanes that hit within days of each other. Remember? Harvey swamped Texas. Irma devastated Florida.

First, they talked about rescue - saving lives. Then came the long slog they call recovery. Weeks. Months. Years. But the aftermath of Florida's previous monster hurricane, Hurricane Andrew, actually yielded some unforeseen good from the storm. Andrew's killer winds revealed fatal weaknesses in a lot of their buildings and the need for much stronger building codes. As a result, Hurricane Irma, with all her punishing gusts, couldn't do the damage Andrew had done.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Today's Storm, Tomorrow's Strengths"

From that tale of two hurricanes, a tale of many storm-ravaged lives emerges. From the devastation of one storm came a new strength to withstand future storms. That's what's happened in many a life that's torn up by one of life's Category 5 storms. Heartbreaking losses. A life-altering medical hit. A shipwrecked relationship. Maybe a family crisis. Or, as in my life, the loss of the one you love deeply.

For many, from the rubble of that storm came something stronger than ever before. And you know what that is? It's called hope! A defiant hope! Yes, life-storms do damage. But they also expose where there are weak spots - in my character, my relationship with God, in my family, my marriage, in our parenting. Weak spots that are there because of past wounds maybe that we've never dealt with.

Often, a major life-storm means a major life-loss of some kind: your health, your income, your future plans, your marriage, your loved one. And that loss leaves a gaping hole. I'm not sure that hole ever goes away. But after the storm, you have a choice. Let your loss, and the hole that it leaves, define your life from now on. Well, goodbye hope. Or begin to rebuild your life around that hole. And to rebuild your life ON what you've learned from that loss. Now that's a blueprint for hope.

That's the perspective in our word for today from the Word of God in Romans 5:3-5. It shows the constructive possibilities from a destructive event. "We can rejoice, too," it says, "when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment, for we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love."

Great athletes have served their time in the weight room usually, pushing hard to increase their bench press. And lifting more than they've ever lifted before? Well, it hurts. There's pain. But coaches want to see you in that weight room. Because the pain of lifting more than you've ever lifted before will make you stronger than you've ever been before. More powerful, more confident, more valuable, more useful to God than you've ever been before because you've been in God's weight room.

No, you can't stop the storm, you can't stop its effects. But you can choose to not retreat but to rebuild. Working with God on the vulnerabilities that the storm revealed. Rebuilding stronger than ever before. Ready for whatever storms may come.

Or, in the Bible's words: "In all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us" (Romans 8:37).