Daily Archives: February 14, 2012

Devotional Studies Through the Bible, Proven Path Ministries

Leave Nothing Until Morning

 

The blood shall be a sign for you

on the houses where you live;

and when I see the blood I will pass over you,

and no plague will befall you to destroy you

when I strike the land of Egypt.  

Exodus 12:13

 

In Genesis 3:21 we read that “The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.”  These garments were made after the fall of man. To make garments of skin an animal must die. This animal’s blood was shed to cover the sin of Adam and Eve.

When Cain slew Abel in Genesis 4 God said, “The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground.“ Blood has a voice to our God.

In Genesis 9:4 when Noah and his family finally stepped out of the ark, God gave them permission to eat meat. However He said,”Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.” Blood had a voice to our God because the blood is the life. Our Creator has always placed a very high value on blood.

When the children of Israel receive the commandments and precepts of God He tells them in Leviticus 3:17, “It is a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwellings: you shall not eat any fat or any blood.” Blood was not to be consumed as some common piece of fruit. It was not to enter inside the filth of our digestive system to be broken down and then exit with our excrement. Blood was life and life is precious.  

Now here in Exodus God institutes the Passover. In this Passover the children of Israel were to take for themselves an unblemished lamb and they were to slay it. They were to take the blood of the slain lamb and place it over the lintel and the doorpost of their house. God declared that when He saw the blood the death angel would pass over their home. It was only by the blood that they could be saved. They were not saved by consuming the blood, but by being covered with the blood.

The Passover was to be a memorial to the children of Israel for them to observe every year, from generation to generation. They were never to forget how the LORD had redeemed them from their slavery in Egypt. They were to tell their children and their children’s children and in their telling they would also be reminding themselves of this great deliverance.

They were to observe this rite, because this memory of redemption by the blood of the lamb, would point them to the One of whom John the Baptist said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

There was one day to be a Lamb slain, that would be the final lamb. The blood of this Lamb would not cover the lintel and doorpost of man-made dwellings, but this Lamb’s blood would cover the lintel and doorpost of the God-made human heart, and it would be placed there by God Himself.

This Passover Lamb was to be slain, the blood placed on the door of the home, and it was to be eaten that same night. It was to be eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. None of it was to be left until morning. Whatever they were unable to eat was to be burned with fire.

In Romans 12:1 Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit of God, writes, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”

Jesus became a sacrifice for us. He was the lamb who was slain for our sins. His blood, is the precious blood, that covers the door of our heart. He was sinless, innocent, had done no wrong, yet He took our punishment, our sin upon Himself. He went through much suffering, endured much bitterness and hatred, yet never became bitter Himself. He gave all of Himself, He left nothing until morning.

Oh precious one, does He not deserve the same from us.

Have you presented your body as a living sacrifice to him? 

Are you willing to suffer for His sake as He suffered for yours?

For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake,

not only to believe in Him,

but also to suffer for His sake,

Philippians 1:29

Is death working in you so that life might be brought to others (2 Corinthians 4:12)?

Is your life filled with old leaven, with sin, that you are still consuming?        

Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?

Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump,

just as you are in fact unleavened.

For Christ our Passover also has been sanctified.

Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven,

nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness,

but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 

1 Corinthians 5:6-8

Are you ready my friend, to take this Lamb of God that has been sacrificed for your redemption, for your deliverance and eat all of Him. You must eat Him with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth and the bitter herbs of suffering for His sake. You must take all of Him and leave none of Him until morning. You can’t pick and choose which parts of Christ to consume, you must consume all of Him at one time.

Now you shall eat it in this manner:

with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet,

and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste-

it is the LORD’s Passover.

Exodus 12:11

My friend, does the precious blood of Christ cover the door of your heart?

When the day of the great judgment, the final plague, came upon Egypt it was only those who had the blood of the lamb on their door that were spared. When the great day of the wrath of God comes upon the whole earth it will only be those who are covered in the blood of the Lamb of God that are spared (1 Thessalonians 1:10). I believe this is one of the main reasons why blood has always been so very precious to our Creator.        

Oh Father,

I count it all joy to be able to call You Father. My Jesus, thank You for the blood You shed to give me life. Thank You for the hope that I have in You. I offer my body to You as a living sacrifice. Make me acceptable to You. Take whatever is in me that cannot be used and burn it with Your consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29). I desire for nothing to be left over until morning. I desire to give You my all. My loins are girded, sandles are on my feet, and my staff is my hand. I am ready to go (Matthew 28:19-20) as You have commanded. Use me, my God, all of me. Make me ready, for the glory of my Christ and His kingdom. 

My Jesus, it’s in Your name I pray,

Amen

Confessions of a Christian Wife, Proven Path Ministries, Thirty-three Day Challenge

Throw Out Your Best Porno Mag

PPM-3.jpg

We will begin our Thirty-three Day Challenge by throwing out the trash…

Day one trash take-out:

Go through the house. If you have Glamour’s, Cosmo’s, Redbook’s, and yes I even mean the Teen Beats and Pop Stars pre-teen magazines that are designed to get your young girls addicted to gossip and the idolization of mere man instead of the God-Man, if you have these in your house throw them out.

When you go shopping for the next thirty-three days and you are standing there in line to check out… don’t pick up that magazine to flip through it as you wait. Don’t even look at the cover or read the cover page article headings…  If you are at the doctor or any other place where you have to wait and there are magazines scattered about… don’t do it.

Go prepared. Bring your Bible… what are you studying in church, in Sunday school, what did the pastor preach on last Sunday, what was that question you had that you were afraid to ask about… research it in the Scriptures… or just make conversation with the person beside you… give them your smile and invest some of your time in their lives… you just might make a difference in their eternity.

Get rid of every single magazine that tries to tells you “how to be a woman” and “how to look as a woman” outside of God’s Word… any magazine that is centered on pulling you toward the mindset of the world instead of the Word. Throw it out today.

Don’t wait.

Do it now.

Don’t save one for later.  Don’t stick them in a closet. Put them in the trash and dump the coffee grounds and the kids leftover oatmeal on top of them.

I don’t care if it’s a new issue that you haven’t read yet and it has a great article in it that you think you must read. Trust me… what ever advice they think they have is pointless and insignificant compared to what God wants to tell you today in and through His Word.

If you are married or plan to be married one day these magazines can be just as damaging to your marriage as men’s pornographic magazine’s. These magazine’s usually attempt to teach you how to manipulate a man and yourself in order to get a man or please a man… manipulation is the work of Satan. It’s his tactic, not a woman of God’s. Whose actions do you want to learn to imitate?

And here’s some more information to help you throw out today’s trash…

Thin, sexualised and digitally enhanced images of women are linked with women’s experiences of poor body image, depression and anxiety and eating disorders. The images contribute to self-harming behaviours and not performing well academically.

Women’s attitudes toward their own bodies are worse after looking at thin media images.

In young teenage girls, looking at pictures of thin, idealised models is likely to cause lowered satisfaction with their body and a high state of depression. Reading fashion and beauty magazines is associated with wanting to lose weight and initiating diets.

A five-year study found that reading dieting advice in magazines was associated with skipping meals, smoking, vomiting and using laxatives in teenage girls.

The American Psychological Association recently found that sexually objectifying material contributes to significant harm to young women.

“..there is evidence that sexualisation contributed to impaired cognitive performance in college-aged women, and related research suggests that viewing material that is sexually objectifying can contribute to body dissatisfaction, eating disorders, low self-esteem, depressive affect, and even physical health problems in high-school-aged girls and in young women.

“In addition to leading to feelings of shame and anxiety, sexualising treatment and self-objectification can generate feelings of disgust toward one’s physical self. Girls may feel they are “ugly” and “gross” or untouchable. …strong empirical evidence indicates that exposure to ideals of sexual attractiveness in the media is associated with greater body dissatisfaction among girls and young women.”
Girls are told early their bodies aren’t good enough – they need continual upgrade and enhancement.

~ Melinda Tankard Reist, from her article “Chasing an illusion: young women and magazines

 

Spend today meditating on Psalm 139.
When a lie comes to your mind about your worth, your beauty, your value… repeat

I will give thanks to You,
for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
wonderful are Your works
and my soul knows it very well…
Psalm 139:14

 

When the Scripture says your soul knows it very well let me share with you what the Hebrew translation and definition is of this word soul…

The word is nephesh and it means soul, self, life, creature, person, appetite, mind, living being, desire, emotion, passion, that which breathes, the breathing substance or being, the man himself, self, person or individual, the activity of mind, will, and character…

Read through Psalm 139 again and take a deep breathe when you read Psalm 139:14.

Take this deep breath and feel this breathe of  air inhale deep within you. Close your eyes and picture this breath as these words of God pass through your nose, and you can feel this air rise up into your mind, and you can feel it being pulled down through your neck, into the very depths of your inner being. You can feel it circling your heart and tightening within your chest as you breathe in this truth of God, breath it in as a true breath of fresh air. Take this breath in deep and purposeful. Take it into your heart and then slowly feel it exhale out of your very core…

Can you feel it?

Can you feel Him?

That is what it means when God says your soul knows it very well that His works are wonderful and if you are His work… then you, precious and beautiful one, are wonderful too. Breathe in wonderful one… breathe in His Word of truth.

All day today… when you look in the mirror and are tempted to go, ugh! Stop and remember Psalm 139 and take a deep breath and breath in Psalm 139:14…

Day Two: O Romeo Romeo