Holy Living

Leviticus 17,18
Acts 18

Food for Life:

Leviticus 17,18
These chapters see the transition in the writing between the instructions to atone for and receive forgiveness for sin and instructions on how to live out of forgiveness. Through 17 we see how the Israelites could be positionally holy before the Lord - their sins forgiven and to be made clean and set apart. Chapter 18 to the end of Leviticus the Israelites are instructed as to how to live out the forgiveness they received - how to live holy lives. How to live lives apart from the pagan cultures around them and to live for the Living God.

18:24-29, "Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, [previous verses in the chapter] because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants....Everyone who does any of these detestable thing - such persons must be cut off from their people. Keep my requirements and do not follow any of the detestable customs that were practiced before you came and do not defile yourselves with them. I am the Lord you God."

God-inspired Moses heard from the Lord and had recorded what he was instructed. The practices were the 'abominable' ways pagans around them, godless people, practiced their sexual relations. Before I belonged to Jesus, before I received forgiveness and was set free from sin nature and it's bondage, I defiled myself as described in these verses, practicing some of these ways that were detestable to the Lord....BUT GOD (remember, God is the game-changer). Grace through faith rushed into my life, Jesus Christ Himself, and His blood (not the blood of goats, bulls, and lambs) was sacrificed for that sin of mine. He set me free. And now, I am free to live out His forgiveness in the ways set forth in chapter 18. Thank You Lord!

This body is not my own. I don't 'own my body', God does. He created me for Himself. He created me to bring Glory and Honor to Him. My body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. How about you? If you are born-again, not of the flesh, but of the Spirit, You are filled with the Spirit of God and your body is not your own - you belong to God. Are you living out the ways in which we were created and commanded to? Living out your sexuality in God-honoring ways, the ways for which we were created? Life-giving ways?

If not, you can start today! That is the Good News! I use to live in those ways, BUT GOD, makes a way for us to change and live a new way! The way that fits us best, that is the most life-giving and God-honoring! Then we can be His Light to the godless ways all around us!

"Lord, I pray today, as we hear Your voice, that we would not hardened our hearts - that we would call upon You Lord, for salvation, for grace-empowered living - Your Holy Spirit - to live in ways that are for Your Glory, our best, and the best of others. Thank You Lord!"

Acts 18
The background of Acts 18 fits well w/Leviticus 18 (of course, God orchestrates :). Paul is confronted, and addresses the issues of sexually immorality in 1&2 Corinthians. Corinth was the commercial and political center of Greece - they had a temple to Aphrodite, goddess of love and war. The pagan culture addressed in our reading in Leviticus is the same kind of pagan culture Paul was addressing.

One thing that strikes me is how Paul explains (exclaims actually) his actions toward the Jews. "Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. But when the Jews opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am clear of my responsibility. From now on I will go to the Gentiles" (18:5,6). Paul seems to have taken his cue from...Jesus! Jesus told the disciples he sent out that if a town does not accept them in His Name, they were to shake the dust off their feet and leave the town (Luke 9:3-5; Mark 6:6-11). (Perhaps the 'blood be on your own heads' was a response to their 'abusive' behavior toward him!).

This is freeing to me! My responsibility, your responsibility is to share what the Lord has given us to share. The Good News! The message of salvation, in Word and Deed! To speak the Truth in Love to folks in a given situation, to be the hands and feet of Jesus - out of the love Christ has for them, and thus out of the love we have for them. How folks respond, the 'outcome' is up to the Lord. We aren't to drag folks to Jesus kicking and screaming; we aren't to cajole, coerce, chide, deride, ridicule...condemn. Even when folks might respond like that to us - we don't act 'in kind', we back off, walk away...continue to pray for them - asking the Lord to move through the Holy Spirit in their lives...even as we ask the Holy Spirit to move in and through our own lives.

"Thank You Lord that you call us to Yourself and then to those who need You Lord. You are the One that draws people to Yourself through the Love and Power of the Holy Spirit. We are blessed, privileged, and humbled that You would choose us, and then use us by working through us. Thank You Lord, I thank You that You use the weak/foolish things of this world to confound the wise; for in my weakness, You are strong" (1 Corinthians 1:27; 2 Corinthians 12:9).