Focal Passage: Leviticus 26:1-13  When I was young the Coca-Cola company created a contest that challenged customers to find four bottle caps with each having a word that created the phrase, “Coke the real thing.” As you might imagine, my older sister and I examined every Coke cap we could find but could only spell, “Coke the thing.” The “real” was nowhere to be found.  I don’t remember how much

Focal Passage: Leviticus 16:1-10, 29-30  Liberal theologians reject the idea that God would sacrifice His own Son as our substitute (II Corinthians 5:21) to appease His own wrath toward sinners, calling it “slaughter house religion” that is beneath the loving God of the Bible. Yet even a cursory reading of the Old Testament law reveals a people whose lives centered around the sacrificial system.  The unfolding of Old Covenant revelation

Focal Passage: Colossians 3:1-5, 12-17  The Apostle Paul was put in prison for preaching the Gospel. While there he wrote letters to encourage the faithful; one of those four ‘prison epistles’ is the New Testament book of Colosssians.  This letter was written to exhort believers in the town of Colossee not to be taken in by a current heresy that belittled the Lord Jesus Christ; it claimed that Christ was

Focal Passage: 9:15  The redeeming work of Christ reminds us that separation from the world requires far more than lip service or a handful of moral disciplines. Separation from the world is marked by death. The sacrificial system of the Old Covenant required many tangible reminders of the cost of being set apart from the world. On this side of Calvary, it is easy for us to forget the price

Focal Passage: Exodus 40:16-21, 34-38  How we use our resources says a lot about our worship. The children of Israel gave their earrings to Aaron to construct a golden calf for idol worship, because God had not met their expectations.  After the wrath of God brought about the death of 3,000 of their kinsmen (Exodus 32:27-28), the Israelites gave a variety of gold jewelry and many other items for the

Focal Passage: Exodus 25:1-9; 31:1-6  You have heard it said countless times, “The devil is in the details.” Yet, when we read the Bible we learn that Satan’s ultimate concern is the end (deception), not the means. On the other hand, God is in the details.  My father was a furniture builder and clearly not a carpenter. He could do much of the work carpenters do, but he demanded much

Focal Passage: Exodus 22:21-27; Leviticus 19:9-10  I do not remember who said it, but I was permanently impacted by the thought that every Christian must decide to live a life of either self-preservation or self-sacrifice. The first option looks like the world, and the second one looks like Jesus. My whole life has been spent in an America that chases hard after unrestrained individualism.  Ideas that would have been considered

Focal Passage: Exodus 20:1-17  Before the Ten Commandments were given, the Author gave the basis for their existence. He once again declared Himself to be the true and living God as evidenced by His recent miraculous deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt. Before He addressed practical issues of morality, He dealt with the foundational issue of worship. While we typically hear more about people breaking the latter six commandments, our

Focal Passage: Exodus 16:11-19; 17:1-6  The flesh is a demanding taskmaster. Whether it wants to pursue excessive pleasure or have lunch on time, the flesh will dictate your life if you do not walk by the Spirit. After crossing the Red Sea, the immediate demands of the children of Israel were water, bread and meat. We can understand their thirst and hunger, but each occasion quickly escalated to sin against

Focal Passage: Exodus 14:19-31  Despite the pain of the death of the firstborn brought on by the Passover, Pharaoh, whose heart God had once again hardened, pursued the Israelites as they fled.  Why did God harden his heart? While it is not easy for us to understand God’s choice, His purpose was clear. God left Pharaoh in his rebellion so the world would see the power of the true and