Worship Service Canceled - Sunday, February 14, 2010

With all the snow we’ve had in the last few weeks which has prevented us from meeting as a Body, I’ve had some interesting conversations with the Lord—mostly while shoveling—and have asked Him to show me the things He wanted me to understand through all of this.  For whatever it’s worth, here are some of things I learned.
First off, and probably the easiest to see, is the fact that no matter how technologically advanced man is, or thinks he is, God can bring things to a paralyzing standstill any time He wants to get our attention.  When He does that, we need to listen and seek Him.
Second, if the snow is not removed down to the bare ground (or blacktop or sidewalk), it gets compacted and freezes and hardens, and then continues to worsen, hardening treacherously more with each subsequent snowfall.  (I’ll let you think about the spiritual applications of those two lessons).
Anyway, in my own personal reading in Numbers 28 & 29, God showed me a direct connection between the snow lessons and our daily walk with Him.  Briefly, here are some of the highlights to encourage you to dig a little deeper on your own or with your family:

*in these two chapters God describes the daily, weekly, and monthly offerings, as well as the offerings He expects on each of the seven Feasts He has appointed for the Jewish people to keep, honor, and celebrate.
*daily, two lamb offerings are to be made every day—morning and evening (this is just to maintain acknowledgement of God and fellowship with Him).
*weekly, two lamb offerings are to be made for the Sabbath.
*monthly, ten animal sacrifices are to be made for the new month, and one goat as a sin offering
*all the sacrifices are to be without blemish, made by fire, as a sweet (pleasant) aroma to the LORD, and made with a grain offering and a drink offering, the grain offering to be made with fine flour mixed with pressed oil (a beautiful picture of Jesus, as the sacrifices themselves are).
*weekly sacrifices total 16; monthly sacrifices total 75.
*specific multiple sacrifices are required for each of the seven Feasts.
*the word “besides” appears 15 times and a goat offering for sin appears 14 times in chapters 28 & 29.

Again, I’ll let you dig in a little deeper on your own with these picture facts, but what came rising to the surface this time around for me was that even though special offerings were required for the Sabbath, the new moon, and the seven Feasts, the daily offerings were NOT to be neglected (“…you shall be careful to offer to Me at their appointed time”).  Fifteen times God says, “…besides the regular burnt offering.”  He takes our daily walk with Him seriously and expects us and wants us to engage Him personally the first thing every morning and the last thing every night, as well as throughout the day.  We cannot use any excuses, no matter how right they seem, sacrificial we think they might be, or justified we might believe we are in our disobedience, to fail to maintain our daily relationship with God.
Also, 14 times God mentions the required sin offering.  He wants us to be aware of the danger of our sinful nature, not to dwell on our past failures (Philippians 3:13-14), but to be mindful of what our sin cost God.