Oppression in the text should be seen as only as an act of aggression, it also should be seen as passive inactive life toward the poor. In the Old Testament God set laws in place to ensure social justice and that the nation of Israel would never neglect and oppress the poor. In the Book of Numbers and Leviticus we see these provision being made for the protection and nurturing of the poor.

Social justice is a part of our Christian mandate in spreading the gospel. Jesus was prophesied as coming to relieve the poor (Is.61:1). Jesus Himself laid claim to that scripture in Lk.4:18.  Let us not be like Cain who mistakenly deluded himself into thinking that he is not his brother’s keeper (Gen.4:9).  As Christians we are all called to be merciful to the poor as Jesus was, to the point that in His earthly ministry we can safely surmise that He budgeted for benevolence.

Part of truly being spiritual is considering the poor.  Let’s look at the text again… “But he who honors Him [Him being the Lord] has mercy on the needy.” So let’s put it in reverse, showing mercy to the poor is honoring the Lord.

Israel in Isaiah’s day thought they were being godly when they fasted and prayed lots; but God shocked them with His response. 

 Isaiah 58:3-7

³ ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and You have not seen?
Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?’

“In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure,
And exploit all your laborers.
⁴ Indeed you fast for strife and debate,
And to strike with the fist of wickedness.
You will not fast as you do this day,
To make your voice heard on high.
⁵ Is it a fast that I have chosen,
A day for a man to afflict his soul?
Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush,
And to spread out sackcloth and ashes?
Would you call this a fast,
And an acceptable day to the Lord?

⁶ “Is this not the fast that I have chosen:
To loose the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the heavy burdens,
To let the oppressed go free,
And that you break every yoke?
⁷ Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out;
When you see the naked, that you cover him,
And not hide yourself from your own flesh?

This is true spirituality at work. In Matt.25:31-46 Jesus reveals that the way we treat the poor is a reflection on the way we treat Him and that it has eternal consequences, so let me encourage us to honor the Lord by showing mercy to the poor.

In Hebrew, the Book of Leviticus was named Vayikra, which means “And He Called.” This is taken from the first word of the book. The English title “Leviticus” comes from the Greek version of the work and means “Matters Pertaining to the Levites.” The title is misleading as the Book of Leviticus deals with issues relating to: purity, holiness, the whole priesthood, the sanctity of God, and holiness in everyday life. The word “holy” appears more than eighty times in the book.

According to early tradition,  Leviticus was the first book to be taught to children. It deals with God’s character and will, especially in matters of holiness. Jewish sages considered it to be of primary importance to be taught before proceeding to other texts as children should learn about the sanctity of God and the responsibility of each individual to live a holy life.

Look for Jesus, our High Priest, as you read through this book!

MARCIA

Wow! this scripture leapt out at me and caused me to go into some deep reflection about the feelings I have about the ministry the Lord has given to me. How many times have I faced a simple rejection or been offended and was ready to stop doing what I know God had called me to. How many times did I face some form of opposition and I moaned and groaned instead of taking an attitude like Paul. Do I really take the great commission that I was given with this same feeling? Boy I had some repenting to do.

Many of us are not facing what Paul and the early disciples faced, they were beaten, scourged, put into jail and stockades and some even killed for sharing the message and causing people to believe. Yet they continued with fervency, boldness and tenacity. Understanding that Jesus shed His own blood so that everyone could have the opportunity to hear the message and the chance to believe.

Our desire should be to finish the race we have begun with joy and to allow every opposition or persecution that comes our way to become a moment to testify of the grace of God on our lives.

Paul was facing chains and tribulations for his obedience to spread the message, yet he still moved forward. What are you facing today?

 Charmaine

 Acts 15:37- 39- Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company.

 I always have mixed feelings about this passage: a tinge of sadness because of the separation that occurs but also great joy, because of the encourager, Barnabas. In today’s reading, we see a conflict between two apostles of the church, Barnabas and Paul. It is such a sharp disagreement that the two, who were commissioned together, decide to part company. The conflict is over Mark, the cousin of Barnabas who had deserted Paul on a previous missionary journey when they were in Pamphylia. We first meet Barnabas in Acts 4, where he is given the name Barnabas meaning, “a son of encouragement”.  Ironically, we see that Barnabas is the first one who seeks out Saul, and persuades a somewhat resistant church in Jerusalem to accept him and receive him into fellowship, where he teaches alongside Barnabas.

 Mark had gone on the missionary journey as a helper to the two apostles. Mark must have impressed the apostles greatly with his gift of helps, to be chosen to go on such an important journey. He was probably outstanding in his gifts of administration and organizing. So it was difficult to accept that a leader such as Mark had failed publicly. When leaders fail, often they will never achieve the former preeminence they enjoyed before, even if they are truly penitent. Sometimes, it is because our hearts are calloused. Barnabas may not be among the most famous of apostles, but there is a valuable lesson to be learnt, by examining the hallmark of his life, his extraordinary encouraging nature.

 On the other hand, as much as I am a diehard fan of the Apostle Paul with heavy heart, I must admit that this was certainly not one of his stellar moments. Yes, of course he was understandably disappointed in Mark, but we should very careful that any failure that we perceive in others, does not permanently affect how we regard them. Obviously, we all fail at some point in time, so to do this would render us very hypocritical.

 This dispute among Christians is recorded as an example to us of how to deal with conflicts, failures and the power of grace in our lives. Firstly, note that there is no evidence that this caused a church split. This speaks tremendously about the cause of Christ being foremost on the heart of both of these men. Christ and His bride are more important and this disagreement would not shatter the church that they both labored so hard, to build. Secondly no one got offended to the point that they decided, that they would never associate with the church again! What a difference from the reaction that we frequently encounter nowadays. Thirdly, there is no loss of respect between these two men of God. Even though the actual details of the reconciliation between these two great apostles are not recorded the Bible, obviously it would have taken open hearts on both sides to accomplish this. It would take love. It would take humility.

 Barnabas put his reputation on the line for both Paul and Mark. As a result of Barnabas reaching out to befriend Paul, who once represented the very antithesis of Christianity, look what Paul eventually achieves, and how important he is to the canon of scripture. As a result of Barnabas reaching out to Mark to restore him, Mark becomes a great evangelist, and he also has his writings included in the scriptures. All because of a man named Barnabas, whose words are not extensively recorded. But knowing what I do about him, I have to think that Barnabas would not have minded. You see, the encourager must be unselfish enough to hoist others above them, so that others may achieve their best. So Mark will be one day imprisoned along with Paul for the sake of the gospel. Paul will also write many years later to Timothy, when many others are deserting Paul during extremely trying times, to bring Mark with him, as he is useful to Paul in his ministry.

 God does not define us by our failures. Hallelujah!! He is the God of a second chance!!

A Barnabas will look beyond an individual’s glaring failures and see possibilities that the rest of us simply cannot perceive. It is a Barnabas, who will sit up all night with the addict, showing unwavering support. It is a Barnabas, who will open their home to the rebellious teenager that everybody has written off, and give them the gift of hope. I know a few Barnabases. They do not stand in judgment. They understand and love me when I fail, and amazingly, they are rooting for me still, when I eventually get back up! They are encouragers in the faith, living epistles that bear witness of His great compassion and mercy, to us all; cheering us on to become, all that we were meant to be.

 (Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.)

EVA

 In today’s reading, we should stop and reflect on our own hearts to see if there are things that we have set our ways in.   Cornelius was considered a devout, God-fearing man who prayed to God regularly and gave to the poor and needy of the community.  It sounds like he was respected by both Jews and Gentiles alike. 

 We see Peter praying in Chapter 10 and the Lord gave him a vision of a sheet with all kinds of meat on it; some of what the Jews consider clean and unclean.  Peter hears the Lord say “kill and eat” but Peter replies, “I have never eaten anything that is impure or unclean.”  Peter received three examples of this and although it must have been hard for him, he obeyed what he believed the Lord was saying.  Peter had to be open to hearing from the Spirit of the Lord and willing to do the Lord’s will and not his. 

 After Peter returned to Jerusalem, he had to give an account to the circumcised believers in Acts 11:1 for they had heard he had entered the house of gentiles and this was forbidden to the Jews.  After hearing Peter’s account, they accepted what Peter had told them and believed that it was God’s will to save not just the Jews, but all nations. 

 Sometimes, we are stuck in our own beliefs and refuse to budge.  The Pharisees and religious rulers of Jesus’ time were more interested in their own position and status than  the things of God.   They were not willing to budge and maybe that is why God did not use them but instead used unlearned men who would be open to hearing a different message; one based on love and forgiveness.   We must make sure we keep an open mind and not hold on to our own ways and thoughts, but be willing to move to where God will have us be.  By Peter moving, God was able to use him to make a big impact on the lives of Cornelius and his household and help to spread the word to that community which was not Jewish. 

 WINSTON

Would love to hear how you are finding the reading schedule. Please share: Are you up to date? A little behind? A lot behind? Wherever you are…congratulations for staying with the program.

Also share what your tips and methods that you have found helpful to stay on track. Just may help others!

My tips : #1 -Read first thing in the morning! If I leave it till later, my day gets too busy, my mind also becomes too cluttered with work and everything else. At night, I will fall asleep; however this may be the best time for some.  Reading before I do anything else keeps it as my priority for the day!

Tip #2 – Read from a different translation or from a different Bible. If you are like me your eyes will quickly drift to your favourite verse(s) that you have highlighted or written notes beside. By reading a new translation/Bible, you will begin to see other truths that you may have missed the other 35 times you have read that passage. I’m currently reading Acts and Proverbs in the NIV…straying away from my usual NKV.

MARCIA

Exodus 40:34 -38: Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. ³⁵ Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.

 ³⁶ In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out; ³⁷ but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out—until the day it lifted. ³⁸ So the cloud of the LORD was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the Israelites during all their travels.

Several times, when I have had a tough decision to make, I have prayed earnestly for guidance. How I wished that God would literally give me a vision or send someone with a word, as to which way to go.  So I pretty much envy the children of Israel who were led by a supernatural cloud.

Can you imagine having such a cloud at your disposal? I have been looking high and low for a nice infinity scarf or two, with zero success. Can you imagine, just getting up on a Saturday morning and saying “Lord, where should I go to buy a nice, inexpensive infinity scarf?” Then I would just drive confidently, with great anticipation and excitement, behind the floating cloud, to find the perfect scarf at the perfect price. Ta-da-a-a!!

The cloud in the desert, both guided the children of Israel and showed them when to travel and when not to. Several men met with God including Enoch, Noah and Isaac. Jacob said: “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved”. Moses was a man that met” face to face” with God. Job said, ” My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.”

How is it that men could see the Lord and still survive?  Jesus provides the answer in his words in John 1:16, “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God andis in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.”  So in fact these appearances are not God the Father, but appearances of the second person of the Trinity, the Son, Jesus Christ.

These appearances are referred to as Theophanies. A Theophany is described as a pre-carnate appearance of Christ, i.e. an appearance of Christ before He came to earth as a babe in Bethlehem. The Bible is truly Christocentric and so should our lives as Christians be: built up around our relationship with Christ.

With that in mind, it is unfortunate, that as convenient as the cloud may have been, there was one big drawback. The children of Israel suffered from the “Cloud Mentality”.  Any many of us are still like that. As long as God meets our immediate needs, we are content to stay afar off. We do not feel the need to go to a higher level of fellowship.  They ended up knowing God’s acts but not His ways (Psalm 103:7).  How do you normally get to know someone’s ways? By spending time on a regular basis with them, by listening to them, by sticking by them through thick and thin, by doing stuff together. That was what it was like for Moses.

We all have the choice: to draw near so that we may know His ways, or remain content to follow the cloud, just witnessing His acts, afar off.

 Eva

Exodus 36:4 – “The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the LORD commanded to be done.”

Moses said to the whole Israelite community, “This is what the LORD has commanded:  From what you have, take an offering for the LORD.”  They gave in obedience, of whatever they had “gold, silver and bronze; blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen; goat hair; ram skins dyed red and another type of durable leather; acacia wood; olive oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; and onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breastpiece”. (By the way, did you notice that Moses did not have to teach a seven part series on “Giving”??)

They gave of their talents as well to make everything that was necessary for the tabernacle. The women spun all the yarn and the linens that were needed. Eventually the chief skilled artisan, and the teacher of workmen, had to inform Moses that “the people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the LORD commanded to be done.” They had to restrain the people from bringing more!

How do we respond to appeals being made to help the work of the Lord and His church? There are many ways that you can help. Dropping off necessary supplies that we need to keep JVC running, if He puts it on your heart is a good place to start. What about volunteering to greet, to clean, or help on the Easy Worship team? You don’t have to jump in all at once either. How about getting your feet wet by volunteering, even once a month?

There are gifts inside you waiting to be unlocked! What if Pastor Sean never volunteered to do his first sermon? What if Charmaine never stepped up to do a dance that first time? What if Devon  never stepped into the sound booth? What if Sheryl or Al decided that they would just sing in the shower at home? What if Ponzie wasn’t there to greet me with her warm effervescent embrace, that week when I was carrying the world on my shoulders? What if Laura never started that food bank in Georgetown…what if?

The Holy Spirit has given us a variety of gifts for service to Him, to the church and to the world. What are you passionate about? What would you choose to do, if you were able to do anything you wanted? God made you for a unique purpose but you will never fulfill that purpose, unless you discover the purpose that you were created for, step into it, and help the bride of Christ become who she is meant to be.

It will cost us something, to give of ourselves. The children of Israel were coming out of slavery, but they gave out of what they had, which was probably gifts from the Egyptians. I can hear the thoughts that might have been running through some minds, in light of an uncertain future: “So Moses, did I hear you right? You want me to give you one of my jars of olive oil, so you can use it in that special tent? And do I understand correctly that you intend to burn said lamps, all night? At some point, we are going to pass a Fortinos on the way…right?”

When you invest in the things that touch the heart of God, there are rewards that cannot be measured financially. It is these rewards that add intrinsic value to our lives. No, it’s not convenient to spend every Wednesday night of the year in worship practice. Yes, it is a real pain to clean the church, when hairpins block the toilets and kids leave little phlegm-filled surprises in the chair pockets.

But a life lived in pursuit of one’s own comfort, one that is not lived in His service, is a life that you will eventually regret. Giving and sacrifice go hand in hand. In the words of David: “I will not offer unto the Lord my God that which hath cost me nothing“.

EVA

When you think about the way that the children of Israel have responded to God so far, it’s as if they really did not know who they were dealing with. We have all been asking ourselves how it is that the Israelites could have seen such mind boggling displays of God’s power, and yet repeatedly doubt and defy Him. The last time we saw the Israelites, they had been trembling with fear before God, as thunder and lightning emanated from a smoke engulfed mountain that shook violently from the presence of God (Exodus 19:17-18). The next time we see the Israelites in Exodus 32, they are making for themselves a golden calf to worship in place of the Almighty God, because “this fellow Moses, who brought us out of Egypt” had stayed up on that very same mountain for too long. Didn’t they know who God was?

In fact, it is literally the truth that the Israelites didn’t know who God was.  Psalm 103:7 tells us that God “made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel”. The Israelites say the great and terrifying acts of God, and they feared Him. But they did not know or trust God, because they did not understand His ways.

In Exodus 34, Moses asks God to reveal Himself and to show him His glory. God places Moses in the cleft of a rock to protect him, and allows Moses to see His back as He passes by. As He passes, God proclaims His name, announcing to Moses who He is. Here is how God describes Himself:

“The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet He does not leave the guilty unpunished;”

God does not say of Himself (as the Israelites would no doubt have expected him to) I am the Lord God of might and power, of awesome and terrible miracles. Instead He says of Himself, I am a God of compassion, grace, patience, love, faithfulness, forgiveness, mercy, and justice.

If you should ever wonder if you can trust God to come through for you; to deliver and protect and provide for you, remember who God is. Remember how He described His character as He formally introduced Himself to Moses, proclaiming His name as He passed by. This is the God whom you serve. And because, like Moses, you know His ways and not just His acts, remember that you can always  completely trust Him.

Sheryl

 The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. – Exodus 33:11

Moses truly had a special relationship with the Lord. Have you ever wondered what it have been like for Moses as he stood in the in the cleft of the rock? God offered in Exodus 25 to meet with him in the tent of meeting. And God speaks to Moses face to face on a regular basis in this meeting place!

God always takes the initiative to meet and fellowship with us. There is a series of steps in the Old Testament, where with each progressive step, God seems to move closer to men, and as a result, we become a bit more intimately acquainted with Him.

At first God met with men who sought Him and revered Him, like Abraham. Moses was the first Man who met God “face to face” and became the intercessor between God and His chosen people, the descendants of Abraham. During the time of Moses, it was God who proposed that He dwell in a place made by human hands. And it was God who gave Moses the specific design for the tabernacle which could be transported, so that His presence could go with them.

God told Moses “ There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the covenant law, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites.”

God gave the intricate detailed instructions for the pattern for the tabernacle and the furnishings in the tabernacle. The furnishings consisted of:

• The Ark which contained the manna, Aaron’s rod that blossomed, and the tablets of the Law
• The Table of Shewbread
• The Lampstand
• The Brazen Altar
• The Brazen Laver

Have you ever wondered why God seemed to be stressing to Moses to carefully make the tabernacle, exactly as He describes in painstaking detail?

The answer is found in Hebrews 8:5, which tells us that the tabernacle that Moses built was a copy of a Heavenly one: “They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”

With the sacrifice of Jesus, God took the final step. Because we are filled with His Holy Spirit, our bodies are now become the Temple of the Lord. And that, is the ultimate in fellowship.

 EVA