RTW February 19
Regard Holiness
Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu put coals of fire in their incense burners and sprinkled incense over them. In this way, they disobeyed the LORD by burning before him the wrong kind of fire, different than he had commanded.
Leviticus 10:1
My Takeaways
Something Old
Bottom line, they demonstrated disregard for God’s holiness
Obedience is an act of holiness.
Something New
So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy. 1 Peter 1:13-16
How do we regard holy?
- Be ready to do what is necessary to be holy.
- Be clear thinking throwing off anything that would compete with our self-control.
- Break away from what the world does.
Something to Do
Live my life regarding holiness.
My Takeaways: God decends upon His alter to dwell intimately with His people.
Something Old: “So fire blaze forth from the Lord’s presence and burn them up, and they died there before the Lord.” Leviticus 10:2 Their deaths- though shocking- were a result of the own rebellious action. Just two verses earlier God was sending fire because he accepted the people’s worship. Faithfulness brings blessings, but how quickly things can change through unfaithfulness and disobedience.
Something New: Leviticus 11:44-45 ” ” For I am the Lord your God. You must concentrate yourselves and be Holy, because I am Holy.” This popped out at me. I think God gave strict instructions because he wanted the Israelites to be a special people-to stand out from the rest. To be different. He did not want them to become corrupted like their pagan neighbors. I think Christians today have that same responsiblity. This doesn’t mean that I can only eat certain things, but I must be careful not to abuse what has been given to me. As a Christian I have a responsiblity to be holy as God is. I have been redeemed. I am separated TO Christ. As I accept who Christ is, believe in what he did for me, the Holy Spirit allows me to become more and more conformed to His image, to be the person God intended me to be when he created Adam and Eve. With Christ I can live in the world without having to be in the world.
Something To Do:
Do I know when it’s time to leave the company of the ungodly? Do I need to disconnect with those who are dead in sin? Am I a devoted follower of Christ? Do I love the way He loves? Do I hurt for what hurts Him?Holiness involves grace, righteousness, integrity, peace, and mercy, because these are characteristics of the God who has redeemed me. In Him I serve – and as a Christian I have the responsibility to be Holy or
“sanctified” as God is.
Colossians 1:22 “Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presents, and You Are Holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.”
One of the things that I learned from this was if we follow these restrictions of isolation we might see less illness less need for antibiotics and healthier people. That comes from my medical side.
The most important Takeaway for me was that restrictions are for my good. There was a time when I thought they were just to keep me from enjoying life. But they are safe place to protect me from the consequences of some of the decisions which are not good for me. And I have seen this in my life. Any of the consequences I have had to live through were because I was doing things that God told me not to do, it’s a much needed guidance to make the life free from consequences and guilt.