Do Not Do As Egypt Or Canaan

It is easy to imitate the ways of this world but God wants his people to be like him.

Leviticus 18:1-5  Then the LORD said to Moses,  2  “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. I am the LORD your God.  3  So do not act like the people in Egypt, where you used to live, or like the people of Canaan, where I am taking you. You must not imitate their way of life.

4  You must obey all my regulations and be careful to obey my decrees, for I am the LORD your God.  5  If you obey my decrees and my regulations, you will find life through them. I am the LORD.

Leviticus 18:30 So obey my instructions, and do not defile yourselves by committing any of these detestable practices that were committed by the people who lived in the land before you. I am the LORD your God.

Leviticus 19:1-2 The LORD also said to Moses, 2 "Give the following instructions to the entire community of Israel. You must be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.

Leviticus 20:7-8 So set yourselves apart to be holy, for I am the LORD your God. 8 Keep all my decrees by putting them into practice, for I am the LORD who makes you holy.

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The good news is our holy God loves us so much that he wants to have a close intimate relationship with us. But the bad news is because he is holy we cannot have an intimate relationship with him. But we don't have to live in the reality of the bad news!

Holiness is the most important truth that you must comprehend about God, it is a huge kindness on God's part to give us his instructions on how to safely draw near to him. The book of Leviticus is the first record that we have on how to live to please God. 

I have to wonder how God's people knew what God's standards are before the exodus from Egypt when he began teaching them at Mount Sinai. It seems that somehow people knew about God and what he expects from mankind before the law was revealed. 

How did:

• Abel please God and how did Cain know what was right and yet he chose the wrong way?
• Enoch have close fellowship with God so that he would be taken directly to Heaven? 
• Noah know how to have God's favor when everyone around him missed the boat?

God's people today have the luxury of looking back at thousands of years of history that God has preserved for us in the Bible to give us a clear picture of how to have his favor. 

The Old Testament shows us a very clear picture of the difficulty mankind has in living up to God's standards. By the end of the book of Genesis (Genesis 46:1-34, 47:1-12) we see that God's people wound up in Egypt for their own good so they would escape the famine in Canaan, but later on we see that while they were in Egypt they started to live like Egyptians.

God's people are conformed to the world when they leave Egypt, their character was proven very quickly and with great repetition. After 400 years of Egyptian influence, God's people didn't look much like God's people, Israel needed to get out of Egypt but God knew that he needed to get Egypt out of Israel.

Deuteronomy 18:9  “When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, be very careful not to imitate the detestable customs of the nations living there.

Perhaps that is the reason God did not take them directly to the Promised Land. (Psalm 106:35, Ezekiel 20:7-8, 23:8) God used the wilderness to get his people away from everyone else so that they could be taught how to live by his rules so that they could live long, prosper and be a blessing to the other nations. 

God's people need to be transformed, this goes way beyond nonconformity to the world, this is way more than withdrawing from the world or living by a list, this is a rebirth that comes from a new nature.

Romans 12:2 Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

A change of character is exactly what God requires for his people but don't be confused, the change is not a requirement to have a relationship with him but rather it is proof that you do have a relationship. Your obedience will be a natural outcome of the transformation of your character.

God is perfect in holiness to the point that all of his divine attributes are holy attributes, because he loves us and wants the best for us, God wants us to also be holy. This is a condition that mankind doesn't long to achieve, our carnal minds are more concerned about happiness and pleasure, we want ease and comfort.

Everybody has a choice to make, we can behave like Egypt or Canaan or we can be renewed with a new nature by the power of the Holy Spirit so that we will be a reflection of God for the world to see. We struggle with this decision because we want God to solve our problems and carry our burdens, we want our best life now and that doesn't include a God that demands control our lives and a huge change in our character.

Ephesians 4:17, 23-24  With the Lord’s authority I say this: Live no longer as the Gentiles do, for they are hopelessly confused. 23 Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. 24 Put on your new nature, created to be like God-truly righteous and holy.

Paul repeats the warning from Leviticus in his letter to the Ephesian church, it was still an issue hundreds of years later, as long as we are in this world we will struggle with this decision. God's people still need the encouragement to make the right choice:

• Will we allow the Holy Spirit to renew our thoughts and attitudes? (Ephesians 4:23)
• Will we desire to put on our new nature which was given to us to make us like God? (Ephesians 4:23)

Instead of saying "don't do as the..." it's still a good idea to ask yourself, WWJD? Jesus is the only man that God fully approved so that makes him the perfect example for us to follow. (Matthew 3:17)

We will mess up as we continue to grow, the Bible makes it clear that God's people will not automatically or perfectly implement the practice of being like God, it takes time to change our minds about the ways of Egypt and Canaan. We must remember that God is just as patient with us as we wonder around in our wilderness on the way to our Promised Land.

RELATED ARTICLES

How Should We Be In The World But Not Of It? (ligonier.org)

John MacArthur: Becoming a Better You? (youtube.com)

Who Will Be Denied?

Jesus set the example for us by denying himself.

Matthew 26:31-35 On the way, Jesus told them, "Tonight all of you will desert Me. For the Scriptures say, 'God will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.' 32 But after I have been raised from the dead, I will go ahead of you to Galilee and meet you there."

33 Peter declared, "Even if everyone else deserts You, I will never desert You." 34 Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, Peter--this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know Me." 35 "No!" Peter insisted. "Even if I have to die with You, I will never deny You!" And all the other disciples vowed the same.

Mat 26:75 Suddenly, Jesus' words flashed through Peter's mind: "Before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know Me." And he went away, weeping bitterly.

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You may not know it but we are constantly making choices that prove our allegiance to God and his purpose and plan. God will not impose his will on us but despite the freedom that we have God is always in control.

Peter didn't like Jesus words, he felt insulted that Jesus would say these things, certainly their friendship with Jesus for these past three years proved their loyalty. So he declared his allegiance and all of the others agreed but they all failed as Jesus predicted.

They were in a situation that few people in America will ever deal with. Most of us won't ever be a part of the persecuted church, we won't have to be so radical with our faith, we won't have to make a decision that is so huge but we still fail daily.

We are still very likely to deny Jesus in the little things that we tend to dismiss or not realize.

To deny Jesus implies:

• that I am contradicting him, that I am in opposition to his teaching.
• that I refuse to acknowledge him and his claim that he is the Promised Messiah.
• that I reject him as Lord of my life, refusing to be his subject or slave.
• that I am embracing my sin nature and my wisdom instead of putting on the mind of Christ.

To deny myself implies:

• that I need to forbid myself from participating in some of the "pleasures" that this world has to offer.
• that I will refuse to put myself in charge and that I will choose to give him control.
• that I am willing to follow Jesus even when it is painful or humiliating, 

Just like Peter, we take the easy way out, we don't realize how serious a simple little denial can really be. It doesn't seem like a big crime at the moment but later the remorse is usually way bigger.

Mark 8:34-35 Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.

35 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.

Crowds of people that had a shallow relationship with Jesus were invited to step in close with the disciples, Jesus lets them know that he wants a deeper relationship. He let's them know what is required to have a real, life saving relationship with him.

To follow requires that you make a choice, you must choose to allow someone else to direct your life, somebody else must control your attitude, your view of the people around you must change, how you treat other races, you must exhibit the fruit of the spirit and be forgiving and kind to those around you.

The life of a winner in this world will be a loser in the next so it is important that I make the right decisions each day. I must give up my self-centered life of rebellion against God (loses his life) for the sake of Christ and the gospel so that I will find everlasting communion with God for eternity.

Jesus made it possible for me to escape death so I should use my life for his glory.

RELATED ARTICLES

Confessing Or Denying Christ (bible.org)
Gun To Your Head, Will You Deny Christ? (desiringgod.org)

Choose Love

God's extravagant love is our example.

1 John 4:9-11, 19-21 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.

10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.

19 We love each other because he loved us first. 20 If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? 21 And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their Christian brothers and sisters.

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Love is one of the most over-used and most misunderstood words in the English language, I can love my corn flakes in my cereal bowl or I might love people that make me feel good, the word love must be very confusing to somebody learning English as a second language.

The Bible proves to us that God's love is a purposeful commitment to sacrificial action that isn't deserved. I wish that was an original idea but somebody thought of that definition and if you search the entire phrase it comes up all over the internet.

It is cool to think of the Bible as a love story from Genesis to Revelation we find that God is always pursuing his people that he chose to love no matter what. In today's scripture the apostle John gives us a picture of real love from God's example.

Love started with God, he lovingly made us and you might say we deserved his love at that point but soon after that he proved the depth of his love by continuing to love us after we became his enemy.

Ephesians 1:4-5 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.

A great sacrifice was made so that I could have a peaceful and loving relationship with God. It is amazing to realize that I was so bad that God had to die for me but I am so loved that he wanted to die for me. How can you resist a love that made such an extravagant and willing sacrifice?

The natural thing for us to do would be to take the easy way out and choose hate but the Bible tells us that we don't have that option as children of God. Maybe hate is too strong of a word but we don't even have the right to withhold love.

If God chose love for me when I was so undeserving then I need to follow his example and do the same for everyone around me. I don't have a reason to not love somebody compared to the reason that God could have used to not love me.

Take a look all through the Bible and you will find God choosing to love people that disappointed him, people that turned their backs on him and chose to ignore him, that is the commitment that God made to me and I need to do the same.

Trust Me!

If I could just be as faithful as God is to his promises.

2 Timothy 2:11-13 This is a trustworthy saying: If we die with him, we will also live with him. If we endure hardship, we will reign with him. If we deny him, he will deny us. If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is.

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Trust me! Usually when you hear those words you know that you need to proceed carefully, but not so when the one saying "trust me" is our God, unlike other people around us, when God tells you to trust him you can take it to the bank.

"If" is a tiny little word with a lot of power, it is a word that invites us to make a choice, in this scripture we have choices with huge consequences. Paul wrote this message to Timothy, who was being mentored by Paul, he gave Timothy an invitation to a new way of life.

This is not the kind of invitation that some preachers are offering today, it isn't an invite to health, wealth and happiness, rather it is quite the opposite. Paul is saying that if we die to self and if we endure hardship, then we will reign with Jesus. Thankfully your "best life" isn't going to happen on this side of glory.

Paul's invitation looks a lot like the invitation that Jesus gave us:

Mark 8:34-38 “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. 35 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. 36 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? 37 Is anything worth more than your soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

It is only an offer, nobody is pushing you into anything, the offer that Jesus made to us is to be his follower, sounds like a good idea, but what does it take to be his follower?

There are two things that I must do and two things that I cannot do. Jesus said that to be his follower I must not be selfish, or ashamed and that I must take up my cross and give up my life. Jesus said that if I want to really live then it has to be in a way that doesn't indulge my human tendency toward self preservation.

God Can Be Trusted
Numbers 23:19 God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?

Just about everybody trust somebody, but how do you decide who you are going to trust in? Here are a few people that would help you with the answer:

✔  Joshua reminded the children of Israel that "every promise of the LORD your God has come true" (Joshua 23:14)
✔  Abraham knew that God would be faithful to his promise.  (Romans 4:20-22)
✔  King David spoke of the Lord's faithfulness over and over again. (Psalm 25:10, 31:5, 33:4)

God asks that we give up a lot to follow him. That shouldn't be such a scary thing for us to do when we realize that his faithfulness is worthy of our trust. It is amazing how unsafe it feels to give everything to the one that loves us the most.

Help me Lord to trust in you one hundred percent.

Choose Life

Jesus warns us to choose wisely in order to avoid disaster.

Matthew 7:13-14  "You can enter God's Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way.  14  But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.

Matthew 7:24-27  “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock.  25 Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock.  26 But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand.  27 When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.”

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At the end of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus made it clear that we have to choose wisely in order to avoid disaster. We have to choose between two gates, two roads, two destinations, and be sure that we are with the right group of people. (Matthew 7:13-14)

The gate that leads to life is very narrow, there are plenty of alternative routes but they are all going to the wrong place, Jesus tells us that he is the only path to God. (Matthew 7:15-16)

There are false teachers that will try and tell you that the path to God isn't narrow, it is cruel for them to say things that are not true, the consequences for accepting their teaching is so severe. The fruit that they produce is the best and most obvious way to discern who to listen to.

Once you know which teacher to listen to you need to be diligent in applying the truth to your life. It would be foolish to know that your teacher is not a false teacher and then ignore their instructions. The wise student will apply God's word to their life so that they can survive the storms that will certainly come their way. (Matthew 7:24-27)

I need to make the choices that lead to life with Jesus for eternity. There are very important choices to make everyday, the world is full of lies, the voices of the false teachers are constantly speaking to us. I need to discern which teacher I listen to so that I will not leave the straight and narrow because of their terrible advice.

Jeremiah 6:16-19  This is what the LORD says: "Stop at the crossroads and look around. Ask for the old, godly way, and walk in it. Travel its path, and you will find rest for your souls. But you reply, 'No, that's not the road we want!'    17  I posted watchmen over you who said, 'Listen for the sound of the alarm.' But you replied, 'No! We won't pay attention!'  18  "Therefore, listen to this, all you nations. Take note of My people's situation.  19  Listen, all the earth! I will bring disaster on My people. It is the fruit of their own schemes, because they refuse to listen to Me. They have rejected My word.

I need to put apply God's word to my life so that I can avoid ruin and I should be a voice that speaks the truth to the people around me. I should help them to see the narrow road and the amazing destination that it will take them to.

Thank you Lord for your warning to your children to avoid Satan and his people that want to deceive us. Help me to always look to truth and wisdom to direct my paths.

Growing Big Faith

Five tools that God uses to grow our faith.

Numbers 23:19  God is not a man, so He does not lie. He is not human, so He does not change His mind. Has He ever spoken and failed to act? Has He ever promised and not carried it through?

Galatians 2:20  I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

1 John 5:4 For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith.

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We saw in the previous post, "The Man That Amazed Jesus," the  incredible faith of a Roman military commander. We saw that If you want to impress Jesus you won't do it with knowledge and it wasn't by obedience, the only thing that is recorded in the Bible that amazed Jesus was big faith.

The importance of faith can be seen in the Old Testament from the Garden of Eden to the entrance to the Promise Land we see God's people making a decision whether they will trust God. (Genesis 3:1-6, Joshua 24:14-15)

The importance of faith can be seen in the New Testament in the letters to the early church. The apostle Paul told the church in Galatia that his old life is dead and now he lives by faith. John tells us in his first letter that faith is essential in the battle with this evil world.

Faith has always been a big deal for God's people. There are incredible displays of faith recorded in the Bible that are much bigger than the faith that the average church member in the United States seems to have. In our world you don't see very many people trusting God and keeping their cool as they are being tossed into a furnace or put into a den of lions. (Daniel 3:18, Daniel 6:1-28)

We make choices that are unwise because we don't trust God's goodness and his promises. So many of us struggle with depression, fear and overcoming life's difficulties because we lack faith. Having complete trust in God is a challenge for all of us, it is difficult to put your life in the hand of somebody else and let them take control. 

Imagine how differently you would respond to difficulties, temptations, and even good things if you knew with certainty that God was in all of it and was planning to leverage it for good. In other words, imagine what it would be like to have perfect faith.

-Andy Stanley

Have you ever seen somebody step out in faith in a big way and you thought to yourself "are they crazy?" A lot of times people with incredible faith are viewed as clueless, people wonder if they have considered all of the information about their situation. We try and reason with them about what they are doing and give them more information in an attempt to make them have less faith.

God wants his people to trust him and have big faith, that's why he went out of his way to build a relationship with his people, he built a relationship with Israel before he gave them the ten commandments. After Israel had a relationship with God they declared that they trust him and chose him over foreign gods.

Five tools God uses to grow our faith:

1. Practical Teaching 2. Providential Relationships 3. Private Disciplines 4. Personal Ministry - Part 1, Part 2 5. Pivotal Circumstances

In order for us to grow and thrive in our spiritual lives, to have faith and to be fruitful, we need to be aware of these tools that challenge us and give us the opportunity to grow and become stronger in our Christian faith.

I am going to study through this Andy Stanley series for the next few weeks. Andy says that this is not a to do list that you check off to make faith happen. It is an observation in his ministry that God uses these things to help us grow closer to him and that we should put ourselves into environments where God can use these to work in our lives.

Help me Lord to grow to trust you more through this study.