This is it, folks, the last levitical booster shot. Folks have already started arriving for The Summit, the Perspectives Intensive starts Tuesday morning and The Summit kicks off at 7:00pm Wednesday.

No, I’ll still find time to do my daily Bible reading, but I probably won’t be thinking to lead you through Leviticus. So, pay attention, class!

We’ve seen the five offerings in chapters 1-7. We saw them twice, as a mater of fact, both as a picture of Christ offered for us and then what we are to offer to him. Chapters 8-10 gave a view of the priesthood with a reminder that this has to with us, because in the New Testament we are all priests with direct access to God thanks to the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Now, the remaining chapters all have to do with with picturing how God has set us apart to be his special people. Holiness is the key word in Leviticus. Basically, all this stuff that begins with the difference between clean and unclean animals is to set us up to learn to distinguish between right and wrong. What in the world is chapter 12 all about??? Think this – there is something wrong with human birth; we need to be born again.

Brace yourself for chapters 13-15 and a ton of confusing verbiage about – leprosy? Why should you care? Leprosy is a picture of sin in the Bible (remember all those lepers that Jesus healed). Chapter 16  is the Day of Atonement casting a glance to Christ on the Cross, and you might want to check out some cross references in Hebrews.

Getting into chapters 17-22 you will face one of those bewildering lists of prohibitions and rules and be wondering how this affect us at all. As a set of rules, not so much. But, the point of these chapters is to remind us that learning to distinguish between right and wrong extends to every bit of life. We are not to compartmentalize life, but to live life as a single integrated system all to the glory of God.

Chapters 23-25 lay out the fascinating Hebrew system of feasts that portray God’s kingdom plan. The last chapters are some solemn warnings and promises. So, have fun! Remember, you will not understand it all the first time through. It’s OK!

I’ll look to see as many of you as possible this next week at The Summit. You really don’t want to miss this! Try to arrive a bit earl and enjoy some of the special activities planned even for the lobby, and maybe even enjoy a great cup of coffee. No service Thursday night, then Friday and Saturday nights, Sunday morning and Sunday night. Wow!

Alright. I am determined for you to make it though Leviticus. It’s only 21 chapters, people! Focus on Psalms, Proverbs and Mark for your spiritual food, and just keep pushing your way through Leviticus.

You have just seen the description of the five offerings – twice. Once from us toward God, and once from God toward us. Each offering symbolizes some aspect of Christ’s ultimate sacrifice of himself for us. And, it also symbolized what Christ requires from us in return. Chapter 7 puts the bow on the offerings, and chapter 8 introduces the next of the main themes of Leviticus – the priesthood.

The sinner needs a sacrifice for sin, and Christ is our sacrifice. Now, we offer back to him the sacrifice of our lives. The believer needs a priest, and Christ is our great High Priest, the only mediator between God and mankind. Because we have put our faith in him, we are now priests in that we have direct access to God to offer to him our sacrifices (2Peter 2:5; Hebrews 13:15-16). The high priest Aaron is a picture of Christ our High Priest; Aaron’s sons the priests are a picture of us as believers, priest and sons of God.

Every bit of these next few chapters symbolize characteristics of Christ our High Priest and us, too, in our role as priests. For example, the ceremonial washing is a picture of baptism (literally can be translated as washings). Every element of their ceremonial clothing is a picture some biblical truth. See if you can catch some of it. If you don’t get it, keep reading!

Notice this. One must be born into the priesthood, just like we are born again into God’s family. Then, the priest must be properly dressed and genuinely consecrated. Where do you find those truths in the New Testament? In chapter 9 you will see the glory of God appear. In chapter 10 you will see the amazing case of the strange fire of Nadab and Abihu. What is THAT all about?

That should keep you going for a while. Don’t give up now!

We seem to have hit a little turbulence. Here we were flying along together in our read-through-the-Bible adventure with only a few bumps along the way. We made it through the begats and begots and even managed to keep on pressing through Exodus and all that law stuff. There was enough action from time to time to tide us over when we hit snags with loose oxen goring people or falling into pits. Then, there were all the fascinating details of making the furniture and curtains for the tabernacle. Say “Amen!” if you watch HGTV for hours at a time.

Now, we find ourselves in Leviticus. Stay in your seat and keep your seatbelt fastened, and I promise that if you can make it through Leviticus, it will be much smoother sailing ahead – most of the time. I do recommend that you keep your seat belt fastened at all times while you are in your seat, just like we do up in the pulpit.

Here are some hints to keep you from losing your religion. Leviticus literally means “that pertaining to Levi.” So, you want to get the red tabs and when measuring for length remember that they will shrink just a little the first few times you wash them.

Seriously, this is a book that explains the responsibilities of the Levites, the priestly tribe of Israel. This is important to us, since every New Testament believer is a priest, that is we have free access to God to offer our sacrifices to him (1Peter 2:5 and Revelation 1:6). There are many word pictures and symbols that point to our lives today.

Leviticus is quoted more than 40 times in the New Testament, so it must have something of substance to say even if you can’t figure it out the first few times you read it through. This book has more words spoken directly by God than any other book in the Bible. The key word is holiness, appearing 87 times in the book. Moses is the human author, and everything recorded in the book happens in the space of a month between Exodus 40:17 and Numbers 1:1. In Exodus God spoke from Mount Sinai; in Leviticus he speaks mostly from the tabernacle.

Leviticus describes h0w God lived in a tabernacle among his people. The New Testament tells how God came to live in his people on the basis of the finished work of Jesus Christ and his resurrection. In the New Testament the book of Hebrews gives insight into Leviticus more than any other.

Leviticus has two parts. Chapters 1-10 describe the offerings to be presented in the tabernacle. Each of them symbolizes a different aspect of our standing before God on the basis on Jesus Christ being offered as a sacrifice for our sin. The second part of the book, chapters 11-27,describes the rituals that illustrate how God has set us apart to be his special people.

Leviticus describes how God set aside sacrifices, priests and a special place. The New Testament describes how we are to be a living sacrifice, priests and the special place in which God lives.

Got it? … You’re welcome, but you don’t need to thank me. Just give a sacrificial offering to missions.

OK, here’s the tip of the day. Concentrate on those great passages in Psalms, Proverbs and the Gospels. Don’t worry about what you don’t understand in Leviticus. Just keep reading. If you are a pure nerd and have a few months to spare, I have taught through the entire book of Leviticus and you can probably get the mp3 files from Reality Living.

Some folks get discouraged because they hear me rattle off stuff like that above and think they should be able to figure it all out the first time they read through the book. I can’t tell you how many times I read through this book until I started to see a few things. I can’t count the books I’ve read written by those that can’t count the times they have read through Leviticus. Do you really think that I just glance through the book and just begin to vomit out all these factoids? Come on!

I used to read through the entire Bible every 30 days. Insane! I still couldn’t understand Leviticus. And, once I read some book that explained some of it, I had forgotten what I read by the next day. It just doesn’t happen overnight. Do you really just sit down and slickly slam together a 10,000 piece jigsaw puzzle? Or, do you sit and stare at it for long periods of time?

By the way, I no longer try to read through the Bible every 30 days.  I stopped that about the time they measured me for a straight jacket to match my Levis. Just keep reading the Bible. By the time you’ve been at it as long as I have, you’ll be understanding some things, too.

This is a blog post about nothing. Or, you might think of it as a blog post about pretty much everything – everything rolling around in my head today. Yeah, it’s been one of those crazy days. This is to blogs what Seinfeld is to television!

First, I always hate to miss Tuesday prayer. From Monday morning until Wednesday noon we are having our pastor retreat in Excelsior Springs – close to home yet far enough away from all the noise of daily life. I like to hang out with all the pastor guys. Last night we went to see The King’s Speech. Excellent! We seriously had the entire theater to ourselves. Not much Monday night movie action in Excelsior Springs.

So, wait a minute! Why am I here in Dallas? I had promised to be part of a meeting here tomorrow and was going to fly down in the morning and back at night. I’m at lunch with the guys today when my phone rings – my early Wednesday morning flight has already been cancelled due to the threat of snow in Dallas!

How does a seasoned road warrior handle these types of crises? Easy. Pay attention now and you’ll learn something. I take that same cell phone, make one simple call and say, “Emily, help!”

A couple of hours later I was leaving Excelsior Springs heading home to change clothes and then turn around and head back north to the airport. They are expecting several inches of snow here in Dallas overnight so the strategy was to get in before it started. I’m betting now that I can make it back home tomorrow night. We’ll see.

OK, here’s something I’ve been thinking about – blessing. There are many cultures, including the cultures in which the Bible was written, where a blessing holds incredible power and influence. Fathers blessed their children. Men blessed their neighbors and friends. Invoking God’s blessing on someone is considered a great gift in many cultures to this day.

Because we have so many different cultures in our church, there have been times when people from “blessing cultures” have asked me to bless them. They really mean it. I really do it. I’ve had to learn how, and it is something that gives me probably more pleasure than those whom I bless.

One thing is intercessory prayer that involves asking God to intervene in a specific way in a certain situation. Many of you remember how we recently have had special prayer on Sunday morning for Xavier Chacón and his bout with cancer. The past couple of weeks we interceded for Wagih and Samer, two of our brothers who minister in Egypt.

Another thing is to ask God’s blessing on someone. Think about the examples from the Bible, both Testaments. This morning in our Bible reading I saw Psalm 20:1-5 as an excellent template for blessing someone. Tradition says that this Psalm of David was written to express the blessing of the people on their king. Read it and meditate a bit on what power we hold in our lips to invoke God’s blessings on others. All I can say is that to bless someone like that is far preferable to using our mouth to criticize, demoralize, discourage, attack, lie, manipulate or spread rumors. What are some other examples of spoken biblical blessings?

The LORD hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob defend thee; Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion; Remember all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt sacrifice; Selah. Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfil all thy counsel. We will rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners: the LORD fulfil all thy petitions. (Psalms 20:1-5)

Once you get the concept, blessings are all around. I’m sure many of you have heard or seen this old Irish blessing while looking through stuff at a Cracker Barrel or a home accessory story.

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Here’s another example, said to be taken from the breastplate of the one we know as Saint Patrick. There are all sorts of legends about this man, many without much foundation. The truth about Patrick is that he remains one of the greatest missionaries in the history of the Christian movement. During the 400′s he began the remarkable Celtic missionary movement that lasted for centuries. You could turn this text around and give it back to someone as a blessing. Try it!

Christ be with me
Christ before me
Christ behind me
Christ in me
Christ beneath me
Christ above me
Christ on my right
Christ on my left
Christ where I lie
Christ where I sit
Christ where I arise
Christ in the heart of every man
who thinks of me
Christ in the mouth of every man
who speaks of me
Christ in every eye that sees me
Christ in every ear that hears me
Salvation is of the Lord.