Meditation

Meditation for 11/18/2019

“Their fellow Levites were assigned to all the other duties of the tabernacle, the house of God. But Aaron and his descendants were the ones who presented offerings on the altar of burnt offerings and on the altar of incense in connection with all that was done in the Most Holy Place, making atonement for Israel, in accordance with all that Moses the servant of God had commanded.” (1^st Chronicles6:48–49)

Congregational worship requires preparation and leadership. God designated that certain individuals should preside over public worship. This order of priests carried out the ritual and ceremony of worship. A tension developed between the spiritual and ritualistic aspects of worship. The prophets represented the spiritual, and the priests of the Temple represented the ritualistic.

This very tension revealed that both aspects were necessary. In the New Testament we see this position expressed in the person of he apostles, elders, bishops, and pastors of the earth church. These New Testament leaders led in the “ritual” of the church and equipped each individual to be a “priest.”

PRAYER FOR THE DAY:

Precious Abba, each of us is called for specific reasons and our individual gifts are then utilized according to God’s will. In the case of worship, we have many churches, and though they are not all alike, they all share the common thread of leadership as noted in Scripture. Abba, bless all that are part of the leadership for worship in our churches and bless each congregation according to its support of the leadership of their churches. Give wisdom and compassion to our leaders at all times, and give then guidance in leading their churches based upon biblical scripture, that prepares their congregations for the ups and downs of living in this world that we live in today. In Jesus, we pray. Amen

THOUGHT OF THE DAY:

“You are the rich when you’re in God’s will!”

KNOWING GOD:

“He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, and he offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in days gone by, as in former years.” (Malachi3:3–4)

God looked to the day priests would be morally pure and follow the directions He had given for worship. Impure motives and actions make our offerings unacceptable. Priests are human beings, just like the rest of us. In this time spoken of, their motives and morals were not always pure. Even today there are those who fall from God’s grace for mistakes that affect His church and children. There are controls and checkpoints now that were never there before, and it is to protect the leadership of churches, and the church congregation as well. God wants us all to be moral and pure, especially those He calls to be leaders of churches and He holds them to a much higher accountability than everyone else, for good reason.

I AM:

Worship, Priests: (Ephesians4:11-13)

The New Testament teaches that God ordained leaders in the church. Their purpose is to equip each individual believer to be a priest. This great doctrine of the priesthood of the believer means that every individual Christian ha direct access to God through Christ, the one Mediator between God and us. We need no human mediator between us and God. Jesus Christ gives us direct access to God.

Second Thought of the Day:

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with out weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:14–16)

Jesus was thoroughly and completely tempted, yet He did not sin. To be tempted is not sinful, but to yield to temptation is sinful. Jesus was completely human and completely divine. He was tested and tempted and yet remained without sin.

If Christ had never become human, an approach to His throne would be either intimidating or insolent. Our High Priest understands the human situation totally. He has taken part in our nature and, therefore,, understand every aspect of that nature from within. He is not hostile to humanity but is one of us. He wants to help each of us to be the kind of human being He was,, and He knows how to help. When we come close to Him, we approach a nature like His. Therefore, we dare to approach with boldness and confidence.