Meditation

04/28/2022

“And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes and be ready by the third day, because on that day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.’” (Exodus 19:10-11)

Those who appear in the presence of the Lord should show their respect in outward appearance as well as inward attitude. Supposing you knew that you needed your best clothes to meet the Lord tomorrow. How long would that take you? I would say you need to consider one thing very carefully. If you are to be in the Lord’s presence, you would need to at least kneel before him, if not fully prostrate yourself in His Presence. Ok, put the clothes aside, they need to be clean and presentable, but what about your attitude? Is the attitude you have every day, presentable to Him? Ok, you now have clothes to humbly kneel or prostrate yourself and you’ve cleaned up your attitude as well. What if the door bell rings and you walk up to the door and open it to the Lord without His being announced? The people had three days to prepare for the Lord to be somewhat ready, but if he would come unannounced, how many of us would be prepared and what would His expectation of us be like?

PRAYER FOR THE DAY:

Precious Abba, today we recognize the gift a visit from our Lord! Often, we tend to sit in judgment on others, but what if He walked into your home, would He find you presentable to Him. Would the Holy Spirit nudge you to bow and welcome Him into your home. You never know when the Lord might show up at your door or workplace or somewhere else, not dressed as we would think, but as someone out of the crowd. Are we going to impress Him as we talk and act with Him? Would we have to change our language or clothes or adjust our attitude? We never know when He might just pop in on us, to see if the one that worships on Sunday, acts the same on Monday through Saturday. Today we also pray those who are suffering in body, mind, and/or spirit, with friends, family, for those we don’t know, especially the people in Ukraine, as they are fighting for their very lives and way of life. Amen

THOUGHT OF THE DAY:

“People who have never failed are people who have never tried!”

KNOWING GOD:

“Take the anointing oil and anoint him by pouring it on his head.” (Exodus 29:7)

Anointing set aside for the priests for sacred duty in God’s place of worship. The symbolic action represented the community’s prayer to God to accept the work of the anointed ones as they represented the community before God.

I AM:

“The Lord said to Moses: ‘When a person commits a violation and sins unintentionally in regard to any of he Lord’s holy things, he is to bring to the Lord as a penalty a ram from the flock, one without defect and of the proper value in silver, according to the sanctuary shekel. It is a guilt offering. He must make restitution for what he has failed to do in regard to the holy thins, add a fifth of the value to that and give it all to the priest, who will make atonement for him with the ram as a guilt offering, and he will be forgiven. If a person sins and does what is forbidden in any of the Lord’s commands, even though he does not know it, he is guilty and will be held responsible. He is to bring to the priest as a guilt offering a ram from the flock, one without defect and of the proper value. In this way the priest will make atonement for him for the wrong he has committed unintentionally, and he will be forgiven. It is a guilt offering; he has been guilty of wrongdoing against the Lord.” (Leviticus 5:14-19)

The guilt offering indicated the nature of sin. It is “against the Lord.” Like the sin offering, the guilt offering required the shedding of blood. When Jesus died on the cross for our sins, no longer were any of the burnt offerings necessary, as His death atoned for the sins of the world; past, present, and future. However, we must come humbly, with penitent hearts and minds not to repeat our sins, and seek His forgiveness. We don’t deserve it, but forgiveness will be forthcoming, because of His grace, mercy, and love for us. His Resurrection three days later, attested to His power over death itself and proved once and for all times, that Satan was defeated.

2ND THOUGHT OF THE DAY:

“The commander of the Lord’s army replied, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.’ And Joshua did so.” (Joshua 5:15)

God’s holiness demanded reverent prostration from His people. The holiness of God is the absolute difference between God and man. Holiness belongs to God alone. Anything else called holy is so because of it association with God. The ground on which Moses and Joshua stood was called holy because God was present and speaking to them. Holiness makes us mindful of our lowly status as a creature compared to the Almighty One, who created us and holds our lives in His hands.