DAY 3

DAY 3 MORNING Read Hebrews 12:18-29

LEVITICUS: JESUS’ SACRIFICE FOR MY SIN MAKES ME HOLY

Leviticus is the foundation of the Gospel that Jesus brought to mankind, because Leviticus emphasizes that without an efficacious sacrifice, a sacrifice that is effective in removing sins, man and woman are separated from God because they are unholy in his sight. ‘Once a year the High Priest would take two goats. One would be a purification offering and atone for the sins of the people. The other was called the scapegoat and the priest would confess the sins of Israel and symbolically place the sins on the goat. This was a very powerful image of God’s desire to remove sin and its consequences from his people, so God can live with them in peace.”[1] Jesus is the perfect sacrifice as explained in Hebrews. Jesus is the fulfilment of the Levitical code. For he is the mediator of a new covenant (Hebrews 9:15). The law in Leviticus is a shadow of the things to come (Hebrews 10:1) By the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, by his alignment with the will of God (Hebrews 10:7), we have been sanctified and made holy. Jesus was the embodiment of the will of his Father. When he came to do his Father’s will, he made a way for the restoration of God’s purpose to have a heavenly family on earth. Jesus was God’s will, his word come to pass on earth.Hebrews 10:10 says “and by that will we have been made holy. Spurgeon said[2] “Afflict your souls,” O ye children of Israel, for the day of atonement is come. Weep o’er your Jesus; weep for him that died; weep for him who was murdered by your sins, and “afflict your souls.” Jesus’ sacrifice for my sins makes me holy but it was very costly.. it cost His blood, when He atoned for the sin of the world on the cross, and died for your sin and mine.

MISSIONARY MONKS: MACARIUS 300-391

‘Macarius the Egyptian was one of the desert fathers who advanced the ideal of monasticism in Egypt and influenced its development. He spent 60 years in the desert of Scete.’[3] His focus on Christian perfection and unceasing prayer influenced John Wesley. Salvation was seen (by Wesley and Macarius) fundamentally in terms of the restoration of the image of God.[4] Macarius’ concern was for the work of the Holy Spirit, which imparts grace and brings about entire sanctification, holiness of heart, in obedient believers. Macarius[5]said, “Thus the soul is completely illumined, with the unspeakable beauty of the glory of the light of the face of Christ and is perfectly made a participator of the Holy Spirit.” It is interesting that the Early Church Fathers saw the gift of tears as an important part of the work of transformation that God works by his Spirit. The Desert Fathers, along with Macarius, were convinced that this weeping kept them from sinning and that this was the only way to true salvation, to the true life, whereby God would come and dwell within them. Evagrius the Solitary said,[6] “First pray for the gift of tears, so that through sorrowing you may tame what is savage in your soul. And having confessed your transgressions to the Lord, you will obtain forgiveness. Pray with tears, and all you ask will be heard. For the Lord rejoices greatly when you pray with tears.”

CLICK ON BOLD and you will be directed to Joshua Project website with more information for prayer.

PRAY for Bosniak in in Bosnia-Herzegovina the 3rd largest unreached people group in Europe, whose language is Bosnian and whose primary religion is Islam. There are 1,606,000 and they are 0.03% Christian and 0.03% evangelical.” [7]We pray for your heart Lord, for the Bosniaks. So many muslim men and boys were slaughtered in the genocide in Srebrenica in 1995, the worst atrocity in Europe since the Second World war. Give us the gift of tears, for so very few have accepted Christ. Give us your heart for the Bosniaks of Bosnia-Herzegovina, we pray.

DAY 3 EVENING Read Psalm 11-15, Re-read Psalm 11

PSALM 11: THE CHURCH’S ONE FOUNDATION IS JESUS CHRIST, THE RIGHTEOUS ONE

Psalm 11:3, 4a, 7 “When the foundations are being destroyed what can the righteous do? The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven, for the Lord is righteous he loves justice, upright men will see his face” Watching the TV world news, we are confronted with the reality that today, we live in stormy times for the western world. Global pandemic, increasingly threatening signs of war, financial instability and foundational teachings of the church on sexuality are being questioned. Reading Psalm 11:3 with Jesus, transforms our view of today’s world, it disturbs us, the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do? John Bevere says [8] “Can you imagine erecting a building without a foundation?” Are there any foundations that you and I need to attend to personally that are being destroyed or even neglected?

The praying of the psalms corporately is a foundation that has been neglected by many. Eugene Peterson says[9] “If we dismiss the Psalms, preferring a more up-to-date and less demanding school of prayer, we will not be without grace, but we will miss the centre where Christ worked in his praying. Christ prayed the Psalms – the Christian community was early convinced that he continues praying them through us as we pray them. The practice of Christians praying the Psalms is straightforward: simply pray through the Psalms, psalm by psalm, regularly. That’s it: open our Bibles to the book of Psalms and pray them – sequentially, regularly, faithfully across a lifetime. This is how most Christians for most of the centuries have matured in prayer.”In 1940, Bonhoeffer published his final book before his death, The Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible.[10] He urged Christians to recover the Psalms as the prayer book of Jesus. Bonhoeffer was arrested and imprisoned three years later in April of 1943, and eventually hung in 1945.

Teaching on eternal judgement .John Bevere quotes[11] Hebrews 6:1-2 which says “Therefore leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of … repentance from dead works and of faith toward God and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands , the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgement.” He says “The fact is, all of us will give an account for the way we lived. What transpires at this judgement will last forever – it’s eternal! For the believer, it is referred to as “the judgement seat of Christ.” At this judgement seat we will not be judged for our repented sins- they have already been eradicated by the blood of Jesus. God has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west” Psalm 103:12. Again, He says “I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.” Hebrews 8:12..So what will our judgement entail? We’ll be examined regarding how we lived as believers, and both good and bad will be examined. He says, “I find many believers are unaware of the judgement they will face or at best they are only familiar with the term but haven’t investigated it thoroughly. How are believers building their lives in Christ without this elementary truth.”

Salvation by allegiance alone. In Matthew Bates’ provocative book “Salvation by allegiance alone” [12]Scott McKnight says in the foreword, that “The Church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord”. Upon the absolutely secure foundation of Jesus, the true gospel sits as a secondary substructure and undergirding the universal church. So when the gospel is compromised, despite its unshakeable foundation, the building leans sways and slides. The superficiality of America’s evangelicalism and gospel-obsession with security and assurance has led me at times to wonder if we should not teach justification by discipleship or justification by faithfulness but Matthew Bates has landed on a beautifully and biblically sound of term: allegiance.”

PRAYER My foundation is you Lord Jesus Christ. You are my cornerstone. Help me to build my life on you Lord Jesus and like the wise builder, to hear your words that you are speaking to me today and to put them into practice. Lord reveal those foundations or secondary superstructures that I have been neglecting, I pray.

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[1] https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/leviticus/

[2] http://www.romans45.org/spurgeon/sermons/0095.htm

[3] Macarius the Egyptian https://www.britannica.com/biography/Macarius-the-Egyptian

[4] Snyder,H. John Wesley and Macarius the Egyptian Asbury Theological Journal, Vol45, no2, 1990

https://place.asburyseminary.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1399&context=asburyjournal

[5] Pseudo-Macarius, Homilies 1, Paulist Press International 1992, 38.

[6] The Philokalia, Volume 1, Faber and Faber 1983, 58.

[7] Data provided by Joshua Project https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/18274/GM

[8] Bevere, J The Awe of God, Broadleaf books, 2022

[9] Peterson, E. Answering God: The Psalms as tools for prayer, San Francisco, Harper and Row, 1989, p4, 7.

[10] Bonhoeffer, D. The Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible.