Living in light of eternity

  Since only God is holy, He is the ultimate standard of holiness.  He has given the Holy Bible to teach us about His holiness and our sinfulness- and ultimately our need for a Savior.  Admittedly, this is a hard lesson to learn, especially when you consider we have a sin sick heart (Ro 3:23) Holiness is particularly hard to understand given the deceptiveness and duplicity of our very nature (Jer 17:9-10; James 4:8; Ps 86:11)  And yet, the book of Leviticus is an instruction manual on holiness…   ‘For I am the LORD who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God; thus y ou shall be holy, for I am holy.’  ” (Le 11:45) Leviticus is built around a simple but profound structure- "do this, don't do that."  One verse gives the clue we need for proper interpretation… The LORD then spoke to Aaron, saying, “Do not drink wine or strong drink, neither you nor your sons with you, when you come into the tent of meeting, so that you will not die—it is a pe...

  I may seem hard to believe, but the Pharisees and the Scribes actually accused Jesus and the disciples of defiling themselves.  In Matthew chapter 15 they question Him because they saw the disciples eating bread without washing their hands…   “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” (Mt 15:2)   In their man-made oral traditions, there was an instruction about handwashing.  Around 200 A.D. written down in the Mishnah.  The tractate Yadayim, discusses the rules and significance of handwashing. The Pharisees would have considered these practices essential for maintaining spiritual cleanliness and adhering to their interpretation of the Law. So they were accusing Jesus and His followers of defiling themselves by ignoring their mandates.   ‘Also if one of the animals dies which you have for food, the one who touches its carcass becomes unclean until evening. ‘He too, who eats ...

  Throughout the Bible, we are repeatedly reminded of the importance of our heart.  When using this term, it usually refers to the inner person, meaning our thoughts, emotions, intentions, and moral decisions. For example, in Matthew 5:8, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God," the Lord was talking about purity in the inner man and sincerity in our relationship with God. Similarly, in Matthew 15:18-19, Jesus teaches that what comes out of the mouth reflects what is in the heart.  In this section the Pharisees are critical of the disciples because they ignored ritual washing before eating bread.  Jesus rebukes them for emphasizing external elements of manmade religion and ignoring the deeper and more important aspects of our heart before God.   With all your heart… The command to love the Lord with all your heart is found in several places in the Bible, most notably in Deuteronomy 6:5: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with al...