Not since June...
It's been dry. An incredible dry fall spiritually... I wish I knew the reasons behind peaks and valleys in the christian walk. Instead, what I think I've begun to recognize is that the walk is truly what it is all about. Obedience to my heavenly father in both trying and triumphant times. The times where it seems like no growth is evident and that sense of enrichment is completely absent from your life... those are crucial times to still get up and take up your cross and follow your Savior! That is completely where I have been and honestly I am glad to be writing this because I feel like I have some real thoughts to share where I truly haven't in a while. It's been frustrating at the very least.
I've been at my third attempt in reading through the bible. (the previous two were not entirely successful, I've never gotten through the entire OT, though I have been through the NT a handful of times). This time around, I've tried to diligently follow the advice of my pastor and good friend, Ryan Britt. He recommends, as do I now, that we all read the bible from the perspective that it really is one continuous story about Christ. The bible, and indeed, history is centered around this man who was both fully human and fully divine (and also not white with long brown hair, by the way... haha). At any rate, I am sifting through some pretty slow chapters of Leviticus and something is really standing out to me. It really is not that profound of a thought, but it still encouraged me... The rules and regulations that Moses writes about in this portion of the Pentateuch are thoroughly endless. Mundane. Depressing. Seemingly trivial. But that is at first glance and if you try to read the bible like fiction... you say... where are the juicy stories of murder and intrigue? where are the stories of conquest and where are the dazzling miracles?... or if you read it like a self-help book... where is the advice for what I am going through? what do the diagnostics for building the temple have to do with me? These are easy questions to ask, and all of those things ARE in the bible. A likely attitude to adopt if you come to the bible looking for some personal fulfillment is to desire these things so strongly and miss some greater lesson. God would not call us to be in His word, I argue, for us to feel better about ourselves. He wants us to be in His word out of obedience to him, so we can more diligently follow His commands and seek His will. I am not suggesting that you won't find answers in the word, I am simply stating that if you constantly seek God in the Word and the message of Christ's redemption in it that you will find more concrete, biblical direction for your life.
So how have these passages spoke to me? They have made me in awe of God. Simple and plain. The reason for all of these rules and regulations were for one purpose, to access a relationship with our Heavenly Father. For the Israelites, it took quite the measured lifestyle to have that, and even then, only one man could step into the Holy of Holies with being struck to death, and if even he was unclean in that moment, he too would die. This doesn't mean God is some rule happy dictator that wants us to live rigid, unhappy lives. It means he literally is so holy, so blameless, so perfect... that we now, and the Israelites then, could never access His presence freely without Christ. Without Christ paying the ultimate sacrifice on the cross to redeem a personal relationship with our Father, we would still be separated like the Jewish people of the Old Testament were. That's what the passage clarified for me. The gratefulness I ought to live in daily for no longer needing those laws, but being able instead to pray, to talk, to share freely a deeply personal relationship with our perfect Father through our perfect Savior. A simple thought really...
