The Blood of Jesus

THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF JESUS…


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Genesis 9:4-7 – “But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man. 

6 “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God He made man. 7 And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply in it.”  NKJV

 

This command was part of the first commands given to Noah after the Flood.  Have you ever wondered why God would command, EAT NO BLOOD?  We find a clue in Leviticus 17:11 where the commandment against eating blood was, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.”  The emphasis was EAT NO BLOOD because the life of the flesh resides in it and it is used for atonement.

Have you ever considered that the Bible declares that the “blood of Abel” cried from the ground calling for vengeance and the violence and corruption of mankind brought about the flood in Noah’s day?  If God did not spare judgment in Noah’s day do we think He will do so in our day when millions of innocents are slaughter before their birth and the other violence in our world?  Recall what Jesus said concerning the last days in Matthew 24:37, “But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.”  One day, and I believe soon Jesus will return to put an end to the reign of terror on the earth and cleanse the world by the judgment of the Tribulation of which the Flood was a type.  He will then bring a kingdom of peace on a renewed and cleansed earth.  The Blood will cleanse!

Even a cursory reading of Scripture would suggest that God deems blood sacred because in it is LIFE.  Life is in the blood not the flesh of God’s creatures and that is an important distinction.  God permitted man to eat FLESH (animals) but it had to be WITHOUT BLOOD.  God was insistent and incredibly clear on that point.  In Leviticus 17 we find, “it is sin to eat any manner of blood.”  I know we are not under the Old Testament Levitical Laws but also realize that some things transcend the Mosaic or Levitical Law but in Acts 15 we have a record of the first Church council in Jerusalem where Paul and Barnabas appeared. They had taken the Gospel to the Gentiles.  Many within the Jewish community sought to impose on these new believers circumcision and keeping the Law.  Paul went to Antioch after much dispute and reported to the Gentile believers, “Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls saying, You must be circumcised, and keep the Law: to whom we gave no such commandment.”  (v.24)  He continued in vv.28-29 saying, “For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; that you abstain from meats offered to idols, and from BLOOD, and things strangled, and from fornications.” 

             Why no blood today?  I have learned that God’s commands are never arbitrary but logical and reasonable.  He has a purpose in what He commands.  There are many potential reasons for abstaining from blood including health and hygiene, but the two paramount reasons, I believe are:  The Life is in the blood and Life is sacred.  Follow me, if you will.  Since life is in the blood and flesh is lifeless without the blood God is demanding that we respect life.  Therefore, to eat blood, is to insult the life of God because, “the life… is in the blood.” 

You may choose to argue that point but if you carefully examine the directive of Scripture I believe you will concur that God considers life and blood sacred and so should we.  Thank God for the Blood of Jesus. 

            Blessings as you go through this day!

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GOD? What Do You Want From Me? [Part 2]


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1 John 4:7-11 – “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”  NKJV

 

             Imagine a God who is Omniscient (all knowing) who does not like us.  That is a horrific thought, right?  Most of us have or have had a secret(s) that we were ashamed to confess even to our closest friends but God KNOWS everything about us and knows our thoughts even before we think them.  The terror that would accompany the thought that God who knows all about us and does not even like us would drive us suicidal.  He would be an infinite monster!

The Bible never says:  God HAS Power or Love it says HE IS!  Love is not something apart from Him it is WHO HE IS.  But what is Love?  What is Love as it is spoken of here in this passage?  Love, in the English language has become almost a worthless word for we apply it to so many things and give it some many shades of meaning.  What do we think of when we say or hear Love?

Let me suggest a possibility:  It means that we reach out to someone we can reasonably count on that is in our class.  Before you get self-righteous and pious, that is exactly what most of us do much of the time if not all the time.  In European history when a member of a royal family fell in love with a commoner they were fired.  If the king fell for a commoner and married them he would be required to give up his throne.  Likewise when we humans fall in love we tend to keep within our self-imposed boundaries.  Naturally we do not talk about it and possibly refuse to admit it but we do it.

When we say LOVE what do we mean?  If I love a person I am acknowledging that person calls forth my highest admiration and when I look at them I admire them.  We are so captivated by them that when we talk about them they are elevated to a level of worship in our eyes and minds.  We adore them!  Likewise when we LOVE someone it means they answer to what I feel is beauty (eye of the beholder).  Beauty is something that happens in our heads and that is what we usually understand to be love.

But when it comes to God and the Bible declares:  “God is Love” many assume that God is Love in the same way we love.  Virtually every religion in existence has a concept of God based on human love.  However, if God loves like we love how would that work out?  Think with me through some problems with that concept:

  • He cannot find anyone in His Class so immediately we are eliminated. If he were to get friendly with us he would be fired as being God so we are out in the cold.
  • He cannot find anyone in harmony with Him (before salvation) so our disharmony disqualifies us. He is love and holiness and we are selfish and have no plans to change (before salvation).
  • He cannot find any human that would elicit in Him a sense that says about us, ‘That is the best person I know’ for our righteousness are as filthy rags and there is none good (before salvation).

         The dilemma for us is that if God loves like we love we are TOAST!  It is over! We are without hope and hopeless lost forever!   I heard a most appropriate illustration that explains this beautifully:

A missionary went to a witch-doctor and said:  “You preach to me. I come to you with a problem. How would you tell me to reach the Most High God?  I know you have many gods, but I want to reach the Big One, the Most High God.”  The witch-doctor said: “First, you have a big problem, because the Most High God is not interested in you for you are not good enough for him.”  That’s where their religion begins!  Sadly, we have heard the same thing in much more sophisticated terms in church.  We have been told, in so many ways, that we are not good enough for God and He is not interested.

When the Bible says:  God is Love it means that He does not reach out to someone in His class but reaches out to Whosoever Will or reaches down to mankind.  Human love reaches up but God’s love reaches down.  God loves the lost, hopeless, messed up, twisted, distorted, bent, wicked, evil and sinful man and offers LIFE, LOVE and LIBERTY through Jesus!  That is the Gospel message.  What does God want from us?  He wants to dwell in us and with us and manifest Himself through us!

God bless you as you go through this day!

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THE BLOOD OF JESUS…. (Part 3)


The Blood of Jesus

2 Corinthians 10:3-6 – “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. 5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, 6 and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.” NASU

Hebrews 9:22 – “And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.” NKJV

Have you noticed that the devil sometimes impresses upon our minds something like this: “How can anyone as bad as you possibly try to praise the Lord? If you do you are a hypocrite and you know you don’t want to be a hypocrite. You are so bad and have failed so miserably that God won’t hear you anyway.” Unfortunately, I’ve known people who bought that lie and went around with their head hung low and full of self-pity. In that condition the tendency is to just keep on falling short, feeling guilty, repenting and doing it again and again. There is no progress and no victory because of guilt!

But God has made a declaration that obliterates that in 2 Corinthians 5:21 – “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” NASU Hallelujah! Here we find that the Holy God of all creation takes sinful man and makes him righteous in order to fellowship with him! God allowed Jesus to be sin with our sin in order that we might be made righteous with His righteousness!

I am going to declare it – – YOU ARE THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN CHRIST! It is high time that each of us rises up and issues that declaration. Do not allow the devil’s suggestions keep you from enjoying the fullness of forgiveness and victory that is in Jesus! We have imputed righteousness. God is looking at the Covering of the Blood not our past!

Romans 10:10 – “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” NKJV

If we can maintain this declaration that we ARE the righteousness of God in Christ that God has MADE us righteous THEN we will defeat the devil in his accusations against us. I urge you to remember that the devil is a defeated foe and when the believer truly understands what his righteousness means and where it comes from the devil has NO POWER in your life!

I’m cutting this short because I want to delve into the question – How are we made Righteous? That will be in the next post but until then go with God and He will go with you. Blessings as you go through your day!

 

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