4 min
May 16, 2024; Day 5 of Week 7 Daily Dose of Hope
-
- Self-Improvement
Daily Dose of Hope
May 16, 2024
Day 5 of Week 7
Scripture: Leviticus 4-6; Hebrews 3
Welcome to the Daily Dose of Hope, the devotional that complements New Hope Church’s Bible Reading Plan. I hope you’ve had a great week. Keep me posted on your big takeaways from the reading.
Let’s start by continuing with the book of Leviticus. First, we find God giving Moses instructions for the kinds of sacrifices needed for unintentional sins. The first section details what needs to be done if a priest unintentionally sins. This is particularly important because the priest is the representative of the people before God. If they sin, then the whole nation is guilty. Next, we read about how to atone for the unintentional sins of the community, the leaders, and the individuals.
After unintentional sin sacrifices, we read about sacrifices needed for inadvertent sins, such as accidentally touching a dead animal or a dead body.
The final kind of offering that we read about in Leviticus is the guilt offering. So, we have covered the sin offering, the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the fellowship offering. Confused yet? Each of these offerings was intended for a very specific purpose. What’s interesting is that the more I researched these offerings, the more I realized that even the best scholars aren’t clear on the distinctions of each one. Thus, we will certainly do our best to understand and pray God offers the clarity we need.
With that, let’s move on to Hebrews 3. Just as the Israelites were susceptible to falling away from God, the author of Hebrews makes the point that Christians are also vulnerable to sin and turning away from the living God. The audience of Hebrews was already drifting from the core of the faith; they were disconnected and a sense of apathy had set in.
What was life like for these early Christ-followers? Really, really hard. They were experiencing persecution from Jews and Gentiles alike. It was difficult to be a faithful Christ-follower in the first century. For that reason, the author stresses the importance of supporting one another, not allowing your fellow brother or sister in Christ to turn away from the faith, encouraging one another daily.
How often do we encourage one another daily? While we aren’t experiencing the same kind of persecution as our first-century brothers and sisters, our world isn’t an easy place to follow Christ. We are painfully distracted by so many outside voices, we are inundated with negativity and division, and we are part of a culture that is increasingly hostile to anything related to the church. Thus, we often settle for mediocre faith-oriented lives, religious activity rather than Spirit-filled, passionate lives solidly rooted in Jesus. Churches have become social clubs rather than springboards for mission and discipleship. And we accept this as if there is no other way. Friends, there is another way. What if we each made an intentional decision to live for Jesus, pay attention to the Spirit, and love others extravagantly? To do so, we would have to encourage one another daily (maybe even hourly). We need each other. We need the body of Christ. Life can be hard (think John 16:33) but Jesus is still on the throne and for that, we should constantly rejoice.
Blessings,
Pastor Vicki
Daily Dose of Hope
May 16, 2024
Day 5 of Week 7
Scripture: Leviticus 4-6; Hebrews 3
Welcome to the Daily Dose of Hope, the devotional that complements New Hope Church’s Bible Reading Plan. I hope you’ve had a great week. Keep me posted on your big takeaways from the reading.
Let’s start by continuing with the book of Leviticus. First, we find God giving Moses instructions for the kinds of sacrifices needed for unintentional sins. The first section details what needs to be done if a priest unintentionally sins. This is particularly important because the priest is the representative of the people before God. If they sin, then the whole nation is guilty. Next, we read about how to atone for the unintentional sins of the community, the leaders, and the individuals.
After unintentional sin sacrifices, we read about sacrifices needed for inadvertent sins, such as accidentally touching a dead animal or a dead body.
The final kind of offering that we read about in Leviticus is the guilt offering. So, we have covered the sin offering, the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the fellowship offering. Confused yet? Each of these offerings was intended for a very specific purpose. What’s interesting is that the more I researched these offerings, the more I realized that even the best scholars aren’t clear on the distinctions of each one. Thus, we will certainly do our best to understand and pray God offers the clarity we need.
With that, let’s move on to Hebrews 3. Just as the Israelites were susceptible to falling away from God, the author of Hebrews makes the point that Christians are also vulnerable to sin and turning away from the living God. The audience of Hebrews was already drifting from the core of the faith; they were disconnected and a sense of apathy had set in.
What was life like for these early Christ-followers? Really, really hard. They were experiencing persecution from Jews and Gentiles alike. It was difficult to be a faithful Christ-follower in the first century. For that reason, the author stresses the importance of supporting one another, not allowing your fellow brother or sister in Christ to turn away from the faith, encouraging one another daily.
How often do we encourage one another daily? While we aren’t experiencing the same kind of persecution as our first-century brothers and sisters, our world isn’t an easy place to follow Christ. We are painfully distracted by so many outside voices, we are inundated with negativity and division, and we are part of a culture that is increasingly hostile to anything related to the church. Thus, we often settle for mediocre faith-oriented lives, religious activity rather than Spirit-filled, passionate lives solidly rooted in Jesus. Churches have become social clubs rather than springboards for mission and discipleship. And we accept this as if there is no other way. Friends, there is another way. What if we each made an intentional decision to live for Jesus, pay attention to the Spirit, and love others extravagantly? To do so, we would have to encourage one another daily (maybe even hourly). We need each other. We need the body of Christ. Life can be hard (think John 16:33) but Jesus is still on the throne and for that, we should constantly rejoice.
Blessings,
Pastor Vicki
4 min