The Eternal Irony – Numbering Our Days (Part 1)
We take our measure of time in various ways. Days can “drag on” and years “fly by.” We count candles …
Tag Archives: sacrifice
Jesus Our Offering – A Blood-Cleared Conscience (Part 6)
The Son declared on His exit from heaven that He knew the Father had no pleasure in the animal burnt offerings and sin sacrifices. Because His heart is to always bring pleasure to the Father,[1] He did something about it. “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God,” He said. He came to save us, but His motivation was to bring pleasure to His Father.
The Sprinkling of the Holy Spirit – The Blood of Sprinkling (Part 8)
The leper that was to be cleansed had to bring a log of oil as one of his offerings.[1] It was from this oil that the altar was sprinkled and the leper anointed.[2] The offering became the anointing. Now, if we see in this oil the Holy Spirit, this may seem confusing. How could one “offer up” the Holy Spirit? And having offered it up, how could one then anoint with it? Strange as this might seem, it is exactly what the Lord Jesus did.
Freed from Satan to Serve God – The Blood of Sprinkling (Part 6)
The devil is a defiler. He tries to distract us from God by calling our identity into question. “If thou be the Son of God,” he said to Jesus in the wilderness. If we take his bait, we disobey God and our conscience becomes defiled. But he couldn’t shake our Lord. Jesus was secure in His identity. He had the word from the Father, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” With full assurance of faith, He countered each of satan’s attacks with “It is written.”
The Passover Procession – Behold the Lamb (Part 4)
It would be a mistake to judge later Passovers by the requirements God gave Moses in Egypt, for there are many differences between them. The original Passover was eaten with feet shod, staff in hand, in expectation of the Exodus. In the days of Jesus, the memorial Passover was eaten while reclining in celebration of their deliverance from slavery and their rest in the Land.
Following the Blood Trail
The story of Jesus Christ is bloody—bloodier than most of us are willing to contemplate. Centuries of artistic expression have whitewashed the horror of Calvary. Instead of a naked convict, we have the loincloth-clad Christ. Instead of a face ripped, bloated, and bleeding from hours of beating, we have serenely closed eyes.
