Good Ol' Leviticus

The college girls' class that I teach is reading through the Bible in a year together.  We have hit Leviticus.  Ugh.  I struggle with this book so much.  I get that there was a purpose for the do's and don't.  It does help me to be OH SO THANKFUL that I do not have to go through each of those steps.  That I can just approach the Holy of Holies whenever(i blogged on that before, so I won't again.).  I just didn't feel like that was what God wanted to show me this time, but I just wasn't getting a new message.  Then, I began talking with God in the car.  I asked him how this currently applied to my life.  And God took me to humbleness.  He told me that the whole reason for making people bring a public sacrifice was that it humbled them.  It made them admit they had messed up and that they were sorry for what they had done.  And then, he chastised me.  He told me that I needed more of that in my life.  I needed to be more humbled by my sin.  That if I was truly humbled by my sin more, I would sin less.  The Israelites were not bringing sacrifices multiple times a day or even daily, I don't think.  The bible makes it seem like many of them went time periods without having to bring a personal sacrifice.  If they didn't, they would have never gotten anything done because they would have always been going to the Tent or spent time in solitary over being unclean.  No, I believe they were so humbled the times they did have to go admit it, that they walked closer with God because of it and sinned less.  And guess what...THAT IS THE WAY IT SHOULD BE.  So, I began looking at how to be truly humbled by my sin.  I asked the Lord what makes us truly humble now.  **There are many answers to this question**  The one He dealt with me about on this day was confession and apologizing.  The Bible says in James 5:16 "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."(KJV)   We usually don't mind confessing others' sins to other people but rarely do we come to other people and lay our sins out like the ugly garment that they are.  We wear them secretly and never truly deal with them and that is why we constantly commit them over and over again.  If we would go find people that we know are truly seeking the Lord and displayed our sin out to them and said "This is what I have done and I am struggling."  If those people are walking with the Lord, they will love you, speak truth over you, and PRAY WITH/FOR you.  The other thing is apologizing.  The Bible says in Matthew chapter 5 verses 23-25 " So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift."(ESV)  This means that even if you know you are in sin and are willing to ask God for forgiveness, if you do not ask the person you sinned against for forgiveness, God doesn't want to hear it.  God handle it with the person and then God will forgive you.  The thing is, if you are not willing to talk to the person and ask for forgiveness, you aren't really sorry for it, so asking God would mean you are only walking through the motions and not truly repentant.  Psalms 51:16-18 tell us the sacrifice God wants from us now: 
"You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
    you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
17 My sacrifice, O God, is[a] a broken spirit;
    a broken and contrite heart
    you, God, will not despise." (NLV)

Apologizing and confession are acts that would bring our hearts back to humbleness and repentance.  That is the place I long to live in. Maybe this will encourage some of you to do some things differently like it has me.  I want to be different every day.