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Have you read Leviticus lately?  I listen to Bible Gateway Audio at nighttime and Leviticus came on.  Talk about a lot of rules.  I don’t know how the Priest kept up with all the different ways he was supposed to offer the Israelites sacrifices.  Was it a sin offering, was it a grain offering?

If you couldn’t afford a lamb for a sin offering you could do two birds, but they had to have their neck only rung halfway; but if it was a different offering the priest could ring his neck all the way!

The list goes on forever – when to take the fat off, leaving the fat on, burning the hide, what the priest could have, if you accidently sinned, etc.

I am a city girl.  I grew up on a ranch with all sorts of animals, and never enjoyed that life, so I am thankful that Jesus took care of all that.

Yes, I know the priest was the one who had to do all the killing and butchering, but that puts a whole new perspective on priesthood.

I wonder if we would have half the priest/ministers that we have today if all that butchering was still in place.  It puts a whole new perspective on “caring for our soles”.

The priest were ensuring that the Israelites sins were covered by blood offerings, and therefore in right standing with God, but what a mess.

Can you imagine with today’s population and all the rampant sin in today’s society, what that site would look like?  The smell, the smoke, the poop!

So, Jesus not only saved us from the expense of killing our farm animals and all that mess, as well as giving us grace, but he also gave us healing with His death.

So many Christians forget that we have the privilege of healing in our midst.

I think the reason why we forget is because we have probably prayed a prayer of healing and we were still sick; or a loved one passed away anyway.  We lost the faith to believe that Jesus does heal.

James 5:16 states “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.  The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”

So, there is two-fold to healing.  We must have faith to believe that Jesus can heal and will heal, first and foremost.

Then the scripture states to confess our sins to one another.  The reason we need to do this before praying for healing is because the scripture states “a righteous person has great power”.

You can’t be righteous in God’s site if you have not confessed your sins and asked for forgiveness.

We also need to thank Jesus daily for dying on the cross for our sins.  I don’t think many of us would have made it thru blood sacrifices.

 

Karen Y. Stevens, Executive Director for Meals on Wheels