Today´s reading:
OT: Deuteronomy 11, Deuteronomy 12
NT: Luke 8:22-39
Ps: Psalm 70
Pr: Proverbs 12:4
Today´s notable verses:
4 You must not worship the LORD your God in their way. 5 But you are to seek the place the LORD your God will choose from among all your tribes to put his Name there for his dwelling. To that place you must go…
Deuteronomy 12:4-5 (NIV)
The place the Lord chose as His dwelling place among the Israelites – the place they were to go to worship – was the tabernacle, and eventually the temple. Today, because of Christ, the Lord has chosen as His dwelling place the hearts of His believers. Since the Old-Testament dwelling place of God was a place of worship, the New-Testament dwelling place of God is also a place of worship. Thus, we are living, breathing, walking vessels of worship. No longer must we go somewhere external and fixed in order to worship our Lord; instead, our lives and our worship have become intimately and inexorably united.
But be sure you do not eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat.
Deuteronomy 12:23 (NIV)
“The blood is the life.” This statement explains why bloodshed is required as atonement for sin: since the wages of sin is death, sin demands shedding of blod – that is, shedding of life.
The One Year Bible Blog asks:
Do you believe in the existence of evil in our world today? Do you believe that Satan exists? Do you believe that demons exist? Do you know the one true Remedy and Salvation and Protection from all evil? Will you run into Jesus’ arms for this safety forever?
One cannot turn on the television or read a newspaper or magazine without being confronted by the stark presence of evil the the world. Despite the cloud of relativism and the camoflauge of post-modern philosophy, Satan cannot completely obscure his existence. I know his agents – demons and evil spirits – exist, because I have witnessed their influence with my own eyes. Even as a teenager, I had witnessed the interaction of the forces of evil in the spiritual realms with our natural world. Yet, I have never needed to fear that evil, nor do I dwell on it. He who is in me is greater than he who is in the world. I am safely in the arms of Christ, and nothing will happen to me that He does not allow and work out for my good. And I praise God for that!