**BIBLE STUDY** Finding Meaning in Leviticus

Trigger warning: I am going to make a couple of statements in this post that I am sure will offend some people. My intent is not to offend. My intent, as always with my posts, is to share information and my viewpoint and opinions. But because I do want to share in love, please do read and think about anything I say before you dismiss it.

I will be honest and admit that I have trouble reading through books like Leviticus and Numbers. It's so tempting for me to skip over these "drier" books. 

Every word in the Bible is there for a reason, though so I refuse to take any shortcuts this time around. I have been taking notes and try to find something to think about for each section of the chapters I read. With Leviticus, I mostly have questions which means I have to look for answers. That's how I came up with so many links in my last post.

I have just struggled through chapter 7 in Leviticus. It wasn't until I got halfway through chapter 4 that something dawned on me.

We commit so many sins - intentional, unintentional; "small" sins, and "large" sins. I couldn't possibly even attempt counting how many times a day I sin in thought. If I lived during the Mosaic era, I'd have worn a hole in the path to the priest's door. 

When I started thinking about all those sacrifices people had to offer back then, I became ever so much more thankful for the Lord's sacrifice on the cross. His once-and-for-all sacrifice takes on more and more meaning as I think about my sins. People, I don't sin daily, I sin from moment to moment. On some days, my thoughts are a blur of sin.

So, I started paying attention to the types of offerings in Leviticus. Because of the repetition, there seem to be hundreds mentioned but I realized there were five of them. I still had trouble understanding them though so I was thrilled to come across this wonderful chart by Raymond K. Campbell on *Bible Centre:

Cambell (who has other contributions shown on Bible Centre) gives a sketch explanation of each offering type. I have printed this out to study while I skim back over chapters 1-7.

By the way, I found it interesting that a wave offering (ex: Lev 7:30) is a portion of a sacrifice waved in the air indicating that it is for the Lord. When I read that, I immediately thought of how music fans are often encouraged to wave their hands "in the air and wave 'em like you just don't care". A Redditor might tag this as being mildly interesting. Of course, when I got to Leviticus 10:2 and started reading about Aaron's sons offering up "strange fire" so I did a quick search for any lyrics and found something by The Indigo Girls (never listened to their music before) and they have a song called "Strange Fire" with this as the starting lyrics (my emphasis added):

I come to you with strange fire
I make an offering of love
The incense of my soil is burned
By the fire in my blood
I come with a softer answer
To the questions that lie in your path
I want to harbor you from the anger
Find a refuge from the wrath

Because I never heard their music or knew anything about this duo, I did some cursory Wiki lookups. I am surprised that they are gay but seem intertwined with ministries. Sort of like if I was a  proud and professional liar who claimed to follow Christ - who died for my sins as a liar, cheat, adulterer, etc. I am not proud of my sins and don't live unrepentant of them and I, for the record, would be afraid of the fire of God's wrath. Just saying so don't come for me with wagging fingers and the shaming. This is not a statement about hate for gays. This is a statement about my understanding of sin and repentance and salvation through Christ. I don't hate gays or anyone else for their sin but I do pray they find salvation.

Anyway, I just wanted to share that. I hope this helps anyone else reading through Leviticus.

Peace

--Free

*I have not visited Bible Centre before now and have not perused the site. I have not read their Statement of Faith. Please use discernment when visiting any linked site.

Good & Evil All Around Us

 After reading the news a few days back, I did a quick internet search to find out more about the Boogaloo movement. Along with links to items about this "movement" something came up about The Order of Nine Angles (ONA/O9A). (I actually kept reading it as "angels" for the first couple of minutes.)

Have you ever heard of these groups? I had not. And I tend to pay attention to a lot of podcasts and videos about conspiracy theories. I am fascinated with things that reinforce the truth that there's evil in our existence.

And let's talk about my flirtation with conspiracy theories.  I will do a brief history:

• I grew up in the Pentecostal "Holiness" denomination. We were called "Holy Rollers" and believed in speaking in tongues and "shouting" (Holy Ghost dancing). I left that denomination and had ever since considered myself a non-denominational Bible-believing Christian.
• I never bought the official JFK assassination story.
• My father joined the Freemasons and, for lots of personal reasons, I have problems with Freemasonry and all their affiliations.
• I have known people who belong to pagan religions. I have witnessed things that truly disturbed me.
• Some years ago, I heard a pastor breaking down the occult influences in Hip Hop, entertainment, and other media outreaches. I checked out much of what he talked about and... he wasn't exaggerating. By the way, the series is called The Truth Behind Hip Hop and there is also a book available.
• I remembered what the Ephesians 6:12 says:

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. 

• I pay attention to things the Bible says about coming out of and away from pagan practices. Many of these practices still exist.
• Satan told 4 lies in the Garden that are still being re-worded and told today.
• I realized that there were other Christians who recognized that we live surrounded by strange influences that get downplayed as being "conspiracy theories".
• I started watching videos and podcasts where others were discussing topics I found interesting.
• I listen to podcasts by people like Isaac Weishaupt of Conspiracy Theories and Unpopular Culture (because he too is a Christian) and Freeman Fly of the Freezone (not a Christian but very informative about culture). Weishaupt wrote an interesting book. 
• I now pay way more attention to the details in any movies, books, or movies I give time to. 

I cannot remember where I copied this from.
Pinterest, I think.

It's to the point that I can no longer just watch a movie or read a book or hear music without paying close attention. Any and everything in this world is so easily corrupted. 

So I am not surprised that in almost every social and political agenda, there is another power behind that agenda. Black Lives Matter, Blue Lives Matter, environmental advocacy, education, healthcare... Every agenda is polluted with some kind of darkness.

What did surprise me is that I had not heard of the ONA/O9A. Once I realized who they are supposed to be, I realized that they are just another dark thing to use this chaotic time to market themselves to a wider audience. The ONA/O9A and the Boogaloo folk aren't original - not in their theme or goals. Charles Manson was probably an influence. He, after all, was on the race war wagon before most of these new thugs were born.

Anyway.

I am not sure what more to say. Maybe I just needed to rant about this. Maybe I just worry that not enough people - not enough Christians - are paying attention to the spiritual darkness that is creeping ever closer in around us. My thoughts just wandered to the memory of Art Bell. I don't think he was a conspiracy theorist any more than Jerry Springer likes to brawl and name-call. Art, may he be resting in peace,  liked being entertained by conspiracy theories and theorists. At least, that's my opinion. I only bring him up because of something he started talking about not too many years before he passed. He, like many of us, pick up where previous generations left on and wondered if we aren't living in times close to the end. He had a great name for this feeling of warning. He wrote and titled a book after it called "The Quickening".  

Peace

--Free

P.S.: This was kind of a rushed post so forgive me for any missing links or pieces of info.

Direct Links for Bible Study

 It dawned on me that sometimes it's hard to find your way back to a particular online resource. I use several things to help in my daily Bible reading and study but I had to save some links for myself because I couldn't always get to the right place when I needed to. I wanted to share these with any of you who are interested. 

Of course, all the links are courtesy of wonderful sites I have found useful so a big thanks to all of them. Here we go.

• To check various parallel Bibles here or...
• or here from Bible cc or...
• here at Bible Resources
• See a comprehensive list of online parallel Bibles
• Study the Hebrew Interlinear text or...
• ...the Greek Interlinear text
• Use Strong's Greek and Hebrew Concordance and Lexicon (either use the Lookup Strong's Number box at the center of the page above the Preface or go to top left of page to enter a Scripture reference or keyword and select the Bible version to view)
• Do an advanced Bible search on the Study Bible site
• Some Bible concordances
• Some very interesting resources for history relevant to believers.
• An ongoing list of Bible Q&As
• Ask questions at Got Questions. Just type in a question here. You can also ask from any search engine and just add "got questions" & it usually pulls up a link to the site. You can also check their New  Questions or click the Random button to... see a random question and answer. And don't forget that you can also donate to them. If just browsing, you can look at a category of their content.
• If you need to check the Thomas Chain Reference (by topic)
• See the Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words , Berry's New Testament Synonyms,  or Trench's New Testament Synonyms (don't ask me, it's the first I'm seeing these!)
• See a chart of the Bible books with brief descriptive headings for each. Also, the books are linked so you can navigate to them from the chart.
• Links to various Bible commentaries.
• Peruse various devotionals
• Check some Bible encyclopedias
• Additional resources, including Spanish language bibles.
• Old Testament Hebrew Lexicon
• New Testament Greek Lexicon
• Link list of classic Christian essays & other literature (including works by Bunyan). And a list of authors here.
• A site of lots of Bible history stuff - maps, timelines, etc.

Just wanted to say that I loved finding out the Dummies.com has a Bible page as a sort of cheat sheet reference.  I will be looking that over when I get the chance!

I added quite a few things to my original list. In doing so, I ran across some resources I am unfamiliar with. I will do a future post explaining (if I can) the usefulness of those resources. 

Also, I will be adding to this link list as I find more resources.

Peace

--Free