Wednesday, February 18, 2009

February 19

Religious and Ceremonial Laws (Continued) - B. Laws Against False Spiritualists - Leviticus 19:26, 19:31, 20:6-8; Deuteronomy 18:9-14; Exodus 22:18; Leviticus 20:27; Deuteronomy 13:1-5, 18:15-22; C. Laws Regarding Blasphemy - Deuteronomy 5:11; Exodus 22:28; Leviticus 24:10-16, 23; D. Laws Requiring Dedications - Exodus 22:29-30, 34:19-20, 23:19, 34:26; Deuteronomy 15:19-23, 18:1-8, 14:22-29; F. Special Instructions for Conquest - Deuteronomy 26:1-15; Leviticus 19:23-25; G. Law of the Sabbath - Exodus 23:12, 35:1-2; Leviticus 19:3; Deuteronomy 5:12-15; Exodus 31:16-17; Leviticus 19:30, 26:2, 23:1-3; Exodus 35:3, 34:21, 31:12-15; Numbers 15:32-36

Oops, for get the Temple and Tabernacle -- God's Dwelling Place...is a Woman's heart.

"Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the Lord your God at the place He will choose as a dwelling for His Name...." [Deut. 14:23]

"...The place He will choose as a dwelling for His Name" appears several times in today's reading.  I'm sure they wondered where this place would be.  An altar?  A pile of rocks?  A pole on a hillside?  Beneath the shade of a tree?  A plastic figurine tacked to the dashboard of their car?  The other gods had their places.  Where would their God's place be?  What place would be big enough for this God who comes in the guise of a pillar of fire or a column of smoke?  This God who lights up the summit of an entire mountain for 40 days?  What one place would be worthy and as eternal as He is eternal?  

In time that place will be the City of Jerusalem.  But only for a time...  

Today the place "He will choose as a dwelling for His Name" is inside those who wear His Name.  His Name is written on the  human heart.

How incredible to think that we - no matter how blemished or broken or handicapped or damaged - we are His Place, His Body, His Church.  We are His Tent and Tabernacle.  And so we should value every person on the Earth.  For they are the place God calls home.


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