The question of the origins of the Christian tradition called Baptist has been, and to some extent still is, a much-debated issue.
PASTOR's PONDERINGS JANUARY 2025
Pastor’s Ponderings –
Can we spend some time focusing on Leviticus? All too often we look at this Old Testament book as mundane. We tend to think of it as just a lot of offerings and sacrifices, laws and rules, do’s and don’ts, and a whole lot of blood. But it’s really so much more than that. It is a book about “The Holiness of God” and what is required for fellowship with Him. It is a book that points out the sinfulness of man and what is required for atonement with God; how He provides the way for us to have access into fellowship with Him. It is therefore a book on worship…worshipping a Holy God, and living a Holy life. We are created in the image of God, and we are created to have a close relationship with God, walking in close fellowship with Him. Many people are unwilling to have that close relationship with God, but that doesn’t mean that we weren’t created for that purpose. The essence of the book of Leviticus, and the call upon our lives is this…”Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.” Leviticus 19:2.
From the time the Tabernacle was erected in Exodus 40:17 and the time the Children of Israel set out for the Promised Land in Numbers 10:11, there is a span of approximately 50 days. During that span of days, the book of Leviticus takes place, at the foot of Mount Sinai. This short 50 days is a time of uninterrupted teaching for the Children of Israel. They no longer have to worry about living in Egypt…Pharaoh’s armies have all been drowned in the Red Sea, so there is no more slavery. They have not yet confronted the Hittites, the Amalekites, the Jebusites, the Amorites, or the Canaanites that dwell by the sea and along the Jordon in the Promised Land. Numbers 13:29. In this short time, God is laying the groundwork for how the Children of Israel were to be Holy people, God’s chosen people, set apart for His purpose, in order that they might demonstrate what it meant to worship a Holy God, and to live a Holy life. God saw it as a must that His children would regard Him as Holy and that they too would be Holy.
So often we talk about how important it is to NOT run ahead of the Lord. But it is just as important that we would not run ahead of the groundwork that the Lord is laying in our lives. Holy on to the things the Lord has already taught you (with conviction) and then learn some more. Paul reminds Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:14-15, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” This is the groundwork that God is laying in our lives…sometimes we need to slow down and listen and learn.
We may not be going through a trial or a time of testing right now, but we will eventually. And depending on how well we allow God to lay that groundwork in our lives now, through the reading and the application of the Word of God, will have everything to do with how well we will walk through that storm when it does come. Let’s not run ahead of the Lord when He wants to teach us something. As He lays the groundwork now, it will be to our benefit and our protection later. God knows what’s ahead, and He knows what we need.
Blessings to you as you walk with the Lord,
Pastor Steve
