Andy Darnell’s Mindmap

Well this post is a few days in coming. I finished Leviticus the other day as I’m reading through the Bible this year. What a tough book in the Bible. It probably isn’t the one that most christians run to with eager expectations.

Lots of Laws. This we know. God is telling Moses to teach the priests their job descriptions. He’s laying out how to dot the ‘i’s and cross the ‘t’s to the Levi priests.

Over and Over and Over again this phrase comes up: “Be Holy Because I am Holy.”

Blood is everywhere in this book. We are told that atonement from sin can only come through shedding of blood.

Other thoughts:

• Leviticus 13:46 talks about the fact that leprous persons are to, on top of everything else they have to do, walk around shouting (cry out) “UNCLEAN, UNCLEAN.” Can you guys imagine if we had to do this today. Makes me appreciative to be washed in the blood of the Lamb.
• Leviticus 18:9-10 talks about harvest. God tells them to not reap the field right up to its edge. Also, don’t strip the vineyard bare. Also, don’t gather fallen grapes off the ground. They were to leave them for the poor and sojourner. How are we supposed to do this today? I know that we are to give back and help the poor, but is there a lesson in this that we are missing? How do we ‘Harvest’ today. How can we leave the edges for those around us… Hmmm
• Leviticus 23-25 talk about feasts and celebrations that they were to keep. Do we keep them the same today? Should we? If I were to recognize one, what would it be? Can you imagine us honoring and celebrating ‘The Sabbath Year.’ Could we work the land for 6 years and let it rest for 1 year.

What are you reading now? Are you in the midst of a plan to read through the Bible this year?

This is a tough section. I’m thankful that God didn’t give up on me. I look around and see the evidence of His love and His wrath.

I pray that He won’t give up on those whom I love and want to see receive the gift of His grace and Love. I don’t want to see His wrath upon them and the removal of Himself from them.

Takeaways:

v 16 – Paul is taking a stand. Knowing that what he is writing / preaching is not from him, it is from God.

v 18 – Wrath – While God is a god of Love, God’s Wrath is very real. His wrath and the various types of His wrath are a warning to us, because in …

v19-22 – God has revealed Himself to all. No one has excuse. His creation shows who He is.Yet…

v23 – 25 – Even though they know that truth, they turn away we made other things into our idols. Turned junk into a god. Worshiped these things instead of worshiping Him. They try to do it their way.

V26-32 – Scares me that some can be turned over to the sin that they continue in. At some point, God removes Himself from them.

Hello, I’m Andy Darnell And I am a reality show junkie.

Just last night, I was watching Hell’s Kitchen on Fox. If you aren’t familiar with the show, the contestants are chefs from all sorts of food backgrounds. They are competing for a job as head chef for one of Gordon Ramsay’s restaurants. Ramsay has very high standards, and there will be no arguing with him on any matter. He is the law in the kitchen.

Besides the excessive profanity, Ramsay often will “Shut it Down!” or “Switch it Off!” if the kitchen is in complete chaos. The pressure cooker that is the kitchen is so high, that many mistakes are made and occasionally food will be presented for service dangerously undercooked.

“Are you trying to Kill Someone!” Ramsay will scream.

Imagine my shock as I am reading in 2 Kings today and get to this story (that I promise you I had no memory of) of Elisha in the kitchen.

Elisha is this prophet of God in Israel. He has been a part of some fantastic miracles in early 2 Kings. First off, he was given a double portion of Elijah’s Spirit in 2 Kings 2. He is able to part the Jordan River so that he can walk back through on dry ground after Elijah was taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire. Awesome.

Next in 2 Kings 4, he’s a part of this amazing little story where a widow (actually his daughter in law) is going to have to sell her sons into slavery to pay a debt owned by her deceased husband. Elisha asks her what she has to sell. She says, that she has a little oil. Elisha tells her to fill up a bunch of jars that are given to her by her neighbors. This small jar of oil is miraculously able to fill enough empty vessels to be sold and pay the owed debt. Her sons are safe.

Then, also in chapter 4, there is this unbelievable story of Elisha raising the Shunammite’s Son back to life. I’ll let you read that one. Unbelievable.

And then there is this little diddy at the end of chapter 4. My Bible labels it: “Elisha Purifies the Deadly Stew”

Elisha comes to this place called Gilgal. There is extreme famine in the land. Elisha tells these “sons of the prophets” to put a pot on and boil some stew. Apparently there is this one contestant guy that goes out in a field and gathers herbs and a “wild vine with wild gourds.”  He cut these wild ingredients up and places them in the stew.

When they are eating the stew, They cried out “O man of God, there is Death in the pot!”

I read this today, and visually I see Gordon Ramsay come over to it and taste it, then spit it out in a trash can. He picked up the pot and through it across the room. Yelled some profanities at the chef contestants, and finally tells them to “Shut it Down!”

That of course did not happen.

Elisha says “Then bring flour.”

He adds a small amount of flour, pours it out, and serves it to the men. They all ate and there was no harm in the pot. It wasn’t the flour that purified the stew, it was God that purified it making it nourishing rather than poisonous.

The kitchen miracle doesn’t end with the stew.

A new man arrives on the scene with some food. Elisha tells him to give it to all the people (which numbered over 100)The man says “How can I set this before 100 men?”

Elisha answered “They shall eat and have some left.”

And like in the new testament… like the feeding of the multitudes…they all eat and have some left over.

Takeaways

1. The Word of the Lord is true. Elisha was speaking God’s Word. It didn’t become true because that would indicate that it isn’t true in the first place. God’s Word Is True.
2. We may think we can cook on our own. But without God and the Flour, life can be bitter and even poisonous.
3. God takes little… makes enough, and even leaves some leftovers.

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By the way… If you made it this far, you need to know something else. I don’t want to make light of Hell. It is a very real place. If you don’t know that you’ll be in heaven when you die, chances are you’ll be in Hell. All of us are enemies of God. We’ve broken each of the 10 commandments which is His law. Because the law has been broken, our judgement is death-eternity in Hell. Once there, there will be no getting out.

The fine and penalty must be satisfied.

Jesus Christ, came to earth as a very real person and lived a sin free life. He kept the law completely. He was killed because He claimed to be God (which he was.) He took all your sin upon Himself when He died on the cross. Like the widow selling all she had in the oil to pay a debt (yep, that was a foreshadowing of Jesus 100s of years before he was born – The Old Testament is FULL of them) He Paid your debt in full.

You’ve now heard the truth.

Now you must Believe the Truth.

Repent… turn away from and ask forgiveness for your sins

Last Confess and place your faith in Jesus Christ as the Way the Truth and the Life.

I’m up to 1 Kings in my current read through the Bible. A couple of thoughts before I move forward.

1. Wow those israelites were some messed up people. But they were God’s chosen people. I guess we should be thankful that even though we are equally or more messed up, God has chosen us for a relationship with Him.
2. When God makes a promise… he keeps it. That’s what covenants are. This isn’t anything new, but as stated in 2 Samuel 22:31, “This God-His way is perfect; the Word of the Lord proves true. He is a shield for all those who take refuge in Him.” Always nice to be reminded that God doesn’t move. We do.

Before moving from King David to King Solomon, there is an interesting story at the end of the 2 Samuel that has David building an altar to God on the threshing floor of Araunah.

David, could have taken the location by force. He was king after all.

David states that he has come to Araunah’s threshing floor to purchase it from him. Araunah refuses payment and tells David to have it.

In verse 24, King David says ” No I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that has cost me nothing.

Today, we don’t offer up burnt offerings to God. We don’t sacrifice cows, goats, rams or doves to satisfy the sin debt that we have with God. The only sacrifice that is needed to satisfy that debt is Jesus Christ…and the sacrifice has already taken place. The cost of this sacrifice was great, however, it is freely given to anyone who will receive it.

Jesus Paid It All.

Jesus said in Matthew 19 when speaking to a rich ruler:  It is going to cost you all your possessions to follow me: “Sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me” (Matthew 19:21).

Wait, you said the sacrifice was free? This sure sounds like I’ll have to give up all I have.

The gift is free. But once you fully understand the length and depth that God has gone through to draw you to Himself, you’ll want to give up everything to follow Him.

Reading today in 1 Samuel, I got to the story of Saul and David. It has always shocked  interested me that God could “Regret” making Saul King. In 1 Samuel 15: 10-11 it says:

The word of the Lord came to Samuel: “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments.”

It didn’t shock God that Saul would do this, but the word “Regret” stings doesn’t it. It makes me wonder if there are things that I have done that has made God, “Regret” his involvement in my life.  Time to unpack this a little more.

Later in the chapter, Saul tries to convince Samuel that his heart was committed to God. Samuel, knowing better, interrupts Saul’s pathetic excuses and says “STOP! I will tell you what you’ve done. Samuel goes on to say that Saul had not obeyed the voice of the Lord, and then says that since Saul had rejected the Word of the Lord, that God had rejected him being king.

In chapter 16, God sends Samuel to annoint the next king. He tells Samuel in 16:7, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature,… For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appeaance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

So when God rejected Saul, it was because He could look at Saul’s heart and saw the condition of it.

The obvious takeaways from this scripture are:

1. Obey God’s voice and accept the Word. The Word is true and a shield to all. When we reject the Word, we not only remove the shield that is our defense, but we sever the connection between us and God’s voice.
2. We should look at other people’s heart and not outward appearance. This is tough. Too often, we’ll judge before we ever get a chance to know someone. We have so much to learn from each other. The moment we judge the person’s actions or outward appearance, we’ve lost the chance to look at the heart.