The Morrisons

The Israelites, like all people, had at least two problems:

1. They were alienated from God by their sin.
2. The heart of their sin was that they didn’t want to submit to God.

Before looking at the offerings we see in Leviticus, it might be helpful to briefly look at these problems.

We’re in trouble because we’re alienated from God.

We have all rebelled against God and tried to live life without Him involved.

This is a problem because we were made to live as God’s people. Genesis 1 - 2 tell us that God created us and gave us this world to fill and cultivate.   Romans 12:1 tells us that we should give ourselves to God ” as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God”.  In line with this idea, the first question in the Westminster Shorter Catechism teaches that our chief end (or reason for existence) is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever. God created all people to live life as His people in joyful dependence on God.

For us there is no better life than to submit ourselves to God.  When we depend on God, something of His glory is seen in our dependence on Him.  If we don’t give ourselves to God, our lives lack the sense of meaning and place that God intends them to have.  We may be successful in the things we do, but ultimately without submission to God everything we do is meaningless and unsatisfying.

So our being alienated from God is a big problem.  Our sin prevents us coming to God, and therefore it prevents us from being happy.

However, there is another more fundamental problem.

We’re in trouble because we want to alienate ourselves from God

We think that to be happy we need to be free of God … free of restrictions.   So we rebel against God and try to live life without him.

In other words, not only has our past sin alienated us from God, but we are still actively making that alienation worse.

We don’t want to do the very thing we were created to do.  We don’t want to give ourselves to God.  We want to chase the things this world offers without reference to God.  We want all the good things our creator God gives us, but we prefer to leave Him out of the package.

Immediately after their rescue from Egypt, the Israelites began grumbling and chasing after false gods.  This shouldn’t be surprising to us; we do the same thing.  We chase after money and sex and power and worship those things as false gods.

In Romans 1, Paul tells us that at the heart of sin is valuing other things more highly than God:

21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. … 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised.

We are designed to glorify God and to find our satisfaction in Him.  Instead, we glorify creation and try to find our satisfaction in it.  It won’t work.  It can’t work.  Creation was not designed to satisfy us.  Creation was designed to help us glorify God, and find our satisfaction in him. We need to remember God and submit to him. Then we will be truly free.  Then we can be truly happy.

The offerings in Leviticus show that God intends to rescue us and deal with our alienation from Him

God rescues us from alienation so we can again give ourselves to Him.  In calling Abraham to follow Him, and later, in rescuing the Israelites from Egypt, God showed that he intended to rescue people from the alienation. Just as the Israelites were slaves to the Egyptians, so are all people slaves to our sinful desire to rebel against God. Just as God rescued the Israelites from Egypt, so God, through Jesus, rescues us from our slavery to sin.

The offerings in Leviticus primarily address our first problem above.  They show that our sin can be dealt with so that our alienation from God can end.  The offerings don’t specifically address the second problem above, but they hint at the fact that it can be addressed.  They do this by modelling the idea of giving ourselves freely and wholeheartedly to God.  As we will see in the next post, the offerings in Leviticus express recognition that all that we have and are belongs to God.

We recently completed a brief series of sermons from Galatians. Here is an mp3 copy of my sermon from Galatians 6:

Do not Grow Weary in Doing Good

Galatians 5:25 - 6:10

If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.
Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load.
One who is taught the word must share all good things with the one who teaches. Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

These Apricot Coconut Balls are really yummy and gluten free!

Ingredients:

1  1/2 cups dried apricots, chopped
2 cups dessicated coconut
2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk

Combine apricots and condensed milk in food processor and blend. Add coconut and mix until combined. Using wet hands, shape into small balls. Refrigerate until firm.

We spent a lovely day with our dear friend Miriam a month or so ago, walking in the Botanic Gardens and through the Arts Centre Craft Market.  It was sunny but cold!!!

By the Rose Garden:

Amy Climbing tree:

Faith climbing tree:

Nathan and Cora in tree:

Walking:

Tree shenanigans:

At the Arts Centre:

Back at the park:

After almost 7 years in this house we are moving house (still renting though).

We had two children when we first moved in here (3 bedrooms) and in the past 7 years have added 3 children to our family and despite trying to de-clutter as much as possible it has become increasingly cramped in this house.

Currently Cora and Amy share a room, Nathan and Faith share a room and Miriam is in our bedroom.

The house we are moving to is just around the corner (even closer to school), has 5 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms!

Cora and Amy will have their own bedrooms and bathroom upstairs, as well as a small lounge area (we may get a boarder next year so the big girls will have to share a bedroom again but will have the extra space of the lounge).

Nathan will have his own room downstairs (a small room with blue curtains - perfect), Faith and Miriam will share a room (with pink curtains - perfect) and Kris and I will have a bedroom to ourselves - except that Kris is in desperate need of a study now that he is working from home doing church/pastoral work one day a week so our bedroom may become the study too!

And……there is a dishwasher!!

I am surprised at how emotional deciding to move has been.  We have been looking quite seriously for about 18 months but were holding out for the right house in this area so we could stay close to school.  We wanted a dishwasher, 4 bedrooms and a second toilet, plus a fenced yard with room for a vege garden.

The new place does have a fenced yard but it is pretty small, smaller than this one.  There is space for a vege garden along the fence at the back though and the garden is going to be much more easy-care than here since there are only a few shrubs out the front and just a bit of grass out the back!  We do enjoy a nice garden but keeping on top of weed-heaven in this backyard has been hard work.

There is a playground just two doors down so the kids will be able to run to the park when they need a bit of space.

We are pretty excited and can’t wait to get all this moving and cleaning over with!  We are planning to be moved in by next Saturday afternoon.

We almost signed up to rent a 5 bedroom house next to a church (the old manse) which was across the road from our very good friends.  We were all quite excited.  The house was pretty old and in desperate need of updating but was large and in a great location.  We were going to sign up on the Wednesday afternoon but when I was at playgroup on Wednesday morning one of the ladies overheard me talking about it and asked if I would look at her Father’s rental property.  She’d told me about it about 6 months before and I had expressed my interest but didn’t hear back from them.  I told her she’d better show me before that afternoon which she did and we decided it was the better house for us.  We had prayed that God would make it clear to us whether the ‘manse’ was the right house for us and along came this house at the last minute so we felt it was God’s provision.

Now I am freaking out about the increase in rent (which equals a decrease in our savings/spending).  Well not really freaking out but I am going to have to get back to budgeting more strictly.

Quite a few people have suggested to us that we buy a house instead of continuing to rent.  We have been looking in to this - we even found a few banks who would actually lend us some money!  We were excited about the Welcome Home Loan Scheme which allows you to borrow $280,000 with less than $10,000 deposit but you have to buy a house for $280k or less and that was proving to be a difficult task.  Our choice seemed to be buy a teeny house, far away or rent a large house in this area.  For the first time it looked like it might actually be possible for us to buy, the difference between mortgage repayments and rent payments is not nearly as huge as it has been these last few years.

Ultimately it came down to the fact that we need a house we can all live in comfortably.  We love having friends and family come to stay and also love having people over for meals and it was getting increasingly difficult in a small house.  This larger house will allow us to have people over a lot more easily so I am just going to have to put that increase in rent out of my mind and have more people over immediately!!!

It is funny this mentality we have that in order to be sucessful you must buy a house.  There is this feeling that we are not in a financially stable position until we have purchased a house (ie got a huge mortgage!) and it is hard to get past that mentality.

What a long post after such a long absence!  I prefer to have blog posts with photos but the task of getting photos onto the blog is such a pain and takes ages.  If I can ever get all my children in to bed and asleep before I fall asleep perhaps you will see a few more blog posts and photos from me.  That is not very likely to happen though so don’t hold your breath!

When God rescued the people of Israel from Egypt, His ultimate purpose was to fashion a family of people who would be His people.  He would dwell with them, and they with Him.  He would be their God and they would be His people.  He would bless them with His love and they would worship Him and freely give their lives to Him.

The book of Exodus concludes with the glory of God filling the tabernacle.   This filling of the tabernacle signifies that God had now come to dwell with His people, Israel.

Yet, God’s presence with His people created a question.  God is holy and does not condone sin.  It was clear from the events described in Exodus that God’s people are sinful.  When Moses was on Mount Sinai he received instructions about the construction of the tabernacle (Exod. 24:15-18; 25:9; 26:30; Heb. 8:5). But even before he reached the bottom of the mountain the people had committed open idolatry with the golden calf (Exod. 32).  Sin on the part of the Israelites threatened to abort God’s purpose of dwelling with them.   If God is holy, how could He dwell with sinful people and not judge them for their sin?  How can He dwell with us today and not judge us for our sin?

This was the question that Leviticus primarily addresses.  It does so in a number of ways, but the first of those is the establishment of a system of offerings.  Leviticus describes five different types of offerings which the people of Israel were to give to God as part of their worship of him: the burnt offering,  the grain offering,  the peace offering,  the sin offering  and the trespass offering.    These various offerings and the processes by which they were given picture for us of how it is that God can dwell with us even though we are sinners.

This series of posts will briefly consider the various offerings in Leviticus to see what they teach us about sin and atonement, and why, if we were to be forgiven, it was necessary that Jesus die for our sins.

We managed to find a second-hand Chariot Bike trailer for sale and snapped it up around Easter. They are very hard to come by second-hand.

Miriam happily sitting in the Chariot

We had a bike trailer when we first moved to Christchurch 6 1/2 years ago. It was a Koolstop Original, carried two children and could convert into a jogging stroller. It was great to ride with but we had to part with it in order to fund the purchase of a car (the sensible thing to do with 2 children and another on the way).

This Chariot is a Cougar2. It came with the attachments to convert it to a stroller (two small swivel wheels rather than the large fixed jogging wheel) which is exactly what we were after.

We are hoping it will help us to save money on petrol and limit our use of the car to those longer trips, grocery shops/errands and whole family outings. I already do walk quite a bit so this will save quite a lot of time.

Faith and Miriam have enjoyed their rides in it and I’ve found it quite a workout when going for longer rides (preschool and back), especially when having to cross busy roads and intersections. I prefer to keep to quiet streets but this is not always possible.

Here is an mp3 copy of a sermon I preached recently at our church, Grace Presbyterian Church in Christchurch as part of a series on Ecclesiastes:

Making the Most of Life - Ecclesiastes 11 - 12

Ecclesiastes 11

 1 Cast your bread upon the waters, 

       for after many days you will find it again.

 2 Give portions to seven, yes to eight, 

       for you do not know what disaster may come upon the land.

 3 If clouds are full of water, 

       they pour rain upon the earth. 

       Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, 

       in the place where it falls, there will it lie.

 4 Whoever watches the wind will not plant; 

       whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.

 5 As you do not know the path of the wind, 

       or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, 

       so you cannot understand the work of God, 

       the Maker of all things.

 6 Sow your seed in the morning, 

       and at evening let not your hands be idle, 

       for you do not know which will succeed, 

       whether this or that, 

       or whether both will do equally well.

 7 Light is sweet, 

       and it pleases the eyes to see the sun.

 8 However many years a man may live, 

       let him enjoy them all. 

       But let him remember the days of darkness, 

       for they will be many. 

       Everything to come is meaningless.

 9 Be happy, young man, while you are young, 

       and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. 

       Follow the ways of your heart 

       and whatever your eyes see, 

       but know that for all these things 

       God will bring you to judgment.

 10 So then, banish anxiety from your heart 

       and cast off the troubles of your body, 

       for youth and vigor are meaningless.

Ecclesiastes 12

 1 Remember your Creator 

       in the days of your youth, 

       before the days of trouble come 

       and the years approach when you will say, 

       “I find no pleasure in them”-

 2 before the sun and the light 

       and the moon and the stars grow dark, 

       and the clouds return after the rain;

 3 when the keepers of the house tremble, 

       and the strong men stoop, 

       when the grinders cease because they are few, 

       and those looking through the windows grow dim;

 4 when the doors to the street are closed 

       and the sound of grinding fades; 

       when men rise up at the sound of birds, 

       but all their songs grow faint;

 5 when men are afraid of heights 

       and of dangers in the streets; 

       when the almond tree blossoms 

       and the grasshopper drags himself along 

       and desire no longer is stirred. 

       Then man goes to his eternal home 

       and mourners go about the streets.

 6 Remember him—before the silver cord is severed, 

       or the golden bowl is broken; 

       before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, 

       or the wheel broken at the well,

 7 and the dust returns to the ground it came from, 

       and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

 8 “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher.

       “Everything is meaningless!”

This post is a tribute to my best friend Michelle who just turned 29!!!!!!!  Happy Birthday!!!!!!

I have some photos coming - watch this space!

We first met in 3rd form when we were 13 and I rememer Michelle being very sweet and innocent.  We hung out at school and youth group.

We became good friends in 4th form and by the time the Huber family were due to move back to Auckland (from Rotorua) we were nearly inseperable.
It was great when we lived across the road from each other for a month - remember watching Dr Quinn Medicine Woman and Lois and Clark wrapped up in our duvets?  And the time our parents let you stay the night at my house on a school night so we could study maths?

We wrote lots of letters in 5th form and spent some fun weekends together (remember catching the bus?).
Walking to the shops to buy Magnums while listening to Sister Act on your walkman were so fun!

The next year saw lots of changes for both of us and lots of ups and downs over the year.  We were pretty much inseparable again.  Easter Camp this year was really cool and then spending time with your family (I still have the Bible you gave me) as a new Christian.

Travelling to Switzerland together and spending 7 weeks there with you and your family was amazing.  I have so many wonderful memories of this time.

The following year saw even more changes for me and way back in the day before e-mail we still kept in touch with letters and fax!  Thanks for being Cora Michelle’s Godmother and letting me steal your name for her!

Thanks for being my friend throughout all those years when it seemed we didn’t have much in common - when I had little children and you were studying then working.  We still got on great when we were together and had some fun holidays even though all I talked about were babies/children.

I’m so glad that we do have children/motherhood in common now, and lots more.

I really missed our “annual holiday” with the Willis family this summer!

Can’t wait to catch up again and see how big the boys have grown.

Thank you to my best friend for always being there.  I love you.

xxx

Today we had a Sunday School Picnic with lots of fun games for everyone.  There was a tug-of-war, races for kids and adults, the “lolly man” to chase, ice-cream sundaes (served outside in long pieces of spouting), and swimming.

We all had a really fun afternoon and were thankful for the hot sunny day (27 degrees) after all the rain and cooler weather we’ve been having.  I hope you enjoy the photos!