A Pastor in The Northwest

For some reason, I've started studying the ancient Hebrew book of Leviticus.  It is the 3rd book of the Torah, and I find it quite fascinating.  One of the things I picked up recently is that in the first 3 chapters, all of the offerings described are 100% voluntary.  Also, those chapters contain no law from the Lord nor any condemnation. It is as if God wanted the people to know how to celebrate their gratitude for being liberated from Egyptian slavery. So whether the offering was burnt, or grain or for peace, it was all about a freewill offering to God for His amazing deliverance. I love how in those early chapters, we read the words "when" and "if" rather than "you must" or "it is decreed by the Lord." I'm excited to explore more in this book! Photo by REGINE THOLEN on Unsplash

In my morning time with the Lord, I was moved by these words from Isaac Watts: Come, we that love the Lord, And let our joys be known; Join in a song with sweet accord, And thus surround the throne. Isaac Watts, 1674–1748   Manser, M., ed. (2015). Daily Guidance (p. 51). Martin Manser. Now, these words form the first verse of an old hymn we used to sing back in the day at the little First Christian Church of Sheridan, Oregon. Until today, I didn't realize that the title of the hymn was different than the chorus from my childhood memory, which is: We're marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion! We're marching upward to Zion, the beautiful city of God! Truth be told, this hymn has a theological perspective on eternity and heaven that I may push back a bit on now as I'm older, but I love the scene painted by those words of worship in the verse.  I can imagine the disciples of Jesus singing and letting our joys be known, and together surrounding God's eternal throne...

This past weekend at Dallas Church, one of our preaching team members David taught us through Luke chapter 7.  In his takeaway, he encouraged us to trust Jesus to be transformed. It made me ponder the idea of transformation.  As a kid, I was into the Transformer toys.  I loved how the toys could be 2 different things: both vehicles and, with a few configuration changes, warrior robots. Amazing. As Christ-followers, we are called into transformation by our faith in Jesus.  In choosing to follow Him, we adopt His ways and soak in more and more of His work and teachings so that we are, slowly but surely, made new. And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then yo...