YEAR 2, WEEK 8, Day 5, Friday, 21 February 2025

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Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Friday, 21 February 2025:

Leviticus 8:4 – And Moses did as the Lord commanded him….

God demands absolute obedience from His servants. Though we rely totally on grace, obedience remains essential.

Leviticus 8:1-36 – And Moses brought Aaron and his sons and washed them with water….

God’s servants are purified and reconciled before they begin their missions. God’s servants must be set apart, holy. Everyone should witness your consecrated heart before the Lord. This washing signified that Aaron and his son’s needed to be holy, pure, and clean to serve the Lord. They had already been to the altar for forgiveness, but this was about life after forgive – “Go and sin no more.” (John 8:11) You don’t have to just be forgiven, you have to be cleansed. What good is forgiveness if the result isn’t change, if your heart is no different? What good is a second chance if a second chance is just another opportunity to do the exact same thing? As God commanded, Aaron and his sons were washed in the sight of everyone as a statement of God’s expectation and their commitment to purity following forgiveness. Cleansing is both active and passive. Only God can change our heart, but we have to participate through repentant obedience and abiding. The branch much remain connected to the Vine with the same DNA in order to bear the fruit of the Vine. Without fruit, the branch is essentially dead.

• 1 John 1:9 — If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
• 1 John 1:7 — But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
• Titus 3:5 — He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit….
• 2 Corinthians 7:1 — Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.
• Romans 12:2 — Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
• Psalm 51:10 — Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
• 1 Corinthians 3:16 — Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
• Galatians 5:24 — And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
• John 15:3 — Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.
• Matthew 5:48 — You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
• Ephesians 5:26 — …that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word….

Leviticus 8:7-9 — And he put the coat on him and tied the sash around his waist and clothed him with the robe and put the ephod on him and tied the skillfully woven band of the ephod around him, binding it to him with the band. And he placed the breastpiece on him, and in the breastpiece he put the Urim and the Thummim. And he set the turban on his head, and on the turban, in front, he set the golden plate, the holy crown, as the Lord commanded Moses.

The priests were clothed for service.

• Romans 13:12 — The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.
• Romans 13:14 — But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
• 1 Corinthians 15:53, 54 — For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
• Galatians 3:27 — For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
• Ephesians 4:24 — …and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
• Ephesians 6:11-15 — Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.
• Colossians 3:10-14 — …and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
• 1 Thessalonians 5:8 — But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.

Leviticus 8:23, 24 – And he killed it, and Moses took some of its blood and put it on the lobe of Aaron’s right ear and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot. Then he presented Aaron’s sons, and Moses put some of the blood on the lobes of their right ears and on the thumbs of their right hands and on the big toes of their right feet.

The blooding ceremony was to serve as a reminder for the priests to guard their hearts in service to the Lord, to guard their spiritual gates (eyes, ears, hands, and feet). As ambassadors for Christs, as priests, the reality of The Cross should determine what we allow into our hearts (what we choose to listen to and gaze upon) and what we allow to come out of our hearts (our words and our deeds). Do you need a visible reminder of Jesus’ sacrifice for you in order to keep you pure in what you choose to listen to, what you choose to say, what you choose to do, and where you choose to go?

“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 21 February 2025: Today, consecrate your heart and put on Christ for dedicated, wholehearted service before the Lord. Figurately in prayer, put the blood of Christ on your eyes, ears, hands, and feet to commit all that you receive from the world and give to the world to the LORD.