Scripture

And when a man brings a sacrifice of peace offerings near to Yahweh to fulfill a special vow or for a freewill offering, of the herd or of the flock, it must be without blemish to be accepted; there shall be no defect in it.

~Leviticus 22:21, LSB

Quote

Every sacrifice is an offering but not every offering is a sacrifice.

~Ya’akov

I am reading Leviticus in the LSB and it is amazing how many times you see the two words: sacrifice and offering. In Leviticus alone, you find the word sacrifice or sacrifices some thirty-five times, but that is nothing compared to the word offering or offerings which is used 225 times. Hebrew worship was centered around the offering. Twice {Exodus 23:15, 34:20} the bible says, “No one may appear before me without an offering.” I mentioned that in a sermon once and we had a visitor. When someone invited him back, he said, “I’m not going back to that church. The preacher said not to come if you don’t have an offering.” Of course, he totally misunderstood what I was saying: In Judaism you had to have an offering of some kind. To show up without an offering was to say, “I have no sin, and therefore no need for atonement.” Some offerings were for the Levites, some were for the Priest and for communal meals but an ‘olah’ [holocaust] was a whole burnt offering. It was a sacrifice that was totally consumed by fire. Nothing was left except ashes. This symbolizes total surrender.

I know you have heard the hog and hen story. They are walking past a church and the marquee was advertising a breakfast: the Hen said to the Hog, “Why don’t we help them out, we can furnish the ham and eggs.” “Easy for you to say,’ said the hog, ‘It’s only and offering for you but for me it would be total sacrifice.”

The same difference exists between commitment and surrender. A lot of Baptists are committed, but few are surrendered.

Extra

I am totally out of my routine but hopefully I will recover soon. June is getting better PTL and so is Joyce. Cindy texts June and said they have taken her off oxygen. I got to mulch leaves for an hour or so yesterday and planted the front yard in rye grass. I like a little green in the winter months. The rain is amazing. Immediately the green spring back in to view. Pastures, yards and even ditches were dirty brown and now there is some green. Thank you Jesus for the wonderful rain.

Went to Jack Foodland Market between Fairview and Eva yesterday on the way home from CRMC. I got the meat for the Senior Adult Christmas. Larry Slater use to get his hams there so I gave it a shot. I love that store and I am going back. Had a strange encounter yesterday at LOVE’s in Falkville. I stepped up to the counter to pay for my gas and suddenly I felt a push and some yankee truck driver cursed me and said I had broken line. I began apologizing and laid my hand on his shoulder. He reacted violent and screamed, “Get your hand off me, do not touch me!” Of course by this time I am in a state of shock. I apologized to the woman behind the counter. She was silent as she staired at this rude dude who I am sure in not from the South. He sounded like he was from New York or New Jersey. Then finally she broke silence and said to me, “Sir, I am sorry you had to endure this.” I said, “That is all right, don’t worry about it.” I know he was a truck driver because I waited for him to come out the front door. I was anxious to ask him what part of the North he came from. He never came out the front. The truckers use the back. If you think you have it bad, what about this poor lady having to wait on rude dudes from north of the Mason-Dixon line.