The 'Learned'

Sunday, ‎October ‎23, ‎2022

Good Morning, Lord

Verse of the Day: Psalm 86:5 For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, And abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.

Memory verse: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

Today's reading: JEREMIAH 1-2 1 TIMOTHY 3

The Learned

When the Lord made the following memory verse jump off the page and attached it to my heart-I had questions, too.

So, here we go. The verse is: Ezekiel 46:13

And you shall provide an unblemished lamb a year-old as a daily burnt offering to the LORD; you are to offer it every morning.

Whatever could the purpose for memorizing this verse be? The goal of our ministry is to encourage and tool followers of Christ to be disciples-what the scripture in one place calls the 'learned.

Isaiah 50:4“The Lord GOD has given Me The tongue of the learned, That I should know how to speak A word in season to him who is weary. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear To hear as the learned.(NKJ)

Every time we do communion(Lord's supper), we are told in scripture to always remember the sacrifice of Christ.

1 Corinthians 11:29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning(remembering the body of Christ on the cross) the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.

We no longer practice sacrifice because Christ was the Ultimate sacrifice doing away with the 'old'.

Hebrews 10:10-we have been sanctified(made holy) through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

BUT...we are to:

present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship(Romans 12:1-2)

and:

“If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.(Jesus said this, Luke 9:23)

and, we are this:

you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.(Exodus 19:6)

because we are heirs to the promise:

If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.(Galatians 3:29)

So, in Christ, we are heirs to all God has for His children and we are priests.

Yes, that is a lot to comprehend but it is real-your-our-reality.

Jesus gave us tools. The written word(called a 'sword') and prayer are tools used by the Holy Spirit to teach us God's heart and mind.

My suggestion has been the same for a long time: meet with God in a private place, alone--to start the day-to go to bed with God's word on your mind-to talk to God all the time(pray without ceasing).

These things are not natural, They have to be cultivated-learned-practiced-endlessly.

There is no morning sacrifice now-not literally- but if we are in Christ, we are in that perfect sacrifice-but we still have a morning in each day. My suggestion is that we cultivate a way of thinking of the morning

a time when we take up our own cross(Luke 9:23)

a time when we present our bodies in Christ to the Lord as a living sacrifice- everything we are belongs to Him.

The U.S. automotive industry, in the old days, was continually 'tooling up' for the next new models-constantly changing and re-tooling.

Being conformed into the image of Christ means continually changing and 'tooling-up'.

I respectfully ask that you consider what it means for you to do what it says in Ezekiel 46:13, "to offer it every morning" and seek to become one of...

'the learned'.

...because He loves us...

Father in Heaven,

I confess, I have much, so very much, to learn. I ask for the desire to commit never giving up.

Great and mighty God of the learned,

In Christ,

Amen