Leviticus Vs. Jesus
Welcome to a new week everyone!
My goal for the week is to enjoy the seven day trial at the gym, stock up on fruit and make a lot of smoothies and at least get an interview for a job and hopefully get one.
The first thing I want to do is get something off my chest that I have been thinking very hard about.
This is a very controversial subject in light of my beliefs as a Christian.
Last week I read an article in an out-dated magazine called "The Rolling Stone" which enraged me, simply because prestigious Christian high schools across America are subjecting their homosexual and bi-sexual students to degrading treatment by isolating them from their peers and not allowing them to participate in extra-curricular activities and banning them from key school events if the students decided to stay rather than attend another school.
This awful, cutting treatment results with the teens having feelings of worthlessness which leads to self-harm or suicide.
As a Christian, it makes me devastated to think that a fellow Christian would go to such great lengths to preserve and uphold Christian values to make another human-being, let alone a minor or child, feel like they are not loved or valued for who they are as a person.
I know that discrimination of this kind will exist every where in the world, so I want to do my bit by writing about how I feel as a Christian and an individual on this subject and more importantly, how Jesus would feel and act if he saw what was happening.
Let us begin with Leviticus.
I personally view the book of Leviticus as a harsh, cold chapter. Lots of No-No's with harsh penalties!
1. Do not have sexual relations with a close relative.
2. Do not have sex with your Mother.
3. Do not have sexual relations with your sister, either your fathers daughter or your mothers daughter.
4.Do no have sexual relations with your sons daughter or your daugther's daughter.
5. Do not have sexual relations with your aunt.
6. Do no have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law.
7. Do not take your wife's sister as a rival wife while your wife is living.
8. Do no have sexual relations with a woman when is having her monthly period.
9. Do not have sexual relations with your neighbour's wife.
10. Do no have give any of your children to Molech (Molech was a diety worshipped by the
Cannites and Phoenicians, who sacrificed their children to Molech.)
11. Do not have sex with your brother's wife.
12. Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman.
16. Do not have sexual relations with an animal.
Read Leviticus 24-29 and it will go into more detail, but the people who committed
these sins were either cast out of society or killed.
There was no hope for these people until Jesus came to die for the sins of the world.
When John the Baptist was asked if he was the son of God he denied it and said this in testimony.
John 1: 15-16: "..He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me."
John 1:16-18: From the fullness of His grace we have all received one blessing after another.
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
As Christians, we all need to be forgiven for something and if we lived in the time of Moses then we would not give that forgiveness or receive it.
Could you imagine how people would have viewed Jesus as a threat to their strong beliefs simply because he told the people that they need to forgive somebody seventy-seven times?
And what the Pharisees would have thought that he preferred to feast with the out-casts of society rather than the righteous and rich?
In John 1:4 there is a story about a Samaritan woman who would have been labelled as an adulteress
because she had been married five times and she was living with a man who was not her husband, back then Jews and Samaritans did not mix at all. But Jesus was kind to her and asked her for a drink of water from the well, but he also gave her what he called "living water" and told her that he was the Son of God she had heard was coming.
Why would have Jesus spoken to this woman who was regarded as an enemy to his people and a social pariah? Because that is simply what Jesus did - He went and embraced the sinners and out-casts and showed them love.
Isn't that what us Christians are supposed to be doing?
Rather than spreading prejudice against the homosexual and bi-sexual community, especially minors who are coming to terms with their sexuality - wouldn't it make more sense to share the love of Christ rather than the dictates of Leviticus in regards to Unlawful Sexual Relations?
You do not have to support gay marriage or approve of how the gay, bi-sexual or tran-sexual community live their lives. But as a Christian and a human-being, stand up for what you know in your heart is right. Would you want to see your son or daughter, brother or sister being treated unfairly in school or in the work place simply because they are attracted to their own gender?
Let's stop the Bible-beating and start sharing the love of Jesus which would be more profound
than telling people they are doing the wrong thing and cannot associate with us and their sin separates them from God.
That's not Christianity - that's being a snob - and that is something that Jesus would not do.
Matthew 7:1.
"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others and the measure you use, it will be measured to you."
Colossians 1.13-14
"For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, forgiveness of sins."
That's where I leave you tonight, but I hope that all of you have an amazing week.
Remember who you are in Christ and make sure that you treat everyone you see; family, friends, strangers as a child of God, to be loved and cherished.
- Sarah
My goal for the week is to enjoy the seven day trial at the gym, stock up on fruit and make a lot of smoothies and at least get an interview for a job and hopefully get one.
The first thing I want to do is get something off my chest that I have been thinking very hard about.
This is a very controversial subject in light of my beliefs as a Christian.
Last week I read an article in an out-dated magazine called "The Rolling Stone" which enraged me, simply because prestigious Christian high schools across America are subjecting their homosexual and bi-sexual students to degrading treatment by isolating them from their peers and not allowing them to participate in extra-curricular activities and banning them from key school events if the students decided to stay rather than attend another school.
This awful, cutting treatment results with the teens having feelings of worthlessness which leads to self-harm or suicide.
As a Christian, it makes me devastated to think that a fellow Christian would go to such great lengths to preserve and uphold Christian values to make another human-being, let alone a minor or child, feel like they are not loved or valued for who they are as a person.
I know that discrimination of this kind will exist every where in the world, so I want to do my bit by writing about how I feel as a Christian and an individual on this subject and more importantly, how Jesus would feel and act if he saw what was happening.
Let us begin with Leviticus.
I personally view the book of Leviticus as a harsh, cold chapter. Lots of No-No's with harsh penalties!
1. Do not have sexual relations with a close relative.
2. Do not have sex with your Mother.
3. Do not have sexual relations with your sister, either your fathers daughter or your mothers daughter.
4.Do no have sexual relations with your sons daughter or your daugther's daughter.
5. Do not have sexual relations with your aunt.
6. Do no have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law.
7. Do not take your wife's sister as a rival wife while your wife is living.
8. Do no have sexual relations with a woman when is having her monthly period.
9. Do not have sexual relations with your neighbour's wife.
10. Do no have give any of your children to Molech (Molech was a diety worshipped by the
Cannites and Phoenicians, who sacrificed their children to Molech.)
11. Do not have sex with your brother's wife.
12. Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman.
16. Do not have sexual relations with an animal.
Read Leviticus 24-29 and it will go into more detail, but the people who committed
these sins were either cast out of society or killed.
There was no hope for these people until Jesus came to die for the sins of the world.
When John the Baptist was asked if he was the son of God he denied it and said this in testimony.
John 1: 15-16: "..He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me."
John 1:16-18: From the fullness of His grace we have all received one blessing after another.
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
As Christians, we all need to be forgiven for something and if we lived in the time of Moses then we would not give that forgiveness or receive it.
Could you imagine how people would have viewed Jesus as a threat to their strong beliefs simply because he told the people that they need to forgive somebody seventy-seven times?
And what the Pharisees would have thought that he preferred to feast with the out-casts of society rather than the righteous and rich?
In John 1:4 there is a story about a Samaritan woman who would have been labelled as an adulteress
because she had been married five times and she was living with a man who was not her husband, back then Jews and Samaritans did not mix at all. But Jesus was kind to her and asked her for a drink of water from the well, but he also gave her what he called "living water" and told her that he was the Son of God she had heard was coming.
Why would have Jesus spoken to this woman who was regarded as an enemy to his people and a social pariah? Because that is simply what Jesus did - He went and embraced the sinners and out-casts and showed them love.
Isn't that what us Christians are supposed to be doing?
Rather than spreading prejudice against the homosexual and bi-sexual community, especially minors who are coming to terms with their sexuality - wouldn't it make more sense to share the love of Christ rather than the dictates of Leviticus in regards to Unlawful Sexual Relations?
You do not have to support gay marriage or approve of how the gay, bi-sexual or tran-sexual community live their lives. But as a Christian and a human-being, stand up for what you know in your heart is right. Would you want to see your son or daughter, brother or sister being treated unfairly in school or in the work place simply because they are attracted to their own gender?
Let's stop the Bible-beating and start sharing the love of Jesus which would be more profound
than telling people they are doing the wrong thing and cannot associate with us and their sin separates them from God.
That's not Christianity - that's being a snob - and that is something that Jesus would not do.
Matthew 7:1.
"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others and the measure you use, it will be measured to you."
Colossians 1.13-14
"For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, forgiveness of sins."
That's where I leave you tonight, but I hope that all of you have an amazing week.
Remember who you are in Christ and make sure that you treat everyone you see; family, friends, strangers as a child of God, to be loved and cherished.
- Sarah
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