with Elder Elico Manenji
Monuments of idolatry are to be destroyed in the human human heart
Specific regulations were appointed for Divine worship, specific rules embodying permanent principles that the kingdom of God must be set up, both in persons and places.
The Apostle says, "Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16).
As Israel was not to visit the ruins of the devil's kingdom but utterly destroy it, it is true that mankind cannot stand together with idols as there is not any communion between Christ and Belial.
The Apostle says, "...for what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion has light with darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial? or what part has he that believes with an infidel? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? for you are the temple of the living God; as God has said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." (2 Corinthians 6:14-16).
God's people are charged not to transfer the rites and usages of idolaters into the worship of God not even beautifying it or improving upon it.
The prophet gives a warning against mixing true and false religion, "They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains, and burn incense on the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good: therefore your daughters shall commit prostitution, and your spouses shall commit adultery" (Hosea 4:13).
God has given men no liberty to depart from His requirements....In deciding upon any course of action we are not to ask whether we can see that harm will result from it, but whether it is in keeping with the will of God.
The wiseman says, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man; but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Proverbs 14:12).
True worship is to be supported by the contributions of the people as this signifies the obligation we Christians are under to offer up all our spiritual sacrifices to God in the name of Jesus Christ hoping for acceptance only upon the score of His mediation for us.
The Apostle says, "You also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ" (1Peter 2:5).
So as the people at large from the first to be educated in giving to God and in maintaining it at their own cost the worship and ordinances of God were so to hand this spirit of sacrifice down intact and untainted to their children and their children's children.
The Scripture says, "And you shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes" (Deutronomy 6:8).
"Therefore shall you lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign on your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes" (Deutronomy 11:18).
As much as the Israelites were to enjoy the blessings of the Lord, the blessings of coming together and eating together, it was forbidden them to eat blood. Of this life the blood was believed to be the seat of life and the symbol of redemptive love of the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross was tantamount to the taking away of life but in Christ it was a symbol of giving back the life.
As the blood moreover was the life, in it was supposed to lie the propitiatory power, the power that when it was shed, it was for atoning for sin as the giving of life for life in Jesus Christ. The prohibition of eating it doubtless had respect to this as it was not merely to prevent ferocity in people towards the lower animals.
The Apostle says, "For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Hebrews 9:13-14).
Our God is a tender, merciful Father....It should be a pleasure to worship the Lord and to take part in His work. God would not have His children, for whom so great salvation has been provided, act as if He were a hard, exacting taskmaster. He is their best friend; and when they worship Him, He expects to be with them, to bless and comfort them, filling their hearts with joy and love.
The prophet says, "The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the LORD of hosts: for the LORD is good; for his mercy endures for ever: and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the LORD. For I will cause to return the captivity of the land, as at the first, said the LORD" (Jeremiah 33:11).
Appeal
As the sanctuary was constituted by God having put his Name there so even under the new dispensation of faith the worship of the Father in spirit and in truth is our whole goal as God abides within our hearts.
The Apostle says, "Neither yield you your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin: but yield yourselves to God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God" (Romans 6:13). Amen!!!
Elico Manenji
(+263712952704)
No comments:
Write comments