On July 4th of this year I challenged
myself to read the Bible in 90 days. (Whoa! And yes, it’s a lot of reading
everyday) So I went to the YouVersion Bible
App (which I’m in love with) on my iPad to find the perfect reading
plan. And I found the "Bible in 90 Days"
plan published by Bible Gateway.
Although this plan is not one of my favorite
read-through-the-whole-Bible reading plans, it does challenge you to read
straight through the Bible from Genesis to Revelations, while other (more
popular) reading plans allow you skip around to different books between the Old
and the New Testaments, and are usually completed over the course of a year.
However, I am going through a season in my life in which I’m being lead to go
through this particular reading plan to finish the Bible in 90 days.
Now that I’m on day 17 of my 90-day plan and
have just started the book of Joshua, I have a new found appreciation for
Christ’s birth and resurrection. I
learned in the first 4 books of the Bible that there were a lot of laws and rituals
for the Israelites to follow in order to be right with God. There were many specific sacrifices and
offerings for different circumstances such as guilt, peace, sin, and more. But
God loved us so much that he sent His Son to free us from the old covenant
(Ephesians 2:15), and I can not thank God enough that!
I believe that we, as Christians, sometimes
take for granted what Christ did for us on the cross. We know that he died for
our sins, but sometime we don’t realize what that really means, and what it
freed us from. Leviticus 4:27-31 tells us what exactly needed to be done in
order for sin to be forgiven under the old covenant, “If any of the common people sin by violating one of the lord ’s
commands, but they don’t realize it, they are still guilty. When they
become aware of their sin, they must bring as an offering for their sin a
female goat with no defects. They must lay a hand on the head of the sin
offering and slaughter it at the place where burnt offerings are slaughtered.
Then the priest will dip his finger in the blood and put it on the horns of the
altar for burnt offerings. He will pour out the rest of the blood at the base
of the altar. Then he must remove all the goat’s fat, just as he does
with the fat of the peace offering. He will burn the fat on the altar, and it
will be a pleasing aroma to the lord . Through this process, the priest
will purify the people, making them right with the lord , and they will
be forgiven." ….I mean, I don't even know where to get a goat!
But praise God for Hebrews 9:15 , "For Christ died to set them free from the
penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant." How
amazing is that!? Now I don't even need a goat! I can got go straight to the
Heavenly Father because of what Christ did, and you can too (Ephesians 2:18
& 3:12)!
I knew that Christ died for our sins before,
but I don’t think that I really took to heart how significant that was until I
started to read the laws written out by Moses in Old Testament. It gave me a
whole new appreciation and love for God and his mercy, grace, and love, and for
what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross.
God is so good!
XO,
Adrienne Alexis
