Leviticus, Jesus, and You

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Leviticus is probably the first book you begin to skim through as you work on your annual daily bible reading plan. It’s probably not the book you go to when you are thinking about scripture memory or selecting a life verse. If you are sharing the gospel with a friend, you probably hope they don’t ask any questions about some of the weird laws God gave Israel in Leviticus.

You probably won’t find too many churches following the liturgy in Leviticus. From a distance, it reads like a manual for some cult secretly meeting in a cave out in the woods somewhere. There’s lots of blood, guts, and animal skin. And yet, we cannot read this book from a distance. It has everything to do with life in your computer cubicle this morning and your bed time prayers for your children tonight.

This week our Equipped Wednesday Community Bible Study starts back up with the book of Leviticus. I’ll be posting the audio of our study here with some thoughts and reflections from time to time.

Here are some initial thoughts about the importance of studying Leviticus.

  • Leviticus is in the Bible.

Leviticus is included in God’s Word that 2 Timothy 3:16-17 declares is, “breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. ” If it’s in the Bible, at some point, we have to deal with what God is trying to teach us about Himself and our lives from Leviticus.

  • Leviticus is about Holiness.

Too often, we hear the word holiness and only think about the way we dress or the movies we watch. Some of us begin to think about all the Bible studies we have completed. All of this is involved in being holy, but it’s not all that’s involved.

Holiness is much more about God than us. The message of holiness in Leviticus is all about the authority of God to set us apart to Himself. The command rings throughout the book, “You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy” And yet, the command is mixed with promise for the believer in Christ. For the One with the authority to demand it also has the authority to make it happen.

Dr. Allen Ross says this about Holiness in Leviticus:

“Holiness is its goal. Holiness is its character: the Lord is holy; His sanctuary is holy; its vessels are holy; the garments of the priests are holy; the sacrifices are most holy to the Lord; and all who approach him whose name is “Holy” – whether the priests who minister or the people who worship must themselves be holy. It is as if throughout Israel’s holy place was the earthly echo of that seraphic song in the courts above that never ceases to proclaim “holy, holy, holy.”

  • Leviticus is about Jesus.

We read the book of Hebrews or Romans and realize very quickly that the scenery in Leviticus laid the theological foundation for what Jesus’ death on the cross provided for us before God. Jesus Himself taught His disciples about Leviticus and the rest of the Old Testament that, “everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” (Luke 24:44) We cannot read Leviticus without hearing His Galilean accent leading us to His cross and resurrection.

We must also realize for us to be totally set apart to God the way in which He intends there has be the atoning sacrifice of Jesus. We are only holy when we are found in Him. Ultimately, this holiness is accomplished by the authority of Jesus to set us apart to Himself by calling us away from our own kingdom to follow Him and join His eternal kingdom.

Sermon Based Bible Reading for 2012

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Yesterday I read this post by my friend Michael Kelly about integrating your person devotion time with the ministry of your local church.  Michael gave the following reasons for doing so in 2012

  •  It is anchored by the belief that there is something vitally unique and important about the preaching of the Word in the context of God’s people. This will hopefully lift up that time of preaching in my mind and heart to the place it should be.
  •  It will allow me to meditate more fully on a single text each week and ask the Holy Spirit to deeply affect me with those truths.
  • It will focus my mind and my heart in a single direction for a sustained period of time.
  • It will aid my Scripture memory, allowing me to choose a single key verse from the weekly passage to continue to practice each day.

For anyone attending Ashland who may want to use this plan in 2012,  I wanted to post the next sermon series that will take us through Easter. As you can see, it moves through the book of Mark. You may want to read a chapter in Mark each day or narrow it down to the specific passage that we will be preaching.

 Jesus Changes Everything Expository Sermons from the Gospel of Mark

Jesus Changes . . .

  • Our Direction Mark 1:14-20          (January 8)
  • Eternity Mark 2:1-12                     (January 15)
  • Relationships Mark 2:13-17        (January 22)
  • Religion Mark 3:1-6                     (January 29)
  • Our Family Mark 3:20-35            (February 5)
  • Perception Mark 4:35-41           (February 12)
  • Success Mark 6:14-29                (February 19)
  • Hearts Mark 6:14-29                   (February 26)
  • Power Mark 8:31-38                     (March 4)
  • Hope Mark 9:14-29                      (March 11)
  • Greatness Mark 10:35-45             (March 18)
  • Our Fears Mark 14:66-72             (March 25)
  • Suffering Mark 15:21-39               (April 1)
  • Death Mark 16:1-8 8                     (Easter)

Happy Birthday Danae!

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On Christmas Eve, 33 years ago today, I am sure I was being abundantly spoiled. Knowing how my family acts around Christmas, I’m certain I was being doted on and receiving way too many toys for a one year old. And yet, God was doing the most spoiling!

Second only to God’s grace to me in Christ, He was bringing into the world the greatest gift I have ever received. In Winter Garden, Florida, Rachel Danae Hoffmann was born. Danae is the most vivid example of the love and sacrifice of Jesus in my life.

As Charles Spurgeon once said of his wife, Susannah:

I have been thinking over my strange history, and musing on eternal love’s great river-head from which such streams of mercy have flowed to me. . . . Think of the love which gave me that dear lady for a wife, and made her such a wife; to me, the ideal wife, and, as I believe, without exaggeration or love-flourishing, the precise form in which God would make a woman for such a man as I am, if He designed her to be the greatest of all earthly blessings to him; and in some sense a spiritual blessing, too, for in that also am I richly profited by you, though you would not believe it. I will leave this ‘good matter’ ere the paper is covered; but not till I have sent you as many kisses as there are waves on the sea.

Happy Birthday Danae! You are the greatest of all earthly blessings to me!

Quote from Bloodlines

Quote

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Problem with labeling a politician or political party Christian

“it’s like saying that the party that uses candles must be the true one because they’re shaped so much like sticks of gospel dynamite. The gospel was meant to explode with saving power the lives of politicians and social activists, not help them decorate their social agenda.” (John Piper Bloodlines pp84-85)

Why my sons wear #44: Baseball, Racism, and My Last name

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Stranger: Which one is yours?
Me: The one right there. Haskins #44.
Stranger (looking at me to make sure I am white): Which one?
Me: The black kid right there.
Stranger: Oh really?

Awkward silence ensues

Ever since we brought Isaac and Jonah home from Ethiopia, this sort of interaction has been common for my wife around their sporting events.  Parents trying to match each player up with their appropriate family, begin to realize the colors don’t exactly coordinate with all the kids on the team.

To break the silence we usually say something like, “I can’t believe you didn’t notice the family resemblance?”  And in no way do we begrudge these moments. We have actually become very thankful for the opportunities they provide to talk about adoption and the gospel.

Much of our kid’s sports activities have centered around baseball. Right now, we have 4 boys playing in 4 different leagues, all at the same park. One benefit to spending so much time at the same ballpark is that everyone knows our family. They have also come to know that the Haskins’ kids come in all kinds of shapes, shades, and sizes.  And yet, there is one thing they all share in common. On the diamond, they all wear #44.

When my oldest son Titus began playing t-ball, we decided he would wear #44. We are big Atlanta Braves fans.  And while Chipper Jones will always be our favorite Brave, we thought the history that Hank Aaron represented was important for our family to remember and champion.

I do not agree with everything Aaron has ever said or done. However, I do respect the price he paid to play in the Majors. Jackie Robinson was responsible for breaking the color barrier in baseball.  But for men like Aaron, who began his career by playing primarily in the South, there were still many horrible obstacles to endure. I wanted my kids to know this about the ‘real’ HR king and appreciate it.

To begin with the #44 was just a unique tool to teach our kids about racism.  Honestly, for me, it was more about Braves folklore than anything else. However, now seeing this number underneath my last name on my son’s jerseys causes me to reflect more on my own story than anyone else’s.

I remember standing in line at the post office with the first gift I would ever give my two new sons, who were still in an orphanage in Ethiopia.  As I prepared to send two Atlanta Braves hats to them, I realized one day these boys would also wear #44.  I began to daydream about two little boys, once orphaned in Africa, running onto a little league diamond with my last name across their backs.  I began to tear up right there in the post office thinking about how amazing this would be to see.

As much as I hate to admit it, racism was a part of life in the small rural town in Tennessee where I was raised. Compared to the violence of the 50s and 60s it could have been considered a quiet racism.  But it’s underlying wickedness was just as loud as the Tennessee orange we wore every Saturday to cheer on our beloved Vols!

The residue of such awful days gone by could still be heard in words used around our dinner tables and in our churches on Sunday. In these private and still very segregated settings, words were spoken and jokes were told that would have started riots in our desegregated lunchrooms on Monday. My stomach still turns to think about the sort of racist hypocrisy that even I was guilty of behind the closed doors of my home and church.

That’s why the first time I actually saw all four of my sons, two white and two black, standing with my last name and #44 across their backs this number was more than just neat baseball history for me.  For me, it represented a redemptive moment for my whole family.  It represented a transformation that I have seen even among members of my extended family as they all have embraced my two newest sons.

This summer my kids were spending some time with my grandparents in Tennessee. One of my black sons, Isaac, crawled into my (very white) grandfather’s lap and asked him, “Are you a Haskins too?” My grandfather responded, “Yes sir. I’m a Haskins just like you!”
There was a day when he wouldn’t have been so eager to share his last name with a black grandson. I’m certain my family line included folks who thought Hank Aaron didn’t deserve to play Major League baseball because of his race.  And yet, that moment between my granddad and his grandson, formerly from Ethiopia, was a repudiation to the such racism.

Haskins #44 constantly calls my attention to these kind of stories that I thank God my family is experiencing.  Haskins #44 also reminds me that if the Father is ever asked, “Which one is yours?”  He will not be ashamed to say, “That one right there. Haskins the former racist!”

Maybe what we need is another scandal for Christmas

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Politicians having their skeletons fall out of their closets mid campaign. The uncovering of athletic programs associated with heinous crimes against children. Watching the destructive end of habitual immorality and drug abuse for athletes in their prime.

There’s no shortage of such scandalous footage on Fox News and ESPN these days.

Whether it’s someone I know, or someone I only even vaguely know of, seeing another person hit rock bottom after spiraling down in patterns of hidden wickedness always shakes me up.

On some level the unveiling of such secret information about others hits a certain nerve within all of us. Not because we are all guilty of the same things. Or that we are all hiding sins that must have the same level of consequences. But, on the most basic level these stories scare us because no matter how scandalous the information may be we all have evidence we are hiding.

We all constantly feel the weight of having things beyond the surface of our lives that we believe could destroy us if leaked into the wrong hands. Maybe not destroy us in the sense that we deserve to be imprisoned, fired from our jobs, or that would cause our spouse to move out. But, information that we personally believe would kill the image we work hard to create and keep before others.

It could be as seemingly insignificant as the tone we use with our wife and kids when no one else is around. Or the small exaggerations we use concerning the character of others that we are convinced really aren’t that big of a deal. For some of us, it’s the way we act and the things we murmur under our breath while watching our favorite sports teams play. Or maybe it’s a nagging bitterness we still harbor toward a co-worker for a comment they made nearly two months ago.

This sort of information about ourselves would not require church discipline if handled correctly before the Lord. And yet, we are committed to keeping these allegations private. This is the kind of evidence we would never tweet about or copy and paste into our Facebook status.

The Christmas story reminds us that the solution to our public and private scandals is found in embracing another scandal. The Bible tells the story of the scandal that not only exposes us for who we really are but also transforms our public and behind the scenes guilt.

This scandal begins with a peasant girl from Bethlehem who in secret finds out that she is pregnant. Her side of the story was not hidden immorality before marriage but the hidden work of the Spirit of God in her womb.

We are so accustom to this story we forget how scandalous it is. We like to think that we would have accepted Mary on the spot as the mother of the Messiah. But, I feel sure I would have stood alongside the folks in the local assembly boycotting any baby showers in our fellowship hall. If I had been Joseph’s accountability partner, I know the sort of wisdom I would have spoken into his life. It would not have included following through with the marriage.

The twist to this story is that the scandal Joseph and Mary find themselves in is not one they had been trying to cover up. They found themselves in the middle of a story their people had been waiting to come to light since the beginning of time.

It wasn’t their scandal but they embraced it!

This story finds it’s climax in the most scandalous event in all of human history. The ‘scandal free’ Son of God embraces all the evidence that can be found against us. He makes it His own on the cross. There before the cosmos as the sinner we work to hide from the world He declares, “All the allegations are true!” On the cross our sin is exposed as what it really is, an offense against God Himself. The price of our all offenses, public and private, are displayed as the Son of God screams to His Father, “Why me?”

At His crucifixion, our scandals are leaked as His blood is poured out. The allegations become evidence that can only be dealt with by His public humiliation and death in our place. He does what only He can do. What His name says He will do. Save us from our sins!

When we confess our sins, the cross frees us from all our scandals, even those that may not require public repentance and restoration and even those that might. No matter how scandalous our sins may be the Christmas story is a greater scandal. The only hope any of us have is not by avoiding scandal but by faith trading our own for His.

Maybe what we need is another scandal for Christmas!

Why our kid’s need a scorekeeper

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Like it or not kid’s are selfish. This is one reason why I’m committed to my kids having to participate in things that force them to come to terms with the reality that the universe doesn’t revolve around them. Playing sports has been this central activity for our family. Walking our boys through the process of learning controlled aggression, teamwork, and failure through competition is something for which my wife and I are abundantly thankful for as parents. This is why I’m disheartened by the practice of not keeping score for fear of harming children’s self-esteem. This trend jeopardizes the basic benefits of competition.

Check this article by Dr. David Prince writes “Why Every Kid Should Be A Winner And A Loser”

Here he argues for keeping score in youth sport from a biblical perspective.