Purified

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Numbers 8:5 Set Apart And Clean

Take the Levites from among all the Israelites and make them ceremonially clean. Numbers 8:5

Not every person can do every job that there is. People have to be set apart for specific jobs. This is often determined by skills and training or education.

Along with all of this, some jobs require a level of cleanness above the normal being clean. Surgeons must scrub themselves spotlessly clean prior to doing their work. If one does not have the required skills or is not clean, he will not be allowed to do the work.

God told Moses to take the Levites from among the Israelites and make them ceremonially clean.

During the time of Moses, one had to be set apart and then go through a physical ritual to be cleaned before God in order to do the work of God in the tabernacle. It was a process that looked forward to the time of Jesus and what believers would have to do.

Every person who is a believer in Jesus is also a worker of God in His church. The first thing that occurs is a person is set apart from the world, becoming a believer. Instead of going through a ritual today, one must repent of his sins and believe in the work of Jesus to remove those sins and make him clean, not just ceremonially clean, before God.

At this point the believer is set apart from the world. He is no longer following the sinful ways of the world, but God’s holy and righteous ways.

According to the world, he will look strange and different. He becomes a stranger in this world, just passing through, heading to a new place in heaven for eternity. At this point, one is ready to do the full work of God on this planet.

God has a work for you to do. In order to be ready to do it, you must be set apart and made clean before God.

Choose today to believe in the work of Jesus upon the cross. Repent of your sins and allow Jesus to make you pure and holy, setting you apart from the world. Obey the commands of God that will give you eternal life, rather than the sinful ways of this world that will bring only death.

Now go out and do the work of God building His kingdom here on earth.

Today I pray that you will know Jesus as your Lord and Savior; that you will be set apart for the work of God; that you will be separated from the sin of this world; that you will be clean and holy before God and man; and that God will guide you in building His kingdom each day.

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Psalm 12:6 The Flawless Words Of God

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And the words of the Lord are flawless, like silver purified in a crucible, like gold refined seven times. Psalm 12:6 

Years ago there was a commercial that always ran about the investment company, ‘E. F. Hutton’ that always said: ‘When E. F. Hutton speaks, everyone listens’. People loved to hear him speak, because it appeared that when he said to invest in something, it always made money. He was all about making more money, so people hung onto his words.

Along with him, there have been many other people who people hang onto their words. It is as if the person speaks perfect words. Some of those people often don’t even really know what they are talking about, it is just that they are some big celebrity.

David started off this psalm with the idea that most people are liars. In this verse he points out that God’s words are flawless, perfect. They are like purified silver and refined, pure gold. They are to be something sought after and treasured more than anything else.

Money, silver and gold has value in this world, but each are only temporary and can fail. God’s words are perfect and will never fail and are more valuable than gold that has been refined to perfection. It reveals God and His will for each and every person.

Often believers have God’s word sitting on a table at home, collecting dust and never being opened. They choose to not read and study His word. They don’t see the value in His word.

Believers need to seek to know God through His word more and more. His word needs to be sought after as many seek after gold and riches. It can guide and direct a person in this life to prepare for eternity. Just as one can never get enough money, one cannot get enough of God’s word in his life.

Take time each and everyday to read and study God’s word for your own life. Find the extreme value in knowing God’s word for your life. God has something to tell you each and every day from His word if you will let Him by reading it.

Don’t just read this short devotional blog and call it enough. Take time to read the entire chapter or book each day. God has something of high value for you. Seek His word more than you seek after gold or the temporary things of this earth. God’s word is eternal.

I pray today that you will have a hunger to know God’s word; that God will reveal more of Himself to you through His word; that you will see God’s purpose for you in His word; and that you will see the value of God’s word to you. 

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Hebrews 9:14 Better Cleaning

“How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!” Hebrews 9:14

Under the Old Testament Law, goats and bulls were sacrificed and their blood was sprinkled to cleanse those who were unclean from sin. This cleansing was only an outward cleansing. Thus on the outside the people were clean, but on the inside their hearts and consciences were still full of sin. The blood of the animals was unable to cleanse their conscience. Each person still knew that they had sinned and deserved to die. Even the high priest had to offer these animal sacrifices for his own sin. There was a fear when he went into the Most Holy Place that his sins would not be completely covered by the blood.

Right before this verse there is a description of how Jesus entered into the Most Holy Place of God by His own blood, not the blood of goats and bulls. Jesus had no fear of entering the Most Holy Place. He had never sinned and had shed His own blood for all sin. His blood was perfect and still alive.

Since the blood of Jesus was perfect and unblemished it can fully cleanse us today from all sin. It can enter into our hearts and cleanse our conscience of sin because it can remove the sin, not just cover it up. This cleansing of our conscience is not just for our own sake. It is not just to make us feel good about ourselves, or to shine as a “good” person before others or God. It is so that we may serve the living God!

Each one of us has sinned many times, in many ways in the past, and continue to do so in various ways.  Often we cut ourselves down and say because of a past sin I can no longer do any service for God. But here in this verse it shows that because of the blood of Jesus, we now have all the more reason to serve God. It gives us more strength because we know that we are clean before Him. We do not have to worry about some past sin that God is going to kill us over. All sin has been wiped away from our lives when we confess our sins and believe in the saving power of Jesus and His blood.

With this in mind, go out and do a service for God. Seek God and find all that you can do for Him and do it all with everything that is in you. Remember, God is not against you. If God was against you He would not have provided for salvation for you. Today joyfully seek to do all you can for God because the blood of Jesus has purified your soul for these services.

Today I pray that God will reveal how much He has cleansed you from sin; that God will reveal to you how pure you are in Jesus; that God will open doors for you to serve Him more and more each day; that God will help you to forgive yourself of past sins; and that God will continue to make you more like Jesus each day.