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Thursday, January 21, 2021

How prevalent is vain worship (part eight)

 

·         Passover/Days of Unleavened Bread

The spiritual intent or the rationale for observing the Passover and days of Unleavened Bread is to express our appreciation and gratitude to the Lord for delivering us from sin as we have been duly admonished saying; “Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth(1Corinthians 5:7-8).

With the children of Israel, Passover was to commemorate their deliverance from the slavery of Egypt, but this was only the copy of the reality. The reality is man’s deliverance from sin and death through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ the real Passover Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world.

The spirit intent of the Passover and days of Unleavened Bread is to commemorate and express gratitude to the Lord for paying the price of sin in our stead, and to remind ourselves to put sin out of our lives.

·         The Feast of First Fruits

The spiritual intent of this festival is to express our gratitude to Jesus Christ for giving us a new life in Him at His resurrection from the dead by conquering death and to commemorate and celebrate the day that He presented Himself to the Father after His resurrection on our behalf.

Remember, after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, He met Mary outside the tomb weeping and said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, 'I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.' Then, the same day at evening, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, "Peace be with you." When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, "Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you" (John 20:17-21).

The spiritual intent of the festival of First Fruits is also to honor and glorify Jesus Christ as the true Messiah and therefore, to avoid worshiping a false messiah it is imperative that we take a thorough examination  and make the right decision because, even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live” (1 Corinthians 8:5-6).

Now, in order to resolve any matter, it is imperative that we get to the root cause of the problem and not simply dealing with the effects because, the root cause of everything that is happening especially in the area of worship, it is Satan who wants to be worshiped in the place of God, and therefore, if what we are doing is not the truth and in this regard  we are looking at the sign of the true Messiah, our worship is not only in vain but we are actually worshiping the devil.

Stay tuned

With brotherly love

Lucius Joseph

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