Fri.’s Devo - The Kingdom of God

Read: Leviticus 6:1-7:27; Mark 3:7-30; Psalm 37:1-11; Proverbs 10:3-4 God hates sin but he made a way for man to atone for every sin he committed and he made a way for man to make himself acceptable to him. God has always been about the mission of redemption and restoration. In the Old Testament everything was legal and formal. The New Testament focused more on the heart and the spirit of the sin. One thing was for sure, the priests needed to know their jobs and do them by the book or their lives were at stake. We need more of the fear of the Lord in our day. God is the same yesterday, today and forever and his laws are still important to him. I wonder how many times we are sick or people die because they violate these laws and never connect the dots. The peace offering was an expression of thankfulness to the Lord. Our songs of praise and prayers of adoration and thanksgiving are like offering peace offerings. It puts peace in our hearts to do it and it puts us in a position of peace with the Lord. The peace offering was totally voluntary. Another reason they would offer a peace offering was if it was a vow they chose to offer to the Lord. It could be bread with yeast which was the only offering acceptable with yeast in it. The offering offered voluntarily came with less restrictions. No one was to consume blood. In Mark Jesus went to a lake to teach the people and minister to their needs. The demons recognized who he was but the ones who should have recognized him didn’t. They were people of his own family who thought he was out of his mind and the religious leaders who claimed he was possessed by demons. Jesus explained to them that Satan could not cast out Satan. If he was from Satan, why would he be fighting against his own kingdom? Of course, they had no answer. Jesus went on to explain that if a strong man came to plunder a house and take its goods, who would win? The stronger would win. He was plundering Satan’s kingdom because he was stronger. We can plunder Satan’s domination on earth because Jesus is in us. Lord, we declare Satan’s kingdom to fall in America and your kingdom to come. May your children rise and declare your kingdom.