My Bible Journey: Week of February 24

Leviticus 15 = Genital discharges and spit. What a way to start off a week of reading the Scripture.
Leviticus 15:11 = Wash your hands!
Leviticus 15:26-18 = no wonder we get so uptight about sex and sometimes view it as unclean
Leviticus 16:2 = Thank you for giving us the ability to come to You now whenever we need/want/desire!
Leviticus 15 vs. 16 = Physical cleanliness vs. spiritual cleanliness. Physical - a must for health and is an act. Spiritual - a must for holiness and though it is an act (of obedience) it is more an attitude (of submission).
Leviticus 17:1-7 = An effort to stop Israelites from worshiping false gods by redeeming the very practice.
Leviticus 17:11 = The answer to “why blood sacrifices?” or “why is the blood of Christ so important to Christians?” Blood represents life.
Leviticus 18 = God tells the Israelites not to act like the Egyptians (where they’ve come from) or the Canaanites (where they’re going). God proceeds to list just about every twisted sexual perversion imaginable in vs. 6-26 ! He caps is all off in vs. 24-25 by saying this is why He is pushing the Canaanites out of the Promised Land.
Leviticus 18:8 = At this point in history, Israel obviously practiced polygamy and it was sanctioned by the LAW.
Leviticus 18:25 = The Canaanite’s sexual perversion had defiled the land itself. God’s plan was to use Israel to redeem it.
Leviticus 19 = the Ten Commandments Redux
Leviticus 19:2 = “you must be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.”
Leviticus 19:5-8 = the Lord shows mercy even among His commandments
Leviticus 19:9-10 = The Lord demands care for the poor and for strangers, in a very simple way.
Leviticus 19:11 = stealing, cheating and lying often go hand-in-hand. A person who’s commmitted one has likely committed the others. Probably in conjunction.
Leviticus 19:12 = “I’ll swear on a stack of Bibles.” As if that adds veracity to the claim.
Leviticus 19:13 = pay your workers on time.
Leviticus 19:14 = respect the deaf and blind and don’t take advantage of them
Leviticus 19:15 = treat all people equally
Leviticus 19:16 = gossip and slander often go hand-in-hand. A person who’s committed one has likely committed the others. Probably in conjunction.
Leviticus 19:19 = Don’t breed cattle with other animals - OK, sure. Why would you? Don’t plant two kinds of seed in a field - OK, makes logical sense. Don’t where clothing woven from two different kinds of fabric - HUH? what constitutes a kind?
Leviticus 19:20 = Adultery was punishable by death, but apparently sex with a slave, though still a sin, was not worthy of death. Why?
Leviticus 19:23-24 = Yet again, the Lord had to make practical actions “religions” to ensure they would be followed. We humans sure are dumb sometimes.
Leviticus 19:28 = In reality, this may be tied to two separate issues: 1. Cutting and tats may have been a pagan practice in Egypt. Some of the first known tattoos in history were recorded on ancient Egyptian wall paintings. Look at the relation with mourning for the dead. 2. As with so much else in the LAW, cutting and tattooing was likely unsafe and unsanitary and therefore prohibited. Look how dangerous it can be even in our modern world if not done in a sanitary and professional manner.
Leviticus 20:8 = “I am the Lord, who make you holy.”
Leviticus 21:9 = Burned to death? Really? Not stoned?
Leviticus 22:11 = Under the OT LAW, slaves were treated as family.
Leviticus 22:32 = “Do not treat my name as common and ordinary.”
Leviticus 23:29 = Interesting that the Day of Atonement was to be spent in humility. I think the whole point of the chapter is to make sure we remember the past, specifically in what God has done for us and where we would still be without Him.
Leviticus 24:10-17 = I support the death penalty, and believe it to be Biblical. The question is, why don’t we still execute people for blasphemy today? I know the answer, do you?
Leviticus 25:15 = “The price of land should be based on the number of years since the last jubilee.” Meaning, no land could be sold for a high price because “it’s been in my family for generations.”
Leviticus 25:17 = “Show your fear of God by not taking advantage of each other.”
Leviticus 25:36-38 = “Show your fear of God by letting them (those whose fall into poverty) live with you as relatives.”
Mark 7 = The Pharisees are upset the disciples don’t wash their hands.
Mark 7:7 = More concerned about their actions than obedience to God’s commands.
Mark 7:10-11 = “being spiritual” does not excuse your from God’s commands.
Mark 7:14 = not defiled by things but by actions
Mark 7:18-19 = He really drive the point home.
Mark 7:20 = THOUGHT-LIFE! That’s where sinful acts come from. “As a man thinks, so he is.”
Mark 7:24 = I wonder why Jesus was in Tyre and Sidon, since He tried to keep His presence there a secret, and but for one story, there is no record of what He did there.
Mark 7:29-30 = Jesus casts out a demon from a long distance, sight unseen.
Mark 7:36 = Was Jesus practicing reverse psychology?
Mark 8:4 = How could they ask this question after witnessing what he did with 5 loaves and 2 fish?
Mark 8:11-32 = Prove you’re God! Don’t you get it? Ditto! Why not? Peter did what?
Mark 9 = “far whiter than any earthly process could ever make it.” Our purest purity will always fall short of God’s.
Mark 9:6 = To his credit, Peter was scared witless.
Mark 9:7 = How does a modalist explain this away?
Mark 9:10 = They still didn’t get it.
Mark 9:29 = But the point is, they CAN BE overcome through prayer.
Mark 9:30 = teaching > publicity
Mark 9:35 = servanthood > being first
Mark 9:42-48 = obviously, Jesus speaks in metaphor - essentially whatever is holding you back from wholly following Christ and being a good witness should be literally cut out of your life.
Mark 10:1-9 = Marriage is a union made by God, not just between a man and a woman.
Mark 10:11-12 = these are probably really hard verses to swallow in today’s culture.
Mark 10:13-16 = Jesus is never too busy, especially for those who approach Him as children.
Mark 10:20 = I think this guy really had followed the commandments since childhood since Jesus didn’t call him out.
Psalm 40:11b = my only hope
Psalm 40:16 = all who search for You are filled with joy and gladness.
Psalm 41:1-2 = The Lord rescues those who are kind to the poor in their time of trouble, and gives the same prosperity. Wow, give of your wealth to the poor, and be given wealth in return.
Psalm 43:4 = God - the source of all my joy.
Psalm 44 = Israel didn’t conquer with swords or by their own strength, but by God’s mighty power because He favored and smiled on them.
Proverbs 10:14 = apparently, fools like to babble
Proverbs 10:15-16 = true wealth vs. worldly wealth
Proverbs 10:19 = talking too much fosters sin. Can I get an Amen?!