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Some of you are completely and utterly offended right now at at least two of the three words above. But please keep reading. At first glance those three words do not belong together. Immediately my mind runs back to my adolescence where a big yellow bird, a brown elephant looking creature, and the whole clan of a street would sing in unison, “One of these things doesn’t belong here, one of these things just isn’t the same.”

However…all three of these things show up right next to each other in scripture. Right now some of your just shook your head and condemned me for saying that such things might be in scripture. Don’t believe me…? Turn to Leviticus 18, 19, & 20. You will find very quickly that it does in fact deal with all the above and more. For some reason we read those words together and get offended, yet God makes a point to talk about all of them.

In fact, God sings a similar song as the Sesame Street crew above. The exception is, is that God is saying that in fact all three of these belong here. In fact without one of them the other two will eventually overshadow God himself. So what did I learn in my weird journey through Leviticus this morning.

1. God has a “no off limits” policy with us his creation. If we want to know, he is willing to share. Even when we don’t want to know…God usually shares. I LOVE THAT ABOUT GOD!!!

2. I read Leviticus 18:23 and it says this, “A man must never defile himself by having sexual intercourse with an animal, and a woman must never present herself to a male animal in order to have intercourse with it; THIS IS A TERRIBLE PERVERSION!!!” After reading that I wrote in the margin of my bible these words, “Thought this was a given.” But apparently it was not, because God had to take the time to make mention of it. I even began thinking how perverse a people, that God had to make sure to tell them this. Then I realized that we have done and will do things that God has to say, “STOP DOING____________BECAUSE THIS IS A TERRIBLE PERVERSION!!!” Just because we think it is a given does not mean that it necessarily is. Sometimes God has to spell it out in detail and very explicitly for us to understand what we are not to do.

3. What God really longs for in us is this…HOLINESS!!! In Leviticus 19:2 he says, “You MUST be holy because I, the Lord Your God, AM HOLY!!! If we do not have Holiness we are simply a lost and perverse group of people. If we are not constantly trying to become like God himself we are no more than the Terrible Perversion that God speaks against in scripture. Not to mention that God uses the word MUST here. Implying that this is not optional if we are going to call him our God.

I am amazed at how God uses these crazy laws, thoughts, and topics to simply remind us that all these things are keeping us from the most important thing…HOLINESS!!!

As I read and study Leviticus the one common theme is that God wants and longs for his creation, his chosen people to simply…

BE HOLY AS GOD HIMSELF IS HOLY!!!

What crazy things have you read in scripture that have caused you to stop, think, and change?

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