For “Scripture Sunday”:
Unleavened Bread
Transcript
[Steve Myers] “There is an interesting feast that falls right after the Christian Passover that’s called Unleavened Bread. You can read about that particular feast time in Leviticus 23. There is an outline of God’s festivals in Leviticus 23.
Now the question comes up. All right, we’re in the book of Leviticus, that’s Old Testament. And didn’t the sacrifice of Christ do away with all of those festivals that are mentioned in Leviticus 23? Well there is evidence in the New Testament that says without a doubt, no. Not at all. Should a Christian observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread? Is that something that we should be doing today?
Well, the Apostle Paul spoke to that very question in the book of 1 Corinthians. So at 1 Corinthians 5. He gives very direct instructions to the church in Corinth and he says this. He says, “You’re glorying is not good.” This is in verse 6. “Your glorying is not good. Don’t you know a little leaven leavens the whole lump?” So he begins to talk about leavening, and leavening goes in the dough and makes it rise. Then he says, “Purge out the old leaven since you are truly unleavened.” Then in verse 8, he goes on and says, “ Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Corinthians 5:6-8)
So Paul says a couple of interesting things here. First of all, there is an object lesson. By removing physical breads and leavening out of our home, getting rid of yeast, the things that make bread rise, there is a lesson to be learned from that. And so he uses that object lesson to say there is a spiritual thing that’s involved here. The spiritual lesson is get rid of wickedness, get rid of sin, get rid of malice and now put on the new man in Christ. Be sincere. The man of sincerity and truth.
So through this physical observance of the Days of Unleavened Bread and getting rid of that leavening out of our homes, we are recognizing that we should be a new creation in Christ. And so what does he say? He says, “Let us keep the feast.” Because of these things, because we understand the spiritual significance, we keep the feast. Some translations say, “Observe the feast.” Some say, “Celebrate the feast.” Some even say, “Continue the feast.” Not in a Jewish sense but in a Christian sense.
So should a Christian observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread? The answer the Apostle Paul gives for the New Testament church for us today, yes. Absolutely. And 1 Corinthians 5 bears that out. From: https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/beyond-today-daily/unleavened-bread
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How much sin do you accept in your life?
YouTube: https://youtu.be/7RN298JMQ7k
Transcript
[Steve Myers] “How much sin do you accept in your life? The Apostle Paul, in a sense, posed that same question to the church in Corinth. In 1 Corinthians 5 and in verse 6 he says this to them. He says, “Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?” So the Apostle Paul is comparing leavening to sin, because when you put that leavening in the dough it causes that dough to rise and it, in a sense, infects that whole loaf.
So Paul says even the littlest amount spreads and grows. And in fact the church of Corinth had become so tolerant and so merciful that they accepted sin both in the congregation and in their own personal lives, and so God says no, we can’t do that.
The Apostle Paul was inspired to write, “Therefore, purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump.” And then he connects that to Jesus Christ. He says, “You’re truly unleavened, for indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.” (1 Corinthians 5:6-7)
So Paul’s saying look at yourself. How much sin is acceptable in your life? Paul says do everything you can to rely on Jesus Christ. Have him live his life in you and through you so that we choose to be truly unleavened.” From: https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/beyond-today-daily/how-much-sin
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An Amazing Fact: “Tucked inside the microscopic nucleus of every cell in our bodies is a six-foot long strand of protein molecules, called DNA. The information contained within makes it possible for each parent to contribute one-and-a-half billion bits of genetic information to each of their offspring!
The DNA itself resembles a long, narrow, spiral ladder of pliable material. Before a cell is able to divide, the DNA must be “duplicated” so that each cell will have an original copy of the genetic code. As replication begins, an enzyme unwinds the spiral DNA ladder. Next, a protein molecule holds the two strands apart while another enzyme rapidly “transcribes” genetic code to RNA molecules. The code is then “proofread” and instantly corrected if an error is found. All of this happens in a matter of seconds! Finally, the RNA molecules exit the nucleus to begin communicating the genetic code to new cells.
As the RNA molecule takes critical information from the DNA and communicates it to the body, so Christ took the message of His Father’s love from the “nucleus” of heaven and communicated it to our planet. “For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me” (John 17:8).
And now it is Christ’s desire that we do the work of the RNA! “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world” (John 17:18).
While we cannot help what genetic heritage we have been given from our parents, we can accept God’s offer to be our Father and choose to be “born again.” Let us bring joy to the Father’s heart today, replicating the peace of heaven, by letting Christ transcribe the genetic code of heaven into our hearts!
KEY BIBLE TEXTS
O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. John 17:25 And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. John 17:26”
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Update,
So why am I writing about the Passover when most people have already celebrated it? Well, the church that I attend, and quite a few other churches around the world, believe that it has to be celebrated after a certain new moon, and that it won’t be Passover until Sunday, April 29th this year. Then there will be the Feast of Unleavened Bread for 7 days after that.
Zack and I have already pulled out my fridge and cleaned any crumbs out that might have been under it, getting ready to have all the leavening out of the house.
On Monday, it was Jay’s mom, Claudia’s funeral. There were a few of her family there, even though they live in Houston. All three of her grandsons said a few words and both her daughters. Jay was there, her only surviving son, but he isn’t very good at public speaking, so he stayed seated. Leon, her neighbor, and I, were her only friends there. They placed her urn in a box and put it in the ground under a great big oak tree. It was a graveside service, the wind was really blowing, then sometimes it would rain on the big canopy over us. Most of us were cold because we didn’t know it was going to be an outside service, and hadn’t dressed accordingly.
The two lots with the ramshackle cabin on it that I worked on cleaning up last year have been sold to a man who has torn it all down, so that undesirables can’t stay there any more. He had to go past there several times a day to get to his lovely waterfront home and wanted to get it cleared off and leveled. That is a big eyesore eliminated. I had asked for any of the wooden T1-11 siding, as I have a use for it, and they brought it here on a truck. Zack and I cleaned up that lumber, pulled all the nails and screws, and stacked it in the greenhouse until we are ready to use it.
It took two mornings just to get all the dust from the road work cleaned up on my front screen porch, my “catio”, which is at the other side of the house from the road resurfacing. Another morning we spent cleaning the front door porch. The dust and dirt travelled that far.
My new foster-cat is a little gray honey called “Gracie”. She is one of the survivors when her home caught fire and was saved with just smoke inhalation. She played hide-and-seek with me for the first three days. After a couple of hours she would utter a little meow and I would go find her. When she found out that I knew all the hiding places, she gave up and now sleeps on my bed. She is so gentle, and the wounds on my hands and legs from the other cat have all healed. I am now bandaid free for the first time since January.
For the church potluck I cooked some course ground bison, added chili beans, onions, green peppers. seasonings and called it Bison Chili. They loved it. I just took the one dish this time and it seemed so much easier to load and unload the van. We also had lasagne, a beef and veggie dish, and lots of veggies and salads. There was a very sticky, gooey, chocolate pie thing with copious amounts of white coolwhip stuff on the top, and they ate two of them. How can anyone eat such sweet stuff ?
The Bible readings were Lev. 9:1-11:47, that is about the clean and unclean foods, then Sam. 6:1-7:17, and Heb. 7:1-19 and 8:1-6. The Teaching was about the Resurrection. We have been having some colder weather, and the church was cold as they never have enough heat in there for me, and it was a very cold day.
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