Moses and Aaron took these men whose names have been specified, and they called the whole community together on the first day of the second month. The people registered their ancestry by their clans and families, and the men 20 years old or more were listed by name, one by one, as the Lord commanded Moses. And so he counted them in the desert of Sinai:

Numbers 1:17-19

God is intentional with his plans for each person.

As Moses opens up the Book of Numbers, he starts with explaining how some men were specifically named to help number the men who were to be warriors in each of the tribes. All the tribes were to have men specifically called to fight in war, all except the Levites. Those men were specifically called to take care of the tabernacle. God was intentional and specific with each person as to what they were to do, and as he calls us, he’s intentional, too.

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace and it’s various forms.

1 Peter 4:10

Whether we were created male or female, short or tall, outgoing or reserved, studious or creative, Each characteristic we were born with and each family we were born into was for a specific purpose with God’s full intentionality. He wove all of these things together to use in the greater scheme of things, so we could relate in the areas we’ve been given.

Being born a female and placed in a farming family, living as a “tomboy” but being taught the ways of a mom. Loving nature but naturally growing in mathematics and science. Having a loving family but suffering in many trials within the family. All these things are intentional, woven together, to be used by God. His intentionality was making me relatable to women in all facets of life. These gifts allow me to help each day in the way God calls me for that day and for that time. He made me specifically this way, so that I could be there for the troubled teen, the hurting mom, the lost woman, and the hurting child. He’s spoken to me in the darkest places, so I could bring light to you in your dark places. He is intentionally specific, so we can fulfill one purpose and someone else can fill another, and together we can do the work of the Lord.

He was intentionally specific with you, too. Take some time and Write out your individual characteristics from birth to today. Look for the woven strands that have formed the tapestry that you see in the mirror today, and move forward in the specific direction he’s been leading you.

But I said to you, “You will possess their land; I will give it to you as an inheritance, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God, who set you apart from the nations.

Leviticus 20:24

Yep! When God saved you, He made you different.

The Israelites are moving into this plush new land with all the good and favorable things, as well as all these new and interesting people. When I say interesting, I mean, they worship tons of God, they sacrificed their children, and they did unholy things with their spouses, their moms and dads, their in-laws, and even the family cow. These people looked different, they had different hairstyles, different clothing, and different piercings all over. Their differences made them interesting and as the Israelites moved in, God said, those people are normal, worldly, unholy, but I created you to be different; I set you apart as Holy. Go and be different in that lush land I’m giving you.

All my life I’ve been called different, and for a while, I’d definitely say, I let that word hurt my feelings. But then I realize God created me different for a purpose. He saved me as a small child, and set me a part for a specific plan when I was quite young. However, most of my childhood I just wanted to fit in with the world and that ended up harming me the most. But when he got my attention as a young 19-year-old, and showed me who he really meant for me to be, I realized my different was to make a difference for the Kingdom of Heaven. I may act different, but in my difference I’m focusing on what and where God is calling me.

It’s so OK to be different, especially if you’re different is because of the work Christ has done in you. He has set you apart, and called you to live differently in this world.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you’ll be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing, and perfect will.

Romans 12:2

When God led the Israelites into the promised land it was as though he looked them in the eyes and said, I’m giving you something grand, but I need you to be faithful to me and be the people I created you to be. Don’t change to be like the people I’m placing you among. Let them change because of the difference they see in you. And you know what, when we become saved, I think God says the same thing to us.

Be the light; be the city on a hill; be different, so that others will see the difference God did for you and in you and want to know him and be different too!

When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native born. Love them as yourself for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

Leviticus 19:33-34

In the promised land, there would be many nations. It would belong to the Israelites because that is what God promised to them, but other tribes and other people would live among them, move in, and pass through.

Now God‘s heart is huge. He promised Abraham that all people would come to know him, believe in him, and be saved by him through the Israelite people. So, he is very direct when he tells Moses that there will be foreigners among them and they need to love them as their neighbor. God reminds the people that they were once foreigners in the land of Egypt and a Pharaoh welcomed them there. But we also must remember that the Israelites were enslaved years later by new a pharaoh that didn’t know the history and was afraid of the Israelite people. What did God do in this situation? He humbled The Egyptians with many plagues and set his people free.

God is loving and he is just; he created all people with a purpose and he called them good. He wants us to reflect the love of Christ not to try to play judge ourselves in slave others. We were all foreigners at some point and we need to treat others as we want to be treated.

So, how do we love the foreigner? Love them as a neighbor, love them as yourself.

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge in the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is filled in keeping this one command: love your neighbor as yourself.

Galatians 5:13-14

God desires for us to walk in the spirit, to bear fruit like the spirit, to be filled with love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control toward others. He wants us to love others that aren’t like us by giving to them, helping them, encouraging them, providing them with what they need so in return they will do the same for others. And in this way they may see your good works and come to know what the kingdom of heaven is to be like. If we do this, then Peace fills our nation, instead of division.

If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

Galatians 5:15

Do to others as you would have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that.

Luke 6:32-33

Friends, we have to stop looking at our differences and dividing ourselves into factions. We need to see each other through Jesus’s eyes and see the beauty he created in our differences and truly begin to love our neighbors, the foreigners, and our enemies, WELL.

We were all foreigners once; let’s love the way God loves us.

This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: on the 10th day of the seventh month you must deny yourselves and not do any work – whether native born or a foreigner residing among you — because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the Lord, you will be clean from all your sins. It is a day of Sabbath rest and you must deny yourselves; it is a lasting ordinance.

Leviticus 16:29-31

Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish faith, is a day of cleansing; a day of fasting and praying and abstaining from any physical pleasure or work, to be atoned for any sins in the upcoming year.

Moses explains in detail, this observance, this holy day, to Aaron, so he can teach the other Levites, and this day can be passed down from generation to generation.

Yom Kippur, The Day of Atonement, is actually the culmination of the high holy days in the Hebrew calendar which starts with Rosh Hashanah, the day God writes a person’s name into the book of life.

As we come upon the Lenten season in the Christian faith, we are essentially experiencing the same kind of Holy Days fulfilled through this time of Holiness in Judaism.

When Jesus walked the earth he had to go up on a mountain, much like Moses, and fast and pray for 40 days. In Jesus’ 40 days, he was tempted by every Temptation and came out of this fasting, sinless, never giving into the ways of the devil. Jesus then led his public ministry for three years until he carried His cross to Golgotha to be crucified, buried and risen again on the 3rd day. This day that we call Easter, for the final atonement of all our sins and to give us eternal life.

Anyone who believes in Jesus as their Lord and Savior has been atoned for their sins once and for all. Because of Salvation through Jesus, this cleansing and renewal, Easter is truly my favorite holiday – holy day. To prepare for it, I choose to participate in Lent, and give up some pleasure so I can focus on Jesus when I’m beginning to desire something other than Him. This preparation that starts on Ash Wednesday and concludes on the Saturday evening before Easter Sunday, gets my eyes focused on my savior and reminds me of all he He’s done for me throughout my life.

I understand the desire of Moses to have the Levites practice this day of atonement every year, to have a full cleansing to be able to focus on God and the ability to come into his presence. It comes from a desire deep within us to know him more fully. A desire we’ve had since the garden.

So, as we head into this Lenten season, I challenge you to lay aside something that will force you to focus more on Jesus. When lent culminates, my hope is that you will have a refreshing of your faith and truly come to know and experience the love of your Savior even more. Through Him you have already been written into the book of life, and atoned for, saved, through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

The priest is to go and examine it and, if the mold has spread in the house, it is a persistent defiling mold; the house is unclean. It must be torn down – it’s stones, timbers, and all the plaster — and taken out of the town to an unclean place.

Leviticus 14:44-45

When the house is unrepairable for the owner, the owner has the opportunity to release control and start new.

As the Israelites were still preparing to enter their promised land, God is laying out the things they will need and actions they should take. In this chapter, we find that God says in some houses he will put a spreading mold. He goes on to explain how the people are to get rid of it, the offerings they are to make, and what they should do if the mold just won’t leave. And what is that, you may ask, teat it down, tear the whole house down and start new.

God brought mold into these houses so the people would get them clean and so they would rely on him if the mold wouldn’t go away. He uses hard things to transform us from the inside out and to teach us to lean on him instead of our own ways.

Just like the house is a place for us to live and heaven is God’s home, the Holy Spirit lives in all of us who have been saved.

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

We can try and clean up our own lives, but it will be difficult, and we will never be fully clean. But when we lay down our lives, our control, and let Jesus have control, the Holy Spirit will come into our bodies and truly clean house. This clean house doesn’t just empty things out, it creates all things new. Nothing of the past will stay, all the mold will be washed away.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!

2 Corinthians 5:17

Truly, we can work all day trying to clean up our house, trying to get our act together, but tomorrow will bring new trials and all our efforts will fly out the windows. But when we let God create something new in us through the cleansing of the blood of Christ and the renewal of our spirits, our earthly dwelling will be fully transformed.

It takes too much continual work to try and clean out our own house. Let’s open our doors to Jesus, and have him tear down the old and create something NEW.

These are the regulations concerning animals, birds, every living thing that moves along the ground. You must distinguish between the unclean and clean, between living creatures that may be eaten and those that may not be eaten..

Leviticus 11:46-47

Right and wrong, clean and unclean, the Israelites had many rules to follow and because of that, probably stumbled a ton. One of the rules that has still hung around to this day, is what food is clean and unclean, what food is OK to eat and not OK.

For me, this rule would be extremely difficult because I don’t like a lot of meat and one of the meats I actually do like is a big no, no… Pork… You know, the pig.

Thanks be to God and his sovereignty, I am not needing to make tons of offerings to atone myself of this sin or having to abstain from something I enjoy. The offering He made through His Son, cleansed everything He created and He called it ALL Good.

About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals as well as reptiles and birds. Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.” “Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied, “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.” The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.“

Acts 10:9-15

Peter was a faithful Jew, a disciple, an apostle, and he followed the laws as they were laid out. But through a vision, God revealed to him that He is able to make all things clean. Peter realize God wasn’t just talking about food now, he was also talking about people and any other thing that may have once been unclean.

In the same manner, God also says not to judge others for their beliefs on what is clean and unclean, not to be a stumbling block to another, because the kingdom of God is no longer focused on the law due to the law being fulfilled through Christ. Our focus should be more on righteousness for ourselves, peace with others, and joy for all.

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but Of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval. Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall. So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God.

Romans 14:17-22a

God makes all things clean and good, but all things aren’t clean and good for all. If the Holy Spirit nudges your heart toward a certain way follow that towards righteousness, peace, and joy.

He shall take out the memorial portion from the grain offering and burn it on the altar as a food offering, an aroma pleasing to the Lord.

Leviticus 2:9

The Israelites are still out in the wilderness learning the laws and part of the laws are the different offerings they are to make to the LORD. Each one is to be without blemish, clean, practically perfect in every way. And as the people burn these on the altar, it will send a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

When Jesus came, he gave his life as a final offering for us, a sacrifice that became a sweet aroma, so we never had to be atoned for again. His offering was to be once….and for all, who believe. Jesus was sinless, fully human and fully God. He was nailed on the cross and died without any blemish. Jesus wasn’t practically perfect, he was perfect in every way to the very end.

We will never be perfect and we don’t ever have to make an offering for the Lord again, but God does call us to live a life like Jesus, making him an example for us to follow. In this way, instead of dying, he now calls us to be a living sacrifice, a pleasing aroma, of the offering of Christ.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship.

Romans 12:1

But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.

2 Corinthians 2:14-15

The closer we grow to Christ the more we will reflect him. It’s like a friend: when you first meet, you can be very different, but the more you hang out, the more you begin to take on their characteristics. Your actions and words and sometimes even your looks begin to reflect your friend. (Just saying, I’ve even see this in dog ownership too, kidding not kidding. Oh, Toodles.)

To know Jesus more, to grow closer to Him, to be a living sacrifice, it takes time and effort on our part. When we read God‘s word, when we reflect on what he is saying to our heart, when we pray, when we seek him every time we feel confused, lost or just needing someone to lean on, we are becoming more like Jesus. He is the vine and we are the branches. When we stay connected to Him, we will produce an abundance of fruit that is like a pleasing aroma to God and the world.

To be the living sacrifice, we take up our cross daily; we do the hard stuff with a smile, all the while pointing to Jesus. At this point, the fragrance of Christ exudes from our Words and Actions and Glorify’s God.

We can’t just believe in Jesus and not walk out our faith by reflecting Him. He will say he doesn’t know us because we haven’t been in a relationship, a friendship, with him. He was our final offering, a fragrant aroma to God for our sins, and now we have the opportunity to grow our relationship with Jesus and reflect His offering and exude His fragrance so that the world can know Him, too. This takes action, faith — a living sacrifice on our part, not just belief.

In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out; but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out – until the day it lifted. So the cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the Israelites during all their travels.

Exodus 40:36-38

“Stay as I stay; go as I go.“ These are the words Imagine God saying often.

Moses and the Israelites have finally completed their mobile tabernacle, the place where God would dwell on their travels. So, as they are tying on the last stone and placing the last pomegranate in its place, a cloud settles over the tent and God is in the cloud.

God explains to Moses that as long as he is on the tabernacle in the cloud they are to stay at that place, but if the cloud lifts and moves they are to go.

I don’t know about you, but for myself, I’ve change location a lot in my last 22 years. From the outside looking in, I know it could look like I’m quite flippant, which is hard for me because I am such a people pleaser. But I can also promise you, that every decision I’ve made has been because God has Either told me to stay or he’s told me it’s time to go. I don’t mind change, so it’s been OK with me, but if it were up to me, I personally would have made the change a year or more before it actually happened. Oh, how I wanted to, but God would tell me in one way or another, “Not yet, I haven’t told you where to go.”

When God begins nudging our hearts to change our location or situation it’s like a Hurry up and WAIT.

God wants us to be ready for the cloud to lift, but he doesn’t want us to move until he does. It can be really hard, too, because some of us are ready to make the move now and others of us are quite comfortable where we are. But in both situations, we have to wait on God until he wants to move or go with God until he wants to stay.

For those of you like me, who like change, it can be difficult for us to wait when we really feel like God is telling us to go. So, we sometimes try to jump the gun and we end up making the wrong moves and have to deal with the consequences of Waiting for God to now readjust our paths. Sometimes that means we have to humble ourselves and turn back, and sometimes that means God will make us stay in our new situation and learn right there a new lesson.

Maybe you’re on the other side of the coin, and you don’t want to move unless someone is dragging you away. It’s not that you always love your situation, but what if the new location is worse, what if there are giants there that you can’t conquer? So, sometimes you hold so tightly to your current situation that the world around you keeps going but you can’t understand why God’s not speaking to you anymore. And really, God is speaking to you, you just can’t hear him because he’s now 20 miles ahead of you, telling you to catch up.

When God moves, he wants us to move because he’s guiding us and protecting us on the path he has for us on the plan he’s laid before us. As we move with him we fully experience his presence which is filled with his peace, joy, and love. When God stays, we need to stay with him because again, he is protecting us but now he’s also teaching us something important in the current place we are, that we will need for the travels he is to lead us on in the future.

So…..what do we do? Hurry up and Wait!

Go as I Go, Stay as I Stay — God.

They made the bronze basin and it’s bronze stand from the mirrors of the woman who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting.

Exodus 38:8

In the middle of the wilderness, building a beautiful tabernacle, God used broken pieces to cleanse the hands, feet, and heart of his people.

Tucked in between making walls and designing robes, God calls the women to bring together their mirrors. The things women used to judge their own beauty, to compare themselves against others, to make themselves more beautiful, to dissect their flaws, and fix their blemishes. God used the most vain tool of a woman, broken apart and put back to together, as a washing basin for the hands and feet of those coming into the tabernacle to worship Him.

It’s just as though God is saying, you can’t keep throwing stones at yourself and others if you’re washing the feet of your neighbor. You can’t judge what I made good if you’re using what I made for the good of others.

We so easily look in a mirror and begin to nitpick ourselves, looking at our past and our present and shaming ourselves or judging what we see. But not only do we do this to ourselves but we also do this to other people. Judging their past and the present and not seeing who God created them to be.

When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “let any of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.“

John 8:7

God wants us to put down our mirrors and bend down to wash our hands in his cleansing water to see his reflection in us. Better yet, he wants us to bend even lower and wash the feet of the one we would usually judge; to stop looking for their flaws but instead look to be like Jesus to them.

So, why not take our mirrors, like the Israelite women, and use them for good, to cleanse the hands and feet and hearts of those God places around us?! We can do this by encouraging ourselves and others to see the good God created us to be.