Your faith comes alive when you see the Truth
The mind can’t understand the Christ, but the heart already knows the truth that will set you free. Quiet the mind and use the heart to find the Christ within, and you will discover the Living Water that Jesus promised at the ‘well’. When Jesus taught the people in Samaria, in the Gospel of John 4:4-42. He never told them to go kill some innocent animal to cover their sins, so that God wouldn’t judge them…??
No Jesus never taught that our Father desired blood sacrifices… John 4:23 -24. The English word “worship” was originally spelled “worth-ship” and means to acknowledge the nature of the object worshiped. Jesus never taught or practiced blood sacrifice, because He understood the true nature of God. The nature of God is pure Love, pure optimism, pure grace, pure forgiveness, pure truth. Only an evil monster would demand animal sacrifices to ‘pay’ for the sins of our fathers, passed on to us through original sin.
I believe that refusing to offer ‘God’ an animal sacrifice was the ‘great heresy’ that the Jewish leaders killed Jesus for preaching and practicing. He told his followers to not go to the temple and sacrifice animals to ‘God’. But to symbolically celebrate, a new covenant, that blood sacrifice are not pleasing to God, through the Last Supper. The last supper is a celebration of Christ’s teaching, blood sacrifices are not pleasing to God.
The only people who seemed to understand this were the Jews who later rejected Christ as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. The Jewish people no longer perform animal sacrifices because they ‘got’ what Jesus was teaching. And they knew that Jesus would never approve of being the Lamb of God any more than he would have approved the killing of innocent animals.
Do you really believe God delights in animal sacrifices?
Jesus came to save man from the lie ‘that only through blood sacrifice, can we be reunited with God’s Love‘. Jesus taught, the kingdom of God is now. Just believe, if you can’t believe that God is unconditional Love, than look at Jesus, and what he truly taught and lived…
Hosea 6:6 – For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
Matthew 9:13 – But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Matthew 12:7 – But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.
Yes, it amazes me that the Jewish people rejected Jesus as the Messiah, but accepted the message of Jesus, and stopped all animal sacrifices. The Christians accepted Jesus as the Messiah but distorted his message and made Jesus the blood sacrifice. I is impossible for Jesus to be the sacrifice when all he taught was that the Father wanted mercy not sacrifice! Let me know if you come across any other scriptures that supports the truth. We need to save Christians from doing as Saul had done by persecuting God with their condemnation of the body of Christ. We are ALL the body of Christ… The Gospel is good news for all!
I’ve been in this boat for some weeks now.
Indirectly, the God and Mammon quotes support the Gerald Ford Principle – you can’t walk and chew gum at the same time. I find it impossible to hold the notions (memes, patterns, there must be a better word) of “love” and “sacrifice” at the same time. I am hoping to redo the sacrament of the shared meal as agape rather than blood sacrifice for some time.
That would make “Morning Prayer” a quest for “the good news for the day”, our commission – to evangelize that good news and Evening Prayer a “love feast”.
I approve of your work. I think God does too.
Love,
Jim
Well Jim,
Your thoughts are proving to be very insightful and encouraging. The sacrament for wine and bread as an offering goes back to showing the true heartfelt ‘sacrifice’ that is pleasing to God. The sacrifice of praise… I think of this as undoing the story of Cain and Able, which set the idea that animal sacrifice, not fruit celebrations are pleasing to God. I think that man has twisted so many beautiful gifts of God, that we forget that He is the GOOD Father.