A Menu Change

He said to them, “Are you also as lacking in understanding? Don’t you realize that nothing going into a person from the outside can defile him? For it doesn’t go into his heart but into the stomach and is eliminated” (thus he declared all foods clean). And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of people’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, evil actions, deceit, self-indulgence, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a person.”
Mark 7:18-23 CSB

On a personal level, I am so glad these verses are included in the New Testament - especially declaring all foods clean. In the Daily Audio Bible, the Old Testament reading is in Leviticus. That's a tough book. Chew the cud, split hooves, not split hooves, divided hooves, scales, fins, swarming things...  Goodness gracious - who could keep up with all that?!?  And NO BACON?!?!?

There is much that we are thankful for, to be in the generations AFTER the crucifixion. The menu change is just one. If you go back and read all the different sacrifices that had to be made for all the different sins and sicknesses and maybes, you will be EXTREMELY grateful. Is there a better work? I told some friends this evening - if we were still under the Leviticus laws, I would be ever standing in the doorway of the tent of meeting doing one sacrifice or another. Thank God, we're not!

Prayer:

           Thank You for taking our sin upon the Cross and dealing with it, for setting us free. For doing Your death, burial, and resurrection and making us part of its total victory. I don't know how people do this life without You. Thank You for all of it - especially our salvation. Keep us ever mindful of what all this cost. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen