I note that my passage cutoff's aren't as even as they should be. At approximately 30 chapters a day I'm overlapping Leviticus and Numbers as books that could almost be read in one sitting. Ah, well that's alright. Now SHH. It's time for me to get reading. But not before I make one more observation: Leviticus has become my favorite Old Testament book. So this is a special treat for me today.

As a pastor it is significant to me that the Leviticus reading begins with sacrifices for a priest who sins. Someone once wrote, "If a solitary man sins, he destroys himself. If a family man sins, he destroys his family. But if a Pastor sins, he unravels his whole church." That's a sober warning to myself and to any pastors reading this. Men we have got to draw near to Jesus Christ!

As I read through Leviticus it occurs to me that "sin is costly". My wife and I bought a 1/2 a cow last year which is now only partially remaining in the freezer. It was expensive. It was cheaper than buying all that meat from the grocery store for certain but it was still expensive. The sin offerings were bulls and goats (and birds for the poorest) but the overwhelming sense I get is that sin is costly.

I've had to fight through some of my own addictions in the past but it makes me wonder if we had to slay a bull instead of hitting our knees would our addictions find a harder time sticking? - at least once we were truly committed to repenting I mean.

When it comes to the care and feeding of that elusive creature: The Elder – the church has some specific responsibilities. The first is to provide which we covered last week. The second is to protect.

In 1 Timothy 5:19-21 we have a few simple guidelines for protecting the reputation and holiness of an elder. Church discipline is never a fun topic – but it is a necessary one.

The principles of Church discipline are laid out in Matthew 18:15-20. Let's read that text again for a refresher. <read it> The quick principles then are:

1. Go talk to a sinning believer in private to urge them to repent.

2. If he refuses to listen, take one or two witnesses with you for another private meeting.

3. If he refuses to heed all three of you, inform the entire church.

4. If he refuses to heed the church – have nothing to do with him until he repents.

I feel the need for a brief rabbit trail here to motion to Matthew 18:19-20 there and ask you to pay attention to this church discipline context. This is not a gang up on God and you'll get what you want prayer formula. This is a confirmation that in the midst of the distress of church discipline the Lord is there to confirm his word of holiness.

The question of our text in Timothy is whether or not the procedures are somehow different for an elder. The answer to that is “NO”. The principles of Matthew 18 are brought to bear on the pastor/elder as well as any Christian. The focus on this passage however looks at the first aspect with a desire to protect an elder's public integrity.

FOXNews.com ran a quick snippet of a UK marriage which was annulled after two (obviously fraternal) twins which had been separated at birth managed to meet, fall in love and get married. Not only does this qualify for the "eww! ick!" category, it raises some interesting questions. If God hates divorce (Malachi 2:16) what about this? After all it's an abomination to have sexual relations with a close relative (Leviticus 18:6-9, 24-28). As soon as this unhappy couple discovered (no news on how that revelation came about) that they were bro and sis they separated.

I'm not laboring under the presupposition that these folks have committed some unpardonable sin. In fact I would say they have acted righteously by taking corrective action as soon as they became aware of their blood relationship.

Put yourself into this difficult position. In the course of your day you hear a rumor or know of another Christian who is sinning against the Lord. What do you do? Sadly most of us are so out of touch with godliness that we have an immediate reaction to just ignore it after all, what is it to me if another Christian is living in sin? But the reality of Scripture is that you are your brother's keeper. We are indeed responsible to help others be holy; and when we see that holiness failing we should help to bring about that change with an appropriate rebuke.

While our text this morning will come from 1 Timothy 5:1-2; a plain application of it comes right from Galatians 6:1 " Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted." (NASB95)

Please open your Bible to 1 Timothy 5:1-2 and read it with me. Read 1 Tim 5:1-2.

Respectfully

If we could summarize the rule for interacting with other people we could do it with one word: "RESPECT". Aretha Franklin Got it right. When we are preparing to confront another believer in sin we must keep in mind that this is a brother (mother, father, sister) in Christ - treat them that way.

He starts with older men and older women. Treat them the way you would your own father or mother. Paul is obviously drawing a connection to the Leviticus 19:32 injunction to stand before the grey headed and honor the aged in connection with revering God.

Originally posted at gephartr.blogspot.com

I haven't been able to put as much thought into this as I would like yet, but felt it worth posting for possible discussion. Relating to the nature of the final judgement, what is it based on?

I have a confession to make: I killed someone.

This is CCEL's February's Feature Classic. I was intrigued by Amy de Jong's essay about the book, that i wanted it for my reading pleasure. This is one that Yvonne and I will be reading before bed. Now, you can read it too in Logos.

I'm powerless and I've grown cold. something happened last night that shouldn't have. A connection was severed - several I guess and it will take a lot of work to repair it.