2,186,230 Can anyone guess what that number represents?
2,186,230 any Ideas?
2,186,230 this is the number of people who were in Jail, or Prison in the United States alone in June 2005 (the most recent statistics I could find).
Each person incarcerated in our system today is there because the government believed they had committed an offense that warranted a punishment. It’s not the only way the government punishes people, but it’s one.
Other means of punishment include parking tickets, community service, probation and a slew of other reprimands.
Throughout time there have been many very odd ways justice is carried out. In Elizabethan England women who gossiped to much was led around the city with a metal cage over her head with spikes in her mouth so she couldn’t move her tongue, they also made drunkards walk the streets wearing nothing but a barrel, and encouraged public jeering. The means for carrying out justice have changed but in every society there has been a consequence to breaking the rules.
In the time of Jesus things were no different. If you stole, you were punished. If you killed you had to face consequences. There were laws in place to keep the peace, and keep society plugging along.
There were also laws that the people followed in order that they could have peace with God. These were laid out in a group of writing that were the heart and soul of Jewish culture. This collection was called the Torah. The Torah laid out the beginnings of the Jewish people, stories of how God had intervened to help, save, and nurture the Jewish people throughout time, and laws that taught the Jewish people how to have fellowship with God.
One of the major ways people made peace with God was through sacrifices.
Sacrifices were offered in the temple in Jerusalem periodically throughout the year. Many of these sacrifices were slaughter offerings where an animal was killed for the people. We see in the book of Hebrews that this was because blood was required to fulfill the justice of God. As Hebrews 9:22 states, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”
Blood was needed, blood was given, but God wanted a deeper connection. He wanted life with us that was forever. Our lives fell short of God’s righteousness. We couldn’t live up to the standard of God. We weren’t perfect, and God requires perfection. This is what Christ’s life was about. He came and was killed, a perfect sacrifice between God and us forever. He opened the way to life with God, and united us with our creator for all time.
Because of Christ we are right with God. There is no need to sacrifice. There is no more blood needed for salvation. There is nothing that can separate us from the love of God.
That often leads me to the question, “now what?”
Seriously, Christ took care of it. What are we to do now?
In the Torah we can see hints of what life with God is all about.
The offerings for sins were required to be perfect, as Leviticus 22:20 states, “Do not bring anything with a defect, because it will not be accepted on your behalf.” However there were other things we people could give God that were not required to be perfect.
In Leviticus 22:23 we read that, “you may, however, present as a freewill offering an ox or a sheep that is deformed or stunted.”
These were offerings given to God, not to fulfill a requirement or obligation, but simply to give thanks to God.
Christ has taken the requirement of blood on himself, but we can still give God thanks. It may not be perfect like Christ, but God has always accepted true thanks even thanks that might be deformed of stunted.
I think this is what Paul is talking about when he writes: “in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship (Romans 12:1).
Right now I want you to close your eyes breathe in and just say Thank you.
Thank you….
What are we to thank God for? WHAT NOT!
When I was in Europe thank you was the first word I learned in every Country. In Germany, Danke, in Hungry Köszi, in Sweden and Denmark it’s Tak. To the Americans I met it was Thanks and to the Japanese guy I stayed with it was Domo arigato (Mr. roboto).
Life on earth is filled with expressions of gratitude to those who have given us even the smallest of things. We say thank you for gifts, for opportunities. We say thank you to the guy who gives us our change, and even to the guy who hands us a flyer to the show we don’t even want to see. How much more should we thank GOD!
Do you find yourself irritated by the people you work with, the teachers you have, or the kids you run into every day?
Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5, “give thanks in all circumstances.”
I have found the more I thank God the less things seem to bother me, and the more I feel close to God. Just as ancient offerings were said to ascend to the heavens, so also a life lived in praise connects us with God in powerful ways.
It also connects us with others in powerful ways. Last night I was walking through Ann Arbor and I saw a bonfire. I walked up to it and noticed that there were people all around talking. As I came near it became near that these were Christians. They were all thanking God and one another for what God had done. It was amazing. Here were people who I had never met sharing deep parts of who they were with me. I felt closer to many of them then I did to good friends I have. There is an intimacy that comes with thankfulness.
What are you thankful for?
I know
I was lost… but not now
I was hopeless… but not anymore
I was alone… but now I have true friends
And I know that even when I find myself lost hopeless and alone God will bring me out again.
Remember. Right now. EVERYTHING God has done.
God has inspired me, moved me, provided for me, saved me and known me. God has blessed me beyond comprehension, and taught me how to laugh, dance and run.
I used to have the word Die scarred on my arm where I had carved it in with a knife, but now I have images of God’s love and power.
What has God done for you?
You have been so blessed.
In this city you can find a feast in a dumpster. You can get fresh water from a toilet (seriously it’s safe if you get it from the basin behind the bowl). You can find shelter all around you. This is luxury that many people of the world can only dream of. There are a billion people without clean drinking water in the world today. Nine Million people die every year from starvation.
In America we watch shows like cribs and the lifestyles of the rich and famous and wonder how these people could spend so much on cars homes, and clothes. Most of the world looks at us and thinks the same thing.
When I went to Mexico I stayed with people who lived in homes supported by Styrofoam who lived in their own garbage because no one came to pick it up. And one night half the neighborhood burned down and no one could do anything about it.
This is the world we live in
YOU ARE SO BLESSED.
Maybe it’s time we had some free will offerings.
In the time of Jesus an offering wasn’t just used to please God, it was also used to feed people.
One of the best ways to thank God is to love people.
Jesus commends his disciples at the end of time telling them when I was in Jail you visited me. When they respond, “when lord?” He replies when you did it to the least of these you did it to me.
2,186,230 what is that?
2,186,230 any Ideas?
2,186,230 is just one group of people in this country in need of God’s love.
You many not be perfect yet, you may even be deformed of stunted, but God still desires your thanks, and so does the world.
