©2006/2007 Building God's Kingdom Together, Inc.

Text Box: When I played hide and seek, I never liked to be the one doing the seeking.  Getting to hide was much more fun.  Today, I enjoy seeking others that need Jesus.  I share with them what God has done in my life through the sacrifice of Jesus.  When they embrace His great love they become one who has now found the Lover of Their Soul.
So which are you, a hider, or a seeker?  Let me challenge you to be a seeker for God’s Kingdom.  Actively look for the people God has placed in your life, family, friend, or acquaintance that He wants you to share with about His great love.  Don’t put yourself inside a double walled furnace, hidden away from others.  Let your whole world know!

Text Box: We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done.
 Psalms 78:4
I remember my childhood as a very happy and positive time in my life.  It was a time full of fun experiences, great adventures, and a myriad of learning opportunities.  While I look back at my childhood and see such goodness and happiness, I know that there were also times of difficulty and struggle.  I simply have chosen to overlook those times.
Some of my childhood memories revolve around playing games.  Not so much board games or card games, though Mom does like to remind me that she taught me to play fifty-two card pick up.  The type of games I remember most are games that involved imagination and challenge.
The game I most remember playing, besides any form of baseball, was hide and seek.  I loved to play most anywhere, but I especially loved to play inside our house.  That was because I found a place where no one could find me, and no one ever did.






Text Box: My favorite hiding place was inside our furnace.  It was an old double walled furnace.  There was a small cut out, mostly designed for lighting the furnace, that was just large enough for me to crawl through.  It allowed me to hide in between the two walls of the furnace.  It was a creepy, dark place, that if I had any sense, I would not have gone in there in the first place.  You have to love little boys!
The Psalmist encourages us not to hide the praiseworthy deeds and the wonders the Lord has done in our lives from others.  We should, especially, not hide them from our children, the next generation.  It is our responsibility and privilege to share the story of God’s goodness to us with those we love.
While others may not intentionally hide from us, we must be certain to seek them out with the express purpose of sharing God’s ‘doings’ in our life.  While you may not think that you have a testimony that anyone wants to hear, the truth is that you have the firsthand knowledge of the awesome love God has for all of us.  That firsthand knowledge and experience can water even the driest of souls with hope and the confirmation of God’s great love.

         Playing Hide and Seek

                                by Pastor Dave Bassett

Text Box: Building God’s
   Kingdom Together

October 29,  2007

October, 2007 — Issue #2

Building God’s Kingdom Newsletter

Special points of interest:

· Playing Hide and Seek

         by Pastor Dave Bassett

· The Grain Offering

         by Pastor Dave Bassett

 

Rev. Dave Bassett is the pastor of Rosewood Lane Church of the Nazarene.  See the church’s website at
 
http://www.nazarene.ch/RosewoodLane/
for info on the Rosewood Lane Church in Layton, Utah.  We would love to have you visit our church!

Text Box: Leviticus Chapter 2 outlines the ceremony of the grain offering.  While this offering did include an element of a sacrifice made on the altar, it did not include the element of a sacrificial animal as the burnt sacrifice did.  This offering consisted of a gift of grain or cereal.
This offering could be brought as either fine flour, or baked fine flour.  If it was brought as fine flour, it was to be mixed with incense and oil.  This was very common for the day.  The incense commonly used was frankincense; the same incense was one of the gifts given the baby Jesus by the three wise men.
If the offering were baked flour it was permissible for it to be baked into either cakes, wafers prepared on a griddle, or fried in a pan.  Baked or not, the offering was to be presented without any yeast or honey.  It was explicitly prohibited to burn yeast or honey as a sacrifice to the Lord.



Text Box: It was required that the offering be seasoned with salt.  Salt was considered a sign of covenant between individuals or between an individual and God.  To have left out the salt was to fail to acknowledge the covenant with the Lord and more explicitly fail to acknowledge Him as Lord.
When the offering was presented to the priest, he was to take a handful to be burned on the altar.  It was to be an offering by fire that was an aroma pleasing to God.   This handful was known as the memorial portion.  If it were fine flour he would simply take a handful.  If it were baked he would crumble the offering so that he could take a handful for the memorial portion.







Text Box: The remainder of the offering, after the memorial portion was taken, was to belong to the priest who performed the burning of the memorial portion.  This part of the offering was considered holy and was to be eaten only by the priest and only in the sanctuary.
Additional instructions are given if the grain offering consists of first fruits.  First fruits referred to the very first part of the very first harvest of that year.  In this case the heads of grain were to be roasted with oil and incense added.  The remainder of the instructions was the same.
Next time we will look at the fellowship offering.  This offering was commonly known as the peace offering and could be presented at any time.

The Grain Offering

        by Pastor Dave Bassett