Passion and Deception Day 4

8 Day Week

Passion and Deception

This is the Passion Week.

How passionate are you for Christ?

Be careful that you are not too busy to prepare.

You don’t want to miss the wedding

and the Lord’s Table.

Are you ready?

This is the Passion Week

and the time of the feast of unleavened bread

called the Passover.

It is the time that God’s people

remember the deliverance from slavery to the Egyptians.

God had told the Israelites at the first Passover to prepare a lamb

and take some of the blood and put it on the door frame

because death of the first born

would come where ever there was no blood.

They were also to remove any leaven in their house

and make bread without leaven

or be cut off from God’s people.

 All the preparation to be delivered from slavery

and death was not just a ceremony,

it was an everlasting ordinance

that should come from the heart.

The day that Judas made an agreement to betray Christ

with the chief priest was likely to have been Wednesday.

The scriptures tell us that at that time Satan entered Judas.

What type of leaven was in Judas

that opened the door for Satan to get control of his life?  

If you remember Jesus just before He started His public ministry,

He had been fasting and then Satan came to tempt Him.

Jesus resisted Satan and his offers

and angels came to refresh Him

after He proved that Satan had no hold on Him.

Jesus the Bread of Life had no leaven in Him.

Tomorrow all of this will make more sense

as we sit at the Lord’s Supper.

But for now the question is,

Are we prepared?

Leaven is such a small thing

but makes a big difference when baked in the dough.

It only takes a little greed or lust,

a little unforgiveness or jealousy.

Just a little in our lives

opens the door for Satan to enter.

Ever say a sharp word to someone

and it caused a reaction

that sparked you to speak a stronger word?

How quickly a little leaven in our lives

can get out of control.

Be passionate -

spend some time examining your heart and life.

Get out the magnifying glass and look for leaven

in the way you handle things at work, home with family, neighbors and even how you handle yourself.

Ask God to help -

He can spot leaven easier than you and I!

Scripture Reading

Luke 22:1-6 NIV

22:1 Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread, called the Passover, was approaching,

2 and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some way

to get rid of Jesus, for they were afraid of the people.

3 Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve.

4 And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard

and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus.

5 They were delighted and agreed to give him money. 6 He consented,

and watched for an opportunity to hand Jesus over to them when no crowd was present.

Exodus 12:1-16 NIV

12:1 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt,

2 "This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.

3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. 4 If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor,

having taken into account the number of people there are.

You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance

with what each person will eat.

5 The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect,

and you may take them from the sheep or the goats.

6 Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month,

when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight.

7 Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs.

8 That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire,

along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast.

9 Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water,

but roast it over the fire — head, legs and inner parts.

10 Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it.

11 This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt,

your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand.

Eat it in haste; it is the LORD's Passover.

12 "On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn — both men and animals — and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. 13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are;

and when I see the blood, I will pass over you.

No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

14 "This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD — a lasting ordinance.

15 For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast.

On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel.