The Perfect Sacrifice 3/11/18

Three Rivers State Park, Sneads, Florida

Why can’t we just go into a strange church and be left alone? Why did we have to be bothered by all those people? Maybe they’re drawn to fresh blood . . . 😊

First Baptist Church of Sneads was another extremely warm and welcoming place of worship. 😊 I swear, we actually considered that we should just stand up because so many came to welcome us, and they weren’t just saying “Hi.” and walking away. Even the pastor said he kept trying to get to us, but there were always others around. And news spreads really fast, too! Within 2-3 people, suddenly everyone else knew we were “campers”. 😊

They use a piano and organ together for hymns – very nice! And special music by Otis and Shirley who had to be in their 80’s, but sang a couple of bluegrass hymns pretty well, and you could tell they were Spirit-filled and meant every word! It will be a sad state of affairs in our world when that generation is gone. The congregational hymns were straight out of the Baptist hymnal – “Are you washed in the blood” and “Power in the blood” to name a few.

The Pastor is currently working through a pre-Easter series on the importance of the sacrificial lamb, from Genesis through Revelation. This week was on The Perfect Lamb. He didn’t do expository teaching this morning. Today was theme teaching. (In case you’re wondering, expository is when they take a verse or specific section of scripture and expound on that.)

The main point of the message was that the sacrificial lamb that was presented to the Lord to atone for sin was to be perfect and without blemish. We (all of us) are prone to giving our ‘leftovers’ to Him. We give what may be left monetarily and we often give it begrudgingly, rather than with a cheerful heart. (“God loves a cheerful giver.” II Corinthians 9:7) We give of our time and talents the same way. “I don’t have time.” Or “I’ll cut corners here.” It’s often a fight to give our best.

But God requires our best. He always has.

He rejected lesser sacrifices. Malachi 1:6-14, specifically verses 13b-14a which say: “’When you bring injured, crippled or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?’ says the LORD. ‘Cursed is the man who has an acceptable male in its flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord.’”

Sacrificing an innocent lamb, especially one that was perfect (making it valuable), was supposed to be hard. It’s meant to be difficult for us to slay something so cute and innocent. It speaks to the severity of our sin in God’s eyes. It’s supposed to make us think twice about our decisions – especially the deliberate sins we all practice. Unfortunately, over time, we often become hardened to it. We take shortcuts. We say “It doesn’t matter anymore because Jesus paid for my sins.”

But it still matters.

Jesus, as the Perfect Lamb without blemish (sin), was made the ultimate once-and-for-all sacrifice.

It’s supposed to be hard for us to think of it. It’s supposed to make us think twice. It’s supposed to make us choose love for Him, because He loved us so much. When you love someone, you don’t want to intentionally disappoint them.

We should not do things intentionally that we know disappoint our Father.

“Love means doing what God has commanded us, and He has commanded us to love one another, just as you heard from the beginning.” II John 1:6

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength/mind.” Deuteronomy 6:5, Mark 22:37

After church was lunch and a bike/hike adventure. It’s very overcast today. I love it! But it’s fixin’ to rain this afternoon/evening. Haven’t had rain for quite a while, other than a couple of minutes here and there.

This is the entrance to the camping area.
Not nearly as nice as the gorgeous stonework Blaine’s friend Jason does!

The trail today was more scenic than the last one we were on. But before you can get to the actual trail head, you have to walk about ½ mile down the road/mountain bike path.

These pine cones were about the length of my foot!

Tiny spots of beauty!

Once we reached the Eagle Trail, there was an interpretive brochure to take along that pointed out about a dozen points of interest along the way, although some of the things – like prescribed burns – we’ve heard on numerous occasions.

But there was some gopher tortoise info we hadn’t yet heard (or didn’t remember 😊). 1. They are considered a “keystone” or foundation species. 2. Over 300 varieties of reptiles, animals and insects depend on their dens for housing or protection during fires. 3. They depend on periodic fires to clean up the debris, otherwise they’re forced to move on to places like road shoulders.

A portion of the trail was alongside a cattle farm. Some of the equipment was stored right beside the trail with only a simple wire fence to separate us.

“My Father owns the cattle on a thousand hills”

There was an occasional view of the Lake, but only through trees and only for a moment.

Is that cool or what?!?!?!
The beginnings of a pine cone!

According to our brochure, this is a pre-1950 farm site.

So we’re moseying along, heading around the loop toward where we left our bikes when suddenly, I realized I’d stepped on something! I initially thought it was a long blade of grass, but quickly realized there was nothing around here that looks like that. . .

Wouldja look at that!
A Smooth Green Snake.
Yep. That’s it’s official name. I looked it up.

It didn’t move, even when Blaine crept closer and closer to take a picture. I was afraid I’d crushed it or something, but the tongue was still going. Weird!

For some reason, this video filmed upside down.

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