{"id":437,"date":"2019-02-23T21:44:59","date_gmt":"2019-02-23T21:44:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graceamazingly.wordpress.com\/?p=437"},"modified":"2019-04-11T16:23:08","modified_gmt":"2019-04-11T16:23:08","slug":"ingredients-for-worship-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/2019\/02\/23\/ingredients-for-worship-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Ingredients for worship (2)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/2019\/02\/15\/meaningful\/\">First<\/a><\/strong><\/li><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/2019\/02\/24\/ingredients-for-worship-3\/\">Next<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>The finest flour is the best of yourself in God (see <a href=\"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/2019\/02\/21\/ingredients-for-worship-1\/\">previous blog<\/a>). It is not quite taking all improvement exercises, methods in mindfulness or self-emptying, wellness enhancement such as balanced diet, deep breath, or wholeness; or any such combinations of the above. Some of these are good. The point though is that the \u2018fineness\u2019 is your readiness for God to work in your life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the way you can comfortably play all the bar chords of B major on the guitar, you can recall the friends and teachers who gave you tips and tricks on learning and playing them. Your fineness in these chords are possible through your own training, as well as teaching from others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-cover has-background-dim is-layout-flow wp-block-cover-is-layout-flow\" style=\"background-image:url(https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/fog-1120935_640.jpg?w=640)\"><p class=\"wp-block-cover-text\">The best of yourself \u2013 the finest flour \u2013 is coming to God as affirming  that God has made you a person more like his image than how you were  before, and he is continuing this work. You continue to want to improve,  and want God to improve you. <\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Oven sounds like expensive stuff. Microwave is far better,\nisn\u2019t it? Comparatively portable, easy to operate. Oven requires electric or\ngas, and far heavier and bulkier. What\u2019s up with oven then? Back in those\ntimes, you can cook with portable vessel under fire &#8211; and so that\u2019s the oven\nback then. You can obviously get a lot of heat, i.e. high temperature, in the\noven to bake lots of stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-style-large is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>Come to God to affirm that God has made you a person more like his image than how you were before; he is continuing this work of wellness and wholeness.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Reading Leviticus 2:4-6 this way makes more sense. God is not instructing his people a new method of cooking using a new kit called \u2018oven\u2019. For that matter, they might simply called it \u2018cooking\u2019, or \u2018hot pot\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/wave-3473335_1280.jpg?w=736\" alt=\"Grace Amazingly\" class=\"wp-image-27\" width=\"184\" height=\"103\" srcset=\"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/wave-3473335_1280.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/wave-3473335_1280-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/wave-3473335_1280-768x431.jpg 768w, https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/wave-3473335_1280-1024x575.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 184px) 100vw, 184px\" \/><figcaption>Grace Amazingly<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Most of the English translations of the text say or imply \u201cwhen\u201d\nyou cook it in the oven. It\u2019s not like saying from now on you will cook rice using\nPanasonic rice cooker SR-JN series, stop that \u2018boil and drain\u2019 method. People\nthen were already using oven. The cakes \/ loaves and wafers were probably\nregular items people cooked and ate in those days. Taking these two points\ntogether, this suggests that this kind of sacrifice is nothing out of the\nordinary from what people were already doing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Preparing these items for sacrifice, however, obviously means they are not for your own use. It is for taking part in your offering to God. Remember <a href=\"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/2019\/02\/15\/meaningful\/\">in this blog<\/a> that sacrifice was common practice in those days, but God requires sacrifice to him to be pleasing to him and that people were not doing some extreme stuffs to unknown gods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre style=\"text-align:center\" class=\"wp-block-verse\"><strong>Yep, the fire is inside.<\/strong><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>The second \u2018method\u2019 of baking \u2013 the use of griddle or pan \u2013 implies a more sophisticated utility more likely available in a community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The text probably implies that people should form community, <\/li><li>or that this practice of sacrifice can, or should be, at a community level (rather than doing it in your personal space and your own personal time, a very \u201cwestern\u201d approach). <\/li><li>We can be definite, though, that baking using griddle or pan is not an out of ordinary way of cooking. <\/li><li>There is then a sense of \u2018openness\u2019 or \u2018sharing\u2019 of the act of sacrifice.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft is-resized\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/pexels-photo-132472.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-439\" width=\"320\" height=\"463\" srcset=\"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/pexels-photo-132472.jpeg 640w, https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/pexels-photo-132472-207x300.jpeg 207w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>That reminds me something about the first &#8211; \u2018oven\u2019 \u2013 method, in some practices back in those days, the flour is thrown on to the sides of the oven and then cooked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In fact, rather than portable vessels on your back pack, some of these \u2018ovens\u2019 could well be a dug-out hole on the ground. The surrounding of the hole is set up (hardened treated soil like plaster?) to retain heat. The flour is then set up on the side, over the fire underneath. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A BBQ you might think, but I\u2019d guess the whole thing is\ncovered for baking. Yep, the fire is inside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I know this is way too much detail. It is a world we are no\nlonger familiar with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Before you say, ah, flour cooked in open fire in a covered\noven, that\u2019s intense preparation for holiness \u2013 indeed, but there\u2019s another\nimportant ingredient mentioned in the text. The yeast, in fact, the lack of\nyeast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s a command, whatever you do, no yeast. I don\u2019t think we\nneed to take this idea too far. It\u2019s not immediately clear why yeast would not\nbe used in baking the cake, wafers or loaves as part of sacrifice. I know that\nnot using yeast has meanings in the Bible, especially the case of unleavened\nbread in Exodus (the book, and the actual Exodus from Egypt).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-style-large is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>God is. Why does he need something else?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Before we complicate things too much, in the here and now of\nLeviticus, the yeast as a catalyst is a big no-no. God is the only maker (more\nthan an \u2018agent\u2019) who, having made us, will encourage us to become better people\nthat please him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mindfulness, warm bath, self-emptying, off-grid (yes, off-net), vegan diet, wholesomeness, journaling, dark chocolate, etc. God does not require any of these. He is not saying \u2018no\u2019 to any of these. He only needs <strong>you<\/strong> as you come near to him. God is. Why does he need something else? For what?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"text-align:center\">Bring yourself as you come to God. <\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/butterfly-1685728_640.jpg?w=640\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-83\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\" srcset=\"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/butterfly-1685728_640.jpg 640w, https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/butterfly-1685728_640-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You might have been faithfully, silently, and without fuss setting up the song books and Bibles in good time prior to worship every week. You might do well with all the bar chords on the guitar for the key of B major. You might be able to sing the tenor as well as the bass parts of a hymn \/ song. You might have finally learned how to play &#8216;Blessed Assurance&#8217;, yes in 9\/8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>These things matter to God.\nBut the centre of it all is you. <\/li><li>These things are not like a\n\u2018launch pad\u2019 or even pre-conditions. I don\u2019t think God assigns you a new\nproject based on what you have already done. Not always. <\/li><li>What counts more is your\nreadiness, your willingness. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1440\" height=\"222\" src=\"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/cropped-roses-2205009_640-1.jpg?w=736\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-337\" srcset=\"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/cropped-roses-2205009_640-1.jpg 1440w, https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/cropped-roses-2205009_640-1-300x46.jpg 300w, https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/cropped-roses-2205009_640-1-768x118.jpg 768w, https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/cropped-roses-2205009_640-1-1024x158.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1440px) 100vw, 1440px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God is preparing you as fine flour, you need to respond to be the \u2018finest\u2019 of who you are in his eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God is preparing you for the cakes and wafers, you need to\nagree for God\u2019s training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God is preparing you by himself, you rely on him and nothing\nelse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God reveals great things to the world because of your\nwillingness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>First Next The finest flour is the best of yourself in God (see previous blog). It is not quite taking all improvement exercises, methods in mindfulness or self-emptying, wellness enhancement such as balanced diet, deep breath, or wholeness; or any such combinations of the above. Some of these are good. The point though is that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-437","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-book-of-leviticus","8":"category-ingredients-for-worship","9":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":783,"href":"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437\/revisions\/783"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}