As I reflect on today’s reading, I am mindful of how much I value trust (I want to be trusted) and how difficult it can be for me to trust. If God promised to provide more than enough in the sixth year to carry Israel through the sabbath year, can God not also care for us in the same way? Trust God to provide.
What’s mine is mine – or is it? In Leviticus, we learn that the land belonged to God, who in turn placed it on lease in the hands of families. Every fifty years – the year of Jubilee – the land was restored to the original leasee. God is the owner and the provider. I remember the words of the hymn: We give thee but thine own whate’re the gift may be. All that we have is thine alone, a trust O LORD from thee. Trust.
Paul gave his testimony of faith. What would happen next was beyond his ability to control. Even announcing that he was a Roman citizen would not ultimately save him. All he could do was trust God.
In you, LORD my God, I put my trust. (Psalm 25:1) I want to be trusted. Today, let me learn the lesson of trusting God.
Pastor Steve Richards 
As we near the end of Leviticus, I have to admit that I’m glad…not because it is so detailed, demanding and repetitive, but because it brings up more questions for me than answers. I have been told that the Bible is our guide to living, and we cannot pick and choose which parts to believe in and follow. Yet so many of the laws stated in Leviticus are not followed today. Times have changed, and our laws have changed with them. But I have also heard many use Leviticus as one justification against homosexuality. Why would that law still apply, while they disregard the verses allowing slavery, banning people with defects (disabilities) from the holy altar, and demanding death for a variety of acts, from adultery to disrespecting our parents? Where do we draw the line between what parts we follow and what parts we don’t? I have answered this for myself by trying to follow what you mentioned in your blog a couple of days ago…love your neighbor as yourself. But what does one do when even that seems to contradict what we read in the Bible?