A little pot luck nonsense

Clean before God

Paul in his letters, especially in Romans, tells us how to be right before God. The author of Hebrews tells us how to be clean before God. Both are important lessons. Paul tells us about salvation and how we enter into it while the author of Hebrews tells us about continuing role of salvation in our lives. Of course when I refer to the earthly author I realize that it is really the Holy Spirit who is the true author and He inspired them to write as they did. Hebrews 9 ends with these words, "and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him."

Why Serve?

I have been thinking about serving lately and I have been thinking that it is more than what we do. For example, why do we call our time of worship a worship service? Are we serving God in the traditional way?
It has been said that we are saved to serve. Is this true? Though I hate yes and no answers this is a yes and no answer. No we are not saved to serve if our service is only external actions. God has said in His Word that we can serve Him and not know Him. But the answer is yes if we realize that our worship is truly a service to God. It begins in the heart and not in our actions.

Shadows

I grew up in rural Saskatchewan and there was no electricity on our farm. In the night as I made the trip to the outhouse as a child I was afraid of the shadows that were everywhere it seemed to me as a child. I knew that they were only the shadows of trees or buildings or machines or clouds or ... It was the last "or" that bothered me and my imagination inserted many scary things after that "or". My mother told me that they were only shadows and not real.




Hebrews 10:1 says, "The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves." The Law it says is a shadow but not of something that is scary but something that is good. As a child when I was in bed I often saw the shadow of my mom coming into the room. That was not a shadow of something to be afraid of but the shadow of something good following. As soon as my mother entered the room I was no longer interested in her shadow but in her. It is the same with the Law. The Law is a shadow but it tells us that there is something real and good coming. We don't elimate the shadow but we also don't study the shadow for the shadow's sake but we study the shadow so that we know more about the real substance that made the shadow.

Cain and Abel

Why was Abel's sacrifice accepted while Cain's was rejected? The traditional evangelical answer has been that Cain did not bring a blood offering while Abel did. However, if you look at the sacrifices it was not a sin offering but a thanks offering which did not require a blood sacrifice. Once again it was not the external but rather the internal, the condition of the heart. The new covenant is on the heart and does not depend upon the externals. While externals are important they are only important if they reflect the heart.

Joshua the High Priest

Zachariah 3 tells of Joshua the High Priest who stood before God but he was clothed in dirty clothes. Unless your clothes were spotless you could not go into the Holy Place and especially not into the Holy of Holies. Satan stood at his side accusing him of his short comings but something happened. The Lord came and took away his dirty robe and put a clean robe on him and gave him a clean turban.
That is our picture. We cannot go into the presence of God because we are dirty, unholy, but Jesus comes and He gives us a clean robe.

Forbidden Room

The church we attended in another city had a forbidden room. We were to keep out as entrance into that room was restricted. The restrictions were there because the room was not up to code. That did not stop my son from going into that room so eventually I to went into that room.
We also participated in an historic church tour of Thunder Bay and one of the churches was interesting but not so historic. The church was the Ukrainian Orthodox church and the area at the front of the church was restricted to only the clergy. We could look but we could not enter.
The veil in the tabernacle said, "Keep out!" Only the High Priest could enter and that once a year to make atonement for the people. However, when Christ died the veil was ripped apart and access was open to all. No longer was the sign saying, "Keep out!" but now the sign said, "Welcome!"