Let Us Enter

Heb.4:16

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

The veil has been rented. The curtain, 4 inches thick, 15 feet tall, was torn apart from top to bottom in the holy of holies where the high priest made sacrifices for his sins and for the sins of the people. When Jesus died on the cross, He sacrificed His life once and for all for the sins of the whole world. He is our high priest, the earthly priest no longer needs to make blood sacrifices for the people. We now have access to the Father, through the blood of Jesus. We can now come boldly into God’s holiness. If we have confessed our sin and believed that Jesus paid the price to forgive our sins, we need not fear coming boldly to the throne where God will pour out His grace to meet our needs. It is only through Jesus that we now have access to the Father, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Act 4:12) Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”) God’s word makes it clear that coming to the Father (God) is only made possible through Jesus, the one who died for you and me so that we may approach the throne of grace with clean hands and a pure heart. Thank God! He is a God of grace and mercy, and as His child, we call Him Abba Father, and He pours out His grace to us in our time of need. Let us enter into His presence.

Passing The Test

 Gen. 22:1,2
God tested Abraham…And He said, “Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.”

The scripture application to this passage is one of full surrender to God. A willingness to give up what you love dearly to serve God. I certainly don’t claim to understand the mind of God in this requirement. Yes, this was a test to see if Abraham was completely sold out to mind God, but on the other hand, I can see why some would question God’s requirement to have Abram kill his firstborn. In our day, if someone did this, they would be charged with murder and sent to prison for life, or given the death penalty, regardless of their religious beliefs. This subject, no doubt, has been debated and discussed for centuries, so I am not even going to attempt to explain this paradox. 
Looking at it at face value and deeper meaning, this is also prophetic in that God was willing to give His only-begotten Son. This same God, who commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son on the altar, sent His Son to earth, to live among us and sacrifice His life to save ours. 
As we walk with God, we are faced with many trials, tribulations, and tests. Trials and tribulations are given to all who walk this life, but tests are given to see what we are made of. Test of character, test of integrity, test of loyalty, and test of faithfulness are all given for the purpose of bringing glory to God. In our day, God has spoken through His word. When we hear the voice of God, it will not go contrary to His word. We need to test the spirits to see if they are of God. God grants us the wisdom to discern His voice and the strength to pass the test He sends our way.
 

A Living Sacrifice

 Roman 12:1
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

A living sacrifice is what God desires of us. Like Isaac who laid on the altar for Abraham ready to be offered up to God, God wants us willingly to give our entire life to Him. As Christian, we have already been forgiven of our sins and have been washed in the blood of Christ. We have already received the newness of life and are new creatures in Christ. The step of giving your body (Your life) a living sacrifice is a full surrender of all your hopes and desires. Our ambitions, goals, and aspirations are laid at the altar. Death to self, the removal of ourselves from the throne of our heart and putting God there. It is no longer our will, but God’s will be done. This is life experience and crossroads that all Christian come to. We don’t slowly present our bodies, but it is an act of the will that we present our life to God to use for His glory. This sacrifice means that we no longer live like the world. Our worldview is now based on God’s word. Our thoughts, way of Life, and behaviors are now conformed to how God wants us to live.

Commit Our Way

 Psalm 37:5
Commit your way to the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.

When we commit, we give it our all. Keeping commitments takes a willingness to forsake other things that would keep us from fulfilling our responsibility to our commitment. When we commit our way to the Lord, we take our hands off what we want to do and take up God’s way. This is what Jesus meant when He said, “Take up your cross and follow me.” Committing to the way of the cross means that life will not always go the way we like, and that sacrifice will more than likely be required from us. Trusting in the Lord as we commit our ways to him will bring to pass the true desires of our heart. He will act on our behalf to accomplish His will. Our ways are now His ways and where and how He leads us is in His control. Commitment is a decision we make, and daily we must keep this commitment on the altar as a living sacrifice. We are no longer our own, we are bought with a price and we now belong to God and trust Him to lead us all the way, in the pathway He has chosen for us.

Servant of All

Mark 9:36

 …If any man desires to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all.

Being first is the prize that we often seek to achieve. We like to be in first place. We strive to achieve the gold ribbon, and the award and recognition it gives us. In many cases, we work hard to achieve that goal. In the arena of sports this is the ultimate goal to say you are the best. I don’t believe that such aspirations and desires are sinful. It is possible that it could become a sinful aspiration, if obtaining the goal is in opposition to being a servant of Christ. Your ability and desire to serve others. If your means to an end keeps you from doing the will of God in your life, then it is time to change your goal to be first. Jesus said that if you truly want to be first, you must first seek the kingdom of God, you must be last, and be as a child and take on the actions of serving others. To be first in the Kingdom of God is to have a servant's heart, looking for opportunities to help others, often sacrificing your own desires and comfort. This is the ultimate goal of a Christians, to be first in the service for Christ. 

Obedience at any Cost

Gen 22:2 Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom you love, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

I will never understand the mind of God and the task he ask Abraham to do. I understand the application of total surrender and giving everything to God, even those whom you love and are close to your heart. I also understand the symbolic type given here that God gave His only son to die. We teach that God would not require us to do anything that is contrary to His law. The conflict that must have gone through the mind and heart of Abraham. To do something so contrary to God’s moral law. This will always be a mystery to me. I will probably never understand the account given to us here in scripture. But this I know, that God is good and does all things right. He is sovereign and knows the beginning to the end. Who am I to question God? His word declares it and I must believe it. It is a lesson of obedience at any cost. This is the truth I choose to apply to my life.

Opportunity

Gal. 6:10 As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

Opportunity is a window of time given to us by God to do something good. Such opportunity often go unnoticed because we are too occupied with making sure that all our needs are being met. We get busy with legitimate things in life and fail to look for those windows of time when we can do something good for someone else. We sometimes have to go out of way to make those opportunities happen. Sacrifice may be involved when the window of time is open, and we need to be willing to say yes to the Holy Spirit as He whispers to us to seize the moment. May God help us to be alert and take advantage of those times, He desires us to be a blessing to others, let us be aware of our surroundings and do good to all men.

Lay Down Our Time

1 John 3:16. Hereby we perceive the love of God: because He laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

The love of God is seen in those that profess His name when compassion is demonstrate by the way we give to others. If we hold back what God has given us then we have yet to perceive the love of God. If God’s love lives within us, we will show forth this love in the way we treat others and give as God blesses. Giving to help others is more than putting money in the offering plate. As needful as that is, we show our love to others by giving of our time and sacrificing things we might enjoy doing to help someone who needs our attention. Time is a valuable commodity. Our lives consist of time we spend on this earth. How we use our time reveals what is important to us. May we be willing to lay down our time to help the brethren who is in need.

Finding Life

Matt 10:39 “ He that findeth his life, shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for My sake, shall find it.”-

Looking into the mirror of God’s Word often shows us truth that reveals the true nature of our heart. God’s Word is full of promises of grace and forgiveness. We like reading how His grace can help us through difficult times and how His love for us is unending. The truth of these word gives each one of us comfort and help to carry on. But, God’s Word is also piercing and is able to reveal things in our lives that need to be changed. To make these changes, most often will require that we put our own desires and wants on the shelf and give up our rights so that someone else can be served or helped. Life in Christ is not all about the joy of having sins forgiven. Losing our life for the sake of Christ will be seen in the way we put others first, by the sacrifices we make to give up our own pleasures and comforts to show God’s love to those around us. Love and forgiveness is not a one way street. As we receive, we are to give out. Finding life starts by denying ourselves. picking up the cross of Christ and following Him in the way of suffering. 

Training Our Body

1 Corinth 9:27 “ But I keep control of my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”-

Growing in Christ requires that we work out spiritually, training our body and mind to do the will of God. Left to our own human tendency, it is easy to let down and allow legitimate human weakness to brings us down. Paul is teaching us that being a spiritual man will not come without some effort, and if we are not careful, our faith can become shipwrecked. Presenting ourselves as living sacrifices to God is the 1st step in bringing our bodies into subjection. Consecrating our life to Him and His will means that we seek 1st His desires before we act on impulse to fulfill our desires. It is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that make it possible for us to transcend the human flesh. He will empower those who are willing to say “yes”  to Him. Bring our body into subjection may require us to get up earlier in the day to spend some time with God. It is taking control of our thoughts when the devil bring temptation that will grieve God if we yield. It may mean that we make ourselves put down some things we enjoy that we may reach out and touch others for Christ. Disciplining ourselves to do what is right is something we set our will to do. If our will has been surrendered to Christ, then half the battle is done.  

Giving All

Luke 21:3 “And He said, “In truth I say unto you that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all.”-

“Give it all, give it all to Jesus”. It is not how much we give, but the sacrifice that is made when giving that matters. God still blesses those that give of their abundance and is pleased when people are willing to help support the Kingdom’s work, but giving your life is more precious to God than any monetary substance. He wants us to surrender all to Him. Giving all is to submit our hopes and desires to His will. He wants our heart, soul, body, and mind. God is not after our pocket book, He is after our allegiance. The truth of it all is we don’t have to have a penny to our name, and we still have something to give that supersedes the wealth and riches of this world. All to Jesus I surrender, “All to Him I freely give... I surrender all”