Christ- Our High Priest.

Hebrews 4: 12-16 -For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of the soul and of the spirit, of the joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

We know that if we are in Christ, then we CAN come to the throne, not based on ourselves but based upon Christ's atonement. He is THE high priest, was tempted in every way, like we are, yet without sin. He knows what we have gone through, he understands what it is, yet BECAUSE He never sinned, He can show us a way out, or around, or even walk with us through it and keep us from sinning. He is there for us to lean on, find comfort in, look to for strength and forever working within us (through the power of the Holy Spirit) to eventually conform us into His image.

Thank you dear Jesus for being out High Priest and stand in on our behalf before the Father.

Christ, God of Mercy

I am behind in posting this week as I waited for God to place on my heart what to blog about, now I know.
God showed me something very interesting yesterday, He is a God of mercy. I will share a little bit of a personal story with you. I suffer from migraines, and for a while I had some pain medication to help me deal with them, then God asked me to give them up. ( I am not saying all people should give up their medication, this was just for me) SO I did, He asked me to trust him, so I did. It was scary because I knew that if I got a migraine it would be very difficult for me to deal with house and home. He did make if clear that my headaches wouldn't go away, but that I would lean on him, when they happened. Since giving up my meds, I very rarely get any headaches or migraines.
Yesterday I had a pretty bad one, but in the mist of my pain, I was able to say, "What a gracious and merciful God I have, I very rarely get these, he has been so merciful to me, so loving and caring. I do not derserve to be blessed in such a way that God sees it fit to free me from having these all the time"
I learned and realized as I was saying this out loud to my husband, how God has changed my heart. Instead of "Why God?" I was thinking, "why not more often?" How incredibley loving he spares me from what I deserve, and from feeling the weight of this fallen world every single day. He holds back, he blesses, he gives me Joy and pleasure. He has given us his beautiful creation.
How merciful you are my Jesus! Thank you!!

It is the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning, great is thy faithfulness. Lam 22-23

Christ the Savior

Have you ever been told to accept Jesus because he is the best friend you will ever have? Or that He will make you life better, and you career and relationships will improve? If you accepted the Savior based on that, you may have accepted Him for the wrong reason. Do you wonder why when you asked Him in, He didn't stay there?
First we need to ask, "Why do I need a Savior? - "What do we need saving from?" You may have heard that you need Jesus so you don't go to Hell. You may wonder "why would I go to Hell, I am not that bad, I care about people, I am kind, sure I have done bad, but the good surely out weighs the bad".
To find out we need to go all the way back to the 10 commandents, the Law, God's law, His standard for conduct.
Lets take the "good person test". Have you ever told a lie? Even one? What does that make you? A liar. Have you ever stolen anything? even a small thing, once? A theif.
"You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; you shall not lie to one another" Lev 19:11
Have you ever taken the Lords name in vain? said "Oh my G*d"! You use the Lord's name, the one who gave you life as a word of disgust.
That is 3 of the 10, we all have broken at least these if not all.
You may say, "well I never killed anyone" Have you hated? Jesus said if you hate someone, you have commited murder in your heart.
We broke the law, all of us have, the right and just thing is to have justice. A good jude wouldn't let a criminal go because he seemed like a "nice person", the law must privale, and things made right.
So that is why we deserve Hell. We all do, it is the right thing.
BUT since we couldn't save ourselves, no one can be "good enough". God in his loving kindness came and paid the fine, "The wages of sin , is death" He died in your place, took the punishment for YOUR sin. Now if you repent (means turn away, don't do it anymore) and trust in Jesus, make him your Lord ( he calls the shots) and receive the gift of Him on the cross. Then you will be saved!
This is the Savior! This is why he came and died for you, not so you can have a cool job or nice relationships, so he can save you from the place you could not save yourself from.
So when you see the cross, remember your God the one that created you, came down, lived as a man, lived a perfect blameless life, took on your sin.
What a marvelous, loving and amazing God. We deserve hell, but he made a way out, He saved us.
Put your trust in him, turn from your sin, serve him.
Gods goal is not so you can have a wonderful life (just read Pauls story) His goal is to conform you into the image of His Son, to restore a right relationship with you, to live in all eternity with Him.
When we have Him, we have everything, the world can melt away, and it would even matter because we have Jesus our Savior, the lover of our soul, blessed redeemer.
Bow down at his feet, worship Him, love Him and serve Him.
This is JESUS THE SAVIOR!

Christ- God of all comfort

Today is a hard day for me and many of us at my church, our pastor is leaving, not because of anything bad, the Lord is moving him on to a different place and we know it is of Him, yet we feel the loss.
Times like this we tend to look inward, or at the circumstance. We can be consumed by the pain and loss. But there is One who truely understands us and knows what we are feeling in the most perfect and profound way. One who knows loss, knows pain. We look to Him, cling to Him, fill our minds with His words. He is really all that matters, He is the most important. Even if we lose everything, if we have Him, we have everything.

Hebrews 4:15-16
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Let us draw near to Him, run to Him, cling to Him, but also..

Gal. 6:9
Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.