October 24 - Hebrews 9: Walking in on God

Do you hate everything in you that gets in the way of your relationship with God?

This question was posed to me and causes me to stop. I can flippantly answer, sure I don't like the things in me that take my eyes off Christ. But if I pause long enough to ponder the question - do I really hate the things in me that keep me from a full, intimate, open relationship with God - I can't answer so quickly. Because I must like getting my way, indulging my demands, numbing my disappointments and licking my wounds. I keep doing them and they inarguably hinder my relationship with the Lover of my soul.

...as long as the large tent stands, people can't just walk in on God. Under this system, the gifts and sacrifices can't really get to the heart of the matter...

Jesus took down the large tent, wiped out the gifts and sacrifices, once and for all, with His blood. But, I don't function as though this is truth. I live as though I have a tent to build and gifts and sacrifices I must make in order to get to God. I attempt to erect a structure of ministry effectiveness, disciplined devotions, living well, and relating right. Then, I try to fill it up with gifts of obedience, principles, and sacrificial amounts of time and money. Somehow operating (although I'd never say I believe it) as if my tent, gifts and sacrifices are what provide access to God.

Do I hate these things? That's a threatening question. Do I really have to hate them in order to have a relationship with God?

But when the Messiah arrived, high priest of the superior things of this new covenant, he bypassed the old tent and its trappings...  Instead using his own blood as the price to set us free once and for all. If that animal blood and the other rituals of purification were effective in cleaning up certain matters of our religion and behavior, think how much more the blood of Christ cleans up our whole lives, inside and out. Through the Spirit, Christ offered himself as an unblemished sacrifice, freeing us from all those dead-end efforts to make ourselves respectable, so that we can live all out for God.... He brought together God and his people in this new way.

Yes God, I want to walk in on You - to hate the tent, the gifts and sacrifices that I try to erect myself.  Christ, You have brought me together with God in a new way that depends wholly on Your shed blood. Help me to hate what you hate and love what you love.