Our Great High Priest

Psalm 110:4 “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.’”

Hebrews 10:19-23 “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.”

“Once for all” [Hebrews 9:12]…what does this mean? When you find yourself committing that sin that you swore yesterday you would stay away from, that sin has already been paid for. You don’t have to go pay some sort of penance because Christ paid that for you. “It is finished” [John 19:30]. We’re always tempted to think “now I’ve really done it. That was the last straw” and Satan wants you to think that, but you have a Great High Priest who has paid for your sins past, present, and future. “You are perfect forever” [Hebrews 10:14] …you can’t screw up your perfection because Jesus already saved you. As our Great High Priest, Christ is seated at the right hand of God interceding and offering perfect prayer for us. Why does Jesus still intercede for us if His work on the cross is already finished? Christ lives to plead the settled-ness of His finished work on the cross. It’s not as if God forgets about that sacrifice and needs His Son to constantly remind him, no, He preserves us in the faith. Think of when Jesus spoke to Peter and told him “Satan has asked for you, but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail…” [Luke 22:32] Our Great High Priest will preserve us and keep us until the end.

-Based on a Sermon by David Balzer

Whos' On First?

I am glad this blog is not just called truth and love. For starters TAL doesn't sound as good as TALIA. But more importantly it is understood that truth and love are nothing without action. I can testify to this based on the way God has moved in my life the past few days. The young lady I have been talking to recently decided that we needed to take a step back from each other because there are some things that needed to be straightened out. There was no promise of resuming any sort of communication and so it has been pretty emotionally painful to say the least. However, with the pain and emotional distress that comes with this sort of stuff there also comes a decision: Am I going to turn from God and try to fill my life with earthly pleasure or am I going to turn to God and find my fill in His joy? Praise be to God that He has given me the desire to turn to Him. The past few days have been some of the hardest I can remember emotionally, yet some of the most fulfilling spiritually. 

You see, I have always served God out of the pleasure and comfortability that is my wicked heart. I have always been the "right type" of Christian and said all the "right" things. But my heart was not His. It was mine. I had just added God as a back-up plan or a fixer when I needed Him. I have never truly been completely dependent on Him. If I took a "step of faith", I always had to see what was beneath my foot. As much as I believed God was first in my life, my conscious told me that I was first.

It took a shake-up from God to bring to my knees in repentance. I was watching a sermon from Francis Chan on priorities and the passage he was speaking from hit me like a ton of bricks. It was the first chapter Haggai:

 1 In the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying, 2 “Thus speaks the LORD of hosts, saying: ‘This people says, “The time has not come, the time that the LORD’s house should be built.”’”
3 Then the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, saying, 4 “Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, and this temple to lie in ruins?” 5 Now therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: “Consider your ways!
       6 “ You have sown much, and bring in little; 
      You eat, but do not have enough; 
      You drink, but you are not filled with drink; 
      You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; 
      And he who earns wages, 
      Earns wages to put into a bag with holes.” 
7 Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Consider your ways! 8 Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified,” says the LORD. 9 “You looked for much, but indeed it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?” says the LORD of hosts. “Because of My house that is in ruins, while every one of you runs to his own house. 10Therefore the heavens above you withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its fruit. 11 For I called for a drought on the land and the mountains, on the grain and the new wine and the oil, on whatever the ground brings forth, on men and livestock, and on all the labor ofyour hands."12 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him; and the people feared the presence of the LORD. 13 Then Haggai, the LORD’s messenger, spoke the LORD’s message to the people, saying, “I am with you, says the LORD.” 14 So the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and worked on the house of the LORD of hosts, their God, 15 on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of King Darius.

The Israelites had just returned to their land and they hadn't begun rebuilding God's temple because they felt it wasn't the right time. Instead, they took to task in building their own houses and taking pleasure in their houses looking good rather than putting God and His house first. And so, God punished them by taking everything away. He wanted to be priority number one in the hearts and lives of His people (if you notice He refers to them as 'this' people). In response the people obeyed God and His response to them was that He was with them! 

God has taken a big part of my life away because He was not number one in my life. I have become spiritually lazy and thought that somehow I could manipulate the Creator of the universe!!?? But God in His goodness has convicted me and I am responding in the only way I can...obedience. Over the past few days God has opened up doors for me to teach in children's church, start a men's prayer group, and amazingly has possibly made a way for me to go to either Thailand, Egypt, or Burkina Faso in Africa. A week ago I was content with my life...why...because it was MY life. Now my world has been turned upside down and I am learning to be content in Him. God must be priority number one and have complete control. He accepts no other position. I am thankful that He is teaching me and that His grace covers my sin. Praise GOD!