November 10–Great not Good

It’s the weekend! I hope your week was a good one. Yesterday, I bought a new little exercise machine—a stepper. I had a wonderful mentor at one time that told me often “That’s no hill for a stepper!” So when I jumped on this stepping contraption, I kept hearing Jackie Vietti saying “That’s no hill…”. It’s a small little gizmo, but between it and Jackie, I think it’s going to be good for me. And I think that’s the way we move with Jesus—stepping rather than just walking. We want to continually move forward and upward, not settling for good when we can enjoy great...we keep moving, always stepping. 


In Hebrews chapter 3 when the author explained to us that Jesus was greater than Moses, he also called Him our high priest. Here in the last verses of chapter four and the first ones of five, that same idea of Jesus as our high priest is taken up again and mentioned five times. 


“So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭4:14-16‬ ‭NLT‬‬


A priest stands for us before God. His job is to act on our behalf so that we may find favour or approval before the Almighty. For this role, Jesus is supremely qualified. First, He is one of us, fully human. He knows our weaknesses and is able to understand us and therefore, deal gently with us. Yet, different from all other priests, He is perfect before God because he is without sin. Second, a priest doesn’t just appoint himself as a priest. He must be appointed and anointed. God appointed Jesus for this very role and if God has given him this position, do we have we any right to look elsewhere?


“And no one can become a high priest simply because he wants such an honor. He must be called by God for this work, just as Aaron was. That is why Christ did not honor himself by assuming he could become High Priest. No, he was chosen by God, who said to him, “You are my Son. Today I have become your Father. ””

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭5:4-5‬ ‭NLT‬‬


Remember this book was written to Hebrew Christians and the danger they faced was that they might drift away (v 14). It was not easy to be different and you know they had to find comfort in their old Jewish traditions they’d had since they were children. Ones like having a priest offer sacrifices for their sins. There was a pull for the Jewish Christians to be a Jew first and a Christian second. After all, they were God ordained practices. The message here for us all is that there is no better priest than Jesus. Hold firm to the best. Do not let the ‘good’ keep you from the great. 


Let us approach the Throne of Grace with confidence – regularly, and often. 


God of the Universe, we bring to you our offering of thanksgiving today. We love you and worship you for all you have done for us. You have spelled out what you expect from us in your word. Help us to be diligent about not only studying the word, but also about doing the word. We pray we won’t settle for good and that we will always be striving for a great relationship with you. Melt us and mold us, make us into the people of God you’d have us to be. Hallelujah for our great High Priest who broke the chains of death so that we may come to experience your fullness. You are amazing. Amen and amen. 


Love you dear friend,

Pam


Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 9, 2019 at 6:09 AM

    That was so beautiful. High Priest of all mighty God.
    Father and Son are you Holy Spirit Amen

    ReplyDelete

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