The Most Holy Place

A curtain hung between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place in the tabernacle and temple and separated the presence of God from the Israelite priests who served there.

Only the high priest was allowed into the Most Holy Place, and only after a strict regimen of cleansing. Jesus cleanses us from our humanity, so that we may serve the Living God through His divinity within us (Hebrews 9:14).

As Jesus took His last breath on Calvary's cross, the temple curtain split in half from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51). Most scholars believe that God orchestrated this torn Temple curtain as an object lesson for us.

It illustrates and signifies the fact that we cannot earn our way to heaven, but we can now enter the presence of God by the blood of Jesus with confidence in our salvation (Hebrews 10:19).

When we accept Jesus as our Savior, He sets His seal of ownership on us and gives us His Spirit as a down payment of our inheritance (2 Corinthians 1:22).

Once we repent of our sins, ask for forgiveness and surrender our will to Him, He moves into our Born Again spirit and resides within us all through our lifetime. He places us in His Body and we work together for His glory.

We are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). Christ lives in us (Colossians 1:27). Our Spirit is the Most Holy Place where God resides. God makes us a holy sanctuary in which He can dwell (Exodus 25:8).

Cleansed from sin by the blood of the perfect Lamb of God (1 Peter 1:19), we are His priests and we shall reign with Him during the Millennium for 1000 years and then serve Him throughout eternity (Revelation 20:6).

Prayer:

Father God, You are our safe haven and our power to deal with temptation and persecution (Psalm 46:1). Even in the most unthinkable and earth shattering circumstances, with our faith in Your faithfulness, we have no reason to fear (Psalm 46:1-3). We consider trails as a time of great joy, because they are an adventure with You (James 1:2).

We stop our stressing and watch You work in our behalf (James 1:2; Psalm 46:10). We are Your children (Romans 8:15). You promise never to leave us or to forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). You are our Mighty God who saves us and abides within us. You celebrate over us with delight. You calm us with Your love. You even rejoice over us with thunderous singing (Zephaniah 3:17).

Thought for the Day:

Our hope in Christ is the sure and steadfast anchor for our soul. – Hebrews 6:19

The Mind of Christ

Paul encourages us to adopt the same mindset about life that Jesus had. He goes on to explain that Jesus proclaimed that He was equal with God. With Christ in us, we too have His Godly nature (Philippians 2:5-6).

Even with His divine nature and character, however, Jesus did not use this fact to build His reputation. He did proclaim His deity (John 10:30, 17:21), but He did not use this fact to promote Himself.

We learn this same humility in our daily walk (Philippians 2:7), which allows us to also serve one another (Mark 9:35). Jesus obediently paid the ultimate sacrifice on Calvary's cross and taught us to lay down our life for one another (Philippians 2:8; 1 John 3:16).

When we realize that our sin crucifies again the Lord Jesus Christ, we run from sin and live in the will of God instead (Hebrews 6:6; 1 Peter 4:2). We want to honor God with our thoughts, words and deeds.

Jesus fulfilled the law through His birth, death and resurrection (Matthew 5:17). He kept God's commandments and He helps us to keep them too. We abide in His love (John 15:10), and He gives us His wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30).

Through His death, God exalted the name and person of Jesus above every name, and every tongue will eventually proclaim His Lordship over all the nations of the earth (Philippians 2:9-11).

Jesus did not abandon us, but He sent us the Holy Spirit of God to teach us all things and to bring them to our remembrance. God's Spirit teaches us to change our focus from one of carnality to one of spirituality (1 Corinthians 2:14).

The Spirit serves as our comforter and guide (John 14:26, 16:12-15; 1 Corinthians 2:11-13; Acts 8:29, 11:12), and helps us to be like-minded, loving and living in one accord with the rest of the Body of Christ (Philippians 2:1-11). 

Jesus' life and crucifixion exemplified perfect patience (1 Timothy 1:15-16). With the mind of Christ in us, we find spiritual support, comfort of love, fellowship with His Spirit, affection, mercy and joy in our relationship with Christ.

Prayer:

Father God, thank You for giving us the mind of Christ, which helps us to make sense of this world of strife and confusion (Philippians 2:5). You inspire us to live in humility and to serve one another as Christ serves us. We look out for one another and protect each others interests (Philippians 2:3-4).

Although Jesus is equal with You, He still took the form of a man in order to redeem us from our wickedness and sin (Philippians 2:7-8; Matthew 20:28). We exalt His name in our hearts and with our lives and look forward to His rule and reign on this earth for eternity (Philippians 2:9-11).

Thought for the Day:

Once we learn to think as Jesus thought, then we can live, move and find fulfillment on this earth just as Jesus did in all of His humility, love and power. - Acts 17:28

In His Presence

All power belongs to God. Evil men try to usurp His authority and oppress His people, but they will come to their end (Psalm 62:9-10). His loving kindness is readily available to us. His joy, peace and love envelop us every moment of our life. He relates to us in proportion to our belief in Him and our faithfulness to Him (Psalm 62:11-12).

Our Heavenly Father reaches down and touches our soul, forever changing how we view life and respond to circumstances; yet, we ignore Him unless we have a problem, which we cannot handle. God is the rock of our salvation. He wants us to patiently linger only with Him. He calls us to wait on Him in silence (Psalm 62:1-2). However, we are often too busy to spend time with Him.

If we do enter His presence, our life would improve dramatically. In His presence, we are never seriously shaken. He is our hope and our stronghold (Psalm 62:5-6). Our deliverance and future rests on Him. He is the rock of our strength and our refuge in any trouble. We can trust in Him at all times. He listens when we pour out our heart to Him. He is our almighty sanctuary (Psalm 62:7-8).

Our soul cries out, even craves for the presence of our Living God. More than anything else, we desire to dwell in His courts. Even our body longs to be in His presence (Psalm 84:2). We groan along with all of creation for the revealing of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the ruler of the universe (Romans 8:19-22). We long for His imminent return to rule and reign over the new heaven and the new earth (Revelation 21:1).

Prayer:
Father God, every pursuit in this life pales in comparison to spending time with You. Our fulfillment is found only in Your presence. You are the very air we breathe (Psalm 136:25). You gratify our cravings and You fill our famished soul (Psalm 107:9; 103:5). Remind us of the joy of a life in service to You. Teach us that amassing this world's goods will only take away from time better spent with You.

Thought for the Day:

The more we wait on the Lord, the more deeply we come to feel His presence in our life.

Death's Door to Heaven

Most people consider the day of our birth better than the day of our death; however, as Christians, the day of our death is better than the day of birth (Ecclesiastes 7:1). At birth, we begin the arduous journey in this life with all of its struggles and trials. As a child, unless we are born into an abusive family, we live in our own little world. Our imagination, our neighborhood or the woods are our playgrounds.

As we age, responsibility transfers from our parents to us. Without Christ, both life and death are daunting stages on this earth. We have little help in and no hope for our future. As authentic Christians, we have Christ within us, leading us to do the works, which God pre-ordained for us to accomplish (Ephesians 2:10). God’s peace and joy envelop us. We eagerly anticipate death’s door to heaven.

A new heaven and earth will replace this current one (2 Peter 3:7-10). New Jerusalem will descend from Heaven. Jesus is building this 1500-mile cube city of God, which includes many levels of large rooms (John 14:1-4). An innumerable congregation from every nation, all the angels, the elders and even the living animals will gather at the throne to worship our Father God and His perfect Lamb (Revelation 7:9-11; Isaiah 11:6-9).

God will restore Paradise to humanity (Luke 23:43), a perfect environment with a pure crystal river of life proceeding from the throne and a tree of life producing twelve different fruit every month for the healing of the nations. Night is no longer necessary and God will be our continual light. We shall serve Him and reign with Him for all eternity (Revelation 7:16-17, 21:4-5, 22:1-5).

Prayer:

Father God, the dead in Christ are blessed, because we rest from earth’s toils and the result of our life follows us (Revelation 14:13). We reign in an immortal body with You in Your everlasting Kingdom (Daniel 7:18; 1 Corinthians 15:44). We help you to love and govern the nations, and we will come from the four corners of the earth to worship you for eternity (Revelation 7:9-11).

Thought for the Day:

The entire creation of God travails over the decay, which sin brought to this world, and it waits for the revelation of the Sons of God. 

- Romans 8:19-22; 1 Corinthians 13:22