Hebrews 10:11-18
Every priest goes to work at the
altar each day, offers the same old sacrifices year in, year out, and
never makes a dent in the sin problem. As a priest, Christ made a single
sacrifice for sins, and that was it! Then he sat down right beside God
and waited for his enemies to cave in. It was a perfect sacrifice by a
perfect person to perfect some very imperfect people. By that single
offering, he did everything that needed to be done for everyone who
takes part in the purifying process. The Holy Spirit confirms this:
This new plan I’m making with Israel
isn’t going to be written on paper,
isn’t going to be chiseled in stone;
This time “I’m writing out the plan in them,
carving it on the lining of their hearts.”
He concludes,
I’ll forever wipe the slate clean of their sins.
Once sins are taken care of for good, there’s no longer any need to offer sacrifices for them.
Scripture
quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002
by Eugene Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs,
CO. All rights reserved.
I’ve
been helping my cousin Natalie with a makeover project on her
kindergarten classroom. After 17 years of teaching, she was ready for a
“room re-do.” She found several ideas that she liked online and in
stores, and we melded them into a cohesive “look” using the graphic
design and photo editing programs on my computer.
When I was
teaching in the late ‘70s and early-to-mid ‘80s, we didn’t have
computers that created labels and artwork with the click of a mouse. We
didn’t know about fonts and Adobe Photoshop® and color printers. I
spent days and weeks coloring individual name tags and characters that I
had printed out in black and white...outlining with a Sharpie® marker,
then carefully cutting, pasting and laminating everything together. We
thought our results looked pretty good, but compared to the slick pieces
that are possible today, our classrooms were downright crafty!
I
stopped by the school to see Natalie’s progress, and she showed me her
wall display for color words. Each color word was printed on a card –
in that particular color – and outlined in a matching polka-dot border.
But there was a gap. She said, “I realized when I hung them that there
was not a card for the color brown. I messaged the person who designed
these, and she said that she doesn’t have a template for brown. So I
am going to print a black and white copy and color it in...then cut and
paste letters to make the word ‘brown’ for the center.” I stopped
her...”I can do all of that on the computer.” Her eyes lit up. “You
can?” “I’m pretty sure I can make that all work,” I told her. She sent
me her file, and I was able to do in a matter of minutes what would have
otherwise taken her hours...if not a whole day.
In recent years,
I’ve thought about the things that my fellow teachers and I spent hours
and days working on that are accomplished now with the click of a
button. I have asked myself how we did it all...and the short answer is
that we gave up our nights, weekends, holidays and summers to prepare
classroom materials and displays for our students. It’s a wonder we
found time to teach! And quite frankly, there were times when we were
drowning in mountains of paper work and “busywork” that we barely made a
dent in the primary goal of presenting lessons and reaching academic
objectives!
As I read this scripture passage, I thought about
this...and about how many times we go around in circles, somewhat
chasing our tail as we try to accomplish things that we do not have the
adequate tools or skills to undertake. Like teachers everywhere, we
spend a lot of energy trying to figure out a “work-around” that will
suffice...and often, we are more than a little disappointed with the
results – if not downright wearied by them. And nowhere is this more
evident than in our attempts to muddle through life on our own...to do
the same things over and over while hoping for different outcomes. We
often think we know so much more than we really do...or feel that our
way is sufficient, if not better, than God’s. And this is when we make a
huge mess of things.
It’s MORE than a good thing that God is so
merciful and tender with us. We truly have no clue just how blessed we
are that He sent Jesus to pay for our sins...once and for all. I love
the sentence...”It was a perfect sacrifice by a perfect person to perfect some very imperfect people.”
This sums up Jesus beautifully. This description grasps the essence of
His grace and mercy over us...and demonstrates His love for us. He
made us perfect...unblemished...pure and whole...and we could never have
done this on our own, no matter how long or hard we tried.
I’m
grateful for our present-day technology – even the vast array that I do
not fully understand! I love how computers can make things look so neat
and pretty. I am even more appreciative of the love and tender care of
Jesus...how His single sacrifice accomplished what I never could. Now I
am heaven bound, fully forgiven for my sins, and free to love others in
His name and share the Good News that this gift extends to them, as
well! I know that the price He paid was anything but simple...far more
than the click of a button! And I recognize the tremendous love and
commitment that He demonstrated on my behalf.
When I sent back
the file to Natalie with the “brown” color card, she responded, “You
saved the day!” In the scheme of things, this was not a big deal on my
part. I just happened to have experience in pressing buttons and
“cutting and pasting” on some pretty amazing and powerful computer
programs! But Jesus wiped the slate clean with His own blood on the
cross...once and for all...and truly saved us from a life of sin and
eternity in Hell. Have you let Him know how grateful you are for this
amazing sacrifice? Isn’t it time you did?
©2014 Debbie Robus
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