Hebrews 10:19-25
Perhaps you can recall someone who gave you the perfect gift. It's such a wonderful feeling when someone gives you a present that really had some thought behind it, something that you alone would appreciate. It's a wonderful feeling and the gift giver is raised ever so much in your eyes.
Before I really realized I was gay, I went into therapy to deal with all the mental turmoil I was experiencing. This was a highly trained paid therapist but I still hold him in very high regard for the professional and heartfelt assistance he offered to help me realize what my problem was and just how I would handle it. He did not steer me but prodded, inquired and offered the comfort and reassurance to let me arrive at my own epiphanies, decisions and ultimately supported the course of action I decided upon. This was a gift to me of enormous proportions.
The other day a plane went done in the Hudson river. Immediately a father and son raced to the scene, pulled the people aboard their boat and the son offered one of them his coat. These are heroes in our eyes and I am sure in the eyes of those poor souls who crashed. What a gift they received from those rescuers.
Yesterday also, I heard the story of a veteran who had received two new arms in a transplant, only the seventh of it's kind in the United States. He is already able to use his new arms and has set some lofty goals for himself. In the news conference he thanked especially the donors of those arms. Again, what a gift!
I suppose we would have incredible appreciation and be in awe of anyone who would risk there life to save ours or actually give their life so we could live. Well, that is what Jesus has done. I always say, if you were the only human being, he still would have willingly died on the cross just for you. The fact is, his majesty and glory is so great, so far beyond anything we can comprehend, he really did die just for you. Wow. This is the price he paid so we could be free from sin, free to love, free to be who we are.
If we have ever had anything bad happen in our lives, we may get a hint of what it is like to live in a constant fog, a shadow, as if a darkness constantly pervades and weighs on our life. Jesus frees us from that. Jesus' love, his dying on the cross for us was so we can approach God in love and faith with no fear , with all confidence in his love and forgiveness. We need to offer no sacrifices or gifts. Jesus sacrificed himself as a gift to us.
How wonderful, how awe inspiring, how humbling, how loving.
Jesus, the perfect gift - to us.
Perhaps you can recall someone who gave you the perfect gift. It's such a wonderful feeling when someone gives you a present that really had some thought behind it, something that you alone would appreciate. It's a wonderful feeling and the gift giver is raised ever so much in your eyes.
Before I really realized I was gay, I went into therapy to deal with all the mental turmoil I was experiencing. This was a highly trained paid therapist but I still hold him in very high regard for the professional and heartfelt assistance he offered to help me realize what my problem was and just how I would handle it. He did not steer me but prodded, inquired and offered the comfort and reassurance to let me arrive at my own epiphanies, decisions and ultimately supported the course of action I decided upon. This was a gift to me of enormous proportions.
The other day a plane went done in the Hudson river. Immediately a father and son raced to the scene, pulled the people aboard their boat and the son offered one of them his coat. These are heroes in our eyes and I am sure in the eyes of those poor souls who crashed. What a gift they received from those rescuers.
Yesterday also, I heard the story of a veteran who had received two new arms in a transplant, only the seventh of it's kind in the United States. He is already able to use his new arms and has set some lofty goals for himself. In the news conference he thanked especially the donors of those arms. Again, what a gift!
I suppose we would have incredible appreciation and be in awe of anyone who would risk there life to save ours or actually give their life so we could live. Well, that is what Jesus has done. I always say, if you were the only human being, he still would have willingly died on the cross just for you. The fact is, his majesty and glory is so great, so far beyond anything we can comprehend, he really did die just for you. Wow. This is the price he paid so we could be free from sin, free to love, free to be who we are.
If we have ever had anything bad happen in our lives, we may get a hint of what it is like to live in a constant fog, a shadow, as if a darkness constantly pervades and weighs on our life. Jesus frees us from that. Jesus' love, his dying on the cross for us was so we can approach God in love and faith with no fear , with all confidence in his love and forgiveness. We need to offer no sacrifices or gifts. Jesus sacrificed himself as a gift to us.
How wonderful, how awe inspiring, how humbling, how loving.
Jesus, the perfect gift - to us.
Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary 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 approach 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 to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
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