The Most Holy Place

I am struck this morning by how different life has become in just a few generations.  I can remember as a child, very vivid memories, of certain "firsts" in my life.  For instance, I can remember our families first color TV.  I can also remember our first microwave oven.  I laugh about this because the thing was a tank, nearly as big as the color TV!  And I remember that we had one telephone in the house with a really, really, really long cord.  I can only imagine the amount of change and advancement my parents and grandparents could describe during their lifetimes.

What got me started thinking about all the change and newness was Hebrews 8:13:  By calling this covenant "new", he has made the first one obsolete, and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.

In the first covenant with God proclaimed by Moses, there were set rules and regulations for living a Holy life.  One of them was how we were to worship God.  According to Hebrews 9, the earthly tabernacle was to have 2 rooms; the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place.  Ministry was carried out in the outer room daily, but the High Priests were only allowed to enter the Most Holy Place once a year to cleanse their people of sin with blood and offerings.  In fact, Moses said that "without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness."

I sit here and think about the Most Holy Place, Christ's sacrifice for me and the shedding of His blood to cover my sins and I realize what an amazing and awe-inspiring God we have.  Things changed with His "new" covenant, yet they remained similar.  We still have the Most Holy Place to turn to for deeper spiritual attainment and that place is within.  Jesus told us that the Kingdom of Heaven is within. It is up to us to go to the Most Holy Place with our deepest hurts, pains, sins and contemplations.

And, with this new covenant, we have been blessed with the blood of Christ so that we do not have sacrifice blood for forgiveness.  He gave His blood, His life, so that I could be free from my sins and receive the "eternal inheritance".  Jesus did bring blood to sacrifice in a man made temple over and over for us for all of our sins.  He shed his own blood once, in Heaven, for us, for eternity.

I pray that you would turn to the Most Holy Place today and thank God for all of His gifts in your life and for the forgiveness of your sins.  And I hope that you might return to this place more than once each year for Christ died so that you might have the privilege to worship there daily.