Thursday, August 8, 2013

Honoring the Presence of the Lord

Scripture:

Ezekiel 42:14 "Once the priests enter the holy precincts, they are not to go into the outer court until they leave behind the garments in which they minister, for they are holy.  They are to put on other clothes before they go near the places that are for the people".

Observation:

The priests were set apart for the Lord and His service.  Everything they did in worship of God was in order and to be done a certain way in order to maintain the holiness of the Lord.  In this verse it talks about the priests not being able to go among the people with their ministry clothes on because even the garments they wore were holy.  They had to change their clothes in order to talk to people.  There was a huge gap between the sacred and the secular.  The two were never to touch.  With the death of Jesus we have all been given access into the Holy Place.  The veil of the Temple was torn in two and we have access into the presence of God.  Now we are a priestly people.

Application:

God has given us all the priestly access to His presence and we no longer have to have special clothing to into His presence.  We can now come boldly before the throne of grace.  We have amazing privileges that were only for the priests in the past.  Therefore we should not take this lightly.  In the Old Testament, being the presence of God was only for a few and was truly an amazing thing.  I believe today we should honor the Lord's presence more than we do.  We are not bound to go through certain ceremonies and ritual cleansings, but we should not take lightly our priestly functions as well.  May we find new ways to honor the Lord's presence in our lives.

Prayer:

Lord, help me to never take the privilege of Your presence lightly.  Show me how to honor your presence and properly treat your holy place.  I love your presence more than life, teach me not to take it for granted.  Your presence means everything to me.  Help me honor it correctly.

Yours,
Jeff

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