Hebrews 9

Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.

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Happy 24th Anniversary to My beloved Husband Sir Lancelot!
& Congratulations to Jason & Courtney Hammock
on the arrival of Hezekiah James Sydney Hammock – today at 8:52 a.m.
weighing in at 9 lbs. 5 ozs. & 21 inches long.
(t’is why Me Daily Bread is a late post today :-)

Hebrews 9:1-28 -
Old Rules about Worship
1Now in that first covenant between God and Israel, there were regulations for worship and a sacred tent here on earth. 2There were two rooms in this tent. In the first room were a lampstand, a table, and loaves of holy bread on the table. This was called the Holy Place. 3Then there was a curtain, and behind the curtain was the second room called the Most Holy Place. 4In that room were a gold incense altar and a wooden chest called the Ark of the Covenant, which was covered with gold on all sides. Inside the Ark were a gold jar containing some manna, Aaron's staff that sprouted leaves, and the stone tablets of the covenant with the Ten Commandments written on them. 5The glorious cherubim were above the Ark. Their wings were stretched out over the Ark's cover, the place of atonement. But we cannot explain all of these things now.
6When these things were all in place, the priests went in and out of the first room F38 regularly as they performed their religious duties. 7But only the high priest goes into the Most Holy Place, and only once a year, and always with blood, which he offers to God to cover his own sins and the sins the people have committed in ignorance. 8By these regulations the Holy Spirit revealed that the Most Holy Place was not open to the people as long as the first room and the entire system it represents were still in use.
9This is an illustration pointing to the present time. For the gifts and sacrifices that the priests offer are not able to cleanse the consciences of the people who bring them. 10For that old system deals only with food and drink and ritual washing—external regulations that are in effect only until their limitations can be corrected.
Christ Is the Perfect Sacrifice
11So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that great, perfect sanctuary in heaven, not made by human hands and not part of this created world. 12Once for all time he took blood into that Most Holy Place, but not the blood of goats and calves. He took his own blood, and with it he secured our salvation forever.
13Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow could cleanse people's bodies from ritual defilement. 14Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our hearts from deeds that lead to death so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. 15That is why he is the one who mediates the new covenant between God and people, so that all who are invited can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant.
16Now when someone dies and leaves a will, no one gets anything until it is proved that the person who wrote the will F39 is dead. F40 17The will goes into effect only after the death of the person who wrote it. While the person is still alive, no one can use the will to get any of the things promised to them.
18That is why blood was required under the first covenant as a proof of death. 19For after Moses had given the people all of God's laws, he took the blood of calves and goats, along with water, and sprinkled both the book of God's laws and all the people, using branches of hyssop bushes and scarlet wool. 20Then he said, "This blood confirms the covenant God has made with you." F41 21And in the same way, he sprinkled blood on the sacred tent and on everything used for worship. 22In fact, we can say that according to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified by sprinkling with blood. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.
23That is why the earthly tent and everything in it—which were copies of things in heaven—had to be purified by the blood of animals. But the real things in heaven had to be purified with far better sacrifices than the blood of animals.
24For Christ has entered into heaven itself to appear now before God as our Advocate. F42 He did not go into the earthly place of worship, for that was merely a copy of the real Temple in heaven. 25Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, like the earthly high priest who enters the Most Holy Place year after year to offer the blood of an animal. 26If that had been necessary, he would have had to die again and again, ever since the world began. But no! He came once for all time, at the end of the age, to remove the power of sin forever by his sacrificial death for us.
27And just as it is destined that each person dies only once and after that comes judgment, 28so also Christ died only once as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again but not to deal with our sins again. This time he will bring salvation to all those who are eagerly waiting for him.
FOOTNOTES:F38: Greek first tent; also in 9:8. F39: Or covenant. F40: Or Now when someone makes a covenant, it is necessary to ratify it with the death of a sacrifice. F41: Exod 24:8. F42: Greek on our behalf.
Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living TranslationCopyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.

~ Lena’s Journalin’
Sin must be dealt with, forever. Who will deal with sin, when God already gave us the power over sin? Do we know we have that power? Do we execute it? If not, why not? Is it pride, desire, lack of humility or love of pleasure? If any of those things, the blood of Jesus was strong as it was shed and poured all out for each one of those sins, every one of those sins.
Remember sin’s main attribute is to separate God and man. When we know that we must use the power found in Christ to completely destroy sin’s power over us.
It’s like saying, what would you do to save a drowning child? Just a few things, maybe some things, or whatever it takes?
When we know sin’s power is given by our wills to empower it and we know we can take back that power, why wouldn’t we “save the drowning child”?
If we know sin’s mission in our lives is to separate us from the love and fellowship of our Father God, why would we not “save the drowning child”? If we would not “save the child” we’d be looked upon as odd.
The angels of God are oddly looking at us wondering why we sit so still, tolerate the separation, when Christ provided all we need to bridge the gap!
Let’s not waste anymore of God’s time playing the games sin has tried to play with us, winning over our loyalties and service.
Let’s adapt a holy hatred for whatever separates us from the pure love of our true Father God, no longer being it’s servant or friend, but serving and loving God and becoming His friends through obedient and willful love.

Daily Repetitive Verses:

Isaiah 58:12 You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again. THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language