On February 28th, I spent the day on a bus from Chiangmai to Bangkok for our Leadership Development Weekend. As a squad, we spent our last two days before heading to Europe having bible studies, breakout sessions, worship time, hearing special messages, and having an awesome time together honoring our squad leaders for serving alongside us the last five months. One of the best parts of for me was when Shannon gave a talk about the blood of the Jesus.
It was great timing because this month, I just found myself feeling shame about my past. Telling my testimony sometimes opens me up to thinking lies about my worth and newness I have. My story includes a lot of deep, dark stuff; I lived a pretty ludicrous life for a long time, and even after following Christ I have made reckless decisions. On the WR I’ve been taking this time to create and consider a new game plan for when I come back to America. I’m building my foundation of beliefs and creating a mindset that will allow me to practice more self control, honor God with my life, and be even bolder for the Kingdom. Living with shame doesn’t allow for acknowledgment of the power of the sacriafice made for me that made me new! I have to let go of who I was and acknowledge that the power living in me is enough to bring freedom in every area of my life and to wipe clean the shame from my past.
The gospel (the teaching or revelation of Christ) is simple. God came down to be human and gave himself as the last sacrifice for all atonement for sins. This was and is the greatest love story of all time! Christ in His perfection experienced temptation and suffering and ultimately his predestined death for us. He was obedient to God in all things and provided the way for us–in how to live and how to love. He broke the barrier between us and God, so we can now live with the Holy Spirit in us, helping daily. God loves us, so much. That love is powerful and incredible. When you truly understand it, you can’t help but be changed. All things are wiped clean and new and the blood of Christ makes me holy. I am a child of the one true King, of light and truth and love, the creator, the redeemer, author of salvation, prince of Peace, Lord of Lords, champion of heaven, etc. I’m loved as a child of God. You are too, and you just have to accept this free gift of forgiveness. We are undeserving but chosen anyway.
The Blood of Christ
Hebrews 9 : 11 – 28
11 But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation. 12 He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves;but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. 13 The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. 14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
15 For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
16 In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, 17 because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living. 18 This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood. 19 When Moses had proclaimed every command of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. 20 He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.” 21 In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. 22 In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
23 It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. 25 Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own.26 Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.27 Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, 28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
Hebrews 10:12-18 (ESV)
12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,
16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws on their hearts,
and write them on their minds,”
17 then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”
18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
