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| Vol. 15 No. 10 October 2013 | Page 11 |
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| Vol. 15 No. 10 October 2013 | Page 11 |
Mark McWhorter
“And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). God told these words to the nation of Israel through Moses. God had chosen Israel to be a special people to Him. He would guide and protect them. All He asked was that they obey Him.
Today, Christians are God’s chosen people. All God asks is that people love and obey Him. In John 3:3-5, Christ’s followers are said to enter the kingdom of God. In 1 Peter 2:5, we read, “Ye also, as lively stone, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” Putting these Scriptures together, we conclude that Christians are a kingdom of priests.
Today, each disciple of Christ has the authority to approach God. Each has the pleasure of serving God. We do not have to offer animal sacrifices. Nor do we have to follow all the priestly requirements under the Old Testament. We live under the New Testament. We have a better covenant than the Old Testament kingdom of priests had (Hebrews 7:22).
Study your Bible. Learn what is necessary for you to be a part of the kingdom of priests. Learn how to properly serve and worship God today. If any of this is hard to understand, ask an adult to help you.
Robert D. Rawson
Jesus came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10). The promise of salvation is to those who ‘obey Him’ (Hebrews 5:8-9).
Let us immediately allow Jesus into our hearts. He stands at the door and ‘knocks’ (Revelation 2:10). What prohibits His salvation and His being allowed to come into our lives?
Love of sin (1 John 2:15-17) is one thing that prohibits Jesus. On our part, the ‘lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life’ varies as to the object of our lusts. Sometimes it is a person; sometimes it is our love for personal power; sometimes it is the lazy spirit we adopt. Regardless, these things take us away from Jesus rather than allow Him to come in.
Failure to love God is another thing that prohibits Jesus. He said that it’s when we love Him we obey Him (John 14:15) and become His friend (John 15:14). Failure to love God will result in very sinful conduct (1 John 4:10ff) and heaven will be denied to those (Revelation 20:12ff).
Let us love Him, and let us shun sin so that neither His knocking nor His love for us is in vain.