11.11.13

Hebrews 9:13-14 Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow could cleanse people's bodies from ceremonial impurity.  Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our conscience from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God.  

My Thoughts
Conscience: the part of the mind that makes you aware of your actions as being either morally right or wrong : a feeling that something you have done is morally wrong

I knew what conscience meant...but I needed to read the definition!!  I know that the Bible talks about throwing our sins as far as the east is from the west (Psalms 103:12... that God does not remember our sins. But I loved reading this and knowing that God does not want me to wallow in my past sins.  God wants me to be able to move forward so that I can focus on Him... not all that I have done wrong. 

I was taught to feel guilty... like you were not sorry for what you did wrong if you didn't feel guilty. We need to be sorry for our sins, we need to ask forgiveness and we need to ask for God's grace when we want to sin again.  But once we ask for forgiveness, God forgives us.  And we need to forgive ourselves too so that we can worship God.  If we are busy worrying about all that we have ever done wrong we are not free to worship God.  And that is exactly where the devil likes us to be...stuck so that we can't worship. We are told here that Christ purifies our conscience, the part of our mind that makes us aware that we have done morally wrong things.  God makes us right. God frees us to worship Him. 

God told me once after my mom died, "Jeannie if you are busy worrying about what you didn't know how to do, you won't be able to become the person I want you to be." This very verse confirms what God told me that day I was wallering in worry of things that I had not done, of my sins of omission. 

God does not want us waling around feeling bad all the time... God want us to feel so free of all burdens that we are able just to love and praise Him.  When we do this it honors God and it grows us!!  Wow I love that!