PASTOR'S MOMENT

"You have tried my heart, you have visited me at night, you have tested me" Psalm 17:3

Do you ever wonder what they did with the veil that was torn in the temple? Did they mend it? Did they replace it? Did they just leave it in tatters? We know that Heaven removed the veil that separated us from God and granted us access to the very throne of God through Christ Jesus.

Symbolically, we must see that this veil was representative of all that which separates us from God; all that which is earthly. Have you considered that your very body, this earthly dwelling, keeps you from being fully in the presence of God and the moment you lay it down your spirit is immediately in Heaven fully experiencing all who God is?

Put to death, therefore, what is earthly life in you (Colossians 3:5). The veil of our hearts is woven of the fine threads of the self-life, the hyphenated sins of the human spirit. They are not something we do, they are something we are, and therein lies both their subtlety and their power. To be specific, the self-sins are these: self-righteousness, self pity, self-confidence, self-sufficiency, self-admiration, self-love, and a host of others. They are too deep within us and are too much a part of our nature to come to our attention till the light of God is focused upon them.

One should suppose that proper instruction in the doctrine of man's depravity and the necessity for justification through the righteousness of Christ alone would deliver us from the power of the self-sins, but it does not work that way. Self can live unrebuked at the very altar. It can watch the bleeding victim die and not be the least affected by what it sees. It can fight for the faith of the Reformers and preach eloquently the creed of salvation by grace, and gain strength by its efforts. To tell the truth, it seems to actually feed upon orthodoxy and is more at home in a Bible conference than in a tavern. Our very state of longing after God may afford it an excellent condition under which to thrive and grow.

Self is the opaque veil that hides the Face of God from us. It can be removed only in spiritual experience, never by mere instruction as trying to instruct leprosy out of our system. There must be a work of God in destruction before we are free. We must invite the cross to do its deadly work within us. We must bring our self-sins to the cross for judgment. We must prepare ourselves for an ordeal of suffering in some measure like that through which our Savior passed when He had suffered under Pontus Pilate.

Scripture tells us that theSanhedrin, the religious and the political leaders, went back to their old norms. We read that after the crucifixion and resurrection when the disciples were filled with the Holy Spriit and began to preach Jesus, they were beat and commanded to cease preaching that Jesus was God and through His Name alone was salvation made possible. We don't have any historical facts, but we can surmise that the veil that was torn was either repaired or replaced for in 70 AD when the Romans invaded Jerusalem, the temple was destroyed and its furnishings were sent to Rome. It is apparent that they had returned to the old ways. I've been studying the effects of the virus. It has shaken us as a nation and world. We've made a lot of adjustments. People seem open to prayer and the gospel. The inability for churches to have been open and available has made any sort of worship whether online or drive-in become something important. The cessation of group activities and business has forced us to reevaluate. In 2001, the 911 crisis produced the same environment, the influx into the church and the deeper need for God peaked, but six months after the initial crisis when things seemed to be under control and we felt safe from terrorists again, church attendance declined below prior levels.

Like the people in the Acts days, we must choose whether this crisis brings permanent change or whether we will "repair the veil" and return to the old norm. Will we as the church continue to consider our gathering as something precious and therefore take priority over all other activities? Will we find ourselves more or less passionate and expressive with our worship? Will we choose to find and involve ourselves in the activity of God or will we still continue the old rituals that have little effect on us and the world around us? We have moved way out of the box with how we do church. Will we set all that aside and go back to pre-crisis levels? I pray we will answer as the Apostles did - "we must obey God and we are compelled to preach Jesus". May God tear the veil of our hearts in such a way that it can never be repaired but will be opened more and more so the glory of God will shine from us like the noonday sun.

Dr. John Thompson

Service Times

Sunday School: 9:30 AM
Worship Service: 10:30 AM

PASTOR'S MOMENT

Links

Service Times

Sunday School: 9:30 AM Worship Service: 10:30 AM

PASTOR'S MOMENT

Links

Sunday School: 9:30 AM
Worship Service: 10:30 AM