Sometimes it all seems too good to be true. God takes all the crap, all the smuttiness and grittiness of life and hits the delete button for us. Wow. Stop and think about that for a moment: He turns to a fresh notebook page, writes our name across the top, and starts to fill a blank page with mercy, grace, beauty, trust.
I found myself reading in Hebrews today. It was the next thing to read, but I wasn’t excited about it to tell you the truth. Let’s face it, Hebrews can be a tough read once in awhile. But today God did that divine weaving trick of his, pulling together a recent experience, my emotional state, and one of the stops on our trip to Israel. With scripture (active and living).
Hebrews 8:12
I will be merciful when they fail, and I will erase their sins and wicked acts out of my memory, as though they had never existed.”
Hebrews 10:19-23
So, my friends, Jesus by his blood gives us courage to enter the most holy of holy places. He has created for us a new and living way through the curtain, that is, through His flesh. Since we have a great High Priest who presides over the house of God, let us draw near with true hearts full of faith, with hearts rinsed clean of any evil conscience, and with bodies cleansed with pure water. Let us hold strong to the confession o f our hope, never wavering, since the One who promised it to us is faithful.
I was standing as close as possible to the holy of holies while in Jerusalem last month. With all the other worshippers, I put my prayer request on a slip of paper and crammed it into the rock of the Western Wall. I put my hands on the wall and prayed. Later, walking under the tunnels that surround the base of the Temple Mount, we saw the stones that are the foundation of where the holy of holies would have been. It was awe inspiring, and it stilled my heart. Even more so when I realized that through Jesus, we don’t need to cram pieces of paper on a rock: we have direct access to the Holy of Holies. If that doesn’t knock you off your feet, I don’t know what does.
Yesterday I had the chance to see what happens when the notebook page changes and the slate is wiped clean as we crawl to the feet of Jesus in the Holy of Holies. Yesterday I sat with three amazing women of God. I listened to their hearts pour out as they talked about their children, their pasts, the fresh notebook page that God’s given to them. All three of them had been drug addicts — in one case it only took three days to get so addicted to crystal meth that this woman was willing to throw her entire life away. All three have been clean and sober for years now. I looked into the eyes of these women as they described blackness and evil, situations they had been in for years. And what I saw was purity of heart, singleness of purpose and an overwhelming thankfulness that the Holy of Holies is a place where sins are forgotten, pasts are in the past. You see, each of these women also spent horrible portions of their lives being abused and later prostituting themselves for the drugs and the money.
But that was not who they are.
In Christ, they are free, pure, fellow travelers in the journey through the kingdom. These women offered their stories to me as a precious, precious gift. It is a way of redeeming the years “the locusts had eaten.” In other words, God demonstrated his ability to love extravagantly through them.
I’m so humbled by the faith of the three women I met yesterday, my sisters in Christ. I’d pray for the grace to walk as well as they have. I’d fight anyone who tried to hurt these white-robed ones. And I’m inspired to remember that God’s done the same for me. He’s turned that notebook page…why can’t I remember that?
They are restored.
I am restored.
The Holy of Holies…
