The one where I talk (briefly) about my faith!

How much more surely shall the blood of Christ, Who by virtue of [His] eternal Spirit [His own preexistent divine personality] has offered Himself as an unblemished sacrifice to God, purify our consciences from dead works and lifeless observances to serve the [ever] living God? Hebrews 9:14

In case you’re not familiar with the brackets, they’re common in the Amplified version of the Bible – which is my personal preference for studying. Once you get used to it, it makes the experience of reading the Bible (in my opinion) so much better.

Anyway – I ran across this verse tonight and thought I’d share it. I don’t talk a lot about my past experiences with religion (specifically the organized variety), mostly because I rarely think about it anymore. But this brought so many things about that time of my life flooding back to me. “Dead works and “lifeless observances” saturated my life at the time. I paid more attention to what I was supposed to do and very little to what He did for me.

I wasn’t worshipping God – I was paying reverence to my own ability to talk the talk and try to walk the walk.

And how backward that really is – for if we only recognize the gift we’ve been given and never take it for granted, the rest falls into place. How could you not strive (albeit imperfectly) to be worthy of that kind of gift?

I know I fail miserably at times…ok…A LOT of the time…but I never for a moment forget how amazing it is that it’s ok for me to fail and still be loved by my God.

So there you have it! And this was in no way a knock on organized religion – which I know does a lot of good for a lot of people in many ways. There’s my tiny disclaimer!

~T the D