ONLINE CHURCH BULLETIN

Permanently Perfect

Hebrews 7.23 Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented  them from continuing in office; 24 but because Jesus lives forever, he has a  permanent priesthood. 25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who  come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

26 Such a high priest meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set  apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. 27 Unlike the other high  priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his  own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins  once for all when he offered himself. 28 For the law appoints as high priests  men who are weak; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son,  who has been made perfect forever.

When we study the characters of the Bible--from Adam to the apostle John--we  see faults and weaknesses. We readily recognize the inconsistencies of those  in public life. Parents and children disappoint each other with their  blunders. Spouses disappoint each other with their insensitivity and  inconsiderate behavior. Employees complain about the mistreatment of  employers. Supervisors consider their workers lazy. Official scorers  identify the errors of the best major league baseball players...and the  players disagree with the umpires’ calls. Faults, foibles, mistakes and  errors abound.

We become most painfully aware of our own failures to live our faith.

God requires perfection (Isaiah 59.1-18) but we are chronically inadequate,  incomplete and unholy--even if we are unaware ot our condition. Sometimes we  are unable to meditate on Him for more than a few seconds. God wants us to  have this sense or our complete despair...without Him. However, even as  Isaiah painted a dark picture of our sinfulness, he also presented God’s  perfection:

Isaiah 59.20 "The Redeemer will come to Zion..."

Consider the completeness of Christ. When we see the death of men, we  appreciate His eternal Life--His permanence as our Great High Priest. While  we struggle to perfectly perform the simplest task, He is able to completely  save those who come to Him in faith. He is always available to intercede.

The Christian’s confidence is based on nothing less than the complete Christ.

"On Christ the Solid Rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand."

It is great to be a Christian, to live with confidence in One who is always  able to meet our greatest needs!

Dear Father, we are so grateful for Christ, our Great High Priest. We are  amazed by His complete devotion to us, His holiness, His readiness to  intercede. We confess our unworthiness and ask for continued cleansing by  His blood. Help us to keep our eyes on Him and to follow Him today. Help  those who are hurting. We ask this in the name of the Complete One. Amen.

1 John 5.14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask  any thing according to his will, he heareth us: 15 And if we know that he  hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we  desired of him.

Only God can know HOW our prayers WORK but we believe HE answers. Please  write me to add names to the prayer list and to report changes in status.

Let us be thankful and prayerful!

Love
Brad Forgy