Truth Seekers Newsletter
September 30, 2007: I Give You My Life!
[Truth Seekers Home]
Last week we explored the Heart, the vital organ that pumps the blood, which carries oxygen to all parts of the body. We compared the physical heart to the Heart of God, Who sends us out, carrying His Word to all parts of the Body of Christ. This week, we look closer at the blood.
A Very Interesting Delivery Route!
We can think of the blood as the delivery trucks of the body. Their cargo is the precious, life giving oxygen. Let's ride along with them and see where they go.
Here comes a fleet of them now, all pooped out, on their way back from their delivery. Where do you think they will go? Many people would answer, "Back to the lungs, of course ... to pick up more oxygen and get it out there again." But that is not where we are headed.
Running on Empty ...
When you got tired and hungry as a child, where did you want to go? Home! You instinctively knew home was where you would be fed and nourished and where you could rest.
Many good Christians try to deliver the Word without any breaks. They consider any "down time" to be bad. They often feel as if they are running up hill with lead boots on. They start to lose their joy and wonder why. They have a good supply of the Word, but their truck is out of gas!
Renewed and Restored in the Very Heart of God!
Just as God put in a rest time after creating the world ... just as God planned sleep and rest into our day ... so once again, He has emphasized our need for rest and His Desire to be our Place of Rest.
The blood comes back from the body and takes a cruise through the right side of the heart. When we are tired from our labors, God calls to us to come inside His Heart and "be still and know that He is God."
And if we don't heed the call to be still, God has very creative ways of reminding us. It always intrigued me that David said in the 23rd Psalm, "You make me lie down in green pastures." If those pastures were so green, why didn't he just want to lie down? Sometimes when we are moving at such a fast clip, we might not even notice that the pastures are green. So God "makes" us lie down and experience it first hand.
Loading Up Again!
After the blood leaves the right side of the heart, now it's off to the lungs. Our trucks are picking up a full supply of oxygen. In the Body of Christ, the Holy Spirit will breathe His Power into us and load us up with the Word. Loading up with the Word can come through reading the Bible or other Christian books, hearing a minister or teacher share the Word, or in other ways, such as directly from the Holy Spirit in prayer. So now, we're off to the body again ... right??? Nope!
First Fruits!
In what some might find a very surprising move, the blood goes home again to the heart. It now enters through the left side of the heart. Why would the blood come back to the heart so soon?
God taught His People the joy of sharing the first parts of what they received with Him. In Old Testament times, there was even a Festival of First Fruits. The importance of giving back to God from the very first of what we receive is illustrated very well in the NIV translation of Genesis 4:3-5. Both Cain and Abel brought sacrifices to God, but God looked with favor only on Abel and his offering. Why not Cain?
In this translation, it notes that Abel brought the first fruits of his work, but Cain brought his "in the course of time" or put another way, "when he got around to it."
Unfortunately many of us have too often given God what we had left over from a pay check or our time or talents, but not our first fruits. Giving God the first fruits of what we have received is a way of thanking Him for His Provision. No matter what the package in which it arrives, all gifts are from God Himself. The blood goes back home with its first fruits of oxygen and nourishes the heart with thanksgiving.
The heart is also the ultimate Quality Control. It checks what it sends out to be sure it is pure. God receives our thanksgiving and searches our hearts, before He sends us back out to the Body.
What is This Stuff Called Blood?
What do you think of, when you think of blood? Some people get the creeps just thinking about blood. Some people get weak in the knees when they see blood. Some people don't like to have their blood drawn because they fear losing any of their "life juice."
Some people think blood is ok in its place. As long as it remains safely inside of them, they just try not to think about it. However, God seemed preoccupied with blood almost from the very beginning of time. Why?
The Blood, the Plague of the Unbeliever!
We really don't hear much about blood before sin entered the world. But by the time we enter Exodus in the Old Testament, blood became very prominent in God's examples to His People. Let's peek in on Moses, as he delivered God's Word to a reluctant Pharaoh. The Pharaoh rejected Moses, the carrier of the Word and the Word itself. God then gave the Pharaoh a preview of the Power of the Blood. To the unbelieving, the Blood became a plague. The River Nile on which they depended turned into a river of blood!
The Blood, the Salvation of the Believer!
When God was getting ready to strike the Egyptians with the final plague of the death of the first born son in each household, He did something very interesting to save His People. He told them to put the blood of a sacrificed animal on the door of their homes. When the death angel came, he would then pass over them and leave them in safety. The blood brought their salvation.
The Way into the Holy of Holies!
When God instituted sacrifices, again blood figured prominently. The priests had to sacrifice animals and sprinkle their blood as part of the ceremony. Hebrews 9:7 tells us the priest could not enter the inner room of the temple, the most Holy Inner Place, without first sprinkling the blood of the sacrificed animal.
Blood, the Covenant Sealer
Hebrews 9:18-22 tells us about Moses' sacrifices and the blood that sealed the commandments of God. Blood was the covenant sealer.
In olden times, if two people wanted to seal a covenant or promises with each other, they often cut their wrists and let blood come to the surface. They then rubbed their arms together. This signified that they were now of one blood and they would always remain intensely loyal to each other. They were "flesh and blood". They were kin!
What's Inside the Blood?
With any wonderful presents, you have to look inside to see the treasures. The same is true of the blood. There are many parts of blood. Whole books and whole specialties of medicine center around the blood. But today, we will be simple and look at the three main parts of blood.
Red Blood Cells are the oxygen carriers. They carry the life giving juice to all cells of the body.
White Blood Cells protect us from invaders. They either fend off attacks or subdue the intruder, when there has been an invasion of the body.
Platelets have an important job of sealing up blood vessels. They are the clotters, keeping the life juice inside the body instead of flowing out of the body.
Transfusion
When a person is sick or has lost a lot of blood, they may need a transfusion. In a transfusion, the blood of another person (the donor) is given to the one in need (the recipient). This blood must match in certain ways; if it does not, the recipient will have a bad reaction and may die. If there is no blood of the right type available, the person in need may die. It is a miracle of God when there is a willing donor, who can give blood of the right type. Dying patients can get better immediately with the transfusion of the right type of blood.
Sin Sickness
When sin entered the world, every person on earth then and afterwards throughout time, became ill. Not one person was spared. Try as we do, all of us have sinned. (Romans 3:23)
The news gets worse. It's terminal. Romans 6:23 tells us that the result of this illness will be death. We need a spiritual blood transfusion. But no one has the type of blood we need. It would appear that all will be lost.
But, just in the nick of time, Jesus appears. He is speaking to you right now. "I'm willing to give you a gift (Romans 6:23)... and I have the right blood type."
What Can Jesus' Blood Do?
Like the red blood cells, His Blood carries Life to the Body ... both to our individual body and to the larger Body of Christ.
Like the white blood cells, His Blood is ready and able to fight off any invader and to subdue any intruder that somehow we allowed in.
Like the platelets, His Blood seals His Covenant with us. The Life He gives can never be taken away from us. It will stay with us forever!
Jesus' Covenant With Us
In Matthew 26:28, Jesus said His Blood was "the Blood of the Covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." Luke 22:20 tells us that blood was poured out for us.
God Invites Us into the Holy of Holies ...His Very Heart!
Ephesians 1:7 and 2:13 and Hebrews 10:19 tells us because of that blood transfusion, we are now welcomed into the most special place in the Temple ... the very Heart of God Himself.
The Mission!
Once renewed and restored inside the Heart of God and having had the Breath of the Holy Spirit breathed into us until we are full to overflowing with God's Word, we are off again to the Body of Christ. The Heart sends us out on His very important Mission. With each powerful Beat of God's Heart, we can hear Him whisper, "Go ... go."
Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation!
- Mark 16:15
|
