Daily Devotions
Entering Heaven
Title: Entering Heaven
Reading for October 17: Mark 8-9
Weekly reading for October 14-20: Hebrews 6-9
For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.
Hebrews 9:24
When an architect finishes a drawing for a building, he will sometimes have a scale model built to offer a realistic idea of what he has designed. A blueprint is two dimensional. It lacks depth. A model helps us better visualize the finished product.
But a model is still just a model. It has no other function. You can't live or work in it. It's just a representation of the real thing, not the real thing itself.
When Moses constructed the tabernacle he was told to make all things according to the pattern God had shown him on the mountain (Hebrews 8:5). Why? Because this tent was to serve as a copy of heavenly things. But as important as the tabernacle was, it was just a copy of the true, heavenly dwelling place of God.
We should be moved with breathless awe and overwhelming gratitude when we consider that we are not offering sacrifices to God and approaching him in prayer in the copy or model of heaven. With Jesus, the Son, as our high priest, we are allowed into heaven itself! How can this be? I'm a sinner! I'm unworthy! I'm unclean!
But I have a place before the very throne of God, a place where I can come boldly (not fearfully) whenever I so desire (not just once a year)!
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. (Hebrews 12:22-24)
Father God, we bow before you with awe, wonder, and gratitude in our hearts!
