Sep 7, 2009

One Way

What is your portion?

The Lord asked me this about a year ago for the first time and it has echoed in my memory every since.

What is your portion?
What are you satisfied with?
What is sufficient to meet your every need?
Who is your life source?
Is it Jesus?
Is He the your only way?

As Christians I think we understand that our first approach to God can only be through Jesus, but what about after that? As we come before God again and again, how do we approach? Do I come through the blood of Christ, or do attempt to approach based merely on the fact that I've been there before?

Let me present an illustration:
I am a citizen of the United States. As such I have a passport proves that I am who I say I am. Say I go to Greece on a vacation, but when I try to reenter the US I have lost my passport. I come up to the border with my suitcases full of mementos to bring back to my family and friends, but the guards won’t let me in…I have no passport……I can argue that I have been there before. I can show them that I speak like an American, that I have the clothes of an American, that I have family that is American. I can try everything I know, but only ONE document will let me into the United States no matter how many times I’ve come and gone.

It is the same with God.

In 2 Timothy 2:19 the Bible says that the Lord knows those who are His.
Ephesians 2:13-14 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the BLOOD OF CHRIST. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation,

What opens up the border between where I am, and where I belong? My spiritual passport..the blood of Jesus

How do you approach the Throne of God as a Christian? Often we come before the Throne of God and bring before us our works, our ministry, our triumphs, our steadfastness…all like gifts on a platter to appease and delight the King? To which the King says, “Those are beautiful gifts, but who are you who brings them? I cannot accept or even look at a gift from one I do not know!”
But there are those who approach with head bowed and empty hands lifted – empty, that is, save for the stain of the blood of Jesus on them. To those who do that, the King says, “Ah, I recognize that mark, that stain is familiar. You are the one that was guilty and is now saved. YOU are one of those that my Son rescued. I recognize you. Come, what do you have to show Me?” And then you pull out your treasure trove of gifts to present to Him.


Heb 10:19, 22 Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

The blood of Jesus is our passport into the Presence of God. There is no other way that we can belong there. It removes all suspicion and vulnerability to the judgement of God. When we have the blood of Jesus over us it is our confidence that we are where we belong.

When I ask, what is your portion, the question is What are you relying on to bring you close to God and what do you rely on to supply the grace that you need today? To be the only thing that you need. Are you trying to enter the hard way, with hands full of gifts from a foreign country? Or do you have the identifying symbol of one who belongs? Have you been washed clean and transformed by the Blood of Jesus?