Yom Kippur - Day 10 - Day of Atonement

Holy, holy, holy is our Lord Almighty. Heaven and earth is filled with Your glory. Blessed be the name of the Lord! Worthy, worthy, worthy is the Lamb who was slain for our transgressions. All glory, honor and praise be to Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, whose blood washes us white as snow! Hallelujah!!!

Father, I cannot but give praises on this glorious day. Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It is the holiest day in the Hebrew calendar and is a day of fasting and reflecting on one's life this past year, searching to see if they had sinned against You and against their fellow man. It is also a day where one can seek forgiveness from others and from You, atoning for their wrongs thus having an opportunity to be written in the book of life.

As our Jewish brothers and sisters observe this very holy day, we as Christians can surely do the same. When I woke up this morning my mind quickly thought this, "Yom Kippur, Day of Atonement. Precious Jesus, You are our atonement for sin!" Bless You, oh Lord! Hallelujah!!! When we receive Him as Lord, it is His shed blood that washes us from all unrighteousness! He is our Atonement, He is our Redeemer! It is because of His finished work upon the cross that we have the opportunity to have our names written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Glory!!! That is how much You love us, Abba God! You have seen the weakness of our flesh and provided Christ Jesus as the propitiation of our sins. This does not mean that are think we have free reign to sin, God forbid! What a slap in the face that would be to You, Holy One!!! The wages of sin is death. That does not change. Sin brings separation from You and legal rights for the enemy to mess in our lives even more than he might otherwise! But we do not need to live under the crushing weight of that sin, that guilt and shame. Jesus is our Advocate before You. He pleads our case as we ask for forgiveness of any wrongs we have done. And we don't have to wait for a special day to do this. We can seek forgiveness through Him whenever we sin, asking for the Holy Spirit's help so that we sin no more! You never turn away from us when we seek You. It is never too late to come before You, seeking Your forgiveness nor is there anything but one unforgivable sin that You will not forgive. The Bible has account after account of mere men and women who had walked in sin but turned to You for forgiveness and they went on to do great exploits for You. David and Saul turned Paul are my most favorite accounts. You are willing to forgive much more than we are! You truly are a good, good Father. With that said, please help us to forgive those who have sinned against us. Goodness knows we need help here!!!

Holy One, we should meditate each and every day on who You are, the endless love, mercy and grace You are always ready to give. The problem is not You and never has been. You have given us free will to choice how and where we walk. It will always rest on our choices. Should we ever blame You for anything it is because we do not know who You are, how much You love us, that sin has consequences, that we have an enemy that wants to steal, kill and destroy us or what Your plans and will for mankind is.. You are more than worthy of our time and our obedience. Reading in 2 John 5,6 this morning it seemed to sum up these days of awe and repentance:

"And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. And this is love: that we walk in obedience to His commands. As you have heard from the beginning, His command is that you walk in love."

I just love how You set it up for me to read this particular Scripture. I really am in awe of You! Yes, Lord I/we have heard Your commands. Forgive me/us when I/we have not walked in them and therefore have sinned against You. Please, allow Your Holy Spirit to speak loudly to me/us, getting my/our attention before we step into something that is a sin before You and please help me/us to be more sensitive to You heart and Your Spirit, in Jesus' name I/we pray. Amen.