Blood, it Does a Body Good!

Over the last few days I have been studying the blood covenant and what an amazing thing it is!

Apparently in ancient Eastern culture it was the tradition that when a king or important guest was expected, an animal of high value was selected to killed in honor of that person. The blood was then poured out at the threshold of the house. If the expected guest was a king, members of the army would precede him to the town. Each house that had blood at the threshold was considered loyal to the king, where a house without the blood was considered disloyal. The kings army would either kill them or drive them out.

Now when a guest came to enter into a home, he could cross the threshold and enter into a sort of covenant with the owner of the home. The guest would not rob the home and the homeowner would be hospitable to the guest. He would feed the guest and provide for him and even protect him with his own life as long as the guest was in his home. We see examples of this with Lot and his heavenly messengers and in Rahab the harlot. Now when a king sees his subjects as loyal, as part of his kingdom he pledges to protect them. Now think of the Passover in light of this, truly stunning. Now we have the precious blood of the Lamb covering our doors and coursing through our veins inviting the king of glory to come in!

Lift up your heads, O gates! and be lifted up, O ancient doors! that the King of glory may come in. Psalm 24:9

Shame, the Ultimate Isolator

Several weeks ago a friend and I went hiking on a Sunday afternoon. We carpooled together and she drove. Since her church was on the way to our hiking spot, I went to church with her that morning. As we were sitting in church, she turned to me and said, "What's you deal with church?"
Now mind you I hadn't spoken about church much at all with this person. I literally broke into a cold sweat as I wondered to myself what had made her ask that question and what I should say. "I don't exactly know," I said. I thought it was a pretty safe and noncommittal answer, it was also at least to some degree true. But alas, it was not a "safe" answer as the response I got was this, "Well, you should ask God."
So, there I was in church asking God to show me what "my deal" was. Surprisingly, the answer came quickly and it was only one word, shame.
As I pondered the meaning of this I was reminded of what happened when Adam and Eve ate the fruit from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Genesis chapter 3 says that when Adam and Eve ate of the fruit, they realized they were naked and they were ashamed and hid from God. Of course we know that we can't hide from God, so in reality we are only hiding God from ourselves. Shame robs us from community with Him and with others.
So where does this shame come from and what to do with it... Of course we've got the Sunday School answers, but in reality I have so much more to learn. It's only the beginning of this journey.