20060224
    The writer to the Hebrews compares Jesus to the ancient priest Melchizedek, a man who claimed priesthood to the one true God hundreds of years before the priesthood established by God’s law. What gave Melchizedek claim to such a title? It was the fact that this man looked to God and chose to serve Him alone. In other words, Melchizedek had faith in the almighty God.
    How does this Melchizedek compare to Jesus? Jesus was also one who served God alone, not because he was ordained to by blood or by law, but because He knew that His Father was the one true God by which the salvation of mankind, through Jesus’ own sacrifice would be realized.
    Why is this important? Because it is important to understand that no order of men, whether ordained by God’s law in the desert or by the divine calling of modern pastorship, stand between someone who is faithful to God and God himself. Jesus was the model of our faith because he taught us to commune with our God directly, just as Melchizedek did well before there was a single priest to offer a single sacrifice for the people of God.
    This is important because we often forget that our journey through life as Christians is one walking with God- one and one- in addition to walking with God among the throng of all Christians. We are not lost in a vast crowd. God himself takes us by the hand through faith and leads us one at a time along the path that He wants us to follow through life toward the glory of heaven.
    Because we have this oneness- and by this I mean a personal relationship- with God, we can call on him directly, as Paul tells us, like a child does his father. And God listens to that cry, sending us what we need, when we need it to continue on the journey he set before us.
DLH
