Five Minute Friday - Access - Glimpsing Glory From the Crevice

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One word. Five minutes to write about it. This is the idea behind Five Minute Friday and this is today's free-writing post.

access denied

equal access

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A couple of quick searches showed me that a huge percentage of references to the word 'access' in contemporary use are about access to clean water, to health care, to information, and to justice. All of these are very important, to be sure. Access to clean water is obviously essential for life and health, for example. 

But did you know that we can have access to God's own throne room? That door is open to us because God wants us to come to him. It's only because HE grants access that we have it, so it's also only by the means HE has provided. His son, Jesus, came as a human, allowed himself to be executed even though he was pure and blameless, and then he defeated the finality of death when he rose from the dead. And therefore, when we believe in Jesus, he invites us to know God, and to ask for anything in his name and he'll answer our prayers!

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him.

~I John 5:14-15~

 That's a pretty amazing level of access!

Nothing we formulate or do can qualify us for access to God. Only grace can do that - based not on our performance but on the saving work of Christ. ~Timothy Keller

And my five minutes are up, but I'm going to keep writing, because there's an interesting story way back in the Old Testament about being granted access to God in an unusual setting - and it's related to the Write 28 Days prompt for today . . . 

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Glimpsing Glory From The Crevice

After hundreds of years of the Hebrew people being enslaved in Egypt, God heard their cries and commissioned Moses (or Moshe, in Hebrew) to lead them out of Egypt into the Promised Land. Moses had already been granted some pretty incredible access to God, starting with God's calling out of the burning bush. But towards the end of Exodus, when Moses is in a meeting with God on the mountain, he pleaded with God to go with him and all the people to the Promised Land, even though the people had disobeyed again and again. Moses is their representative to God, and has far more access than they do, but he boldly asks for more. He wants to know God better, more fully:

Moshe said to ADONAI . . . "Now, please, if it is really the case that I have found favor in your sight, show me your ways; so that I will understand you and continue finding favor in your sight. Moreover, keep on seeing this nation as your people." 

. . .

ADONAI said to Moshe, "I will also do what you have asked me to do, because you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name." 

But Moshe said, "I beg you to show me your glory!"

He replied, "I will cause all my goodness to pass before you, and in your presence I will pronounce the name of ADONAI. Moreover, I show favor to whomever I will, and I display mercy to whomever I will. But my face," he continued, "you cannot see, because a human being cannot look at me and remain alive. Here," he said, "is a place near me; stand on the rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you inside a crevice in the rock and cover you with my hand, until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand, and you will see my back, but my face is not to be seen."

~from Exodus 33, CJB~

 

Moses wants more of God, and God answers by placing Moses into a crevice in the rock. The rock on which Moses was to stand, by the way. Did that rock represent Jesus?

So, since we have come to be considered righteous by God because of our trust, let us continue to have shalom with God through our Lord, Yeshua the Messiah. Also through him and on the ground of our trust, we have gained access to this grace in which we stand; so let us boast about the hope of experiencing God's glory.

~Romans 5:1-2, CJB~

Jesus is the rock, the foundation on which we base our trust and faith, and through him we have access to God's grace, and therefore can experience God's glory.

Because God loves us, he lets us know exactly how to have access to him. ~Jennifer Rothschild

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Prayer is wireless access to God with no roaming fees. ~Paul Chucks

This post is linked at Five Minute Friday for the word prompt "Access".

This post is part of the Write 28 Days Blogging Challenge hosted by Anita Ojeda. Find all my posts for the 2023 challenge here: Write Something Somewhere

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