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Day 347, or December the 13th. Be brave and humble.

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Our thoughts today come from Hebrews chapter

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4 verse 16. Let us then approach God's throne

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of grace with confidence, so that we may receive

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mercy and find grace to help us in our time of

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need. First, the big picture surrounding this

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verse. Hebrews writer now tells readers that

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Jesus is even superior to Moses. That is some

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statement when you bear in mind that Moses was

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the greatest man in Judaism who gave them the

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law and who consolidated a crowd of refugees

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leaving Egypt into a nation and then guided them

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to the promised land. In this letter they are

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warned not to harden their hearts and reject

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the Messiah of God. Jesus is even superior to

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the Aaronic priesthood, including Melchizedek.

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In short, he is totally and absolutely superior

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to anything else you can imagine. And now today's

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action step. Sometimes we sense our own inadequacies

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to such an extent that we dare not even think

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of approaching a holy God until we clean ourselves

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up, and of course we can't. We need God's help

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to do that. I think Wesley had this emotion in

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mind when he penned his classic hymn, And Can

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It Be That I Should Gain. He ends it with a repeated

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refrain of, Bold I approach the eternal throne,

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And claim the crown through Christ my own. Yes,

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when we acknowledge Christ, and he is in a real

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sense our own, we are able to boldly approach

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his eternal throne. The hymn writer is referring

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particularly to Judgment Day, but the writer

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of Hebrews makes it clear that this is something

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we are able to do whenever we are in need. Wow!

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Access to the King of Kings whenever we need

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him. We can only do this when Jesus is our Lord.

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Then we need never be reluctant to boldly approach

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the eternal Christ, knowing that he can and will

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sustain us in our hour of need. Having said that,

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don't forget to approach him in worship too,

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when you don't sense any specific need, but simply

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want to thank him for all he has done and continues

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to do in your life.