GREETINGS

Welcome, my friend. And you are a good friend for visiting, for my enemies would be too busy plotting my downfall. Ha! Well, fear not, for God is always with us – even to the end. I’m afraid, though, that the blog is still a work in progress – in the same way that God slowly but surely shapes us into the person we are destined to be, eh?

I’m sure you’re wondering what this “Royal Priesthood” business is all about – after all, you know very well I don’t have an ounce of royal blood in me! Get comfortable then, and let me tell you. I was told of a person who lived a long time ago, said to be the Son of God himself! Well, of course at first I could hardly believe it, but circumstances led me to believe the evidence of His existence...even up to this day.

I’ve had a strange feeling in my heart all my life that something was missing, something unexplainable, something … more. Upon learning more about this God Man, this Jesus of Nazareth, I came to the conclusion that He had the solution after all! He knew that we all felt separated in our own ways, and He said it was a separation from God, from some obscure debacle a long time ago. He said He came to give us “life to the full” and “peace, joy and love,” so I said, Why not? But there was a problem.

He explained that since God was – and still is – holy and perfect, only someone equally holy and perfect could be reunited with him in a wonderful place called Heaven. I’m not so naïve not to admit that nobody’s perfect. But because we’ve been separated from God since birth, our only destination was death. Since Jesus was the Son of God (and is holy and perfect – like Father, like Son!), and because God loves us so much, He was willing to take our place by dying – and then He conquered death for us and lived again after three days! Imagine that! Now we have full clearance to enjoy the full life that God offers, plus a guarantee that we’ll be with God in Heaven after we die! At that time we’ll enjoy life, love, peace and joy forever!

I, of course said, “Sign me up!” but Jesus said there are no contracts to sign since He was promoting holy freedom, balanced by God’s grace and Laws. We only needed to ask for forgiveness for our sins (our ignorance of God and His Laws), and accept Jesus as our Savior, living peacefully, joyfully and freely, in gratitude to God by obeying His Laws.

Whew! So much for the premise, I thought it couldn’t get any better but I found an announcement in the Bible (The Word of God):

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
1 Peter 2:9

This follower of Jesus, Peter was his name, said that we were royalty! Then I remembered that Jesus said His “kingdom was not of this earth,” just before He died. If Jesus is the Son of God and He took my place, then that means I’m an adopted child of God and the brother of a King! Boy, I sure haven’t been acting like royalty lately. That got me thinking, and finally I said, “Wow, looks like I’ve got work to do!”

And I do have a long way ahead of me, so I hope you’ll excuse me, busy, busy… and I hope you’ll consider God’s invitation for you, too… He didn’t say “God loves the WORLD that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life,” if God didn’t include you, now did He? I didn’t think so. Your best life is waiting to be realized… my friend, the choice is yours.