“Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”

Hebrews 10:22

     Our entrance is dependent upon Who He is, not who we are.

     Picture, if you will, a beggar standing on the sidewalk in a bustling metropolitan city.  His clothes are tattered and soiled with many a stain.  His hair is matted and unkempt and the stench of his body odor is overpowering from having gone many days without a bath.
 
     Suddenly, a well-dressed, well-heeled stranger draws near. . .stops. . .and looks into the glazed over eyes of the beggar.

     “Don’t I know you?” the dashing, debonair stranger asks.

     The startled beggar says nothing, but quickly averts his look by lowering his eyes to the ground again.
 
     “Yes, I think I know you.  You’re _________, aren’t you?  You and I went to high school together and even played on the same football team together.  Yes, I know you, __________.  I’m _____________!  How in the world are you doing?  And, what’s happened to you??” the stranger asks.
 
     Slowly, the homeless man looks up again into the searching eyes of the stranger.  And, suddenly, he recognizes those eyes and familiar voice.  With a muffled voice he acknowledges that he is indeed the man’s former best friend and recounts how he’d fallen on hard times. . .lost his job, family, house, car, etc. . .and now struggled to just get by.
 
     After conversing for a while, the stranger reaches in his pocket, pulls out his checkbook and writes his long-lost friend a check for $10,000.   “Go cash this, get you some clothes, something to eat and find you a place to rent.  Then call me and I’ll give you a job.  You don’t need to live like this anymore.”
 
     But, he never calls.

     And, several weeks later the wealthy stranger finds the beggar standing in the same spot on the same sidewalk, wearing the same soiled and stained clothes.

     “Why are you still here?” he asks

     “ Did you lose the check or did someone steal it?!?”
 
     “No,” came the muffled reply as the beggar stared at the ground.

     “I was afraid to enter the bank and present the check because of how I looked,” he said.

     With noticeable irritation in his voice. . .and tears in his eyes. . .the stranger said, “That doesn’t matter, ___________.  What matters is whose signature is on that check!  Now, go, cash it and start living again.”
 
     Oh, dear Pilgrim, the reason we don’t “draw near” and “enter in” is because we look more at our wretchedness than we do His Righteousness and cling more to our guilt than we do His Grace.  He has invited us to “come boldly.”  The question is, “Do we believe Him?”

By Tom Smith Morning Manna Dated March 19, 2010

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