The sermon of a book.

Dear Reader,
On one of my visits to "Uncle Erik's Second Hand Store" (Erikshjälpen in Swedish) I found a book  consisting of  The New Testament and The Book of Psalms. It was printed in 1919, black, with gold writing on the book spine and a graceful gold decoration on the front. What caught my eyes were beautiful black and white pictures in the beginning of the book. I bought the book mainly because of these images, although  I have a collection of Bibles and really, I needed no more. 

After coming home  I took a closer look at the book and found it was a bit  dirty on the outside (no wonder; it had been on its way to me for 95 years) so I took a cloth, wet it with little water and wiped the book outside. I pressed the sheets hard together  while I wiped it on the edges. The cloth was a little pink from the red color on the sheet edges but I thought no more of it, and put it away to dry. The next time I opened it, I got a surprise. The read  color on the sheet edges wasn't waterproof! (I know: you are nodding now; you knew that from the beginning, right?) My beautiful Bible. I sighed. Stupidity and eagerness to keep things clean had ruined my book. Or had it?? The moisture on the edge of the sheet  had been soaked into the dry sheet a couple of inches on every page, but only in the section with The Book of Psalms! Not a single sheet in the section of The New Testament was stained.  Verses from  The Hebrews chapter 9 and 10 came to mind:

¹⁹ When Moses had proclaimed every command of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people.²⁰ He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.”^[e]21 In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies.²² In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

 And it goes on to explain about Jesus and his sacrifice once and for all mankind.

²³ It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. ²⁴ For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. ²⁵ Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. ²⁶ Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. ²⁷ Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, ²⁸ so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

In the book of Leviticus  there are many detailed instructions about the offerings during the days of The Old Covenant and once a year it was the Day of Atonement when the High Priest made an offering of atonement  for all the sins of the Israelites. But still; it all started all over again with burnt offerings, sin offering, guilt offering, peace offering etc. Because man could never become sinless once and for all; no matter how many times blood was poured out for his sin.

But it all stopped in one particular second; on one particular  day on the hill of Golgotha. There was another "Living Way" that didn't need any more shedding of blood. 

Hebrew 10:

⁵ Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:

"Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
    but a body you prepared for me;
⁶ with burnt offerings and sin offerings
    you were not pleased.
⁷ Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—
    I have come to do your will, my God.^"

⁸ First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. ⁹ Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second.  
¹⁰ And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

 I didn't expect to find this  "sermon" this morning when I sat at the kitchen table and thought about lot of mistakes I could tell God about. As if he didn't know. I was prepared to tell him how utterly useless and worthless I was as a Christian and while starting to line up one mistake after the other I could hear on the inside;  

"Don't bother ... it is all taken care of.  I'm the same yesyerday, today and forever.//Jesus."

I will keep my stained book with the read pages and think of you Jesus whenever I see them and thank you  that in your sacrifice you also included a soul like me. 

Sincerely yours, Ida