Laugh Aloud

 

“During the days of Jesus’ earthly life, He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence.” (Hebrews 5:7)

Jesus cried and prayed for people lost in a sinful world.

He cried and prayed because He understood the pain His human form would endure because of dying to save these lost people.

The Father heard Jesus’ prayers and provided the way to save people from the chaos of lostness. The death of Jesus’ human form.

He heard Jesus’ prayers and provided a quick end to Jesus’ suffering while hanging on the cross. The death of Jesus’ human form.

People could have been left in the world’s chaos and Satan’s endless torment. They would understand they would never have the chance to get God’s help once they died. But God, in His love and mercy, made the way for people to receive His forgiveness and cleansing from their sins—-because of His love. By the death of Jesus’ human form.

Jesus could have hung on the cross alive for a day and suffered the agony of suffocation, pain, and thirst. But because of the Father’s love and mercy, He caused Jesus’ suffering in human form to end quickly. Jesus’ human form died.

God’s hearing and intervening in both situations occurred because of His love and mercy, since He is Sovereign and omnipotent.

Look back at the intended bleakness and torment that Satan intended, and LAUGH. Laugh at Satan’s impotence when faced with God’s omnipotence. Laugh at Satan’s small claims of importance when faced with God’s sovereignty.

Laugh because God loves you and has saved you if you have believed in Jesus as your Savior. Satan does not win; God wins in your life because you have believed in Jesus. Because Jesus’ human form died as the necessary sacrifice for the sins of each person and Jesus’ human form arose from death because He is God incarnate. Victor over sin and death. For YOU. For ALL who will believe in Jesus, the Son of God.

Know GOD HEARS you when you pray.

GOD ANSWERS your prayers.

And GOD WINS in the end.

LAUGH

Unchanging

 

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”  Hebrews 13:8

 

Jesus Christos (Messiah) is unchanging (immutable). He will always be the same from yesterday to now and into the expanse of eternity.

 

“Yesterday, today, and tomorrow” was written to emphasize and provide an example of just how unchanging Jesus is. He existed before creation. Jesus came to earth to live among us and die for us. He is with us now giving what we need and more, guiding us, and protecting us. Jesus will exist into infinity. He is part of the Godhead. No matter what conflicting teachings and doctrines you hear, the Jesus who has always been and will always be—the One you met when you were convicted of your sins and when you recognized you need a Savior—is the unchanging Jesus Christ. 

 

This truth is what the writer of Hebrews taught, reinforced, and emphasized in this verse.

 

So, “Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace and not by foods of no value to those devoted to them” (Hebrews 13:9). Ceremony (rituals, food, clothes, words, etc) have no value for the people who follow them. Jesus, His grace, His teaching, and His examples should be what we believe and follow. 

 

Don’t follow those who teach, preach, and model a way different from Jesus. Theirs is for vanity and pride. It serves only the false teacher and not his/her hearers. Jesus and His words are unchanging. 

 

Lord Jesus, help me not to be confused by conflicting teachings. Help me to see You alone and Your path. Lead me in the paths of Your righteousness for Your glory, O Lord. Help me not to fear evil but to see You are with me. You are my Foundation, my Savior. You alone are unchanging. You alone, Jesus, are the Truth and Way. Lead me in it. .

Quiet and Thunderous Assurance

 

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1 (NASB)

 

What is faith? Strong’s Greek dictionary says, “(Faith) for the believer is ‘God's divine persuasion’ – and therefore distinct from human belief (confidence), yet involving it. The Lord continuously births faith in the yielded believer so they can know what He prefers.” Faith comes from the Greek word “pistis,” which has its root word meaning “to be persuaded” or “to persuade”. What we must realize is that faith, for the Christian, always comes from God. 

 

Strong’s continues to teach about faith by saying, “It is God's warranty that guarantees the fulfillment of the revelation He births within the receptive believer. “ That’s powerful! Faith is God’s warranty, His guarantee, that what He promises will happen. Without faith, then, we believers would have no hope that we are saved from our sins, that God is real, that Jesus is God’s Son, and that there’s an eternal life. There’d be no purpose in believing in anything and no purpose for living. God, in His loving graciousness, gives us hope by giving us faith in Him, the entirety of the Trinity. 

 

Now, this faith God gives us is our assurance in what we hoped for. God’s gift of faith birthed in Christians undergirds them. Faith is the guarantee for what God says, reveals, and promises. As Christians, it guarantees the inheritance of God’s promises to believer’s because He is always faithful and Christians are co-heirs with Christ as sons and daughters of God. Rightly understood, God’s gift of faith is the undergirding, the guarantee, of our inheritance—the fulfillment of His promises to us, our hopes.

 

The hope about which the author wrote is actively anticipating and waiting for the fulfillment of promises by God. Without faith, hoping would be futile. It would be like trusting in the role of dice. Hope, to be worth anything, must have a firm and assured basis or it would just be chance, coincidence, and happenstance. God, who is YHWH (I AM), has always existed, created all things, is always faithful and loving, is almighty, omniscient, and omnipresent, is the only one who can know and does know all that will occur in the future, has power over all things, and provides a definite and unchangeable eternity for each person who yields his/her whole self to Him in recognition that He is God, the One and only true deity. Belief in YHWH means Christians can know and trust what He promises is true and will definitely happen. That is hope. It comes from the faith God births in each believer in Jesus. That faith is the guarantee that what the Christian believes and hopes will occur. True faith and hope are not a game of chance. Hope and faith in God comes from God’s love for all people. He wants only the best for us and offers that best through belief in Jesus, His Son.

 

This faith God births in Christians that guarantees in them the hope of God fulfilling His promises is a conviction that propels each believer forward in their faith and in their relationship with God. This conviction  is the proof, certainty, or persuasion of something. The faith inbirthed in a believer by God, that a person actively pins their hopes to and is assured by God because of who He is, becomes the conviction—the proof and persuasion—of the believer’s soul that leads to living out his/her faith in the world and his/her circles of influence fully yielded to God’s plan.

 

Looking at this verse in another way, faith comes down from God to a person to create hope in the person’s heart that leads to assurance of the mind, and transforms to conviction of the soul, which is enacted by the body in the world so that others see and hear about Jesus and lean towards God to hopefully seek and begin this process of faith within themselves. Faith is an all-encompassing gift. It affects a person’s heart, mind, body, and soul. That makes the Shema of Judaism more understandable. This Jewish prayer is from  Deuteronomy 6:4-9. It says,

 

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

 

Millennia later, when asked byJewish scribes what is the greatest commandment, Jesus replied, 

 

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” 

 

Notice the difference between the two passages; Jesus added to the Shema that a God/believing person must love God with his/her mind. What’s most important to note is we are to love God with our whole being—heart, mind, soul, and body. God wanted to redeem the whole person. That’s one of the reasons why faith affects the mind, heart, soul, and body. When a person is redeemed in totality, that person is able to love God with his/her whole being. That enables each of us to be totally renewed. It gives us total redemption from Satan. 

 

God loves us—people whom He created—so much that He sent His only Son, Jesus, to earth to live without sinning and die the perfect holy sacrifice as the sin offering for anyone who chooses to believe in Him so he/shewill not die and be eternally separated from God—His goodness and love—but will have everlasting life with Him in His kingdom. 

 

Faith is a God-given gift to people who yield their lives to Him. It activates hope in the heart. It  provides assurance to the mind. And that assurance becomes active proof in the soul, which leads to actively living out their faith in their sphere of influence. When God speaks, though it’s a nearly silent whisper to your ear, it loudly thunders in your spirit and heart. God desires all people be saved—rescued—from their sins and Satan. He loves each of us and wants to save us. 

 

Hear God’s voice. Recognize His conviction.

 

Seek God. Receive Faith. Accept His assurance. Gain hope. Live convicted. 

 

Be a life wholly yielded to God. For faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things unseen.

Boldly Approach

 

“Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16 (NASB)

To what do we boldly run to own? Is it our mothers or fathers, money, fame, or status? Many things during our lifetimes grab our attention and cause us to walk toward them. Are we ever absolutely sure we should aim for those people and things? We train our minds and bodies with studies, degrees, apprenticeships, and exercises to go for the desired goal we have set our minds to do. One man in and over history lived with just one goal in life; it wasn’t for Himself. His goal was to help other people. Who is this man? Let’s consider what the writer of Hebrews meant when he wrote Hebrews 4:16.

The passage above refers to what the writer earlier stated. In Hebrews 4:1, he spoke of entering His (God’s) rest. This “rest” about which he wrote is a not struggling and straining to reach an earthly prize but resting in the fact a Christian no longer carries the weight of wrongdoings and decisions. Guilt is removed. The writer of Hebrews said believers in Jesus could rest, knowing all that needs to be done has been done. People who accept this work through Jesus’ efforts can experience peace of heart, mind, soul, and body.

How does a person get this rest? The writer explained this in verse two. He wrote, “For indeed we have had good news preached to us.” He goes further to state those who did not have faith in this Gospel did not become united in faith with the Father and with those who trusted in Jesus. What is this writer intending the hearers and readers to understand? People who believe in the One (Jesus) who made a way for them to rest with God in His kingdom. Peace exists for each believer who walks with God, doing His will in His strength. Striving and straining to become the best (perfect) through one’s own efforts is unnecessary and impossible. Sinful people cannot be perfect on their own. So, how do we enter and what are the benefits of attaining this rest with God?

In verse fourteen, the writer of Hebrews said we have a high priest, Jesus, the Son of God, who lives in heaven. He has God the Father’s ear and, for each person who has faith in Him as their Savior from their sin, He will forgive them and give them an inheritance in God’s kingdom. Jesus offered the sacrifice for the sins of each person with His death on the cross. By His sacrifice, He defeated death to return to His kingdom. Jesus offers His own body as the sin sacrifice for the sins of each person who trusts in Him. When a person professes Jesus as their Savior and repents of their sins, that can be with Him in His kingdom. Through Jesus’ sacrifice, each believer is saved at that point from the penalty of their sins. As that believer walks each day with Jesus, He sanctifies him or her. Upon that believer’s entrance to heaven, he or she is perfected, made complete.

God gives this rest. Each person who believes in Jesus no longer must struggle to be the best and then fail. The person saved by Jesus can give up the inner struggle and rest, receiving the promise of eternity with God in His kingdom and living in the knowledge of its future fulfillment. Until the point where a believer enters the kingdom of God upon his or her mortal death, that believer can rest knowing Jesus, through His Spirit, will train, guide, and protect him or her as he or she continues his or her mortal life.

When the writer arrives at verse sixteen, he said, “Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace.” Because a person trusts in Jesus for his or her salvation from sin and death and because his or her hope is found solely in Him, this believer, with conviction, can draw near to God. Christians can understand without doubt that they will be in God’s presence, at His throne, in His kingdom forever. These believers will grasp, as they boldly go to God, they will receive “mercy and grace for help at the time of their need.”

No genuine need exists for which God has not made provision. Christians can rest in the hope and promise that God provides what we need. We Christians can boldly and confidently stand with peace because God loves us. Yet, some of us still try to manufacture our own happiness. We try to meet our own determined needs. At that point, we strive for things that will fade away or rust or rot (Matthew 6:19). We chase the wind (Ecclesiastes 1:14 & 2:17) instead of resting in complete peace, knowing God provides whatever we need. What we assume we need or should do does not equal what God knows we need or should do.

Are you seeking after a better job, a grander degree, a bigger house, or to be fulfilled in another way? Do you find it frustrating and tiring trying to “get ahead”? We have a high priest, Jesus Christ, who can sympathize with our weaknesses because He was tempted in all things just as we are. Yet, He did not sin. Jesus did not strive after things of this world, but obeyed the Father to give salvation to each person who believes in Him. So, boldly approach the throne of grace and receive mercy, pardon, kindness, and love at your time of need.

Consider the following words and music of Boldly I Approach Your Throne by Rend Collective.

Boldly I Approach Your Throne

By grace alone somehow I stand
Where even angels fear to tread
Invited by redeeming love
Before the throne of God above
He pulls me close with nail- scarred hands
Into his everlasting arms.

When condemnation grips my heart
And Satan tempts me to despair
I hear the voice that scatters fear
The Great I Am the Lord is here
Oh praise the One who fights for me
And shields my soul eternally

Boldly I approach Your throne
Blameless now I'm running home
By your blood I come
Welcomed as your own
Into the arms of majesty

Behold the bright and risen Son
More beauty than this world has known
I'm face to face with love Himself
His perfect spotless righteousness
A thousand years, a thousand tongues
Are not enough to sing his praise

Boldly I approach Your throne
Blameless now I'm running home
By your blood I come
Welcomed as your own
Into the arms of majesty

Boldly I approach Your throne
Blameless now I'm running home
By your blood I come
Welcomed as your own
Into the arms of majesty.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QDnVD7gu5Y)

The Advent of Salvation

 

“And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God…” Hebrews 10:11-13 [ESV]

In Hebrews 10:11-12, the writer contrasted and compared the priests with Jesus. He said the priests stood daily to offer sacrifices. Jesus offered one sacrifice and then sat. He did not have to stand daily to offer again. The priests rise daily, but Jesus said, "It is finished." Compare this with when God finished creating the world, then rested on His throne.

People must rise daily to do things. These things are mundane compared to salvation, but we must do these tasks for survival or for a man-made reason. Some of us rise daily to compete to be better than other people. Others rise daily to do good works hoping to get to heaven, but never find assurance of that or rest. Each day we strive for something. Jesus strove for one thing, our salvation. His goal in life was His end game. The “end game” was to provide the only needed salvation for our sins so that any person who believes He is the Son of God, the Savior, will receive salvation and eternal life.

The questions this should make us ask ourselves is, “For what do we strive? What spurs us on and who drives us? Fame, fortune, and self or the Spirit of Christ within us pushing us to live out our faith so other people can know about Jesus.” Neither ways of living and doing earn us salvation. Nothing we can do will earn us salvation from our sins. Living life with the Spirit in us shows people we are Christians, we are saved. People can experience the real, living, and sacrificial Jesus because of our actions of letting the Spirit live in the world through us.

Jesus does not have to rise each day to offer sacrifices for the sins we did since the last sacrifice. His sacrifice was enough to cleanse each person who trusts in Him from all their sins and their consciousness of their sins. He's been sitting on the right side of the Father’s throne since He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. The priests stand, they rise, each day to offer sacrifices because they are given by mortal, sinful men and are from the blood of impure and imperfect sources. Jesus, the pure Son of God, died sinless for all sinners then rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven. 

The priests rise each day. Jesus sits.

 It is finished.

Cleansed Conscience

I remember the first time I came across Hebrews 10:2. I had been a Christian for just a little while and understood Jesus died my sin penalty because of His love for me so I could live with Him in heaven. I remember how excited I was about being a Christian, to be able to live forever in heaven with the One who loves me. What joy this gives to a child’s heart! What joy it should give to everyone who believes in Jesus. I thought life just couldn’t get any better than that.

And yet, I remembered things I had done wrong. You know what mischief a child can get into–lying, disobeying, swearing. The child thinks these are not big things. I won’t have to go to jail for these so why not do them, everyone else does? Still, after I gave my life to Christ, I felt pangs of conscience. I felt remorse and fear. What, over lying and swearing? Yes, because God instills in us a conscience when He creates us. That conscience is the moral code from God Himself about what is right and wrong. Whether we want to admit it, even these little things are sins. Why? Because they were disobedience and disrespect to God and my parents. Remember those commandments in the Ten Commandments?

So, one day not long after becoming a Christian, I read Hebrews 10:1-2. It says,

“For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins?”

Now, two things can happen when one reads this passage. The first response to this reality is, “Hallelujah!” When a person fully repents of all his or her sins, God removes the guilt of those sins from His judgment book because Jesus paid the price. He removed the burden of guilt from the person’s conscience, too. That means it no longer holds a sting from the sin, the sting of guilt. You realize by now the possible other reaction from reading this passage. The second possible reaction to reading this verse is surprise and then repentance. When a person sins before or after becoming a Christian, he or she must repent of each sin to receive forgiveness and cleansing of heart, mind, and soul. That is the cleansing from the stain and guilt of sin. This is of what Hebrews 10:2 speaks. The worshiper, once he or she received God’s forgiveness and cleansing, no longer has consciousness of sin. The guilt of that sin in the conscience does not linger and cause further pain like a sliver Satan might put under your fingernail to remind you constantly of how sinful you are. That power of the sin to cause guilt is gone. Jesus paid it all, and that covers the stain and guilt/consciousness of sin.

Before the writer of Hebrews arrived at this point in his teaching, he spent chapter 9 leading to it. Let me briefly outline for you what he taught before and after Hebrews 10:2 about conscience and consciousness of sin.

With Hebrews 9:9, the writer of Hebrews said the gifts/offerings and sacrifices established as rites of worship by God under the first covenant cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper. That means it cannot make a person perfect, totally clean. This means he or she cannot be in the presence of the Lord eternally.

Later, in verse 14, the writer said the blood of Christ offered to God without blemish through the eternal Spirit purifies our conscience from dead works.  Now, that’s a big jump to make. Why is Jesus’ sacrifice better than those set up by God with the first covenant? The writer explains this in verses 11 and 12. He said, Christ came as a high priest of the good things, those things that originate with God, and He entered the holy places, those not made with human hands, once for all by His own blood, not that of animals. By doing so, He secured eternal redemption from slavery to sin for everyone. That’s a lot to take in, so go read it for yourself. Since Jesus did this, He is the Mediator of a new covenant for those who answer God’s call and receive the promised eternal life. Anyone who answers this call of God gets eternal life because Jesus’ death redeemed them from transgressions committed under the first covenant. The writer of Hebrews spends the next thirteen verses explaining this to us, his readers. He tells of three things Jesus did.

·       He has entered heaven to appear in the presence of God on our behalf    (vs 9:24). This is a past tense action. He never has to do this again    because Jesus died once for all.

·       Jesus appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself (vs. 9:26). This is also a past action with a future assurance.

·       Jesus will appear a second time to save those who are eagerly waiting for Him (vs. 9:28). This is a future action.

The next point the writer of Hebrews made about consciousness of sin comes in the first verses I mentioned above, in 10:1-2. He said, the law, which is just a shadow of the good things that come from God, can never clean consciences of sin. If they could, there would be no need for continual offerings every year as established in the rites of worship God gave the Israelites in the first covenant. The writer went onto say these yearly sacrifices remind the people of their sins, instead of removing them from their consciences. He said Christ came to do the will of God (vs7). Jesus did away with the first covenant to establish the second covenant. Through the offering of the body of Christ, we receive sanctification once for all (vs. 9-10). With Jesus’ single sacrificial offering, He perfected for all time those who are being sanctified (vs. 14). God says, “I will remember their sins and lawless deeds no more (vs 17).

Listen carefully to what the writer of Hebrews says in the next six verses. Since we have this confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, what are we to do? Being cleansed isn’t just a receiving transaction. Covenanting is a two-way promise, a bond. The writers said next, with your hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and your bodies washed with pure water (vs. 22), you must do three things.

·       Draw near with a true heart in full assurance of your faith (vs 22). This is for you now and in the future. It is a present action with a future benefit. Note it is not just present tense, but present continuous. Draw near and keep drawing near. This command benefits you.

·       Hold fast the confession of your hope without wavering because He who promised is faithful (vs. 23). Once again this is a present continuous verb that carries on into your future. Hold and keep holding fast. This command benefits you.

·       Consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, but encouraging one another (vs 24). Notice this command benefits you and other believers as you congregate together to worship, pray, and fellowship. It is a command that holds a communal aspect. Recognize this command also is present continuous. Consider and keep on considering how to stir up one another to love and good works.

These commands are not just things on your to-do list you get to cross off once you’ve done them. They are to stay on your daily list. Why? Because God calls you to relationship with Him because of His love. His love showed itself with the ultimate sacrifice of His Only Son, Jesus, for your sin penalty so you could be with Him in an eternal relationship. Your love for God will show in your obedience of His commands and laws. Your obedience to His commands and laws will show itself in love to other people. The three commands at the end of Hebrews 10 are an extension of loving God and people. You will do these because you are growing in relationship with God.

Now, to get back to Hebrews 10:1-2. When I first saw this passage, I received such vast relief. The burden of the guilt of sin I had carried, I realized, was for the first time off my back. Still, I realized I had not repented of all my sins and I had sinned since I became a Christian. I wanted the cleansing from the stain of my sins and the guilt of my sins. Jesus’ is the way to have that. No other way exists to remove the consciousness of sin. Only through Jesus’ death and resurrection can a person gain the removal of the stain and guilt of sins from him- or herself. All the ways people devise to remove the stain of sin reminds them of their guilt. The trying of these other means allows Satan to push that sliver deeper under your fingernail. You experience that guilt continually. Daily come before the Lord repenting of your sins so you will receive forgiveness and cleansing from the stains and guilty conscience of your sins. Hear the words of the writer of Hebrews again.

“Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” Hebrews 10:22 [NASB]

Lord, God Almighty, lead me to recognize Your great love for me and the cost You paid to redeem me from sin. Forgive me of my sins, I pray. Thank You for removing the stain and the guilt of my sin. Thank You for removing the burden of guilt. Help me to love You more and grow closer to You daily. Help me show You how much I love You by my obedience to You. Amen.

Never Leave You or Forsake You

(Deuteronomy 31:6, 8; Joshua 1:5; Hebrews 13:5)

When times become troubling and one is not sure what can be done, many people fall back on God’s promise never to leave or forsake them. God first promised this to the Israelites as they waited to cross the Jordan River and inherit the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 31:6). He restated this promise to Joshua two verses later when He told him he would lead the Israelites into the Promised Land. In both these instances, Moses was the spokesman for God. God spoke to Joshua Himself relaying this promise to him in Joshua 1:5. In Hebrews 13:5, the writer of the book reiterated to the Hebrew Christians God would not desert or forsake them.

The three Old Testament passages use the word “fail” but the Hebrews passage uses the word “desert.” The Old Testament word for “fail” is raphah and means to let go, drop, abandon, forsake, and neglect. The New Testament word for “desert” is aniemi and means to send back, relax, loosen, give up, leave, not uphold, allow to sink. Note that both the Old and New Testaments then say God will not let go His grasp on His children, will not give them up (which means fiercely to protect and fight for them), will not abandon them, and will not allow them to sink. God is the strong right hand that leads, preserves, and protects His children. He will not abandon them to the world and evil.

This promise gives hope for the immediate future and reminds God’s children of their eternal hope. This promise should remind His children, too, of God’s requirements of them. In the Old Testament passages, God called them to walk with Him in obedience and faith, and to cross the Jordan River and take possession of the Promised Land. As the smallest nation, the thought of routing a territory from an established people would have been intimidating and terrifying. Yet, with God going before them and routing their enemies as He did Sihon and Og, they could have strength and courage, not being afraid or dismayed. The Israelites remembered God went before them earlier and were reminded He would go before them now. He would not abandon them to a fate of death, but give them victory because He would go before them and cause the victory.

This is what the writer of Hebrews explained to the Christians of the New Testament. The people experienced severe persecution, but not yet to the shedding of blood. The Hebrew writer reminded them of God’s promise from the Old Testament. He told them God would not desert or forsake them. God would not give them up or leave them behind and helpless. He continued to be God and no matter the circumstances. The writer reminded them Jesus suffered to the point of giving blood and they had not. God did not abandon Jesus and He would not abandon them in the midst of Nero’s persecution  of them.

God’s promise continues down through the centuries. He does not change. God is always faithful – to Himself and to His children. What do we have to do to retain this promise? Be faithful to God. Be content with what God gives knowing He will give what is needed. Remember the Lord will not forsake, desert, or fail you. His promises hold true and are everlasting for His children.

What are you going through now? Is it to the point of shedding blood like Christ? No matter if it is persecution or trials of each day, God has not and will not forsake you. Continue to follow and obey Him. Continue go with Him wherever He says go. Have faith, be strong, and be courageous. God goes before you. He will give you your inheritance – salvation now and in His kingdom.

Each of us must choose to have faith in God, be obedient children of His, and persevere and have hope knowing God brings the victory.

Hebrews 12:5-8, 11-13 A Devotion

5 Have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says,

“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,

and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,

6 because the Lord disciplines the one he loves,

and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”

7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? 8 If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all.

11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13 “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed. [NIV]

This devotion continues the thought from yesterday’s devotion. Yesterday the author of Hebrews encouraged Christians not to grow weary when faced with trials and suffering because we are not suffering anything the saints who went before us did not suffer. They continued running their race in the midst of persecution and trials and remained faithful. In addition, Jesus endured persecution and suffering but did not waver in but kept running the race so that ever person of the world could be saved from sin and death. We must continue to run the race because we are like them and they continued their race. That was point one.

Point two was that the great crowd of witnesses watching us from heaven as we live our lives in the trials and persecutions (in addition to the times of joy and exhilaration) cheer us on to remain faithful and endure to the end. We have a cheering section at the stadium who encourage us to keep running, not to give up.

In today’s passage, we hear the writer’s words in our minds and recognize God’s voice telling us our times of trial are permitted to affect us so that we can be disciplined. Any athlete who is good or wants to be good at his sport disciplines his or her body so that the muscles work like a well-oiled machine. The muscles are trained by the determination of the person’s mind.

That is what our trials are like. They are discipline. Discipline is not punishment or chastisement, but a way to develop the body or person. God allows trials to come to develop and grow us to be more like Him, to be more righteous and holy. The writer said this in the verse seven when he said, “Endure hardship like discipline.” Discipline is not punishment, but training. It is a growing experience to mature our minds, hearts, and bodies.

The writer of Hebrews used the analogy of a father disciplining his child. When the child is more mature, he or she sees what the father did as a positive thing, a way to mature the child so that he or she would be a properly functioning adult and member of society. That father is compared to Father God. God allows trials to grow His children to be mature in their faith as well as righteous and holy – like Himself.

That is the first point – we are to look at trials as discipline, an opportunity to grow. So look at it in that way when you face a difficult time. How can you grow from that difficult time? What does God want you to learn from that experience?

The second point of this passage is that we each have to determine for ourselves to strengthen our mind, heart, and body for the task of growing through the trial. We must decide in our minds that we will get through it, realize it is an opportunity to be used for Father God (heart), and then focus ourselves and our bodies to be strong and endure. By doing this, our faith grows and our bodies are more prepared to live the Christian life on earth as a more pure, righteous, and holy child of God. That is strengthening our feeble arms and legs and making paths straight.

Choose to be trained by trials and suffering. Choose to stand strong in your faith so that God can make you more like Christ – holy and righteous. Being a child of God requires the head, heart, and body – mind, soul, and body. Choose to be disciplined and grow more like Christ. When we go through trials and grow stronger in our faith, we can then say as Paul did in Romans 5:3-5,

"We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us." [NIV]

Hebrews 12:1-4 A Devotion

“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin.” [NASB]

This passage is often recalled when a person is overwhelmed with trials and suffering. The passage gives hope. Hope it what way, you may ask. To some these verses reveal that there is more suffering to come since the people who have walked their faith in earlier times had more than us to deal with.

Yet for most people, we see it as a source of hope. Yes, the Christians who came before us endured much animosity and anger, but we see what their reward was. We see that they held on to their faith and endured because they had a hope greater than the trials they went through.

The faith of our forebears can be our encouragement. They endured this and that and still did not doubt the Father’s love. These saints in the faith endured them and went on to be with the Father in heaven. These are the “great cloud of witnesses.”

These are the people whose faith under persecution helps us endure in our times of struggle. These witnesses not only give us hope because of what they endured, they give us hope as a cheering gallery as we run our race in life in the midst of our joys and trials. They stand and tell you, “Keep going; do not lose hope. We know from our lives the hope we had is truth. Do not give up.”

These saints identified with Jesus because they endured trials and suffering just as Jesus did in His earthly life. They looked to Jesus as their example and so can and should we. We look to the Christians who have lived before us and endured. In addition, we can and should look to Jesus Christ as the supreme example of living with hope and faith during trials and suffering. He endured the cross because of His love for all of us. He did not back down from what He had to do to save us. He took the hard way of His own choice.

We can look to the saints and Jesus who walked before us as encouragement that we will make it through our difficult times. We look to Jesus the author and perfecter of our hope, too. Finally, we look to these who have gone before us in faith and with hope as our cheering squad encouraging us to keep running the race.

Are you going through an exceptionally hard time? Do you need to be encouraged to keep up your faith, keep running? Look to our cloud of Christian witnesses who faced persecution, trials, and suffering. Know you are going through your difficult times just as they did theirs, but your end result, like them, is God’s strength now to get through it and the hope of living with God in His kingdom at the end. In addition, know that Jesus went through trials and persecution, too, and He not only endured them, but defeated them with His resurrection.

As a child of God, we have that hope. We will get through. Do not grow weary and lose heart. We will be able to say as Paul did  in Romans 8:35-39,

 "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." [NIV]

Will you continue to walk your days with faith and hope?

Hebrews 10:1-6, 9-10 A Devotion

1 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming--not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.

2 If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.

3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins,

4 because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

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.

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. [NIV]

The Law God gave to Moses and the Israelites in the Old Testament was given to lead people to God, never to save them. The writer of Hebrews said this and Jesus confirmed it in these verses.

Hebrews 10 says the same sacrifices offered endlessly year after year cannot make a person perfect (sin free). If it did make a person perfect and sin free, then there would be no need for sacrifice after sacrifice. A person’s guilt is not wiped away with ritual sacrifices, nor is their sin. Those sacrifices of the Old Testament were just reminders of sin.

Jesus said, “With burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased.” Therefore, The Father created a body for His Son to indwell and sacrifice. He was the perfect sacrifice that lasts forever, because the Son rose from the dead to be alive again. So His sacrifice for sins lasts, because He is part of the everlasting Godhead.

Jesus said this in verse nine when He said, “Behold I have come to do your will.” It was God’s will to provide a better sacrifice than that of bulls and goats that had to be sacrifices over and over. He provided the ultimate and perfect sacrifice, the life of His Son, Jesus Christ, whose sacrifice lasts forever because He rose from the grave to live forever. Because of that, His sacrifice covers all sin for all time.

From this, we learn we cannot provide the sacrifice to cover and take away our sins. Our sacrifices would be finite. So, we can do nothing to be cleansed from our sins. What we can do is accept by faith the grace God offers to us by His love and through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. We cannot save ourselves from sin and death, but Jesus can and did. You have only to accept it by faith.

And what is faith? “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen.” [Hebrews 11:1]

Will you believe and stop striving to save yourself?

The Greater (est) Sacrifice

Hebrews 10

The writer of Hebrews put forth his final thoughts on the new covenant. He stated what made the covenant active and what made the priesthood of Jesus Christ greater. He stated in chapter 10 that the sacrifice of Christ is sufficient for these and for all sin for all time.

The writer reminded us that the Law instituted with the first covenant was just a shadow of the good things to come. The Law could never be sufficient. If it was, sacrifices would not have been needed continually to make humans perfect and consecrated so they could draw near to God. In addition, if the sacrifices provided by the Law had cleansed them forever, it would have removed from their minds their consciousness of sin, but it had not. Those sacrifices each year reminded them of their sins. This was because it was impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. It takes something greater than the created world to remove sin devised and performed by created humankind.

The psalmist said in Psalm 40:6-8, God did not desire sacrifices and offerings. Samuel stated in 1 Samuel 15:22 that the Lord delights in obedience. God considers that better than sacrifice. Psalm 51, the sinner’s prayer, acknowledges in verse 16 that the Lord does not delight in sacrifice and burnt offerings. Jeremiah, Amos, and Micah speak of this, too. The writer of Hebrews used what the people of the time knew to bolster his argument for Christ’s sacrifice being the better sacrifice. The psalmist in chapter 40 continued in verses 7-8 by speaking as the Christ. “Behold I come, as it is written/prescribed of me.” The Son delights to do the will of the Father and acknowledges that the Father’s Law is in His heart. In John 4:34, John tells of Jesus saying this, too, “Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work’.” The Law that is within His heart speaks to the closeness of the Son to the Father. It also speaks to how God puts the new covenant within the hearts of confessed believers. He writes it on their hearts via the Holy Spirit. God commanded the Israelites to tell their children and grandchildren about Him and the Laws. This is what the psalmist said in 37:31, Jeremiah in 31:33, and Paul in 2 Corinthians 3:3. It is a comparison of the two covenants. The first the Israelites had to recall and teach others; the second God writes upon their hearts. These verses in Psalm 40 are from where the writer of Hebrews obtained information for his chapter 10 verses 5-8. The writer of Hebrews reiterated, by Christ doing the Father’s will, He took away the first covenant and established the second covenant.

Jesus Christ’s establishing the second covenant comes through His sacrifice of Himself, as the bulls and goats were before, to take away sins. His offering of His own body sanctifies (hagiazo - consecrates, dedicates, cleanses from sin and its guilt) believers forever. Christ’s priesthood is greater than that of the Levitical priests who daily ministered and offered repeatedly the same sacrifices, which never took away sins, but just covered them. Jesus offered His perfect sacrifice for sins (offering from the Creator God for the created is greater). After His sacrifice of His death upon a cross for sins for all time, and His resurrection, He sat down at the right hand of God (Psalm 110:1). He is waiting there as our mediator/intercessor until His enemies (Satan and his demons) are made a footstool for His feet (Psalm 110:1). The placing of His enemies under His feet means the subduing for all time the enemies of God.

The writer of Hebrews summarized this most important doctrine of the new covenant in verses 14-18. By one offering, Jesus perfected (teleioo – completed, accomplished, fulfilled the prophecies of scriptures) for all time those who are sanctified (hagiazo – cleansed from sin and guilt; consecrated and dedicated). The Holy Spirit testifies (marturea - bears witness; affirms that one has seen, heard, or experienced something) to believers, too. The Holy Spirit writes God’s laws upon the hearts and minds of believers (Jeremiah 31:33 and Hebrews 8:10). He tells them that God will no longer remembers their sins (Jeremiah 31:34 and Hebrews 8:12). The coup de gras for humankind is this: where God forgives sin, no other sin offering is required. If a person believes Jesus Christ is the Son of God and confesses his or her sins to God, then Jesus forgives his or her sins forever. There is no longer any sacrifice needed for sanctification, cleansing, and dedication to God.

What does this mean then to believers in Jesus Christ? It means they can have confidence to enter the holy place for themselves. Believers can talk directly to God without need for a sacrifice for cleansing and without need for an earthly intermediary. They have access through the blood sacrifice of Jesus. He opened the veil, which separated humankind from God, by being the perfect and sufficient sin sacrifice. Since believers then have as their priest the greatest Priest over the house of God, they can be near God knowing with full assurance that God cleansed them from evil/sin and a guilty conscience. Believers must now live in the following way. They live with assurance of their salvation. They hold fast with confidence the confession (Hebrews 3:1) of our hope (Hebrews 3:6) of eternity with God without wavering, knowing that He who promised is faithful. Remember God is faithful to His promises. Jesus coming as the Messiah is the ultimate promise of God fulfilled. Believers hold to their confession with hope for their future with God. They act based upon it. They must assemble with others believers, stimulate each other to love and good deeds, and encourage each other as they see the day of the Lord drawing close. Believers are to encourage each other to continue in the faith and to do good works because of the love God has put in their hearts. They are to love God and other humans so that others will see and experience the love of God. God's love will draw others to Him and His salvation.

Each person, in the end, will be held accountable for whether he or she accepted the knowledge of the Truth or not when it was shown to him or her (10:26). If a person knows about Jesus and His salvation, but chooses to live in his or her sins (way of life), judgment will come from God in the last days. Fire will devour and consume him or her (Isaiah 26:11 and 2 Thessalonians 1:7). God chose to love us and draw us back to Him. He provided forgiveness for our sins. This is through the sacrificial death of His Son, Jesus Christ, whom God resurrected and who sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven. Each person must choose for him or herself whether to believe in Jesus, confess his or her sins, and become a renewed, re-formed child of God. God did everything to bring us back to Him. We must each decide for ourselves to believe in His Son, Jesus, and confess our sins. It is that easy.

Have you heard about God’s Son, Jesus, and His sacrifice? Have you believed and accepted His forgiveness? Are you following Him daily and living as the writer of Hebrews said in Hebrews 10:19-25? When you have heard of God’s love and gospel message, you must make a decision. Your decision will determine your ultimate judgment by God when Jesus returns to earth. You get to choose. Will you choose Jesus?