Thoughts on Hebrews - Chapter 2

                                                       Hebrews 2:1-3

 We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. 2 For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, 3 how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation?

                  I remember growing up in Church and I would often ask my Dad after the service, "What did you think of the message?" I had multiple reasons for asking him. Sometimes it was a pre-emptive strike.  In other words, ask him before he asked me because my mind had wandered. Sometimes it was because I didn't get anything out of it I wanted some validation that yes it was wanting. Most of all I valued his opinion and maybe I could have him summarize some truths that I may have missed (while I was looking at girls). I can remember him saying more than once, "It was a good salvation message, and I hope some unsaved people were there" which of course rarely happens at Sunday PM services or midweek prayer meetings. His underlying point was, "I'm saved already, I don't need to hear how to be saved, let's have some meat." Now I, too, have echoed this sentiment and I must say, I'm starting to rethink it. In fact the writer of Hebrews is warning us don't ignore this salvation or you will start to drift away.

               Not only does the writer of Hebrews emphasize to fellow believers not to ignore the salvation message but this is how Paul formulated his epistles. Ephesians 1-3, Collosians 1-2, Romans 1-11 all describe the gospel and then the remaining chapters then tell us in light of the gospel, here is how you should live.

                How does recounting the gospel keep us from drifting away? As we are tempted to fall back into sin we are reminded that Jesus horrendously suffered and died for that sin. Why would we even entertain it. As I'm tempted to worry about tomorrow I can tell myself, "At least I'm not being crucified." As i have worries about health, sickness, death, I remind myself that Jesus rose from the dead to defeat death and prepare a new sickness free body. As i think, why hasn't God done anything for me lately, I'm reminded that He gave His son for me, what else do I want? When I'm tempted to get revenge or hate people I'm reminded that Jesus said "Father forgive them, they know not what they do."  When we are tempted to think, "Is there another way?", we were reminded that Jesus asked the same thing and the answer was "no."

                 So never get tired of hearing how to be saved. In fact, think of creative ways to share it and memorize verses that explain it from both the Old Testament and the New. It will keep you from drifting.

Thoughts From Hebrews - Chapter 1

             Hebrews 1:1-3

In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven

          What does it mean to you that Jesus sat down? I think of my wife cooking Thanksgiving dinner and after hours of cooking - she sits down. (probably not a good illustration because she would tell me that her work is nowhere near done) When I finish a surgery, sometimes after hours of standing I go sit down. When the pastor is done with his message he sits down. To me, the implication is that Christ accomplished what He set out to do. We think of Jesus fulfilling 3 offices - prophet, priest, and King, and I think these 3 verses reveal his "sitting down" in these 3 offices.

         First as a prophet. What does a prophet do? He gives the Word of God to the people. The author of Hebrews says in verse 2 that Jesus came as the final word of God. The Old Covenant was given and completed and compiled, now Jesus came to give the New Covenant. Old wineskins could not contain Him. When He preached He would say, "You've heard it said...but I say." "Whoever doesn't listen to these words of mine is like a foolish man..." How arrogant to say your words supercede the divinely inspired words of the Old Testament unless you are God, which by the way He was (and is). He even said that the Old Testament was talking about Him in John 5. Jesus was even referred to as the Word of God in John 1 and 1 John 1. He also said to hear Him was to hear God in John 12:50. The writings we see in the New Testament are His words which were carried to the churches by eyewitnesses who heard these teachings, recorded them without error (God saw to that) and their veracity was confirmed by signs, wonders, miracles performed by those recording those words.  Therefore Jesus completed the Bible and sat down.

        Secondly as a priest. What did a priest do? If a prophet took God to the people, a priest took the people to God. Thats why the daily job of the priest was to offer sacrifices so that the people's sins would be atoned so they could be to a very limited sense in the presence of God. That being said, they could only enter so far into the temple, they couldn't go near the mountain, and they had to do sacrifices over and over on a daily basis so I tend to think of it rather than enabling them to be in the presence of God it allowed them to be in the neighberhood without being incinerated. But then comes Jesus who offered Himself as an atoning sacrifice once and for all on the cross and His last words were "It is finished". Now the veil is torn, our sins are washed away and we can boldly enter His presence. He sat down!

        Lastly as a King. Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father, the place of might - the place of authority - the place of a Prince. In Joshua 10:23-25 we see the symbolism of the enemies being placed under Jesus' feet.

    So they brought the five kings out of the cave—the kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish and Eglon. 24 When they had brought these kings to Joshua, he summoned all the men of Israel and said to the army commanders who had come with him, “Come here and put your feet on the necks of these kings.” So they came forward and placed their feet on their necks.25 Joshua said to them, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Be strong and courageous. This is what the Lord will do to all the enemies you are going to fight.”

       All enemies have been placed under Jesus' feet. He is standing on the neck of sin, the devil, sickness, pain, suffering, evil, dictators, drugs and finally death and He is just waiting to plunge the sword through but He knows when He does, time is up for unbelievers and He waits because He isn't willing that any should perish. He sat down as king.

                And this Jesus calls me His brother! What grace! No wonder I worship and adore Him!

Milwaukee Brewers Top Prospects 2022

 So here goes my annual evaluation of all the Brewers farm systems based solely on the basic stats such as batting average ,on base percentage ,slugging percentage ,earned run average ,strikeouts, walks, win- loss, OPS , and WHIP. Also I have not seen these players play so I am basing it only on basic statistics. I don't have any fielding statistics either so take these for what they are worth but these are the players that I am excited about.

Pitchers

        Megallon 18 y/o LH   DSL   ERA 2.74  IP - 46   K - 57  WHIP  1.00  Avg. .149

        Vizcaiano  20 y/o RH  DSL   ERA 1.46  IP - 37  K - 38    WHIP 1.03  Avg. .191

        Garabites  22y/o  LH  Low A  W/L  6-1  ERA 1.83  IP 59  K 62  WHIP  1.0  Avg. .190

        Vasalotti  22 y/o RH  Low A  W/L 9-2  ERA 2.64  IP 47  K 56  Avg .170

        Hernandez  22y/o RH  A   W/L  9-5   IP 116  H  79  K  143  Avg. .193

        S. Cruz  20 y/o RH  High A  career IP 144  K 182  WHIP 1.12

        C. Rodriguez 20 y/o RH  High A  IP 36  K 45 WHIP .94  Avg .168

        Meeker   27y/o RH AA  ERA 1.97 22 saves Avg. .205  WHIP 1.03

        Harris   29y/o RH AAA  ERA 2.04   IP 53  K 56  Avg. .164 # FreeHobie (could have used him)

        Peguero  25 y/o RH AAA  ERA 2.84  W/L  4-1  Avg. 210  WHIP 1.06

        

          Honorable mention - Boushley, Small, Herb, Gasser, Hardy, Jarvis, Knarr, Middendorf, Shook

INFIELDERS

       Y. Perez 1B DSL  18y/o LH   .331/.409/.654/1.063

       Guillarte  SS  ROK 18y/o RH  .306/.403/.371/.774

       Adams 3B  ROK  18 y/o RH  .375/.512/.563/ 1.075

       Orae SS  ROK  18y/o LH  .308/.424/.308/.732

       Black  2B High A 22y/o LH .281/.406/.424/.830   45BB  44K

       Monasterio SS 25 y/o RH  AA .316/.420/.513/.933

       Turang  SS  22y/o LH AAA .286/.360/.772  H 152  SB 34

       Devanney 3B  25 y/o RH  AAA  .306/.357/.571/.928

  CATCHERS

        Norman 20 y/o RH  ROK  .334/.447/.406/.853

       Quiero  19 y/o RH  High A  .313/.329/.530/.859

        

  OUTFIELDERS

       Chourio  18 y/o RH  AA  .288/.342/.438/.880  20 HR  75 RBI

       Frelick  22y/o LH  AAA  .365/.435/.508/.943

      Honorable mention -  Weimer, Lutz, Avina

     I hated that we traded Peters. Don't know why Harris didn't get a shot with the bullpen implosion. Looking forward to Mitchell, Turang, Frelick in the bigs. Hope Quiero blossoms quickly in AFL.

Thoughts From Colossians - Day 3

        "... the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven.. Col. 1:5

          One more day of pondering this verse. It has been said, "Don't be so Heavenly Minded that you are no Earthly Good" and of course there is a danger to that. I believe even the epistles to the church in Thessolonica addressed the problems with people quitting their jobs and sitting on the mountains looking up in the air. In today's setting, why even waste 4 years in college when the Lord could come back this week? Wouldn't it be better just to be "about His business?" I've had these thoughts, too, but there is much more truth spelled out in the Bible that says "If you want to be Earthly good, you have to be Heavenly minded." In fact the Faith chapter, Hebrews 11, points out 7 times that people living an effective life of faith were looking forward to a land not built by human hands, i.e. Heaven.

           This is what we see in Colossians 1:5. Not only to live a life of love requires a hope of Heaven as we saw in the last blog, but to live a life of faith requires a hope of Heaven as seen in Hebrews 11. At first when I read this verse I think, now wait a minute; doesn't it take faith to believe in Heaven? How can faith spring from that which requires faith? After meditating on that for a while, I've come up with 2 thoughts. #1 - Maybe the "Hope stored up for us in Heaven" is not a thing but a person. As they said in 'Songs From the Loft" - "Hope has a name - Jesus". Maybe from Jesus, our giver of all good gifts comes down from heaven in the person of the Holy Spirit two "fruits" into our life love and faith and that may be what this passage means. #2 - Hope is not "I hope so" but rather a confident assurance that what has been promised will come to pass. Therefore, once we have that confident assurance based on God's word that Heaven is our for sure home, we can then live a life of faith based on that. That is the direction I am going with.

         So knowing that I am headed for Heaven, how should that affect my life of faith? I would say most people are motivated by wealth, power, significance, to be loved and accepted, and comfort to name a few. Going in order, if we have treasures stored up that will last forever - a life of faith would not be spent on seeking wealth but laying it down to get eternal treasures. As to power, I am a child of the King, what do I care if I am the low person on the pecking order here on Earth. I can seek to elevate others. As to significance, the God of Heaven loves me so much that He sent His Son to die in my place so I could be adopted into His family. I don't need any acclaim down here. Let any praise I get go to Him. What if I don't feel loved or accepted down here? I will be loved and accepted eternally by my Father in Heaven. Therefore instead of seeking to be loved, I can seek to give love and acceptance to those who are ignored down here. And what if I don't live a life of comfort but live a life of disease, illness, hardship and pain down here? Should I be a whiner? No! I'm getting a new body that lasts forever. It will probably even have a six pack and full head of hair! Woo hoo!

           So be so Heavenly minded that you can be Earthly good by living a life of faith fueled by your hope in Heaven.

Thoughts From Colossians - Day 2

 

        "  ...the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven." Col.1:5

              When the grandkids spend the night, when they come downstairs, usually very early in the morning, they will seek out my wife, Mimi, on the back porch who is having her quiet time. She then does a devotional book with the girls and a different one with the boys. This morning as I listened in, I heard, "How old will we be in Heaven?" "If there is no night or darkness, will we sleep? "Will we go to the bathroom in Heaven?" "Will I be able to fly in Heaven?" "Will we be sad in Heaven?" "I think Pokemon characters will exist in Heaven.""What will we do in Heaven? Can we play video games?"

               That's not the first time they have had questions about Heaven and I'm sure it won't be the last. Why are we all so fascinated with Heaven? The Bible says that God has put eternity in the hearts of man which means that all humans deep down know there is something beyond this life - that we don't just cease to exist. Christianity says that there is a Heaven and we can know for certain if we are going there. It isn't like school where you are waiting to see if you scored high enough to move to the next level and the resultant anxiety, but rather a confident life of peace knowing that we have already received our grade and it is "Pass" so just enjoy the class. Carrying the analogy a little further, the class was so hard that everyone in it had no chance of passing but Jesus took the test for us and scored a perfect 100 and applied His score to everyone's grade if they so desire.

             So if, as believers who have received the gift of Heaven, how should that affect us? Paul says that love for others should spring from this. Why would love spring from this confident assurance (hope)? Well for one thing, using the test analogy, we aren't competing against others for a place or a better grade. There were times in my post-high school education where people didn't want to study with me for tests. They felt like they "had it down" and studying with others and sharing their knowledge could only affect them negatively. How would that attitude have been changed if they knew ahead of time that everyone was going to fail the test but the teacher would give them an "A" anyway? They probably would have gladly studied with me and shared all their knowledge with me. As fellow failues in life, knowing that Jesus has accepted us anyway and given us Heaven, there should be no pride, selfishness, or competition between fellow believers, only love.

What Are You Doing For God?

 

        When you read the title of this post, straight off you are probably convicted like when any pastor preaches on witnessing, your prayer life, your quiet times... he will probably have an altar call that looks like 5 minutes before door opening on Black Friday. But that's not what I am getting at here. Doing things for God may not actually be what He wants. Let me explain.

   In 2 Samuel 7 we have an interesting and perplexing passage about David wanting to build a house (bayith in Hebrew) for God. Now intuitively we think that anything done for God is a no-brainer. Nathan, a great prophet of God even thought so. Without even consulting God he said, "Go for it!" because, like I said, it's a no-brainer. However, when Nathan actually heard from God, he heard a different answer - NO! Why would God want to remain the "Tent God" and not the "House God". Maybe the answer is found in that Hebrew word Bayith which is used 15 times in this chapter. (I got these thoughts from my son who recently preached from this passage) In 7:13 God tells Nathan that He (God) will build an everlasting Bayith (house) for David. His kingdom will never end and the savior of the world, the Messiah, will come through his house.

       Religion says, work for God and He will reward you. In fact all religions in the world except Christianity say that in order to get to Heaven, our eternal house, we have to be good for God. Christianity says that we can't be good enough so Jesus had to be good in our place. We don't work for Him, He works for us. Is it possible that since this a key prophetic messianic prophecy that a point had to be made that we enter God's house by Him working for us, not vice-versa?

    Well, what about once we are saved - don't we then work for God? Actually, NO! There are no passages that say "work for Christ". However, there are a bunch that say "work in Christ". You see, not only has He done all the work to get you to your Heavenly home and actually is preparing it for us even now (John 14:3), but, in the person of the Holy Spirit He has made His house inside you now.

"Do you not know, your body is the house of the Holy Spirit" 1Cor 6:19

"For it is God who works in you both to will and to act according to His good purpose" Phil. 2:13

 "Greet Tryphena and Tryphosa, those women who work hard in the Lord.Greet my dear friend Persis, another woman who has worked very hard in the Lord." Rom 16:13

"this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me." Col. 1:27,29

        Religion says work for salvation. WRONG

         Religion says work for God. WRONG

         Jesus says, "I've done the work, rest in me. Let me come in and save you and then work in you and through you as you surrender control of your life to me" Stop building a house for God and let Him build His house in you.

Thoughts From Colossians - Day 1

                                      Colossians 1:1-5

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

2 To God’s holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father.

3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people— 5 the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel.

                    We live in a relativistic age where people say there is no absolute truth. You hear people say phrases like , "That's her truth", and even TobyMac refers to "That's my truth" in his latest song.  "There is no absolute truth" according to people but even that statement can't be trusted because it may not be "my truth". I heard of a Christian apologist who went out to lunch with someone and got in an argument about this very subject. He took out a napkin and wrote on it "A is my argument that there is an absolute truth and B is your argument that there isn't an absolute truth and you say I should pick B, right?" His friend at lunch answered ,"Yes", to which the apologist answered, "Isn't it interesting that by your demand you are saying the right answer is A."

              Tim keller would say, "Relativism relativises itself".  Paul says in Colossians 1:5 that the gospel is truth. And he says that the word is truth. Jesus is the good news or the gospel and He said He was the truth in John 14:6. The word is the Bible, God's word, and Jesus says in John 17, "Thy word is truth". No wonder people have trouble with Jesus and the Bible because they both claim to be the truth by which all truth claims are judged. When someone says, "That's my truth", that claim must be judged by those two standards to see if that person's "truth" is right. How dare we say "You are wrong"? Well, we see it every time there is a court case. The January 6th hearings are an example. Either Trump was complicit (Democrats) or he was not (most Republicans). One is true and all the relativistic people in the world are interested in finding out which. They aren't wanting the answer, "Well, I think both are true".

           2+2 does equal 4 and if you base the farchitecture of the house you are building on faulty assumptions your house will topple. Jesus said "Build Your house on the Rock" and that rock is Jesus and the Bible. We have done that and our life has turned out great. How is yours going?