Thoughts Ferom Hebrews - Day 17

                                              Hebrews 6:9-20

Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are convinced of better things in your case—the things that have to do with salvation. ¹⁰ God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. ¹¹ We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized. ¹² We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.
¹³ When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, ¹⁴ saying, “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.” ¹⁵ And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.
¹⁶ People swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. ¹⁷ Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. ¹⁸ God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. ¹⁹ We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, ²⁰ where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.


      After the last passage, which many denominations use to show that you can lose your salvation, thus your salvation depends on you, we are here reminded that it is all God. Just as with Abraham, God made an oath to his promise, swearing on His own name while Abraham slept, so Jesus offered His own blood, once and for all, to confirm Salvation on those who believe. It is secure. It is an anchor. God cannot lie.

      So then the question is what does it mean to believe? Acts 16:31 says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved." John 3:16 says "... whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life." Now this passage doesn't say believe. How does this passage describe it?  Verse 18 says "We who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us". According to math principles, if A=C and B=C, then A=B. So if believing =salvation and fled to take hold of the hope set before us=salvation, then believing=fled to take hold of the hope set before us.

       First of all "fled". Salvation means running away from something. What do we run away from? Certainly our sin and sinful way of life. We flee from the lifestyle of self indulgence and living like this world is all there is. This is where obedience comes in as the evidence of the faith he mentions in verse 12. It takes faith to say, I'm not going to live my 80 years down here living for the seen, but I'm going to give up my life for the unseen. I'm not going to gratify the lusts of the flesh, the eyes and the pride of my life which my flesh and soul are craving, but I'm going to listen to the Spirit inside of me telling me to run from those things.

      What is the spirit telling me to run to? He is telling me to run to and cling to the kingdom of Heaven. The Law was summed up as this; love God and love your neighbor. This is summed up in verse 10 where the author says, "your work and the love you have shown Him as you have helped His people and continue to help them". Kingdom of God living is this - loving God and loving people by serving. This is the evidence we have been saved . I was taught as a kid the song, "Jesus and others, and you; what a wonderful way to spell Joy..." What is the hope set before us? Eternity with our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. We gladly give up living for sin and self to live for God and others in order to inherit a life beyond belief forever and ever in Heaven. I've done a devotion where I use a roll of toilet paper and unroll it out the door holding on to the end. Then I say, "This represents your life". Then I break off a square and say, "This square represents your life on Earth." "You are living with all your focus on this while eternity awaits you and you aren't putting any thought into that."

        Do you know people like that? Those are true believers. Those are the ones that are truly saved. Are you in that number? Flee from sin and self and flee to and cling to the Kingdom of Heaven which starts on Earth and ends in Heaven for all eternity. What a glorious hope!

Thoughts From Hebrews - Day 16

                                          Hebrews 6:4-8

It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, ⁵ who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age ⁶ and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. ⁷ Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. ⁸ But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned.


        Our church just put on "Hearts on Fire" where 15,000 youth descend on Pigeon Forge and destroy hotel rooms in the name of Jesus. (I'm only kidding - sort of) If I was preaching, I might use this most controversial passage, and it would go something like this:

     "You kids came in church vans and buses filled with people from your youth group to have a fun time, hear the best Christian music out there, start some long distance romances, and hang out with friends without your parents telling you to quiet down or when to go to sleep, or when to stop eating Krispy Kremes. But what is going to happen during this weekend is that the Holy Spirit will descend on this place, God will be present, and you will feel things you've never felt before. Your friends are going to be moved to tears as they confess sins. Some, maybe you, will be spoken to in your hearts by God, telling you that you have never been saved and will make that right this weekend.

    Yet, in the midst of all the incredible things that will happen, 40 days from now most of you will forget about it and go back to your old sins. How can I say that? Because you are human beings just like the Israelites. They saw the miraculous plagues, passed through a divided sea which collapsed on the pursuing Egyptians, drank water from a rock, ate bread off the ground, heard God's voice thunder from the mountain and yet when Moses was gone on the mountain for 40 days they built an idol and engaged in sinful and sexual behavior that was sucking them back in.

     This passage in Hebrews is talking about this. You are going to be enlightened, check. You are going to taste a little bit of Heaven, check. You are going to share in the Holy Spirit's presence, check. You are going to hear the Word of God preached and feel it come alive in your soul, check. You might even sense some spiritual warfare going on, check. And, like a field that experiences rainfall seasonal soaking, this may not be your first "Hearts on Fire". You may have felt things and experienced things like this before, check. The author of Hebrews says, "What are you going to do about it?"

       Statistics say that 70% of you, after graduation will leave the church and basically your faith. Look around you. That means 7 of the 10 people sitting around you are going to leave the faith even though there is no sign of that now. It was no different for the Israelites. Two chapters before this in Hebrews the author says though they applied the blood to their doorposts, which is analogous to applying Jesus blood to your heart for forgiveness of sins,  they went through the Red Sea which symbolizes baptism,  they were among the throng of 2 million which means they were part of the youth group - yet their bodies were strewn across the desert because of disobedience and unbelief. In other words, although it appeared they were saved, they weren't really.What I'm saying is 7 out of 10 of you aren't really saved and it will be revealed in the future. Those statistics were even worse for the Israelites because the Bible tells us that only Joshua, Caleb, and Moses - 3 out of 2 million - made it to the promised land and Moses didn't make it until many years after he died at the mount of transfiguration.

        You might say, "May it never be! I want to be part of that three!" Well, looking at Moses and Joshua, what distinguished them from the rest? They continually spent time in the presence of God while the others hung out in the camp. As Hebrews would say, they continually drank in the rain. If you go home and start a personal home Bible Study either with the help of a study book or just journal what God is saying to you through reading the Bible, you will start to glow like Moses. As Paul would say, you are making your calling and election sure - you are working out your salvation. The second thing this passage says is to use what you are learning and use it to serve the body. Maybe you could start a Bible Study or morning devotional at your school. Maybe you could start an FCA group. Maybe you could help out at the rescue ministry or soup kitchen. Ask the youth pastor how you could help him. The Dead Sea is "Dead" because there is no outlet for what is coming in. If you want to make sure you stay alive as a follower of Christ be an open faucet of blessing to others."

     Yah, That's what I would say.

Thoughts From Hebrews - Day 15

                                       Hebrews 5:11 - 6:3

We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. ¹² In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! ¹³ Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. ¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, ² instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. ³ And God permitting, we will do so.


        When I was part of the PCA, I was continually on the defense on topics like predestination, the 5 points of Calvinism, covenant theology, the Westminster Confession, The Book of Church Order, the Catechisms, Amillenial Eschatology, infant baptism, immersion vs. sprinkling, what does Sola Gratia mean, when does regeneration occur and a host of other topics that I never knew existed before I "became" a Presbyterian. "TR's" (totally reformed people) who came to the church would somehow, in the midst of 200 other people, find me to argue with. I was like the lightening rod. One day I had a discussion with a friend of mine who was Presbyterian and he said, "Why are you even in the PCA? Why don't you go to a church that believes like you?" and thus I "became" a Baptist.

       One thing I have to say for Presbyterians is that they knew what they believe, which is certainly an indictment on many other denominations. I went to a Christian Missionary Alliance Church at other points in my life and have never been able to quite figure out what they believe.(although I know it's good). I have yet to find a library in a Charismatic church. Be that as it may, are all the theological issues I listed above things to argue about? Is how much we know, a sign of spiritual maturity?

         In this passage, the writer first lists "the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death and of faith in God", as an elementary teaching. To me that means being preached a salvation message every time you go to church or youth group. To me it means stopping at your conversion experience. It's like a person on their way to Grandma's house for Thanksgiving, taking a wrong turn into a bad are of town, a policeman pulls you over, takes you back to the turn-off you missed and you are so grateful that you stay at that intersection to tell everyone not to turn there while missing the point you were on the road anyway - to get to Grandma's house! Don't get me wrong, we need to warn people about sin, death, and judgement, but we were saved for so much more than that.

         Secondly, the writer mentions "cleansing rites" as an elementary issue. To me that could mean arguing about modes of baptism. It could mean how you come into God's presence - should you wear jeans, a hat, suit, tie. Should the atmosphere of the church be casual or reverent? Should you have pews or chairs? Robes or no robes. Hymnbooks or projections. I love Calvary Chapels but one thing that always sat wrong with me was their strict legislation on coming into church. If you were late you weren't allowed in because you might disturb someone. Kids weren't allowed in because they could disturb someone. They didn't like kneeling, dancing, standing when others are sitting when you are worshipping because they didn't like anything that might draw attention to you rather than God. To me those are all cleansing rites - telling people how to come before God and making it an issue of spiritual correctness or maturity.

        The passage talks about "laying on of hands". To me that means arguing about charismatic or sign gifts and are they for today or have they ceased. I have had people in my life whose goal was to get me to speak in tongues or be baptized by the Holy Spirit. To them, the sign of spiritual maturity is speaking in tongues. Is it? I think the author would say, "No"! Then he talks about the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgement. My Adventist friends believe in soul sleep and no Hell. Rob Bell believes that you may be able to get out of Hell. Tim Keller doesn't believe in literal flames and fire. Premillenialists believe in a rapture before the 7 years of tribulation where the resurrection of the dead begins then and mid-tribs 3.5 years later.

       Let's face it, there is a lot in the Bible to argue about, but the author is saying that how much we know and how well we can argue may get us a Sunday School class to teach but it isn't God's sign of spiritual maturity or becoming who He wants us to become. We have a modern day example of this today in Judge Roy Moore. On one hand he seems to be the bastian of spiritual integrity holding to the 10 commandments, pro-life, and Biblical marriage but now on the other hand we are finding accusations of misappropriation of funds, ties to racial prejudicial groups, and sexual misconduct. The author of Hebrews is saying that the sign of spiritual maturity is understanding what behavior is pleasing to God and carrying it out. Once again, we are called to obedience and in order to be obedient, maturity is knowing God's will for our day to day lives and carrying it out with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives inside of us (that is the "God permitting" part)

        So today, get in the word to study it, yes, but also to let it study you and see where you are being disobedient and seek change. Live lives pleasing to God.

Thoughts From Hebrews - Day 14

                                                  Hebrews 5:7-10

During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. ⁸ Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered ⁹ and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him ¹⁰ and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.


      How many times have you seen or heard of people abandoning their "faith" in God or at least stopping their prayer life because they desperately, fervently, passionately prayed for something and it didn't happen. Usually these prayers aren't trivial like praying for your team to win or a parking spot, but are serious things like the illness of a loved one, a job to support the family, or a future Godly spouse, and despite the prayers the loved one dies, someone else gets the job, or you remain single. How about this passage? Jesus prayed with fervent cries and tears to be saved from death, He was heard, and He died the worst death imaginable. 

     So how do we respond to those times where it appears God didn't hear us or doesn't care? First of all, you have to remember and believe that He did hear you and does care. To get disillusioned and leave the faith is an insult to God. It's saying, "I know better than you", "You don't care about me", "You are too weak to take care of my problems". It's interesting that when Moses asked to see God's glory, God revealed His character - 

“I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness,7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished" Ex. 33,34

     What is God if not true to His character? God describes Himself in His essence as good, compassionate, gracious, and abounding in love and faithfulness. If you have entered into a relationship with God, the more you know Him, the more you will know these qualities.If you think that God doesn't care about you, then you are worshipping the wrong God because that is part of who He is. As a side note, those of us who believe in eternal security would say that a person who leaves the faith never really knew or entered into that relationship with God.

     As I meditate on this passage, I see something else I have never seen before. What if this passage is referring to Jesus praying to be rescued from the grave? We see in John 17 Jesus praying for His disciples' protection while He wouldn't be there to protect them. If this is the case, He not only was heard but His request was granted and He learned obedience through it. We have been looking at obedience lately and its link to true salvation. How could Jesus learn obedience? Wasn't He born obedient? Didn't obedience come naturally? Maybe in order to be an effective, empathetic, gracious, merciful High Priest, Jesus had to see that obedience is hard when you are going through something you think you should be rescued from but aren't. And maybe obedience is doing what God says when it means we lose all control of our future and put ourselves in God's hands. Jesus, although He was never disobedient, learned what obedience is and how difficult it is through His death and His resurrection.

     What are you going through? As I write this I am thinking of a woman who got saved and is living with her boyfriend and God is telling her to move out even though she loves the guy, has nowhere to go, and minimal source of income. Will she be obedient? Will you be obedient in what God is telling you to do?

Thoughts on Hebrews - Day 13

                                                    Hebrews 5:3-6

This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people. ⁴ And no one takes this honor on himself, but he receives it when called by God, just as Aaron was.
⁵ In the same way, Christ did not take on himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him,

“You are my Son;
    today I have become your Father.”

⁶ And he says in another place,

“You are a priest forever,
    in the order of Melchizedek"

 

 

          Maybe this is where the Baptists get it from." What"?, you might ask. The whole "getting called into the ministry" thing. This passage says "no one takes this honor on himself, but he receives it when called by God, just as Aaron was", so if you want to be a priest, you have to be called by God. There are certainly other examples you could use for this such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Saul/Paul, the disciples, Barnabas, Elisha, Moses, along with others. If you aren't familiar with this, what often happens, especially with the youth, after a spiritual retreat, some kids may feel the nudging of the Holy Spirit to go deeper and be more committed and surrender their lives to the Lord. Since they are already saved they don't need to do that again, so what commitment do they make? Quite often it is being "called into the ministry" which means they get put on a path towards "full time Christian service".

 

         Now, I don't want to diss this too much because I've seen a number of youth do this and flourish. I've seen kids from our church become head pastors, youth pastors, missionaries and are doing a phenomenal job and are impacting this world for Christ. I guess my issue is, aren't we all called to be "priests"? Aren't we all called into "full time Christian service"?

"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." 1Pet. 2:9

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me."  Matt. 16:24

        As we study the Tabernacle, which is a lot of what Hebrews is about, we see a guy named Bezalel filled with the Holy Spirit to impart skill, ability, and knowledge to make artistic designs with gold, bronze, and silver. Then He gave Oholiab the ability to teach others how to do the work of constructing the Tabernacle. In a time when the Holy Spirit would come and go on people such as Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Samson, Saul, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, etc. Bezalel and Oholiab stand out as just regular people - not "full time Christian service" people.Paul says in 1 Cor 7

"Nevertheless, each person should live as a believer in whatever situation the Lord has assigned to them, just as God has called them. This is the rule I lay down in all the churches. ²⁰ Each person should remain in the situation they were in when God called them.
²¹ Were you a slave when you were called? Don’t let it trouble you—although if you can gain your freedom, do so. ²² For the one who was a slave when called to faith in the Lord is the Lord’s freed person; similarly, the one who was free when called is Christ’s slave.  ²⁴ Brothers and sisters, each person, as responsible to God, should remain in the situation they were in when God called them."

       Now, I don't want to take these out of context too much, but doesn't it seem that if God has gifted you as a carpenter that you could serve the kingdom a whole lot more with those abilities than orating? Don't you think you would reach the 80% unchurched population better outside of church? Maybe you have oratory abilities like a teacher or a lawyer. Once again, you could still reach people in those jobs that paid church staff couldn't. I'm not saying that no one should go into "the ministry". I'm just saying don't consider this the highest calling of Christ because being a professional that is a priest at their office is on par with that.

Thoughts on Hebrews - Day 12

                                              Hebrews 4:14-5:2

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. ¹⁵ For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. ¹⁶ Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Every high priest is selected from among the people and is appointed to represent the people in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. ² He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness.


        We certainly cut ourselves a lot of slack - "I have no filter today because of lack of sleep", "If they had done to you what they did to me, you would have reacted that way too", "I'm not feeling well today, cut me some slack", "My hormones are out of whack today", "I had a bad day at work", "I'm hangry since the doctor said I have to lose weight", "I'm overwhelmed with life right now", and the list of excuses justifying our sinful behavior goes on and on. Yet we have a high priest who came down from Heaven and experienced the same things we did and yet He went through them and never sinned.

        Well you might say, "Yah. but He's God and I'm not, I'm only human"(Ha, see how easy these excuses flow). This passage tells us that if we cry out for help and strength to rise above our circumstances and not sin, He will give us the strength to get through them sinless like Him. Do you believe that? Do you want to believe that? If you do, that forfeits your rights to getting even, letting people know how you really feel, getting equal treatment, building a wall so it doesn't happen again - do you really want to not sin? Your High priest knows that sentiment too and He can help with that.

        The cool thing, too, is that He won't be saying, "You dummy" or "I can't believe you are struggling with that", but will empathetically help you through it saying, "I understand", "I've been there", "I'll help you get through this", "Take My hand", ""The end result will be worth it".

         How was Jesus able to do it? I think a lot of it has to do with His morning quiet times with the Father, long before anyone else would be out of bed. I think also, He knew how serious sin is. One sin and His mission on Earth would be a failure and mankind would be doomed to destruction. Yet we toy with sin and say, "I can always ask for forgiveness." Lastly, He knew God's word so He could use it to defeat temptation. Are we having quiet times and memorizing God's word? Do we realize how devastating sin is? Let's hate sin as much as Jesus and flee from it and to Him!

Thoughts on Hebrews - Day 11

                                           Hebrews 4:12-13

 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. ¹³ Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.


      There is no book in the world like the Bible. Unlike religious books like the Koran or Book of Mormon which give instructions, the Bible is alive and active. Look at the verbs here - it penetrates, judges, uncovers and lays bare. We don't just study the Bible, it studies us. It doesn't just uncover truth, it uncovers you. That is because the Holy Spirit living in you or working on the Heart of the unbeliever, uses those words as a scalpel to cut at the sin in your life. Usually this sin is covered by a thick covering so we don't notice it. Think of an orange. The orange has a tough coating which keeps the tender fruit from being exposed. In the same way, our sin gets covered by rationalization - everyone is doing it, I'm only human, it's not that bad, it's not hurting anyone, it's culturally acceptable - and that covering gets thicker and thicker so we live with a core of sin in our lives that separates us from a relationship with a sinless, Holy, completely pure God.

      In OB/GYN there is a condition called PCOS where the outer covering of the ovary, the cortex, becomes thickened and doesn't let the eggs bust out. People with this condition struggle with infertility along with a host of other symptoms. Fairly recently, doctors discovered that taking a laser and drilling holes in that outer covering releases eggs and at least temporarily cures the problem. The Word of God is like that. It, like a laser, drills into our hearts which are hardened by sin and exposes the sin. At that point we have the choice to either deal with it or repair the holes.

       So, practically speaking, what do we do with this. First of all, when we evangelize, we need to use scripture. This passage tells us that God's word will penetrate through the hard hearts in a way that our words and our reasoning won't. Pastors who preach without using God's word are missing out on the power that has been availed them. When I share the gospel with people, at times I find myself explaining it rather than proclaiming it form God's word which is the preferred, powerful way. We try to improve on John 3:16 and the Romans Road but in reality, we really can't.

     Secondly, as Christians, we aren't going to conform to the image of Christ unless we are looking at ourselves through the mirror of God's word. One thing I've noticed, and maybe marriage for 36 years and a business partnership with the same guy for over 20 years has taught me this, is that people don't change. Irritating habits, ways of responding and other character traits - you might as well forget trying to change those things in people. However, if those areas in the light of God's word are illuminated, with the help of the Holy Spirit, change is possible. As I study the Israelites and see their grumbling, complaining, wanting to go back to Egypt, and rapid descent back into idolatry, I have to ask, why didn't Moses do the same thing - why was he different? After all, him and Jehovah got off to a rough start when he refused to go and then the near execution due to lack of circumcision (I still don't understand that one) What I come up with is that Moses listened to God's voice, the people fled from God's voice and said, "Have Moses speak to us." Moses ascended the mountain into God's presence. Aaron and the 70 elders, rather than sit at he feet of God for 40 days descended back into the camp. Why do people "get saved" and fall right back into their old lives? They don't ingest the Bible on a daily basis. They are content with hearing what someone else is hearing from God.

     The Bible has supernatural power. Sit in the presence of God as you study it and let it study and change you.