Daily Manna (Coffee with Jesus)

Tell me the story of Jesus,
write on my heart every word;
tell me the story most precious,
sweetest that ever was heard.

(Fannie Crosby, 1880)

Sing them over again to me
Wonderful words of life
Let me more of their beauty see
Wonderful words of life
Words of life and beauty
Teach me faith and duty

Beautiful words, wonderful words
Wonderful words of life
Beautiful words, wonderful words
Wonderful words of life…

(Philip Bliss, 1838)

The Blessing

The Lord bless you and keep you
Make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you
The Lord turn His face toward you
And give you peace

Amen, amen, amen
Amen, amen, amen…

May His favor be upon you
And a thousand generations
And your family and your children
And their children, and their children

May His presence go before you
And behind you, and beside you
All around you, and within you
He is with you, he is with you

In the morning, in the evening
In your coming, and your going
In your weeping, and rejoicing
He is for you, he is for you
He is, He is

Amen, amen, amen

(Songwriters: Chris Brown / Steven Furtick / Cody Carnes / Kari Brooke Jobe, 2020)

This medley of songs from past to present play in the background as I read Hebrews 12.  I thank God for the pioneers of faith that have gone on before us, showing us how to stay focused of Jesus, the beginning and perfecting finisher of our faith!  I thank God for Jesus who saved us from our sins once and for all.  “When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he(Jesus) plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!”

Sing them over again to me
Wonderful words of life…

Hebrews 12, The Message

Discipline in a Long-Distance Race

12 ^1-3 Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!

^4-11 In this all-out match against sin, others have suffered far worse than you, to say nothing of what Jesus went through—all that bloodshed! So don’t feel sorry for yourselves. Or have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as his children?

My dear child, don’t shrug off God’s discipline,
    but don’t be crushed by it either.
It’s the child he loves that he disciplines;
    the child he embraces, he also corrects.

God is educating you; that’s why you must never drop out. He’s treating you as dear children. This trouble you’re in isn’t punishment; it’s training, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God’s training so we can truly live? While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what isbest for us, training us to live God’s holy best. At the time, discipline isn’t much fun. It always feels like it’s going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off big-time, for it’s the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God.

^12-13 So don’t sit around on your hands! No more dragging your feet! Clear the path for long-distance runners so no one will trip and fall, so no one will step in a hole and sprain an ankle. Help each other out. And run for it!

^14-17 Work at getting along with each other and with God. Otherwise you’ll never get so much as a glimpse of God. Make sure no one gets left out of God’s generosity. Keep a sharp eye out for weeds of bitter discontent. A thistle or two gone to seed can ruin a whole garden in no time. Watch out for the Esau syndrome: trading away God’s lifelong gift in order to satisfy a short-term appetite. You well know how Esau later regretted that impulsive act and wanted God’s blessing—but by then it was too late, tears or no tears.

An Unshakable Kingdom

^18-21 Unlike your ancestors, you didn’t come to Mount Sinai—all that volcanic blaze and earthshaking rumble—to hear God speak. The earsplitting words and soul-shaking message terrified them and they begged him to stop. When they heard the words—“If an animal touches the Mountain, it’s as good as dead”—they were afraid to move. Even Moses was terrified.

^22-24 No, that’s not your experience at all. You’ve come to Mount Zion, the city where the living God resides. The invisible Jerusalem is populated by throngs of festive angels and Christian citizens. It is the city where God is Judge, with judgments that make us just. You’ve come to Jesus, who presents us with a new covenant, a fresh charter from God. He is the Mediator of this covenant. The murder of Jesus, unlike Abel’s—a homicide that cried out for vengeance—became a proclamation of grace.

^25-27 So don’t turn a deaf ear to these gracious words. If those who ignored earthly warnings didn’t get away with it, what will happen to us if we turn our backs on heavenly warnings? His voice that time shook the earth to its foundations; this time—he’s told us this quite plainly—he’ll also rock the heavens: “One last shaking, from top to bottom, stem to stern.” The phrase “one last shaking” means a thorough housecleaning, getting rid of all the historical and religious junk so that the unshakable essentials stand clear and uncluttered.

^28-29 Do you see what we’ve got? An unshakable kingdom! And do you see how thankful we must be? Not only thankful, but brimming with worship, deeply reverent before God. For God is not an indifferent bystander. He’s actively cleaning house, torching all that needs to burn, and he won’t quit until it’s all cleansed. God himself is Fire!

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Surrender to God in Jesus Name for his cleansing grace and loving discipline. (Romans 12 tells us how)

Only by the grace of God are we set free—all because of Jesus, His Son!  Grace wins every time!

Stay focused and alert to what God says for what He says is His best for us! (Hebrews 12)

If we forget, lose focus, grow weary in doing good—Go back over the story again and again, pouring over the details of what Jesus did to save us and teach us how to live.

Tell Me the Story of Jesus

Tell of the cross where they nailed Him,
writhing in anguish and pain;
tell of the grave where they laid Him,
tell how He liveth again.
Love in that story so tender,
clearer than ever I see:
stay, let me weep while you whisper,
love paid the ransom for me.

Lord,

Cleanse our hearts, renew our minds, refresh our souls with your new mercies for today and restore the joy of your salvation at work within us. 

“Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you.
Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.
Rescue me from my enemies, Lord, for I hide myself in you.
Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit
    lead me on level ground.” Psalm 143:8-10, NIV

In Jesus Name, Amen, Yes!

If my existence depends on living a life of perfection, I’ve already failed miserably.  Take me now, because if my life depends on perfection, I’m hopeless.  Perfection is beyond earth living.  If I depend on my own wisdom in decision making; troubles are exponentially multiplied.  Even if I seek the advice of successful men and women who seem to have it altogether, it’s just not enough. 

What is enough is knowing and believing in Jesus, our Perfect Savior.  It is our faith in God who sent His Son to save us that assures us of our redemption.  Our decision to trust in Him makes this life worth living.  Our faith in God, believing without seeing, is the foundation upon which our relationship with God through Jesus grows in the wide-open spaces of His love, mercy, and grace!

Hebrews 11, The Message

Faith in What We Don’t See

11 ^1-2 The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see. The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd.

³ By faith, we see the world called into existence by God’s word, what we see created by what we don’t see.

⁴ By an act of faith, Abel brought a better sacrifice to God than Cain. It was what he believed, not what he brought, that made the difference. That’s what God noticed and approved as righteous. After all these centuries, that belief continues to catch our notice.

^5-6 By an act of faith, Enoch skipped death completely. “They looked all over and couldn’t find him because God had taken him.” We know on the basis of reliable testimony that before he was taken “he pleased God.” It’s impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him.

⁷ By faith, Noah built a ship in the middle of dry land. He was warned about something he couldn’t see, and acted on what he was told. The result? His family was saved. His act of faith drew a sharp line between the evil of the unbelieving world and the rightness of the believing world. As a result, Noah became intimate with God.

^8-10 By an act of faith, Abraham said yes to God’s call to travel to an unknown place that would become his home. When he left he had no idea where he was going. By an act of faith he lived in the country promised him, lived as a stranger camping in tents. Isaac and Jacob did the same, living under the same promise. Abraham did it by keeping his eye on an unseen city with real, eternal foundations—the City designed and built by God.

^11-12 By faith, barren Sarah was able to become pregnant, old woman as she was at the time, because she believed the One who made a promise would do what he said. That’s how it happened that from one man’s dead and shriveled loins there are now people numbering into the millions.

* * *

^13-16 Each one of these people of faith died not yet having in hand what was promised, but still believing. How did they do it? They saw it way off in the distance, waved their greeting, and accepted the fact that they were transients in this world. People who live this way make it plain that they are looking for their true home. If they were homesick for the old country, they could have gone back any time they wanted. But they were after a far better country than that—heaven country. You can see why God is so proud of them, and has a City waiting for them.

^17-19 By faith, Abraham, at the time of testing, offered Isaac back to God. Acting in faith, he was as ready to return the promised son, his only son, as he had been to receive him—and this after he had already been told, “Your descendants shall come from Isaac.” Abraham figured that if God wanted to, he could raise the dead. In a sense, that’s what happened when he received Isaac back, alive from off the altar.

²⁰ By an act of faith, Isaac reached into the future as he blessed Jacob and Esau.

²¹ By an act of faith, Jacob on his deathbed blessed each of Joseph’s sons in turn, blessing them with God’s blessing, not his own—as he bowed worshipfully upon his staff.

²² By an act of faith, Joseph, while dying, prophesied the exodus of Israel, and made arrangements for his own burial.

²³ By an act of faith, Moses’ parents hid him away for three months after his birth. They saw the child’s beauty, and they braved the king’s decree.

^24-28 By faith, Moses, when grown, refused the privileges of the Egyptian royal house. He chose a hard life with God’s people rather than an opportunistic soft life of sin with the oppressors. He valued suffering in the Messiah’s camp far greater than Egyptian wealth because he was looking ahead, anticipating the payoff. By an act of faith, he turned his heel on Egypt, indifferent to the king’s blind rage. He had his eye on the One no eye can see, and kept right on going. By an act of faith, he kept the Passover Feast and sprinkled Passover blood on each house so that the destroyer of the firstborn wouldn’t touch them.

²⁹ By an act of faith, Israel walked through the Red Sea on dry ground. The Egyptians tried it and drowned.

³⁰ By faith, the Israelites marched around the walls of Jericho for seven days, and the walls fell flat.

³¹ By an act of faith, Rahab, the Jericho harlot, welcomed the spies and escaped the destruction that came on those who refused to trust God.

* * *

^32-38 I could go on and on, but I’ve run out of time. There are so many more—Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets. . . . Through acts of faith, they toppled kingdoms, made justice work, took the promises for themselves. They were protected from lions, fires, and sword thrusts, turned disadvantage to advantage, won battles, routed alien armies. Women received their loved ones back from the dead. There were those who, under torture, refused to give in and go free, preferring something better: resurrection. Others braved abuse and whips, and, yes, chains and dungeons. We have stories of those who were stoned, sawed in two, murdered in cold blood; stories of vagrants wandering the earth in animal skins, homeless, friendless, powerless—the world didn’t deserve them!—making their way as best they could on the cruel edges of the world.

^39-40 Not one of these people, even though their lives of faith were exemplary, got their hands on what was promised. God had a better plan for us: that their faith and our faith would come together to make one completed whole, their lives of faith not complete apart from ours.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Faith is more than believing. It’s living in a way that shows our trust in God no matter what’s going on in our lives.

Hebrews has spoken Truth to us today.  Faith is the key to God’s heart.  Relentless faith pleases God.  Human striving perfection, especially when we boast about what we have done is not what God seeks from us as much as He seeks Faith in Him, trusting that He knows what is good for us and believing that He will do what he says! 

God smiles when our faith is evident in our hearts and foundational in our walk as His direction is obeyed with blessed assurance from Him.  God is pleased when our lives are laid before Him as an offering and then His character reflected in our behavior as we strive to be more like Jesus, His Son.  But perfection?  Perfection is only found in Jesus.  That’s why only Jesus could be the perfect sacrifice for us. Jesus did what we could not do for ourselves. Faith begins when we truly believe what Jesus did for us—God’s Plan.

By faith, we are led by God’s Holy Spirit to move forward, fully trusting in His love while we learn to walk in His perfect ways; knowing that we are imperfectly earthbound for now.  There will be a Day when Jesus comes back to take us to our forever home.  Only then will perfection be made complete.  But for now, we live by faith, lived out loud in our existence today, as we wait for that Day that will come “soon.” 

And “soon” is only in the mind of God in whom we trust and obey.

Lord,

Thank you for reminding us that faith has been shown through the ages to be what we seek most from us.  Thank you for building our faith as we live for you here.  Thank you for your blessed assurance by reading of the acts of faith from those who have gone on before us.  Thank you for saving my soul and directing my path.  I trust you with my life for you are Life!

In Jesus Name, Amen

“For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time.” 1 Timothy 2:5-6, NIV

At the cross, at the cross,

Where I first saw the light,

And the burden of my heart rolled away –

It was there by faith I received my sight,

And now I am happy all the day. 

This is the chorus of “At the Cross,” one of the many hymns written by Isaac Watts (1674 – 1748) and was published in the year 1707. This hymn echos in the recesses of my mind as we read Hebrews 10.

Hebrews 10, The Message

The Sacrifice of Jesus

10 ^1-10 The old plan was only a hint of the good things in the new plan. Since that old “law plan” wasn’t complete in itself, it couldn’t complete those who followed it. No matter how many sacrifices were offered year after year, they never added up to a complete solution. If they had, the worshipers would have gone blissfully on their way, no longer dragged down by their sins. But instead of removing awareness of sin, when those animal sacrifices were repeated over and over they actually heightened awareness and guilt. The plain fact is that bull and goat blood can’t get rid of sin. That is what is meant by this prophecy, put in the mouth of Christ:

You don’t want sacrifices and offerings year after year;
    you’ve prepared a body for me for a sacrifice.
It’s not fragrance and smoke from the altar
    that whet your appetite.
So I said, “I’m here to do it your way, O God,
    the way it’s described in your Book.”

When he said, “You don’t want sacrifices and offerings,” he was referring to practices according to the old plan. When he added, “I’m here to do it your way,” he set aside the first in order to enact the new plan—God’s way—by which we are made fit for God by the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus.

^11-18 Every priest goes to work at the altar each day, offers the same old sacrifices year in, year out, and never makes a dent in the sin problem. As a priest, Christ made a single sacrifice for sins, and that was it! Then he sat down right beside God and waited for his enemies to cave in. It was a perfect sacrifice by a perfect person to perfect some very imperfect people. By that single offering, he did everything that needed to be done for everyone who takes part in the purifying process. The Holy Spirit confirms this:

This new plan I’m making with Israel
    isn’t going to be written on paper,
    isn’t going to be chiseled in stone;
This time “I’m writing out the plan in them,
    carving it on the lining of their hearts.”

He concludes,

I’ll forever wipe the slate clean of their sins.

Once sins are taken care of for good, there’s no longer any need to offer sacrifices for them.

Don’t Throw It All Away

^19-21 So, friends, we can now—without hesitation—walk right up to God, into “the Holy Place.” Jesus has cleared the way by the blood of his sacrifice, acting as our priest before God. The “curtain” into God’s presence is his body.

^22-25 So let’s do it—full of belief, confident that we’re presentable inside and out. Let’s keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.

^26-31 If we give up and turn our backs on all we’ve learned, all we’ve been given, all the truth we now know, we repudiate Christ’s sacrifice and are left on our own to face the Judgment—and a mighty fierce judgment it will be! If the penalty for breaking the law of Moses is physical death, what do you think will happen if you turn on God’s Son, spit on the sacrifice that made you whole, and insult this most gracious Spirit? This is no light matter. God has warned us that he’ll hold us to account and make us pay. He was quite explicit: “Vengeance is mine, and I won’t overlook a thing” and “God will judge his people.” Nobody’s getting by with anything, believe me.

^32-39 Remember those early days after you first saw the light? Those were the hard times! Kicked around in public, targets of every kind of abuse—some days it was you, other days your friends. If some friends went to prison, you stuck by them. If some enemies broke in and seized your goods, you let them go with a smile, knowing they couldn’t touch your real treasure. Nothing they did bothered you, nothing set you back. So don’t throw it all away now. You were sure of yourselves then. It’s still a sure thing! But you need to stick it out, staying with God’s plan so you’ll be there for the promised completion.

It won’t be long now, he’s on the way;
    he’ll show up most any minute.
But anyone who is right with me thrives on loyal trust;
    if he cuts and runs, I won’t be very happy.

But we’re not quitters who lose out. Oh, no! We’ll stay with it and survive, trusting all the way.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Jesus paid the debt for our sins and removed them by His once and for all sacrifice. 

“It was a perfect sacrifice by a perfect person to perfect some very imperfect people.”

“I’ll forever wipe the slate clean of their sins.”

Two choices of response:

Believe in the One who paid our ransom; repent of sins in Jesus Name, be reconciled to God in relationship with God forever allowing us to come boldly with confidence to the throne of God unashamed with humbled gratitude.  We build our faith on God’s relentless love, tender mercy, and rich grace poured out daily in our lives lived for Him.

OR

Reject the offer of sins removed and turn our backs on God and His Son who died to save us and rose again to give us hope to live forever with Him.  Living apart from God is to be disconnected and forever in bondage by the enemy. We are living on our own, depending on our own devices to get by without divine protection.

There is no in between or “gray area.”  We either believe or we do not.  I pray now that all who are reading this and wondering what to do next would see the Light and come to the One who loves us so much, He was will to lay down his life for ours.  There is no sin that He will not forgive.  There is no circumstance He doesn’t already know about and no heart he cannot see.  Watch God change us by His strength through it all.

To reject the Savior and live in Enemy territory is to crucify our Christ yet again.  “If we give up and turn our backs on all we’ve learned, all we’ve been given, all the truth we now know, we repudiate Christ’s sacrifice and are left on our own to face the Judgment.”

Accept the work of the Cross, Come boldly to the Throne of God!  No death, only Life!

Was it for crimes that I have done

He groaned upon the tree?

Amazing pity! Grace unknown!

And love beyond degree! 

At the cross, at the cross,

Where I first saw the light,

And the burden of my heart rolled away –

It was there by faith I received my sight,

And now I am happy all the day. 

But drops of grief can ne’er repay

The debt of love I owe:

Here, Lord, I give myself away –

‘Tis all that I can do! 

Lord,

I came by faith and received my sight all because of your relentless love, mercy, and grace.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

In Jesus Name, Amen

There is no better feeling of relief than when a problem that has been monopolizing our thoughts for months, maybe even years, is finally resolved.  The problem was produced by us and others but a solution to resolve the problem presents itself clearly.  The wait is over; the heavy load of burden lifted.  The unknown becomes known.  There is no more worrying about what comes next with how we will cope in the wait. There is no more wondering and overthinking consistently about how it will all turn out and how you will deal with the fallout.  No more holding your breath until the verdict is given. The final, once and for all, solution has arrived.  All is well!

Hebrews 9, The Message

A Visible Parable

^1-5 That first plan contained directions for worship, and a specially designed place of worship. A large outer tent was set up. The lampstand, the table, and “the bread of presence” were placed in it. This was called “the Holy Place.” Then a curtain was stretched, and behind it a smaller, inside tent set up. This was called “the Holy of Holies.” In it were placed the gold incense altar and the gold-covered ark of the covenant containing the gold urn of manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, the covenant tablets, and the angel-wing-shadowed mercy seat. But we don’t have time to comment on these now.

^6-10 After this was set up, the priests went about their duties in the large tent. Only the high priest entered the smaller, inside tent, and then only once a year, offering a blood sacrifice for his own sins and the people’s accumulated sins. This was the Holy Spirit’s way of showing with a visible parable that as long as the large tent stands, people can’t just walk in on God. Under this system, the gifts and sacrifices can’t really get to the heart of the matter, can’t assuage the conscience of the people, but are limited to matters of ritual and behavior. It’s essentially a temporary arrangement until a complete overhaul could be made.

Pointing to the Realities of Heaven

^11-15 But when the Messiah arrived, high priest of the superior things of this new covenant, he bypassed the old tent and its trappings in this created world and went straight into heaven’s “tent”—the true Holy Place—once and for all. He also bypassed the sacrifices consisting of goat and calf blood, instead using his own blood as the price to set us free once and for all. If that animal blood and the other rituals of purification were effective in cleaning up certain matters of our religion and behavior, think how much more the blood of Christ cleans up our whole lives, inside and out. Through the Spirit, Christ offered himself as an unblemished sacrifice, freeing us from all those dead-end efforts to make ourselves respectable, so that we can live all out for God.

^16-17 Like a will that takes effect when someone dies, the new covenant was put into action at Jesus’ death. His death marked the transition from the old plan to the new one, canceling the old obligations and accompanying sins, and summoning the heirs to receive the eternal inheritance that was promised them. He brought together God and his people in this new way.

^18-22 Even the first plan required a death to set it in motion. After Moses had read out all the terms of the plan of the law—God’s “will”—he took the blood of sacrificed animals and, in a solemn ritual, sprinkled the document and the people who were its beneficiaries. And then he attested its validity with the words, “This is the blood of the covenant commanded by God.” He did the same thing with the place of worship and its furniture. Moses said to the people, “This is the blood of the covenant God has established with you.” Practically everything in a will hinges on a death. That’s why blood, the evidence of death, is used so much in our tradition, especially regarding forgiveness of sins.

^23-26 That accounts for the prominence of blood and death in all these secondary practices that point to the realities of heaven. It also accounts for why, when the real thing takes place, these animal sacrifices aren’t needed anymore, having served their purpose. For Christ didn’t enter the earthly version of the Holy Place; he entered the Place Itself, and offered himself to God as the sacrifice for our sins. He doesn’t do this every year as the high priests did under the old plan with blood that was not their own; if that had been the case, he would have to sacrifice himself repeatedly throughout the course of history. But instead he sacrificed himself once and for all, summing up all the other sacrifices in this sacrifice of himself, the final solution of sin.

^27-28 Everyone has to die once, then face the consequences. Christ’s death was also a one-time event, but it was a sacrifice that took care of sins forever. And so, when he next appears, the outcome for those eager to greet him is, precisely, salvation.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Jesus is the final, once and for all, solution to our sin problem. And ALL have this sin problem.  The Old System carved a path for The New and Only Way to reconcile with God.  No more ritualistic blood sacrifices of unblemished animals to “cover over” the sins of people once a year.  Now Jesus, our Messiah, he who knew NO SIN, went well beyond what the old plan provided as He willingly sacrificed himself once and for all—as the final solution to sin.  In Jesus, repented sins are now removed “as far as the east is from the west”— “to be remembered no more”!  Forever!

There is nothing we have done that Jesus will not forgive.  There is no one who repents that he will not hear and forgive.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17

Jesus—The Final Solution.

Don’t overthink it.  Just believe, repent without excuses, and be saved for eternity.  Surrender to the One who knows us best and desires His best for us.

Pause to reflect:

Do we really believe what God has said and done to be really real? 

Do we truly believe that Jesus is the final solution? 

Can we trust Him with our lives? 

Have we surrendered all to Jesus?

The writer of Hebrews clearly emphasized that Christ’s sacrifice surpassed the sacrifices of the Old Testament. There will never be a greater sacrifice. Christ’s perfect sacrifice should affect the way believers see and serve God.  

Are we living in humbled obedience to God in Jesus Name because of our love for HIm?  Our behaviors will reflect what we really believe.

Lord,

I believe you are the final answer and solution for sin.  Cleanse my heart, renew my mind, refresh, and fill me with your Holy Spirit of love, mercy, and grace. Daily restore the joy and peace of your salvation at work within me.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

In Jesus Name, Amen

True repentance is not just confession of sin but a sincere willingness to not do that sin again. If your conscience is not clear toward God in even one area of your life, repent and ask God to cleanse you because of his shed blood.

May it be well with your soul…

Humans have created new rules for life as we grow from children through adulthood.  As children, we made up the rules of the games we played.  The “rules” of the game were not set in stone, but fluid and always changeable.  The games were led by a self-appointed or group influencing leaders most times.  But sometimes a new leader would emerge and offer a new way to play the game.  When the leaders clashed, the emerging leader would shout, NEW RULE!  If the new leader was influential enough to persuade the other players that the new rule was good for all playing, then the new rule was put into play immediately.  The former leader became second to the new leader.

As children who just want to play, changing leaders and rules was acceptable.  If the former leader, did not comply, he just stormed off for a while.  But the games went on.  When the former leader would enter back into play, he was welcomed.  Kids are very forgiving as they accept the former leader and got on with playing together.  The ultimate goal is to keep playing until the teacher calls you back into class!

In the workplace, it is the same.  If learned procedures are not producing the desired results and are no longer efficient and effective; a new plan is put into place.  This happens most often when a new boss is hired with the ability to see the “big picture,” evaluate the workplace, and offer new approaches for better outcomes.  New rules are written.  People are trained.  We all know it becomes “law” when the rules are laminated and posted for everyone to see!        

Hebrews 8, The Message

A New Plan with Israel

^1-2 In essence, we have just such a high priest: authoritative right alongside God, conducting worship in the one true sanctuary built by God.

^3-5 The assigned task of a high priest is to offer both gifts and sacrifices, and it’s no different with the priesthood of Jesus. If he were limited to earth, he wouldn’t even be a priest. We wouldn’t need him since there are plenty of priests who offer the gifts designated in the law. These priests provide only a hint of what goes on in the true sanctuary of heaven, which Moses caught a glimpse of as he was about to set up the tent-shrine. It was then that God said, “Be careful to do it exactly as you saw it on the Mountain.”

^6-13 But Jesus’ priestly work far surpasses what these other priests do, since he’s working from a far better plan. If the first plan—the old covenant—had worked out, a second wouldn’t have been needed. But we know the first was found wanting, because God said,

Heads up! The days are coming
    when I’ll set up a new plan
    for dealing with Israel and Judah.
I’ll throw out the old plan
    I set up with their ancestors
    when I led them by the hand out of Egypt.
They didn’t keep their part of the bargain,
    so I looked away and let it go.
This new plan I’m making with Israel
    isn’t going to be written on paper,
    isn’t going to be chiseled in stone;
This time I’m writing out the plan in them,
    carving it on the lining of their hearts.
I’ll be their God,
    they’ll be my people.
They won’t go to school to learn about me,
    or buy a book called God in Five Easy Lessons.
They’ll all get to know me firsthand,
    the little and the big, the small and the great.
They’ll get to know me by being kindly forgiven,
    with the slate of their sins forever wiped clean.

By coming up with a new plan, a new covenant between God and his people, God put the old plan on the shelf. And there it stays, gathering dust.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Jesus is the priest leader of all priests!  He came to fulfill what was written while being the new plan of God created since the beginning of time. The Old Covenant prepared people for the New Covenant—Messiah come to save us from our sins! 

New Plan-New Commandments!

Believe in Jesus who sacrificially died for our sins.

Repent of sins in the Name of Jesus and be forgiven directly without going through a human priest.

Strive to be like Jesus who came to earth to “seek and to save” and to serve others, setting His own interests aside for the sake of others.  (Philippians 2)

Leave behind religious traditions, (old plan) and run to Jesus (new plan of salvation).

ASK, SEEK, KNOCK on the door of God and the door WILL BE open by Jesus.  Seek  a growing, loving, intimate relationship with God through Jesus!  All are welcome!

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”  Matthew 7:7-8

“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 7:12

Old prepares the Way for the New.

Lord,

You have opened our eyes to see you from Genesis to Revelation.  The Old didn’t do the complete work to grow the relationship you longed to have with us.  But you, dear Jesus, came to take the intentions of the Law to new Kingdom of God thinking!  Then you laid down your life for ours.  There is no one like you!  You changed everything.  To you be the glory!  Thank you for saving my soul and making me whole through your teaching. Thank you for your gentle patience as I grow in our relationship!

In Jesus Name, Amen—All for Your Glory and our good!

I remember the words of my seventh grade US government teacher—

“Congress creates the laws, the Executive branch serves to enforce those laws, and the judicial branches examines and adheres to the law as they judge those who come into a courtroom accused of breaking the law.  However, no law created, enforced, or judged can change the hearts and minds of people unless they themselves decide to agree and obey the laws of the land.” 

She went on to say, “You can change a law, for example, concerning prejudice and equality, but doesn’t mean people will stop being prejudice of others or stop thinking more highly of themselves than others.”  (I’m pretty sure my teacher was a believer.)

I grew up in the midst of racial unrest with demonstrations, destruction, and death over who can sit where on a bus or in a café.  I didn’t understand as a student going to public school with all colors of skin tones among my friends why grownups acted this way.  But they did.  Laws were created, but minds didn’t change.  My teacher was right.

The writer of Hebrews teaches us what my government teacher taught me!  The laws, passed down through the ages, did not change the behaviors of the people and did not bring them closer to God or make them holy and perfect.  The old law wasn’t working.  Humanity needed a new way. 

Jesus was sent from God to be The Way, The Only Way, back to God.  King of Righteousness, King of Peace, King of kings, and Lord of Lords—all wrapped up in Jesus as our Savior forever.  Jesus changed everything!

The Law convicts us of what is wrong.  Jesus saves us and makes us right with God.

Hebrews 7, The Message

Melchizedek, Priest of God

7 ^1-3 Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of the Highest God. He met Abraham, who was returning from “the royal massacre,” and gave him his blessing. Abraham in turn gave him a tenth of the spoils. “Melchizedek” means “King of Righteousness.” “Salem” means “Peace.” So, he is also “King of Peace.” Melchizedek towers out of the past—without record of family ties, no account of beginning or end. In this way he is like the Son of God, one huge priestly presence dominating the landscape always.

^4-7 You realize just how great Melchizedek is when you see that Father Abraham gave him a tenth of the captured treasure. Priests descended from Levi are commanded by law to collect tithes from the people, even though they are all more or less equals, priests and people, having a common father in Abraham. But this man, a complete outsider, collected tithes from Abraham and blessed him, the one to whom the promises had been given. In acts of blessing, the lesser is blessed by the greater.

^8-10 Or look at it this way: We pay our tithes to priests who die, but Abraham paid tithes to a priest who, the Scripture says, “lives.” Ultimately you could even say that since Levi descended from Abraham, who paid tithes to Melchizedek, when we pay tithes to the priestly tribe of Levi they end up with Melchizedek.

A Permanent Priesthood

^11-14 If the priesthood of Levi and Aaron, which provided the framework for the giving of the law, could really make people perfect, there wouldn’t have been need for a new priesthood like that of Melchizedek. But since it didn’t get the job done, there was a change of priesthood, which brought with it a radical new kind of law. There is no way of understanding this in terms of the old Levitical priesthood, which is why there is nothing in Jesus’ family tree connecting him with that priestly line.

^15-19 But the Melchizedek story provides a perfect analogy: Jesus, a priest like Melchizedek, not by genealogical descent but by the sheer force of resurrection life—he lives!—“priest forever in the royal order of Melchizedek.” The former way of doing things, a system of commandments that never worked out the way it was supposed to, was set aside; the law brought nothing to maturity. Another way—Jesus!—a way that does work, that brings us right into the presence of God, is put in its place.

^20-22 The old priesthood of Aaron perpetuated itself automatically, father to son, without explicit confirmation by God. But then God intervened and called this new, permanent priesthood into being with an added promise:

God gave his word;
    he won’t take it back:
“You’re the permanent priest.”

This makes Jesus the guarantee of a far better way between us and God—one that really works! A new covenant.

^23-25 Earlier there were a lot of priests, for they died and had to be replaced. But Jesus’ priesthood is permanent. He’s there from now to eternity to save everyone who comes to God through him, always on the job to speak up for them.

^26-28 So now we have a high priest who perfectly fits our needs: completely holy, uncompromised by sin, with authority extending as high as God’s presence in heaven itself. Unlike the other high priests, he doesn’t have to offer sacrifices for his own sins every day before he can get around to us and our sins. He’s done it, once and for all: offered up himself as the sacrifice. The law appoints as high priests men who are never able to get the job done right. But this intervening command of God, which came later, appoints the Son, who is absolutely, eternally perfect.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Many humans down through the ages, called and equipped by God to serve as agents of His love, mercy, and grace, were not perfect but fallible in many ways.  But their faith in God showed the world who God was which led many to follow God.  We learn later in Hebrews of the “by faith” behaviors of those who obeyed God even when they didn’t understand why. God blessed them because of their blind obedience and trust.

But then Jesus—

When we see Christ, what will we see? We will see the perfect priest, “dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest,” according to what was revealed to John! (Revelation 1:13) The first readers of this message knew the significance of the robe and sash. Jesus is wearing the clothing of a priest. A priest presents people to God and God to people.

We have known other priests. There have been people in our lives, clergy or not, who sought to bring us to God. But they, too, needed a priest. Some needed a priest more than we did. They, like us, were sinful. Not so with Jesus. “Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens,” the writer of Hebrews explains. (Verse 26)

Jesus is the perfect priest and sacrifice!  Before Jesus, priests could only “cover” the sins of the people with “animals without blemish” in a law specific ritual.  But, It wasn’t working.  The Law and the rituals didn’t bring people to maturity with God in relationship.  God knew it might not, so God had another Plan in place from the beginning—His One and Only Son, Jesus. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) or as Hebrews states emphatically, “He’s done it, once and for all: offered up himself as the sacrifice.” (v.28)

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”—Jesus, John 14:6

“I came to serve, not to be served.”  This statement from Jesus goes much deeper for me today.  Jesus was sent to earth to seek and to save the lost.  I was one of the lost.  He served as my priest while serving up himself as the sacrifice for my sins!  There is no one like our God!  There is no one like our wonderful, loving, compassionate Savior who reconnected us to God through His ultimate service of sacrifice.  Tears are falling as I pause to think about the love for us that led him to do this for us.  Thank you is not enough to express my gratitude for giving me life now and forever!

Jesus is not only the Way to salvation which clears to the path to God’s throne; He is the only Way to a forever, intimate loving relationship with God who calls us Friend as well as Family!  Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Lord,

Your plan to save and redeem us is perfect in every way.  Your laws guiding our behaviors show us your ways, but Jesus—you provided the Way to God with a loving, growing relationship with you and God!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!  Cleanse our hearts, renew and transform our minds, refresh our souls with your new mercies, and daily restore the joy of your salvation at work within us.

In Jesus Name, Amen!  Yes!

Jesus loves me this I know

For the Bible tells me so,

Little ones to him belong

They are weak but He is strong!

You didn’t just read those words, you sang them, right?  This is the first song you probable learned if your parents or grandparents took you to church.  This is the first song you learned as a baby being rocked in the nursery class.  As you moved on to the preschool class, you probably learned the hand motions that go with the song as you sang the song with other toddlers.

As a walking, talking toddler, you might of thought for a minute, who is Jesus?  It doesn’t matter, He apparently loves me.  If our parents continued their journey in their commitment to God to learn more about Him, we as children would move from class to class with our peers.  We would learn the stories of the Bible that taught us how to treat others with kindness. 

Later, we learned that this Jesus who “loves us this I know” was treated badly by those who did not like him.  As we grew to be young students, we eventually learned that this Jesus nailed to a cross!  We heard that Jesus didn’t have to do it but he did it so that our sins could be forgiven even though we might not understand just how that worked.  But we knew that “we are weak and He is strong. Yes, we are definitely impressed by Someone who would willingly do what He did!

But there is so much more…

Hebrews 6, The Message

^1-3 So come on, let’s leave the preschool fingerpainting exercises on Christ and get on with the grand work of art. Grow up in Christ. The basic foundational truths are in place: turning your back on “salvation by self-help” and turning in trust toward God; baptismal instructions; laying on of hands; resurrection of the dead; eternal judgment. God helping us, we’ll stay true to all that. But there’s so much more. Let’s get on with it!

^4-8 Once people have seen the light, gotten a taste of heaven and been part of the work of the Holy Spirit, once they’ve personally experienced the sheer goodness of God’s Word and the powers breaking in on us—if then they turn their backs on it, washing their hands of the whole thing, well, they can’t start over as if nothing happened. That’s impossible. Why, they’ve re-crucified Jesus! They’ve repudiated him in public! Parched ground that soaks up the rain and then produces an abundance of carrots and corn for its gardener gets God’s “Well done!” But if it produces weeds and thistles, it’s more likely to get cussed out. Fields like that are burned, not harvested.

^9-12 I’m sure that won’t happen to you, friends. I have better things in mind for you—salvation things! God doesn’t miss anything. He knows perfectly well all the love you’ve shown him by helping needy Christians, and that you keep at it. And now I want each of you to extend that same intensity toward a full-bodied hope, and keep at it till the finish. Don’t drag your feet. Be like those who stay the course with committed faith and then get everything promised to them.

God Gave His Word

^13-18 When God made his promise to Abraham, he backed it all the way, putting his own reputation on the line. He said, “I promise that I’ll bless you with everything I have—bless and bless and bless!” Abraham stuck it out and got everything that had been promised to him. When people make promises, they guarantee them by appeal to some authority above them so that if there is any question that they’ll make good on the promise, the authority will back them up. When God wanted to guarantee his promises, he gave his word, a rock-solid guarantee—God can’t break his word. And because his word cannot change, the promise is likewise unchangeable.

^18-20 We who have run for our very lives to God have every reason to grab the promised hope with both hands and never let go. It’s an unbreakable spiritual lifeline, reaching past all appearances right to the very presence of God where Jesus, running on ahead of us, has taken up his permanent post as high priest for us, in the order of Melchizedek.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

There is so much more—

We need to grow up in Christ as not only Savior but Lord of our lives!  This occurs and solidifies our faith in God by seeking a personal, intimate, loving, all-consuming relationship with God—our “unbreakable spiritual lifeline for eternity”!

Jesus, God’s One and Only Son, made the Way to God possible.  We were caught up in sin and self that separated us from God.  God cannot be where sin resides. Someone had to pay the price for our sins and buy us back from evil who had a hold on us so we could be set free—forever!

Not only that, our risen Lord is now our advocate in Heaven who speaks on our behalf in the Presence of God.  Nothing in our lives goes unnoticed or undetected by God.  God created all, is over all, in all.  God is sovereign.  He is everywhere at once.  He sees our hearts.  God is with all who believe always. 

God looks over the earth seeking those whose hearts are completely devoted and committed to Him.  God loves us so much He not only sent His Son to save us, as promised, but His desire is to pour out His blessings over us in ways beyond our human understanding.  What are we waiting for?

God protects us before we know we need it. God provides for all our needs.  God knows what we will face tomorrow and equips us today. In our personal relationship with Him, God’s love never changes.  God is faithful and unshakeable—even when we are unfaithful to him! 

God wants our personal relationship with Him to grow in ways that reflect His character—for our good and His glory!  And He will help us!  Jesus taught us God’s Truth along with God’s desire to have a relationship with Him.  Jesus was the Light to a dark world who had all but forgotten God.  Jesus reminded all who would listen who God was, is and is to come.  Jesus represented God and came down from heaven, moved into the neighborhood of humanity, to love, heal, and forgive, while giving all glory to God.  Jesus is the same yesterday as He is today.  Jesus is Savior who is Lord.  His Holy Spirit lives in all who believe!

Are you merely impressed or firmly committed? 

Are you still back in the preschool of faith, coloring pictures of your own making of who Jesus is?  Is your thought of God being a far off being who merely sits in judgement when you do wrong and is deaf to your prayers for what you want to have or what you want to happen in your life? 

Then return to your first love— “Jesus loves me this I know, For the Bible tells me so,” and firmly believe in Jesus as a beginning to a wonderful, life-giving, love producing relationship.  Be committed to grow in a personal and intimate relationship with God through Jesus, His Son!  Believe in Jesus, Son of Man, who died to save us and rose again to set us free from the sin that keeps us from God.  Believe in Jesus, Son of God, who was risen from death, defeating the enemy of God, giving us hope to live forever with Him—just as He said He would!

God promised a Messiah.  God fulfilled His promise with His Son.  Done.  Completed. “God can’t break his word. And because his word cannot change, the promise is likewise unchangeable.”  Believe, repent, and be saved. May God’s Holy Spirit teach us daily and mature our faith.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17

Lord,

Thank you for all you have done, are doing, and will do in my life to keep me focused on you and all the benefits of knowing you.  Cleanse my heart, renew my mind, refresh my soul, and restore the joy of your salvation at work within me daily.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

In Jesus Name, Amen.

Yes, I believe and I’m listening.

To be set up by others or by our own doing is to lean almost exclusively on our own human understanding.  I have been “set up” to fail when I fall for those who compliment my natural abilities and good nature only as a manipulation so I will do the work they do not want to do.  I fall for it when my pride rears its ugly head and I react to their direction.  The book of Proverbs had it right when it was written, “Pride goes before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18)

A set up is also being caught in a situation that people have planned to deceive us or to make it look as if we have done something wrong to others.  Jesus, Himself was set up by the Pharisees to be mocked, beaten, and led to death by the Romans to sustain their religious position and limited power over God’s people.  But here is the difference; Jesus knew the plot of the Pharisees and other religious leaders.  He knew but He loved the world and had compassion on all people who lived in it.  Jesus knew what He must do to save us.  Through it all, God was in control. Jesus knew He must do the will of the Father.  It was the deep, profound love of God and His Son that led Jesus to fulfilled the mission to save us. 

Jesus, set apart, holy and sinless, had the power to stop the nonsense.  But He did not because of His relentless love for us.

To be set apart by God is a calling that begins with our complete surrender to the Holy One who knows that without Him we will not be able to fulfil His call.  God rarely calls the equipped but calls those whose hearts are completely His and who humbly respond first with; “Lord, I love you; but how can I do this?  I just can’t… But because you said it, I will.” 

Hebrews 4, The Message

^1-3 Every high priest selected to represent men and women before God and offer sacrifices for their sins should be able to deal gently with their failings, since he knows what it’s like from his own experience. But that also means that he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins as well as the peoples’.

^4-6 No one elects himself to this honored position. He’s called to it by God, as Aaron was. Neither did Christ presume to set himself up as high priest, but was set apart by the One who said to him, “You’re my Son; today I celebrate you!” In another place God declares, “You’re a priest forever in the royal order of Melchizedek.”

^7-10 While he lived on earth, anticipating death, Jesus cried out in pain and wept in sorrow as he offered up priestly prayers to God. Because he honored God, God answered him. Though he was God’s Son, he learned trusting-obedience by what he suffered, just as we do. Then, having arrived at the full stature of his maturity and having been announced by God as high priest in the order of Melchizedek, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who believingly obey him.

Re-Crucifying Jesus

^11-14 I have a lot more to say about this, but it is hard to get it across to you since you’ve picked up this bad habit of not listening. By this time you ought to be teachers yourselves, yet here I find you need someone to sit down with you and go over the basics on God again, starting from square one—baby’s milk, when you should have been on solid food long ago! Milk is for beginners, inexperienced in God’s ways; solid food is for the mature, who have some practice in telling right from wrong.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

From the beginning, God wants us to be different and respond differently.  “You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.” Leviticus 20:26 tells us to be different. This verse says God chose His people to stand out from others.  Why?  So that others walking in darkness with dark thinking and behaving would notice our difference and be drawn to Him by His Light in us!

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:17-21

We are all called and set apart as believers to point the way to Jesus who is the Way to God, who is the Truth, and who leads us to Eternal Life with God! 

Accept, believe, grow in faith!

Upon surrender to God, we are set apart to be still and know that He is God before doing anything for God.  In the stillness, we form a habit of listening to God who tells us what to do in Jesus Name, for His glory and the good of ourselves and others seeking Him—a promise of God!  I am reminded of David’s “songs” that are full of remorse when he didn’t listen to God—a lesson to all of us.  But we read the words of joy, right in the middle of a lament, when David’s heart, mind, and soul turns back to who God is and proclaims God’s deep love for us. David praises God with thanksgiving for God.  David, another human who fell, but was forgiven and set apart by God.

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.” Psalm 46:1-3

“Come and see what the Lord has done, the desolations he has brought on the earth.
He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth.  He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire.
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”  The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Psalm 46:8-11

When we listen, truly listen to God we begin to know God more and grow in our intimately loving relationship with Him.  As we grow, the more we know, and are excited to go and tell others, teaching them all that Jesus has taught to us. This is the solid food of our existence!  This is the command of God through Jesus, His Son. (Matthew 28:20)

Lord,

Thank you for your Word lived out by your life.  You are the Word that came into the world and moved into the neighborhood of humanity to teach us how to love You and each other.  You taught us by your life how to surrender fully.  You surrendered, set apart to die for our sins so that we could be saved for eternity.  I believe.  I’m listening. I’m yours.

In Jesus Name, Amen

At the birth of our children, our first thought is love.  This love, that we never felt before, sees nothing but beauty in their tiny faces.  We glow when we present them to others to see and hold.  Our instinct, however, is to protect them. We vow that we will take care of all their needs and work hard each day to do just that—making sure they have food, clothes, and a roof over their heads.  We cherish them with a love so powerful we don’t fully understand it ourselves.  But we know, without prodding, that we will stand by them, hurt when they hurt, wishing we could take their pain on ourselves, while wiping their tears.  As they grow, our love only grows stronger.

This great love leads us to nurture them so that as they grow healthy physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually from infant through those toddler years, from toddler through elementary school to young adults through high school with compassionate care.  This loving care includes the disciplines of life.  Discipline with wisdom from God teaches us the skills for living life to the full.  This wisdom was based on the Big Ten that God delivered to Moses so that God’s people could grow in their love for him as He provided for all their needs.  Number one was Love God.  The second is to love others.  The eight others are formed from the first two, says Jesus.

When our growing children, who we love as much as ourselves or more, are disobedient and turn their backs on all that we tell them will help them to grow and mature in this love—it frustrates and exasperates us, right?  It’s because immature children do not see the larger picture—yet.  They only see what is in front of them, the shiny object that gets their momentary attention or the desire to be accepted by a group that also seeks to satisfy self, too.  So, they rebel against you and your great love for them.  They replace your no for their yes instead of loving you back with faith in your loving care of them.

Rebellion began with Adam and Eve.  The writer of Hebrews is explaining how this rebellion against God’s love, mercy, and grace with a promise to provide for all their needs continued through Moses’ generation and beyond!  But God’s love never fails or gives up on us.  He renews His promise because God is faithful—even when we are not.

When God’s children, who claim to believe but fail to have faith in Him, God is exasperated, too, like we are as parents!  How can we turn down God’s best for us?  Why turn down the discipline of growing in His love, accepting his mercy and generous grace.  Why do we stop seeking the wisdom of the One who created all, knows all and is in all for living our lives well by doing what HE says is good and right for us? 

But we do turn Him down in rebellion for our own desires.  Wow, we need a Savior! God knew what we would need from the beginning.  Jesus, His One and Only Son, provided. 

Take the mercy, accept the help.

Hebrews 4, The Message

When the Promises Are Mixed with Faith

^1-3 For as long, then, as that promise of resting in him pulls us on to God’s goal for us, we need to be careful that we’re not disqualified. We received the same promises as those people in the wilderness, but the promises didn’t do them a bit of good because they didn’t receive the promises with faith. If we believe, though, we’ll experience that state of resting. But not if we don’t have faith. Remember that God said,

Exasperated, I vowed,
    “They’ll never get where they’re going,
    never be able to sit down and rest.”

^3-7 God made that vow, even though he’d finished his part before the foundation of the world. Somewhere it’s written, “God rested the seventh day, having completed his work,” but in this other text he says, “They’ll never be able to sit down and rest.” So this promise has not yet been fulfilled. Those earlier ones never did get to the place of rest because they were disobedient. God keeps renewing the promise and setting the date as today, just as he did in David’s psalm, centuries later than the original invitation:

Today, please listen,
    don’t turn a deaf ear . . .

^8-11 And so this is still a live promise. It wasn’t canceled at the time of Joshua; otherwise, God wouldn’t keep renewing the appointment for “today.” The promise of “arrival” and “rest” is still there for God’s people. God himself is at rest. And at the end of the journey we’ll surely rest with God. So let’s keep at it and eventually arrive at the place of rest, not drop out through some sort of disobedience.

^12-13 God means what he says. What he says goes. His powerful Word is sharp as a surgeon’s scalpel, cutting through everything, whether doubt or defense, laying us open to listen and obey. Nothing and no one can resist God’s Word. We can’t get away from it—no matter what.

The High Priest Who Cried Out in Pain

^14-16 Now that we know what we have—Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God—let’s not let it slip through our fingers. We don’t have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all but the sin. So let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

“Now that we know what we have—Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God—let’s not let it slip through our fingers. We don’t have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all but the sin. So let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help.”

Lord,

Thank you for your word of promise in Jesus who saved us and set us free for our sins and from our selfishness. Thank you for your mercy delivered by your rescue. Thank you for your generous grace and relentless, unchanging, great love for us.  I’m sorry for all the times I frustrate you and cause you to become exasperated with me until I realize you are right all along. 

Thank you for saving my soul.  Thank you for holding me close as I accept your help in all the details of Today. 

In Jesus Name, Amen

It’s ingrained in me.  My mom did it.  My grandma did it. Our dining table always has a seasonal centerpiece. In the spring and summer, it might include the beautiful, fresh flowers of the season.  In fall it will include apples and other fruits of harvest.  In winter, is always a something to draw our attention to the center of the table. 

I was also taught to declutter everything that can easily accumulate on our dinner table during the work week.  The table becomes a drop zone of papers and backpacks!  The clutter piles up quickly with bills that must be paid, ads telling us what we must buy, notices of things we must do, along with kids’ school papers to sign and the good intentioned coupons we might use. It can become so cluttered as a makeshift filing system that there is no more room to eat.  So, instead of sitting down together for a meal; we grab a snack and sit on the couch.  If the table becomes too cluttered, the centerpiece becomes less noticeable.  The people become more detached from each other.  The trash on the table blocks the beauty of the centerpiece and discourages us to eat there.

Clutter is depressing and makes me sad until I remove it.

Our lives can become so cluttered with activities, good and bad, that the busyness can block our view of the Center of Life itself, namely Jesus.  Get a grip!  Go for a cleansing of the clutter from The Center who will declutter our lives with His simplicity of love, mercy, and grace and set us free.  Come to The Table of Jesus who wants to be the Center of all we think, say, and do.  Our work is to believe and follow the Center of our lives with every fiber of our being.

Hebrews 3, The Message

The Centerpiece of All We Believe

^1-6 So, my dear Christian friends, companions in following this call to the heights, take a good hard look at Jesus. He’s the centerpiece of everything we believe, faithful in everything God gave him to do. Moses was also faithful, but Jesus gets far more honor. A builder is more valuable than a building any day. Every house has a builder, but the Builder behind them all is God. Moses did a good job in God’s house, but it was all servant work, getting things ready for what was to come. Christ as Son is in charge of the house.

^6-11 Now, if we can only keep a firm grip on this bold confidence, we’re the house! That’s why the Holy Spirit says,

Today, please listen;
    don’t turn a deaf ear as in “the bitter uprising,”
    that time of wilderness testing!
Even though they watched me at work for forty years,
    your ancestors refused to let me do it my way;
    over and over they tried my patience.
And I was provoked, oh, so provoked!
    I said, “They’ll never keep their minds on God;
    they refuse to walk down my road.”
Exasperated, I vowed,
    “They’ll never get where they’re going,
    never be able to sit down and rest.”

^12-14 So watch your step, friends. Make sure there’s no evil unbelief lying around that will trip you up and throw you off course, diverting you from the living God. For as long as God’s still calling it Today, keep each other on your toes so sin doesn’t slow down your reflexes. If we can only keep our grip on the sure thing we started out with, we’re in this with Christ for the long haul.

These words keep ringing in our ears:

Today, please listen;
    don’t turn a deaf ear as in the bitter uprising.

^15-19 For who were the people who turned a deaf ear? Weren’t they the very ones Moses led out of Egypt? And who was God provoked with for forty years? Wasn’t it those who turned a deaf ear and ended up corpses in the wilderness? And when he swore that they’d never get where they were going, wasn’t he talking to the ones who turned a deaf ear? They never got there because they never listened, never believed.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

• Get a grip on our believing faith in Jesus as the Center of our lives.
• Listen to Him.  Please listen and obey from a deep love for the One who died and rose again for us.
• Remove all that can trip us up and block our view of God, asking in the Name of Jesus.
• Keep a grip on a sure thing—Jesus at the Center!
• Avoid all that distracts, deceives, and deconstructs our faith in God through Jesus.
• Help each other stay focused on The Center.
• “We’re in this with Christ for the long haul!”

Dear Lord,

Cleanse our hearts, renew our minds, declutter our souls of all that does not belong, and restore the joy and peace of your salvation at work within us.  Be the Center of our lives.

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen