November 8 - Hebrews 9:1-10 - The Temporary Give Glimpses of the Eternal
2 A tabernacle was set up. In its first room were the lampstand and the table with its consecrated bread; this was called the Holy Place. 3 Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place, 4 which had the golden altar of incense and the gold-covered ark of the covenant. This ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant. 5 Above the ark were the cherubim of the Glory, overshadowing the atonement cover.
November 7 - Hebrews 8:1-13 - Honor Beside the Throne
1 Here is the main point: We have a High Priest who sat down in the place of honor beside the throne of the majestic God in heaven. 2 There he ministers in the heavenly Tabernacle, the true place of worship that was built by the Lord and not by human hands.
November 6 - Hebrews 7:18-28 - Forever in 4D
24 But because Jesus lives forever, his priesthood lasts forever. 25 Therefore he is able, once and forever, to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf.
November 5 - Hebrews 7:1-17 - King of Justice, King of Peace
The name Melchizedek means “king of justice,” and king of Salem means “king of peace.” 3 There is no record of his father or mother or any of his ancestors—no beginning or end to his life. He remains a priest forever, resembling the Son of God.
November 4 - Hebrews 6:1-20 - A Strong and Trustworthy Anchor
17 God also bound himself with an oath, so that those who received the promise could be perfectly sure that he would never change his mind. 18 So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. 19 This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls.
Author's Note: The following week's worth of posts will be Scripture portions for you to meditate on and perhaps to share your insights about in the "comments" section. I will be traveling to Alaska to visit my granddaughters (one of which I have yet to meet in person) and I'm sure I will find it difficult to pull myself away from their sweetness. The blog is yours!
Author's Note: The following week's worth of posts will be Scripture portions for you to meditate on and perhaps to share your insights about in the "comments" section. I will be traveling to Alaska to visit my granddaughters (one of which I have yet to meet in person) and I'm sure I will find it difficult to pull myself away from their sweetness. The blog is yours!
November 3 - Hebrews 5:1-14 - No Meat on Baby’s Menu
When my wife and I go out to eat at a new restaurant, we have very different approaches to the menu. I go to a new restaurant to try something new. I will look for an entree on the menu that I have never eaten before. If I steer away from the few items on my personal “nasty list” – strong cheeses, Brussels sprouts, and cream sauce – I usually have a very nice dining experience, in spite of the risk. Sandie is not a risk taker in this situation. If she likes the ambience and the wait staff and the prices, she will also want to like her meal. So, she will look for something on the menu that is familiar; a standard; predictable. If she ends up with something hard to swallow, having to pay for it will be really hard to swallow.
Looking at today’s chapter in Hebrews, I see spiritual truths described as menu items. There are the milky items and the meaty items. Like physical food, spiritual truths are palatable and digestible according to the development of the eater. Infants drink milk. The mature eat meat. It takes some growing up to be able to wield a knife and fork well, and to be able to chew and swallow something of substance. Slicing up God’s Word carefully, breaking it down and digesting it also takes some maturity. Unfortunately, many prefer not to grow up in their faith. The author writes, “though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths … all over again.” You need milk, not meat!
If you haven’t already done so, set your bib and your Peter Pan booties aside, and make a commitment to grow up. Make up your mind to master the milk and then the meal and then the meat. Each stage provides preparation and strength for the next. Knowledge leads to wisdom and discernment. Then our efforts become Kingdom-effective and truly Christ-like. Let’s look at a few truths in the text that are hard to swallow for the infant, but manageable for the mature.
The mature are able to deal gently with those whose weaknesses are showing, because they are sensitive to their own weaknesses. The immature deny their own weaknesses and have little patience for those they see as faulty. They try to mask their weakness by coming on strong with others. How far grown are you with this truth? Are you milky or meaty?
Next, the text reveals that the mature do not take for themselves the honor of leadership among God’s people; they must be called by God. Some pursue leadership in the church as a privileged position, but pride and true piety do not mix. The mature are humbled by the honor to serve God and His people, carefully administering grace as representatives of Christ. How do you fare on the maturity scale with this menu item?
Some of the harder truths to explain, and thus to swallow, are those related to Jesus, the God-man. His incarnation is a mystery at many points. How is it that He is God and yet cries out in prayer with tears? How is it that He must learn obedience through suffering? These concepts challenge well-developed minds, much more the elementary thinker. Hopefully we see in these mysteries the models for our own behavior – the need to submit with reverence to God, to channel our passions in prayer to the One who can satisfy our heart’s cry, and to understand the value of pain in the formation and steeling of our faith.
So, what’s on your menu tonight? Similac? Or steak?
Pray: Lord, help me to grow up. Help me to cooperate with you in the development of my faith. Nourish me, strengthen me. Build me up to serve You, your people and the world well, in the pattern of the perfect man, Jesus Christ. Jesus, you are my model for maturity.
November 2 - Hebrews 4:1-16 - A Constellation of Pearls
It has nothing to do with today’s Scripture text, but congratulations to the San Francisco Giants for winning the World Series. The Giants moved from New York to SF before I learned to walk, and they hadn’t won the Big League Championship since my Mom graduated high school. They had an earthquake in 1989, and a meltdown in 2002, but finally San Francisco has its first World Series winner!
“And now for something completely different...”
The fourth chapter of Hebrews has a number of big ideas, beautiful gems that could easily be explored and appreciated separately -- The idea that God’s Word must be combined with faith for us to arrive at His promised rest; the idea that God’s Word is a living, active, “blade” that cuts to our core and reveals our inner self; and the idea that Jesus was tempted in His humanity in every way as we are, yet sinless and ready to help us in our time of temptation. These are pearls of truth, and I’d like to attempt to string them together. Perhaps I can connect these brilliant stars and produce a spiritual constellation.
Stars were and can still be used as a means of navigation. We can use them to arrive at our desired destination. Today’s text talks about God’s special destination for us. He calls it His ‘Sabbath Rest.’ It is fore- shadowed in the seventh day of creation, where everything is good and God’s work is complete. It is foreshadowed in the Israelites entering
the Promised Land under Joshua (whose name is the Hebrew form of ‘Jesus.’) God’s special destination for us is Heaven. That is the ultimate rest. But the text tells us that just knowing this does not guarantee arrival.
Because I know who Jesus is and that there is a heaven doesn’t guarantee that I will abide there. “The message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard it did not combine it with faith.” The message is that God in Christ loved us and saved us from our sins by His death and resurrection. But to realize the promise of heaven that comes with that good news (that gospel), we must add faith to it. We must believe it. Trust it. Hold fast to it as truth. Not put some of our ‘money’ down on it as a safe bet; but, go ‘all in’ without reservation. “Those who formerly had the gospel preached to them
did not go in, because of their disobedience.”
That last quote is interesting because it reveals that the opposite of faith is not unbelief, it is disobedience. The Word of God lays open the truth about Jesus, and also lays open the hearts of men. The keen, double-edged sword of God’s Word divides soul and spirit and accurately assesses the thoughts and intentions at our center. This Word also divides the path before us. It forks the road. It calls for a decision –
faith or disobedience.
For the one choice to be called ‘disobedience,’ it must be that this Word of God is coming to us in the form of a command and not a question. Not, “Would you like to put your faith in Jesus Christ?” but, “Put your faith in Jesus Christ.” God has the authority to command us. He is our Father with the right to be imperative with His children. Meanwhile, temptation would have us say, “No” to our Father. Temptation is what tells us to buck against God’s authority. It wants to draw us down the other path. It says, "Take the other fork in the road."
Jesus Himself dealt with temptation. As the Father’s will was revealed to Him, even He had to decide to go against it or go the way of obedience; the way of faith. He chose faith. And now He reigns from Heaven.
So the pearls are strung; the stars align in constellation -- The Word reveals the gospel. The gospel promises heaven. But the gospel calls for faith. Temptation calls for disobedience. The road is forked, and a choice must be made. The Word reveals our hearts. Is our heart’s intention to trust God or to entertain temptation? Jesus encountered these forks in the road. He prayed and overcame. In our time of temptation we can pray to Him, and receive grace to choose faith. And if we will, consistently, choose faith, we will arrive at His promised destination.
Use these stars to navigate by. And enter His rest.
Pray: Jesus, I approach your throne of grace with confidence, knowing you will help me in my time of need. I need faith. Show me your heart and mine, that I might make every effort to obey all the way to glory.
“And now for something completely different...”
The fourth chapter of Hebrews has a number of big ideas, beautiful gems that could easily be explored and appreciated separately -- The idea that God’s Word must be combined with faith for us to arrive at His promised rest; the idea that God’s Word is a living, active, “blade” that cuts to our core and reveals our inner self; and the idea that Jesus was tempted in His humanity in every way as we are, yet sinless and ready to help us in our time of temptation. These are pearls of truth, and I’d like to attempt to string them together. Perhaps I can connect these brilliant stars and produce a spiritual constellation.
Stars were and can still be used as a means of navigation. We can use them to arrive at our desired destination. Today’s text talks about God’s special destination for us. He calls it His ‘Sabbath Rest.’ It is fore- shadowed in the seventh day of creation, where everything is good and God’s work is complete. It is foreshadowed in the Israelites entering
the Promised Land under Joshua (whose name is the Hebrew form of ‘Jesus.’) God’s special destination for us is Heaven. That is the ultimate rest. But the text tells us that just knowing this does not guarantee arrival.
Because I know who Jesus is and that there is a heaven doesn’t guarantee that I will abide there. “The message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard it did not combine it with faith.” The message is that God in Christ loved us and saved us from our sins by His death and resurrection. But to realize the promise of heaven that comes with that good news (that gospel), we must add faith to it. We must believe it. Trust it. Hold fast to it as truth. Not put some of our ‘money’ down on it as a safe bet; but, go ‘all in’ without reservation. “Those who formerly had the gospel preached to them
did not go in, because of their disobedience.”
That last quote is interesting because it reveals that the opposite of faith is not unbelief, it is disobedience. The Word of God lays open the truth about Jesus, and also lays open the hearts of men. The keen, double-edged sword of God’s Word divides soul and spirit and accurately assesses the thoughts and intentions at our center. This Word also divides the path before us. It forks the road. It calls for a decision –
faith or disobedience.
For the one choice to be called ‘disobedience,’ it must be that this Word of God is coming to us in the form of a command and not a question. Not, “Would you like to put your faith in Jesus Christ?” but, “Put your faith in Jesus Christ.” God has the authority to command us. He is our Father with the right to be imperative with His children. Meanwhile, temptation would have us say, “No” to our Father. Temptation is what tells us to buck against God’s authority. It wants to draw us down the other path. It says, "Take the other fork in the road."
Jesus Himself dealt with temptation. As the Father’s will was revealed to Him, even He had to decide to go against it or go the way of obedience; the way of faith. He chose faith. And now He reigns from Heaven.
So the pearls are strung; the stars align in constellation -- The Word reveals the gospel. The gospel promises heaven. But the gospel calls for faith. Temptation calls for disobedience. The road is forked, and a choice must be made. The Word reveals our hearts. Is our heart’s intention to trust God or to entertain temptation? Jesus encountered these forks in the road. He prayed and overcame. In our time of temptation we can pray to Him, and receive grace to choose faith. And if we will, consistently, choose faith, we will arrive at His promised destination.
Use these stars to navigate by. And enter His rest.
Pray: Jesus, I approach your throne of grace with confidence, knowing you will help me in my time of need. I need faith. Show me your heart and mine, that I might make every effort to obey all the way to glory.
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