Hebrews - part 5

Chapters 11 - 13 - Faith and instructions

11:1 - Faith = sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

11:3 - Just a little jab at evolution! - What is seen was made out of what is not visible.

11:4 - 38 - Faith without seeing the end result!
Abel
Noah
Abraham
Sarah
Isaac
Jacob
Joseph
Moses
Rahab
and Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets.

11:39 - These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised themselves.
11:40 - God had planned something better for us so that only together wit us would they be made perfect.

All these guys (and girls) were faithful without ever truly seeing success. They didn't live in the promised land, they did see Jesus Christ resurrected from the grave. The prophet Jeremiah obeyed God and warned the people for over 40 years and yet he died without seeing the people of Israel turn back to God.
*This is the kind of faith and obedience God requires of me. Do I only obey when I can see the promised end result? Or am I willing to obey even if I never see it?

12:5-6 - encouragement that we are disciplined
12:7-12 - Endure hardship as discipline. If we are not disciplined then we are illegitimate, therefore, praise God for discipline! Yes it's painful, but it produces righteousness and peace.

12:14 - 21 - We have not come to mt. Sinai, we are not under the wrath of God.
12:22 - 24 - But you have come to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant - Forgiveness!

Chapter 13 - Instructions

1. Love each other
2. Entertain strangers (They may be angels!)
3. Bear each others burdens
4. Honor the law, especially as it relates to marriage, adultery and sexual immorality.
5. Don't love money! - Be content
6. Remember those who brought you to faith - imitate their faith.
7. Don't be at home here on earth, remember we are looking for the city that is to come.
8. Praise Jesus Christ!
9. Share
10. Obey your leaders - Don't be a burden to them
11. Pray for others

13:20-21

May the God of peace equip you with everything good for doing His will. May He work in us what is pleasing to Him.

Amen.

Hebrews - part 4

Chapter 10 - What are we to do?

10:1-10 - We will never gain salvation through the law, or even trough obedience. Salvation is Jesus Christ's work alone - once for all - because it is a perfect sacrifice.

10:19 - 39 - What are we to do?

1. Draw near to God in full assurance of faith
2. Hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.
3. Spur one another on toward love and good deeds
4. Meet together, fellowship
5. Encourage one another
6. Don't deliberately keep sinning! Those who rejected the law died without mercy, how much more do we deserve if we trample on the Son of God Himself!
7. Stand your ground for Jesus Christ and stand with those who are persecuted.
8. Joyfully accept persecution and when earthly things are taken away, knowing that we have better and lasting possession in heaven.
9. Be confident! We will be rewarded.
10. Don't shrink back - We are delivered and saved.

Hebrews - Part 3

Chapter 8-9 - Jesus, the True Priest and the true tabernacle

8:1 - 2 This is the point! - We have a true priest, Jesus Christ and He sits at God's right hand and serves - He abides in the true tabernacle (God among His people) and that tabernacle is set up by God, not man.

8:5 - The earthly sanctuary is a copy of what is in heaven. God wanted the tabernacle of the Israelites in the desert to be beautiful because it is a symbol of hope and to give us a glimpse of what heaven will be like.

Imagine the tabernacle with all it's gold, silver, bronze and embroidery, without the massive amounts of blood from the sacrifices. And with the tapestry separating the Most Holy Place torn so we can enter. And there, instead of the ark, or maybe along with the ark, is God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit on their thrones; and we at last can see His face because we are in our glorified bodies and are finally without the curse of sin. The only blood is that which is on Jesus Christ Himself. I imagine that blood will be beautiful to us in that moment. The true moment of faith becoming sight. The first time we will truly worship. To see the face of God and live. To not just be surrounded by His Glory but engulfed in it, filled with it, able to taste it! I imagine taking communion there and Jesus Himself standing there with His arms outstretched saying, "this is my body, broken for you."

It reminds me of a song, "You're God in heaven and here am I on earth...now I'll let my words be few. Jesus, I am so in love with You."

Hebrews part 2

Chapter 7 - Melchizedek

7:17 - "For He testifies: "You are a priest forever, According to the order of Melchizedek."

Melchizedek is an important guy, obviously, if God chooses this to be the order that Jesus is a part of, but yet he does not have a lot of mention in the bible. There is no genealogy of Him and no record of his death. He had very little time on stage, so to speak. He was the priest that Abraham gave his tithe to, however, and this is the line that Jesus Christ is in the order of as a priest forever, as apposed to the Levitical priesthood.
*Time on stage doesn't equal importance to God. Obedience to His command, however big or small, is what matters to the one who sees all.

7:25 - Therefore, He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them.
* Jesus has conquered death
* Jesus intercedes for me! that means when I don't know what to say or how to pray, I can simply come, show up and ask Him to do the same. I can just say, "Lord, read my heart and intercede on my behalf." How refreshing to know that I don't have to have words to communicate with God.

Hebrews - part 1

Just finished Hebrews! Read it in one day, which I highly recommend. I have so much to talk about in this book I will just start with a few here and make this a 5 part series.

I will break this up into sections and just give the things that especially hit me in each section.

Hebrews 1 - 6

2:9 - "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone."
* Jesus tasted death for me.
* He became lower than the angels. He left His seat at the right hand of God to do so.

2:11 - We are in God's family! Jesus Christ calls us brothers! WOW!
2:17 - He was fully man and fully God.

4:12 - The word is living and active. People who don't know the Lord read this as a book. When you have the Holy Spirit, it is a conversation with God.
4:12 - Nothing is hidden from God. Not my thoughts, good or bad. Not my feelings or desires and not y weaknesses or fears AND
*4:15 - Jesus Christ is able to sympathize with our weaknesses! What a Saviour!

5:8 Although He (JC) was a son, He learned obedience from what He suffered. ***GET THIS*** Jesus Christ LEARNED obedience from HIS suffering! Just let that sink in alittle.....

6:12 - "We do not want you to become lazy, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised."
* We have salvation as a gift - no work required, but the Israelites had tons of work, bloody work. They did it to ensure the promised land and stave off death. We do it out of gratitude to Jesus Christ, out of our desire to say, "Thank You!" and because of the Holy Spirit living inside of us. But this verse, in essence, is saying that it is still work, it still requires effort. The Israelites had to put forth great effort and we should be willing to do the same, not out of fear of loosing our salvation, but out of gratitude for the work Jesus Christ has already done in us. As a thank you to Him for saving us from our wicked selves.


Part 2 will be chapter 7 - Melchizedek
Part 3 will be Chapter 8-9 - Jesus, the True Priest and the true tabernacle
Part 4 will be Chapter 10 - What are we to do?
Part 5 will be Chapter 11 - 13 - Faith and instructions

God, if this is not your will, take it away, because I won't see it

"God, if this is not your will, take it away, because I won't see it."


I have only sincerely prayed that prayer once in my life. It is a scary and big prayer especially when the thing you are praying it about is something you really really want to happen. It was several months before I was suppose to marry my college boyfriend. I already had my wedding dress and the flowers, cake and catering had been ordered. The brides maids were chosen and the honeymoon was booked. The invitations were at the printer and yet, I had secret doubts. They were doubts that I actually had often, but would never admit to anyone, including myself, except for this one brief and honest encounter with God.


I prayed that prayer and then my worst fear happened, God took him away. And just as I had said in the prayer, I did not see it. Truthfully, I didn't understand it for a long time. My world had been pulled apart. A year and a half later, I still did not understand it. I actually found a diary from that time in my life and this is what I wrote, "I'm tired of missing him. When does it end? I'm tired of hurting because of him. I just feel so jumbled up inside. I feel very fragile and weak and like there is no one to help me stand. I feel crazy. Maybe I need some sort of medicine."


And then, just as I had convinced myself that this was as good as it gets, and I would never find real love or passion again, I met Rich. Then the real miracle happened and God started drawing me back to Himself and for the first time, I made Jesus Christ the Lord of my life. I have been saved since I was 12 years old but it was not until this moment at age 26, almost 3 years after the "God take it away" prayer, did I commit to making Him Lord of my life. Then, I understood.


I understood that my former boyfriend/fiance had been my choice, not God's. I understood Jeremiah 29:11, "'for I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" I understood that His ways are not my ways and His thoughts are not my thoughts. I understood that His ways are way better than my ways! I understood that although I had NEVER been faithful, He always had. I understood that even when I don't understand, His will is still better than mine.


Hebrews 12:7-8,11 says "Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons...No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it."


The bottom line is we are spoiled little brats who want our way and God has to get that out of us. And if we are truly His child, then He is committed to our discipline and He will continue until we have learned our lesson. The key is not to ask for God to stop the pain and suffering and just give us what we want, the key is to ask God to stop our want and make it His will.

Leviticus

I just finished Leviticus in my BSF bible study. For many people it was grueling and they couldn't wait for it to be over. It is a very misunderstood book in the bible. I love Leviticus. The first time a studied it was at my old church in San Diego, Horizon Christian Fellowship. The pastor who did the study is a microbiologist and he had amazing insight into every aspect of every little instruction that God gave the Hebrews. He presented it as a book that is a guidebook to worship and a book of prophecy. This time around, I learned even more and Leviticus has once again changed the way I look at God and my relationship with Him. Here is some of what I've learned in the past few weeks in no particular order:
1. We are no longer under God's wrath, but under His grace. When the Israelites didn't obey God's commands He had a LONG list of devastating things that would happen to them. Now, although we may suffer great consequences for our sin, we do not live under the threat of Gd's ultimate wrath. When I go to God in prayer, no matter what state I am in currently, He sees me through the blood of His Son. He sees me as His own child, living in His complete grace. He wants to spend time with me. He meets me right where I am in whatever state I am in.
2. I am completely poor. I own nothing, and am owed nothing. Everything I have is given to me as a gift from God, including the very air I breath every day. Therefore, everything I have should be treated as God's property and taken care of in that way.
3. Israel was a theocracy. Because we are not, the US will never run like Israel did.
4. God dwelled among the people in the form of a cloud that was over the Tent of Meeting (Tabernacle). God wants to dwell among His people today, have I set Him a place in the center of my life? Do I act like He is dwelling among us and within me?
5. The Israelites had to wait for the cloud to move before they could move closer to the promised land and further on there journey. Do I wait for God to move in my life or do I try and force things, because I want something to go faster.
6. God spends a great deal of time teaching the Israelites lessons through waiting. Many of His commandments to them had to do with stopping, waiting and focusing on God, instead of themselves, work or anything else. God really, really means it. He really wants us to live a restful life and one focused on Him.
7. The only mention of retirement in the bible is to the Levites. They were told they had to retire at age 50. I think this means that God truly desires a life completely dedicated, and set apart for Him.
8. The book of Leviticus is almost entirely the exact words of God, more than any other book in the bible.
9. It took lots and lots of blood to cover sins. Thank God for Jesus.
10. God is a God of details, order, compassion, faith and holiness.
11. God asks us to be holy, set apart, and to be godly, to reflect His character. We learn of God's grace and love in the New Testament, but we learn God's character in the Old Testament. We are cheating ourselves and being short sided in our relationship with Him if we don't study both.
12. Hebrews is the new testament commentary to Leviticus. I am in the process of reading that now. I will write what I have learned from Hebrews when I am done.

God is good all the time.