Hebrews 6:19-20

Ever washed out of anything?

It's a funny term, isn't it? "Wash out". It can mean to clean, to disinfect, to sanitize. To make a dish safe for eating out of. It can mean that, but not when we use it about ourselves.
Wash out means to fail, to give up, to lose badly.
It's a strangely appropriate phrase when we talk about people that have lost all hope: we sometimes say that desperate people have washed out of life.

But hope is a powerful thing. Many hopeful patients fight off terminal diseases, overcome impossible odds for survival, and shock doctors with their regenerative abilities; while patients that give up often languish and die quickly. Hope has the power to transform our lives.
In this verse, the author of Hebrews says that we have a hope that is an anchor, firm and secure.

Okay, I'll tell you one of my pet peeves: I hate being disappointed. Don't you, though? You're counting on something to happen or for somebody to come through for you, and then it just doesn't work out.
I hate that!
But the hope that he's talking about here in Hebrews, this is the kind of hope that won't let you down--it's not going to fall through at the last minute. That's why the author calls it an anchor: because it's going to stay there, and nothing is going to move it or break it or invalidate it.
This is our hope in Christ: it's an immovable object. We can put down our anchor in a storm, and the storm may blow us around and soak us and leave us gasping for breath, but it's not going to move us because our anchor will keep us from drifting off course.
It'll keep us from washing out, you see. Hope is what helps us to get out of bed in the morning when the only thing we have to look forward to is a miserable day. Hope is what keeps us from giving up when we've lost everything else.

This is what we gain in Christ: we gain hope that will not fail us when we need it the most. Our get-rich-quick schemes, our well-laid plans, our mutual funds and IRAs may disappoint us, but this will not: Christ died for us, and He negotiates with God on our behalf, and He loves us.
And that's something we can take to the bank.

Hebrews 6:13-20

In verse 17, the author says that God wanted to make the "unchanging nature of His purpose" clear to the heirs of His promise. You might think those heirs should be Abraham's descendants, since he's talking about Abraham in the passage; however, the author doesn't--in verse 18, he identifies those heirs with "us", New Testament believers.

Understand this: God's plan has not changed in over 3500 years. The promise God made to Abraham led to the promise He makes to us, because it's the same promise. God's intentions toward mankind have not changed, His feelings have not changed, His mind has not changed. That was true 2000 years ago, and it's still true today.
I Peter says that for God, one day is the same as a thousand years. That seems pretty radical, but look at it from another perspective:
A movie director shoots a film. The director can choose to shoot any event in the movie in any order he wants, because he's not bound by the timeline of the film. He's outside that timeline. For the director, the ending of the movie isn't any different than the beginning; he can look at the ending, he can look at the beginning. He can look at the middle. He can consider any angle of the movie, any second within the movie, at any time--because he's the one creating the timeline within the movie, he isn't bound at all by movie time.
God's the same way. God created time, and He's above it, outside of it. There's nothing miraculous or supernatural about God being outside of time; it's only natural, because He's the One that created it! It's only fitting that a creator should not be constrained by the laws of his creation, isn't it? In the same way, it's very natural that God should see a single moment and a thousand year span as the same thing.

Now, with that in mind, how can I say that God has changed His mind about anything that happens in time? That's a mathematical equation that doesn't add up: change is a function of time, and we've already established that God doesn't exist within the boundaries of time. Even if God were to experience a type of time, it would be on a completely different scale than the one we know.
So, mathematically speaking, we might say that since God doesn't experience time, (being above it and not within its influence) it's impossible for God to change.

Smart person that you are, I'm sure you're asking, But if that's true, then how can we influence God? Why bother praying at all?
And I'll tell you, ...
I don't know. :) Good question. Never said my theory was perfect... but, according to this verse in Hebrews, God's purpose hasn't changed, and I believe that, even if I don't understand it all the way yet.

One thing is certain: God doesn't think of change in the same way we understand it. His plans take millenia to unfold, and He's been working on salvation for a lot longer than you or I can comprehend.
And another thing I know: I factored into God's purpose when He formulated it. So did you. God took each one of us into account when He set this world in motion and spun the stars into the web of the heavens.
And since He thought of you then, before the sun was setting on the world for the very first time, do you really believe He's going to forget about you now? God made the promise to Father Abraham so that we might have hope, you and I, and that promise was made thousands of years ago.
When you read the book of Genesis, you read a book that God wrote for you! Doesn't this tell you that? If this says that God spoke His words to a man two thousand years before the birth of Christ so that I, close to four thousand years later, might read them and believe in them, then how can I say that the book of Genesis doesn't belong in my life?
And it's not just true of Genesis--this is the whole Old Testament. When God made His promise to Noah, He was writing a promise for us. When God gave a sign to Gideon, He was giving us the same sign. When God issued the challenge of Immanuel to King Ahaz, He was showing us the same miracle. When God saved the people of Ninevah from their sins, He was writing to save me from mine.
God's purpose throughout the ages has not shifted or changed, and it will remain constant all the days of my short life: God wills that you and I come to know Him and the salvation He offers, and that we should love Him and spend eternity with Him. He loves us! He's been proving it to us since the dawn of time.

Hebrews 6:4-12

What does it mean to be faithful?

I have a wife, and I need to be faithful to her. Does that mean I shouldn't sleep with other women? Well, sure--but doesn't it mean a lot more than that?
What do I have to do to be a faithful husband? Do I have to love my wife? Do I have to try to love my wife, even when she's being difficult? Do I need to show her that I love her? Do I need to provide for her? Do I need to do my best to make her happy and to give her what she needs?
Don't I need to do all these things to be a faithful husband? If I stop doing these things, these things I promised her I'd do when we said our vows, I may lose my right to be her husband.
And doesn't that seem fitting and right? Isn't that just?

I have a friend. (More than one, really...) In order to be a faithful friend, I need to spend time with my friend, let him rant when he's having a bad day, care about what he's going through, help him out when he needs it and I can. I need to be there as a friend. If I stop doing those things, I might lose a friend.
Right?

I have a job. In order to be a faithful employee, I need to show up at work, do my work, give it my best effort, work well with other people. I need to contribute to the company's success. If I stop doing that, it's quite possible that I'd lose my job.

All these things seem right and proper to us, don't they? We don't complain about any of these things, because they just seem fair.
So why is it that sometimes we feel like our relationship to God should be different? Sometimes we feel like God owes us salvation--or, maybe we wouldn't put it in those words: maybe we'd say to ourselves, God would never take away my right to be His child.
...
I'd say that's pretty close to being accurate. Read the book of Hosea. I'd say that it would kill God to take away my right to sonship in His family just as much as it would kill me.
Maybe you have kids and you saying that you can't imagine ever giving them up, no matter what they did wrong. I'd say you've got an inkling of how God feels.

And yet, there it is. Sometimes we have to give up relationships that we don't want to give up. Read Hosea chapter 10 and understand that God did not want to punish the nation of Israel, the kingdom of Samaria. He suffered with them long, but He finally destroyed them.
And yet... And yet, hundreds of years later, when good Jews hated the Samaritans for their rebellion against God, when the children of Israel rejected the former Ephraimites with a righteous indignation, even in these times, God came down to earth, a man, and did He pass around the country of Samaria with His jewish brethren? No, but He went to Samaria and He tried to teach the word of God there, just as He did in Jerusalem!
Know this: our God, Whom we serve, is righteous and holy and blameless altogether, not suffering evil and punishing unrighteousness in all; but He is a kind and loving God, eager to forgive those that will repent and slow to punish those whom He loves. He is not willing that any be lost, but that all should come to the knowledge of the truth.

In light of this marvellous love and unceasing faithfulness, we have to ask ourselves: what have I promised to God? When I took on baptism, when I entered my covenant with God, what did I promise to give Him? What did I promise to keep for Him and for Him alone? Did I promise to be pure? Did I promise to be righteous? Did I promise to be penitent? Did I promise to trust in God?
If I promised Him any of those things, then what must I do to be faithful to Him? If God treated me the way I treat Him, would I consider Him to be faithful to me?

Hebrews 5:11-6:3

Sometimes, when you're reading the bible, you get the definite feeling that the author has someone in his mind when he's writing a particular passage... This is one of those times. The author's rebuke here comes through very harsh and very clear. "What are you doing?" he chastises in frustration. "You should be teaching others algebra by now, and yet you still can't add or subtract!"

sigh. I'm one of these people--I'm very slow to learn. I hate being that way! People tell me the right way to do something, or they'll tell me that I shouldn't do something because it's going to turn out badly. Do I listen? Of course not! I've got to go and find out for myself. I've learned a lot, and I've made all the mistakes to prove it. Wouldn't life be simpler if we all just listened the first time and believed people when they told us that some things were bad and we shouldn't do them?
Don't get me wrong, I haven't made the worst mistakes in my life. I could've made a lot more damaging mistakes... But I'll swear, I think I've probably made some of the most stupid mistakes!

But God's good, and He's been very patient with me. ;) He's taught me a lot. He's forgiven me a lot, and sometimes a lot more than I've been able to forgive myself.

But enough about me! This verse is about those poor saps like me that look at a verse and look at a verse and never pay attention to it. We live our lives as Christians and call ourselves Christians, and yet, at the end of the day, we can't remember a single thing we've actually done for Christ. This verse is about those of us that should be spending our time doing spiritual calculus, and yet we find that we can't even add up grace and salvation.
We've all been there before. We'll all be there again. This is part of being human. For me and for everybody, at some points in our lives, this verse is meant for us.

So in chapter 6, the author moves on to an exhortation.
I'm not sure I like the way this particular chapter in Hebrews is broken up. Whoever put in the chapters, God bless him, I think didn't stop to consider a daily bible reading plan when he ended chapter 5 here. I mean, I finish chapter 5 and the bible is telling me, "Jonathan! Come on, guy, you're being a loser! Look at what you've learned about being righteous and what you should've learned by now! Get with the program, buddy!" Then I move into chapter 6 and it says to me, "Come on, Jonathan! You can do better!"
I don't know about you, but I'd like to hear that last part along with the first. Otherwise, I'm saying to myself as I go to bed, "Geeze. God doesn't think much of me, does he?"

Right?

But it's not what the author is saying. He's not trying to make the reader feel stupid or to beat herself up for not studying, he's trying to convict us that we need to do better in the future. In saying that, he's telling us that we can do better!
God believes in you! He believes in me! He believes in our ability to understand the bible! If He didn't, then verse 1 wouldn't be here--the passage really would have ended with chapter 5 and verse 14.
But that's not where it ends, and that's not where we should end it. We look at the end of chapter 5, and we tell ourselves, "It's true, I am like a baby. I haven't learned everything that I should!" and it's true. But that realization should not lead me to say, "I've failed Righteousness 101, so I need to drop out and stop trying to be what I'm not."
God forbid!
The very next verse does not say, "Give up, you hypocrite;" the next verse says, "Because of this, we need to move on with our education! We need to do better! We need to learn the things we missed!"

Never, ever come away from the book of Hebrews thinking that you're a failure as a Christian. Look at some of the names in chapter 11: in verse 31, the prostitute Rahab. In verse 32, Gideon, Samson, Jephthah. These are not shining heroes of the Old Testament--look them up! Their stories make you laugh and say, "Well. God's the one that pulled that off!"
And yet, these are the heroes of faith in the book of Hebrews. These are the men and women that believed in God, and that's all they had going for them.

And this is the teaching about righteousness, this is distinguishing good from evil: we believe God, and put our faith in Him. We try to please Him in our lives. We try to give God the glory in our lives.
And we're not good enough or strong enough or important enough to succeed at any of that, and we know it, and God knows it. But we become mighty men and women of faith, we become heroes of the faith, because we believe in God and put our hope in Him.

That's what pleases God. That's how we live what we believe.

Hebrews 5:7-10

Do you ever suffer from trials or problems? Do you ever feel like life is picking on you?

I think you're probably answering yes. Don't we all have hard times sometimes? That's life.
Now, let me tell you: if I were God, and I chose to come down to earth, I would make sure to scratch all the suffering parts off my itinerary. Sunset in Maui? Yes, I think I'll take two of those. Suffering and dying at the hands of an angry mob? No, thanks--think I'll pass on that one.

That's not the way Jesus thought. Jesus partook of the suffering; this verse says the suffering taught Him obedience. In fact, this verse says that the suffering Jesus went through made Him perfect.
I've talked about this before in this blog. How can Jesus be made perfect, we ask--wasn't He always perfect?
But untested perfection isn't perfection at all.
Have you ever watched infomercials? The people on TV use the product--whatever it is--and it never breaks, and it always works perfectly for them, and it always makes their jobs so much easier. You watch the program and by the end of it, you're thinking, How did I ever get by without that thing? I'd better call now before the special deal goes away!
Isn't that the way it goes?
But have you ever actually bought one of those products? You get it in the mail after 4-6 weeks and you're itching to try it out. You pull it out of the box and fire it up and--what happens? It breaks. Maybe it doesn't work for you at all. Maybe it works sometimes, but not all the time.
I hate that! The TV promise for the perfect product goes up in smoke.

Perfection is easy on TV. Perfection works in lab tests, or in clinical trials, or on paper. But perfection is much harder in real life. This is where perfection breaks down and ideal meets reality.

This is why Jesus had to be 'made perfect'. He couldn't learn obedience until He faced temptation. He couldn't learn perseverance until He had experienced trial. He couldn't understand faithfulness until He had come face-to-face with hardship.
This is what eminently qualifies Jesus to be our high priest. Jesus understands temptation because He was tempted. He understands sin because He's faced sin Himself. He understands weakness because He has been weak. He understands how easy it can be to disobey God, because there were times He didn't want to obey.
And Jesus faced all that, and He remained perfect. Jesus is not perfect on paper or in clinical trials; Jesus went to court, literally, and was proved innocent. He was inspected by the high priests and found to be without blemish.
And after all that, He was sacrificed. According to John 11:49-52, Caiaphas, the high priest, had a vision that Jesus would die for the people.

Mark this: Jesus was brought before the high priests and inspected and found to be without blemish. Then He was sacrificed by the priests for the people.

Jesus was a perfect sacrifice for our sins, and by His blood we are purified of our sins. And by His faithful sacrifice, He proved Himself worthy of the King's place under God and over all creation.

What does this say to us? If Jesus had to suffer so that He could be made perfect by God, we shouldn't be surprised when sufferings come on us. James says in 1:2 that we should be joyful when we have to face trials, because we know that these trials will make our faith stronger.
It's so hard to do, but it makes such a difference when we face the hardships and the difficulties we hate so much and thank God for them. In Hebrews 12, the author says that God only disciplines His children that He loves. When we face hardships that we don't deserve and we try to face them for Christ's sake, it's a sign to us that God loves us and He wants to make us stronger.

How could I end this thought better than Paul? In Romans 8, he says: "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager anticipation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God... What, then, shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He Who did not spare His Own Son, but gave Him up for us all--how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God Who justifies. Who then can condemn? No one. Christ Jesus Who died--more than that, Who was brought to life--is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or famine or persecution or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: 'For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.' No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him Who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8: 18-21, 31-39)

May He in His love uphold both you and me in our joys and in our sorrows as we fight within ourselves to serve Him, both in word and in deed and in thought, now and always.

Hebrews 5:4-6

Even Jesus didn't get to choose the role He would play in this world.

Don't get me wrong--I mean, He accepted His role. He had the choice to obey God or not to obey God. He chose to be faithful. He chose to take up the cross that God appointed for Him. Jesus deserves the credit for the works He did.
But Jesus didn't choose His own works; God appointed them for Him.

Does that tell you something? It says something to me.

We don't choose what we get to be good at, do we? I think it'd be nice to be good at drawing. I'd love to be able to draw pictures that actually look the way I want them to--but just because I'd like to be good at drawing doesn't make me good at drawing. I can work at drawing and I can improve my skill at drawing, but no matter how much I work on drawing, I'll never be a Michaelangelo or a DaVinci or a Monet. Drawing is not one of the things I'm good at.
That's okay, because there are other things I am good at; and it's that way with everybody, right? Everybody's good at something, everybody's made for something.

It's easy to accept that when we're talking about fixing cars or painting or cooking, but what about our spiritual lives? Sometimes we find it hard to accept that we can be good at some things and not at others.
This is what Paul talks about in I Corinthians 12. Some people are born to be preachers, sharing the word of God with everyone they come into contact with. We see these people talking about God to anybody and everybody, going out into the community, going into the prisons--going everywhere and talking about God to everyone and his brother as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Other people are born to be teachers, helping Christians to grow and mature in the gospel. Some are born to be singers and songleaders, encouraging others with their song ministry. Some people are born to be shepherds and leaders, watching over the children of God and nurturing them. Some people are given to be servants, meeting the needs of their fellow Christians in a million ways, both little and big.
We all have different gifts and we all have different ways to serve God, chosen by God. I don't have to feel like I'm less of a child of God or less worthy a disciple because I can't go to Africa as a missionary or as a healer. God doesn't want me to feel like less of a Christian because He gave my brother or sister the gift of preaching the Word to others and He didn't give the same gift to me.
God is with us in every situation we find ourselves. If I'm a single father, God is with me. If I'm single and lonely, God is with me. If I'm teaching three bible classes and leading singing in the evening services, God is still with me.

The point is, God gives us gifts and prepares us good works for every day of our lives. (see Ephesians 2:10) Maybe the good works He gives to us are not flashy or impressive. Maybe our brothers and sisters don't even know about our works for God. That doesn't make them unimportant.

If even Jesus had to accept the role in which God placed Him, how much more should I? Once I learn to accept the gifts God has given me, once I agree to let God use these gifts through me for His glory, I'll see the grace He can work through me.
God's good at working grace, even if it's with a mop and broom--isn't it true? In what wonderful ways can He use the gifts He's given me? And will I allow Him to work in my life today?

Hebrews 5:1-3

Sometimes youth or inexperience can be a source of arrogance. Isn't it true? A young man thinks, I'll never fall into that trap; a young woman thinks, I'll never let that happen. It's easy to say these things before the true temptation comes.
Then, after the temptation has come, after we realize the full weight of the situtation, after we realize the true lure of the temptation, after we see for ourselves the promise of sin, then we begin to see that the people that fall into its snare are not as stupid as we once had thought.
If you went to Sunday school as a child, maybe you remember your wonder at the book of Judges, at the stories of the children of Israel wandering in the wilderness, at the stories of the apostles in their slack-jawed wonder at Jesus' resurrection. How could they have been so dumb? we asked ourselves.
Then the trials come in our own lives, and we find ourselves doubting God and forgetting about God and disbelieving the promises of God, just like God's people before us. Suddenly, the Israelites seem a lot smarter to us, and the temptation seems a lot more wicked.
Whether we fall to temptation or not, it changes us. I believe this is the true reason God allows us to face temptation in our lives: so that we may understand its power, and so we may minister to those still trapped in its power.
Once we have experienced the temptation, we lose the self-righteous wonder that anyone could ever stoop to such a thing; we know how tempting it can be! We know exactly why someone would do it...

This is the story of Jesus. Before Jesus was not a man, not subject to temptation, not subject to change. He was eternal, over time. And then He entered time, and became a man, and underwent all the things that trouble a man.
And when God becomes man, what else can happen but compassion and mercy and grace? This world has never known, nor will ever know again, the miracle that was the life of Jesus. He brought the love of God from the heavens to the earth, and made salvation available to all people so that all people might come to know the wonderful love of God.
This is Jesus' qualification: He's been there. He has faced sin. He knows what we're going through every day. And because of that, Jesus is singularly qualified to be the One and only Savior of us all, the true High Priest and Mediator, the Prince of peace, the King of kings. He does not look at our sin with disgust or revulsion or puzzlement--He looks at us in our sin with compassion.

Since Christ first loved us, it must be our goal to love others, to show the same compassion to them in their iniquities, to help them lay down the heavy burden of their sins at the feet of Jesus the Christ. We have to show the same compassion every day, so we are not judgmental or arrogant toward them--we are humble and loving and gracious with the vilest offenders, because we've done nothing to merit the grace we've received in His name. We are no better than they.
We hypocrites love to stand up and prove our righteousness, because it makes us look righteous. We penitent love to hide in our closets and pour our hearts out to God in prayer, and to shift the credit for our good works to God--because He prepares the good works for us, and has prepared us for them.
I am both a hypocrite and a penitent at various times--I am a man. I am not faithful, but I want to be; and God is faithful, and He heals my heart. Jesus knows my heart, and He knows my desire is for Him, and He has mercy on me, and asks His blessed Father for the same. And it is the same for every person on this earth--I am equally sinful as any other person; they are just as righteous as I am.
But God in my life has made the difference, and He wants to make a difference in their lives, too. I cannot hold my redemption over them, because God didn't give it to me because I was good--He just gave it because I asked. In all good things for me, the credit belongs to God.

Give praise to God for His unyielding love! Give thanks to Christ for His perfect compassion! Praise the Spirit of God for His work of transformation in our lives!
In all things, praise Him Who for our sins shed His blood...

Hebrews 4:14-16

Notice carefully the progression to this verse. In the first part of this chapter, the author urges us to remain true to our faith. In verse 13, he says that God sees all things done in public and private, and that He will judge us for those things.
In verse 14, therefore, he urges us again to stay true to our faith--since we have a high priest--and in verse 16 to approach God with confidence for the help we need.

It's the 'since' that's important here, isn't it? The entire statement leans on the since; if there were no since in the sentence, the rest of the sentence wouldn't be possible. The end of the chapter would read: "Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to Whom we must give account. Sucks to be us!"
But the fact of the matter is, the sentence does have a 'since' and (therefore) it does not suck to be us. Our since is none other than Jesus Christ, Who came down to relieve us of our sins by experiencing them and overcoming them.
And since he became our high priest, we can approach the throne of God with confidence.

What's the role of a high priest?
You may have heard sermons about this chapter before where the preacher exhorted you to be good so that you might enter the sabbath-rest of God. Maybe you've noticed that I haven't talked about that much this chapter. Maybe you think I'm a flaming liberal...
The fact is, this chapter is not about being good. When the author talks about unrighteousness in this chapter, he is not talking about doing bad things.
Is that strange?
When the author talks about unrighteousness in this chapter, he's talking about refusing to believe in God, even after you've heard His word and received His message. Go back to the chapter if you don't believe me. The righteousness the author talks about in this chapter is not the kind of righteousness we can achieve; this righteousness can only be given.
This is a very important point, and it'll come up again by Hebrews 11. The righteousness here is a righteousness that comes from faith in the righteous One, not a righteousness from being obedient.

I make this point because we get to the heart of the matter in verse 14. What does a high priest do? A high priest is one that interceeds with God for people that cannot approach God themselves. The high priest offers sacrifices for the sins of others, prays for others, and asks God to forgive or to bless others.
This is the role Jesus took when He arose from the dead. Jesus made a sacrifice for our sins and continually asks God to forgive us and to bless us for His name's sake.
Since Jesus stands in this role for us, we don't have to give an account for the sins we've committed against God. Jesus already took care of that, in exactly the same way the high priest in Israel used to take care of the sins of Israel on the Day of Atonement: with a sacrifice of blood.
And, since we don't have to account for our sins, we can go to God and ask Him for grace and for mercy. Not only that, but we can be confident that God will hear us and answer our petitions.

Our job is not to make ourselves better Christians. The spirit will accomplish that. Our job is to believe. When we believe in God and in the love He has for us and the sacrifice He's made for us, God will change our hearts if we let Him, making us into better Christians, better people. We will not be perfect. We will be made holy.

Hebrews 4:12-13

Does verse 13 seem scary to you? "Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to Whom we must give account."
If you've got something to hide, this is a very frightening passage. We want skeletons in our closet to stay in our closet, don't we? That's why we put them in the closet in the first place... we're afraid of what will happen if people find out these things about us. We're afraid of what they will think about us. For some of us, we're afraid of the consequences that may catch up to us.
But for those that don't have anything to hide, this passage is very reassuring.

Have you ever been wrongly accused of something? If you've got brothers or sisters, you probably have. Sometimes we're called to answer for things we didn't do. Our superiors, whether they're parents or bosses or elders, have to judge us in these situations--but they're not always qualified to make a judgment, because they often don't have all the facts.
Wouldn't it be scary if your boss were sitting in the judgment seat on the last day? How about your friend, or your coworker? How about your rival?
Would you want any of these people making the final decision about whether your soul was going to spend eternity with God or without Him? For that matter, would you want any person?

We often say it: "He's only human," and what we mean by that is, "He doesn't know everything," or, "He can't do everything." That's why sometimes people get punished unfairly, by parents, by bosses--sometimes even by the government.
But this verse says that God will never judge someone unfairly.

Jesus said in Matthew 6, "When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father, Who is unseen. Then your Father, Who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." God doesn't just see the bad things we do in secret--He also sees the good things. He sees everything, and He knows everything, and He understands everything.

Have you ever done something for someone, trying to be nice to them, and they misunderstood it? We misunderstand each other often, because we can't read each other's minds--can we? It's what Paul is talking about in I Corinthians 4:5. He says, "Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of people's hearts..."
We look at other peoples' words and actions and judge them by what they say and do--we have to, because it's all we have to base our decisions on. God doesn't have to rely on these external things, because He sees and knows the hearts of men. God can make a righteous judgment, because His judgments aren't based on the outcome of the action; they're based on the motivation behind the action.
An evil man can do a good work for selfish gain, but God won't rule him righteous because of his good work--he only did the work out of evil motives. In the same way, a good man may do an evil act for good reasons. God won't judge the man as evil just because of the one evil act, because the man's heart was just.
We can't even imagine the kind of justice God has in store for us. In this world, we look at our judges and say, "That's not fair!" or, "Our system isn't perfect..." But when God judges, everyone is going to proclaim, "He is just and righteous altogether!"

God cuts through the appearance of things and sees to the heart of the matter, and His word is no less discerning. When we apply the word of God to our lives, we find it powerful and sharp, cutting away the false pride and artificial righteousness we add to our lives. God's word will not leave us unchanged, if we put our faith in Him and look to it for guidance.

Let us put our trust in Him and trust in His word for our lives. Let us accept His righteousness and His wisdom, instead of seeking to fabricate our own.
Let us ask Him for the truth we need in our lives, for He will not fail to give it.

Hebrews 4:4-11

"There remains, then, a sabbath-rest for the children of God."

God's sabbath-rest is about more than relieving exhaustion. We rest because we're tired. Why did God rest? Was He tired after creating the universe?
I certainly hope not!

Back in Genesis, it says that God created stuff each day, and that He looked at His work and said that it was good. On the sixth day (God worked 6 days a week, doncha know), God created mankind and He said his work was very good. On the seventh day, He rested--and why? In Genesis 2:2-3, it tells us: "By the seventh day God had finished all the work He had been doing; so on the seventh day He rested from all His work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done." God rested because He was finished with His work!
It's a good reason to rest, isn't it? Maybe if He'd been a little slower we'd have to work an extra day before our weekend, yes?

And so God's sabbath-rest is not about getting a break from work--it's about God finishing His work. When we choose to celebrate the sabbath in our lives, we're not celebrating being worn out after a hard week--are we? No! We're celebrating the work that God accomplished when He created the world.

Look at the quote from Psalm 95: "Today, if you hear His voice, don't harden your hearts." David is talking about worshiping God--in verse 6, he writes: "Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our maker." Then he writes his exhortation, quoted in Hebrews, and then goes on to recount the wandering in the wilderness and concludes in verse 11 with: "So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter My rest.' "
If I said to you, "Let's worship God. Don't harden your heart as our fathers did, when God said, Because of their disobedience, they're never going to enter My rest," what would you get out of my statement?
The author of Hebrews concludes that the sabbath-rest is not something that is past--that the sabbath-rest is something that is ongoing, that children of God continue to gain or to lose, even today. "For if Joshua had given them rest," he writes in verse 8, "God would not have spoken about another day." He continues: "There remains, then, a sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from His. " (v. 9-10)

Notice that when the people of God keep this rest, they're doing it to become more like God: "just as God did from His." The sabbath-keeper is joining in God's activity (we might say following His example) to honor Him. In doing the same thing that God did, the child of God gets to be more like God.
Imagine a father at his workbench. The father works with his tools while his child looks on. When the father finishes with the tool, what does his child do? Doesn't the son or daughter try to grab the tool so that he can do the same thing his or her father was doing? Doesn't the child try to do the same things that his father does?
That's what we're like, as children of God--or rather, that's what we should be like. We try to do the things that our Father does, to be the way our Father is. We try to become like Him. And why? It's not because we admire Him or love Him or adore Him--and it is all those things. It's because He's our father, and we want to be just like Him!

Now look at verse 11. Not content to follow his point to conclusion, the author of Hebrews has to go on and to show us what his message means for our lives. Look! "Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following in their example of disobedience."
Draw whatever you need to out of this verse, but whatever else you find, draw this: we need to strive to be like God. It's what this verse is all about. We need to yearn to become like God--and what negative example does the author present? The people in the wilderness that didn't believe God.
What's the "example of disobedience" the author talks about in verse 11? Isn't it the same example he's been talking about all along? In verse 2, he said "...the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard it did not combine it with faith." In 3, he says: "Now we who have believed enter that rest..." The quote in verse 7 is "Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts." The context of the quote in Psalm 95 is worshipping God!

And so, the author of Hebrews exhorts us: "Do not follow their example! Do not give up your faith! Believe God! Worship Him as God! Put your trust in God, and He will show you His rest!"

We are not those that refuse to believe in God's promise, are we? We are not those that grumble and complain that life in the world was so much better than life with God. We may have doubts sometimes, and we often have fears, and we sometimes fail in our faith. But we do love God, and we do strive for the rest God promises, and we do cry out, like the father of the demon-possessed cried to Jesus: "I do believe, Lord! Help me in my unbelief!"
And He is faithful.

Worship Him.

Hebrews 4:1-3

Don't misunderstand my previous postings, and mark well what the writer of Hebrews says here: it is possible to fall short of God's requirements for His children. It's not automatic--you can't just say, well. He's a human being--you know, he must be a child of God.
Read the author of Hebrews well in verse 2: the gospel of God was of no value to certain of the Israelites--and why?
Because they went fishing instead of praying on the Sabbath, perhaps?

The word of God had no value to these "people of God" because they didn't have any faith in the words.

Well, that much is obvious--I mean, look at what they were saying to Moses back in Exodus!

In the same way, the gospel of God is not helpful to us if we don't believe it.
Shall I say it again? It's so important: the word of God is of no use to us if we don't put our faith in it.
That means the Bible! Paul says "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." He's not talking about a revelation from an angel!

There are times we love the bible, and in those times it's easy to believe it. There are times when the bible affirms our beliefs, makes us feel good about our faith and our service to God, convicts us to do better. Those times, it's easy to believe the bible. Anybody can believe the bible when it's easy to believe.
But, later in this book, the writer of Hebrews says, "The word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the division of soul and marrow. It judges the thoughts and motives of the heart." Sometimes the bible cuts into our hearts and tells us we need to change the way we think and the way we act. It's these times that test our faith in the word of God. Some people choose to shrug their shoulders and say, "Well. It's an old, crusty book anyway," and to move away from the word.
Don't!
Don't allow yourself to be mystified by the bible; search out the meaning, wrestle with the scriptures daily; contend with God over the truth of His word! Put the word of God to the test if you don't believe it!

Jacob wrestled with the angel until it relented and gave him a blessing. Would that I were as tenacious in my study of the bible! In those many, many places where I just don't understand the word as I should, may God grant me the courage to wrestle Him to the ground until He yields and blesses me with knowledge from the word.
Would that not be worth a few sleepless nights, I ask? Would that not be worth a multitude of sleepless nights?

May we be a people powerfully in love with a powerful message from the heart of our Creator! May we trust it to shape our hearts and minds as we struggle to become like Him! May I never take the easy road, saying, "Well. It was written 2,000 years ago. Who knows what it means?"

Let it never be!

Hebrews 3:14-19

Is it a sin to disbelieve God?
Verses 17-19 seem to indicate so. The people sinned, and God was angry with them because they sinned, and it was their unbelief that kept them from His reward.

God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt through powerful miracles, and He sustained them in the desert with powerful miracles. He protected them from harm with powerful miracles.
Yet, when things got difficult for them, they chose to doubt Him.

God isn't working miracles in my life of the same magnitude as He did for the sons of Moses, but He is working in my life. I don't rail against God and defy Him as absolutely as did the children of Israel, but I do defy Him.

What is my disbelief? Where am I rebelling against God in my life? At what point, or in which struggle, do I disregard God and choose not to trust Him?
There are those places, aren't there? We live our lives and try to live them for God, but we fall short of our own expectations so often--and our expectations are so bland compared to what God has in store for us! How can He continue to put up with a loser like me?

It's funny, but God loves us a lot more than we give Him credit for...

You know, God has a lot more influence on your life than you may give Him credit for. He did make you, after all. Is it so hard to believe that He can mold your heart to be more what He wants you to be?
We let ourselves down in so many ways, but our letdowns are not necessarily God's. God does not expect us to perform our lives without flaw--if He wanted people that could do that, He would've made us that way. God wanted people that could dream better than they could perform, He wanted people that wanted more of themselves than they could accomplish.
God wanted people that were always striving to be better than they are, and that's exactly what He made.
Don't feel guilty when you let yourself down! Take it for what it is: an opportunity to improve. Take the chance to pray about it. Is this really what God wants me to be doing? Is this the best way I can serve God in my life? --and if it is, then strive to do it better next time.
Sometimes we fall down because we're human and we mess up the things God plans for us. Sometimes we fall down because our plans are human.

God loves us when we fail Him, but He wants us to keep striving and to never give up on our faith! He's there for us when it's easy and when it's hard, so we keep looking to Him for strength and for guidance in our lives.

Hebrews 3:7-13

Take a look at Psalm 95, the source of this quote.
"Come, let us sing with joy to the Lord;
Let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation." (Psalm 95:1)

This song of joyful praise ends,
"Do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion...
So I declared on oath in my anger,
'They shall never enter My rest.'" (v 8,11)

The author of Hebrews concludes,
"See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness." (Hebrews 3:12-13)

What makes God angry?
The message of Psalm 95 is the message of this passage: Praise God! Worship Him joyfully, for He is worthy of praise! Worship Him, because He has saved you and given you good things and taken care of you! Worship Him, because He takes care of you daily!
For if we do not; if we, rather, choose to quarrel with God and reject Him as God, then we will not know His peace.
This is a scary passage, and many preachers will play upon the fear it invokes. Don't be excited into rash judgments or false beliefs just because a silver-tongued preacher breathes brimstone at you and inundates you with hellfire clippings of bible. Be convicted by the word of God, and let it guide you into truth.
However, don't gloss this verse over in your mind, either--it is scary, and it's intended to be. This is David's warning to God's people that they need to worship God and to keep Him in their minds.

But what was it that made God angry, and why does it apply to this message? David's reference comes from Exodus 17, and you need to turn there if you want to get to the bottom of the matter.
The Israelites are thirsty because they have no water, which is understandable. They turn to Moses and say, "Why'd God bring us out here without any water? We were better off without Him!" This, after they'd seen Him provide for them... The previous chapter, God first gave them mana and quail. They were eating the mana God had provided for them, but they were accusing Him of not taking care of them.
That's just wrong. No? You may be able to imagine God's anger at this.

God takes care of us. He provides for us, even when things are hard. He saves us, even when we don't deserve it. What's our response to all this? What should be our response?

Hebrews 3 is about cause and effect. God takes care of us without grumbling, so we should praise Him joyfully. It's only natural! When the people of Israel did the unnatural thing and grumbled against God and rejected Him after His care for them, God did the natural thing and got (rightfully!) angry at them.
Did He stop taking care of them? Did He disown them as His people?
No; He forgave them--but He didn't let them go unpunished. He gave their reward to their children, instead of letting them enjoy it.

We receive care, just as did the people of Israel. We receive God's love, and we receive the same salvation from evil. Our response is the same: natural love, natural praise. If, instead, we offer unnatural hatred and rejection, God's natural (and rightful) response is anger.
Will He disown us? Will He not forgive us? Perhaps, but how will God reward us if we reject His blessings as a curse? How can we receive blessings from God if we believe that?

Make no mistake, rest here is a reward--and that reward is for the faithful.
May we be faithful today as we receive and enjoy God's blessings.

Hebrews 3:3-6

Look at the wording interaction between Moses and Jesus in these verses: in verse 2, Jesus is faithful, just as Moses was faithful "in God's house". In verse 3, Jesus is worthy of greater honor, as "a builder is worthy of greater honor than the house." In verse 4, God is the builder of everything (and the house). In verse 5 and the beginning of verse 6, Moses is again a servant, and Jesus is the son over the house. In the end of verse 6, we (and, by extension, Moses) are God's house.
As children and servants of God, we both are God's building work and servants in it. In both respects, we are subordinate to Jesus, Who is (with God) the builder of the house as we are the house and the son over it as we are servants in it.

Ever thought of yourself as a block of wood? Sometimes I think like one...
We are the bricks of God's house, the slats in Jesus' cabin. He builds us collectively into a house for His Spirit, as Paul mentions in I Corinthians 6:19. Together, we make God's house.
If that seems like a funny metaphor to you, think about it from the point of view of the ancient Jews. What was the house of God? Where was it? Until it was destroyed, the house of God was the temple in Jerusalem. After it was destroyed, the Jews didn't have a place on earth where God dwelt.
But for the Christians, the house of God no longer stood by stone and mortar, but in the hearts of the believers. Together, the body of Christians referred to as the church makes up a temple to God, a dwelling place for the Spirit of God. Each brick makes up the whole, and each Christian has his place in the house as does each brick.

At the same time, we serve inside God's house. For the Jews, it was the priests that served in a temple built by human hands, making sacrifices and maintaining the temple. For us, we serve in a temple not built by human hands as we make living sacrifices to God every day and as we do our work, blessing and encouraging the people of God, the temple of God.
Important as we are to the work of God, our roles can never compare to the role of Jesus--just as the role of a servant can never compare to the importance of the son, just as the role a brick plays in holding up a house can never compare to the importance of the builder in setting up the house.
Jesus is worthy. In bringing all men to God, He claimed worth to receive all praise and honor and glory and power, which will also be given to Him by God, and which He will use to God's glory and praise. He was faithful to God, therefore He is found worthy of praise.

Is Jesus the builder in my life? Does He control the things I choose to do and the reactions I choose to make?
I find that, far too often, He is not.
But, just as Jesus is faithful to God, He is also faithful to me, to forgive me and erase my sins. I bow to Him for forgiveness and look to Him for guidance, and He gives me all I need.

May He ever be praised!

Hebrews 3:2

Jesus was faithful to God--but notice here. The author says Jesus was faithful, "just as Moses was faithful."
Do those two compare?
We're used to not measuring up to the life of Jesus. We think: Oh, I could never be that righteous. Oh, I could never be that good. And we're right, of course.
The funny thing about faithfulness is, it's completely scalable. (in drafting terms!) You're either righteous or you're not righteous; you can't be just a little bit righteous. Either you're loving or you're not; you can't be halfway loving. You're either truthful or you're not truthful--there's no halfway!
Faithfulness is different. You can be faithful in little things the same as you can be faithful in big things, and that's all God expects from us. He never says we have to have as much faith as Moses did or as Jesus did, because it's not about an amount. We have to have a common faith with Jesus and with Moses: a faith in God. For us, a faith in Christ.
Jesus told about the servants with the talents of gold. The master gave to one servant some enormous sum of cash and told him to take care of it, then he gave the next servant a smaller sum, then to the last servant he gave a much smaller sum of cash. All he asked was that these men take care of the money he'd entrusted to them.
The man with the huge sum was faithful with his master's money--but notice, so was the man with less money. It was the servant that gave up that was counted for loss...

I don't know about you, but I don't have the strength of Moses or the courage of Peter or the love of John, and I doubt I ever will. These men were amazing men of faith.
But the faith they had is our faith, too, and our faithfulness in it is just as valid, just as important to God as was theirs. Even if I'm just being faithful to God by serving a cup of water while Peter's up there preaching up a storm, I'm still being faithful.

If the author of Hebrews had known me, would he have written: "Jesus was faithful to God, just like Jonathan is"? Would he have written that about you?

At the end of the day, it's not about how many souls you've brought to Christ or about how many churches you've planted or even about how much glory you've brought to God's name that day. At the end of the day, what matters to God is that you've listened for His guidance in your life, that you've counted the things He's given you as His and not yours, that you've trusted in Him to get you through the day. He's made some to be apostles and some to be prophets, sure. But He's also made some to be ushers and some to be janitors and some to be mothers.
I don't have to be making water come out of rocks to be faithful. I just have to be looking for God's will in my own life, and striving for it.

Let's strive to be God's servants today, to take care of the things He's given us, to think of Him more than we think of those things. Let's strive to be faithful, just as Jesus was faithful.