Hebrews 12:16
“Watch out for the Esau syndrome: trading away God’s lifelong gift in order to satisfy a short-term appetite.”
“Make sure that no one is immoral or godless like Esau, who traded his birthright as the firstborn son for a single meal.”
Ouch! What blessing am I sacrificing on the altar of food? How would God use me differently if not saddled by an extra 60 pounds? Eating to satisfy my food lust is wrong and will cost me. I must change.
Lord, I cannot do this alone. Help me!
Hebrews 12:1-2
“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.”
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame.”
Jesus is my champion! He will lead me to victory. I need to strip down to keep up with him. He will show me how to finish the race of life.
Lord Jesus, keep my eyes on you. Help me to strip down, burn up spiritual fat and step away from the sin that leaches energy from my soul. Specifically, help me loose weight so I can place more energy and mobility at your service.
Hebrews 10:19-21
“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.”
“And when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices. And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place.”
I love the metaphor; the curtain is Christ’s body. Physical bodies are a mass of swirling particles of energy held together by the laws of physics (God’s power). Our new eternal bodies will be capable of walking through this energy just as Christ’s resurrected body walked through a locked door into a room holding his disciples. (John 20:19) The physical world is a mirage. Looking through it we glimpse true reality, the eternal. This is faith, looking through what we see, trusting in what we see through a darkened mirror. Walking through the curtain of his physical body and blood (bread and wine) is the narrow gate through which all must enter into the presence of our beautiful, loving, eternal God.
Lord, you are deep and wide beyond my imagining. Thank you for reaching out to us, to me. Thank you for giving me this vision of your body, a portal into a new life. I gladly walk through it and trust in the future you have planned for me. I love you.
Hebrews 10:18
“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.”
“Then he says, “I will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds.” And when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices.”
Because of the cross our sins are entirely wiped away by Christ’s blood shed there. God has erased them from our ledger. When others wound us and apologize, do we wipe away that wound in the same way? The will to forgive does not guaranteed memory will cooperate. When it doesn’t the arising emotion must be acknowledged but then turned from. Over time Satan will not be able to mine our memory so successfully and God increasingly imparts his grace so we can be grace-full toward the one who wronged us. God’s forgiveness is instant. For us forgiveness is a process. Expect it and Satan cannot accuse us when memories rise up again.
Lord, thank you for leading me along this path of forgiveness. Open my eyes to hurts I carry. Give me grace to be grace-full.
Hebrews 10:16
“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.”
“This is the new covenant I will make with my people on that day, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.”
The heart was the seat of the will for the ancients. Law written on the heart ruled over the will to sin. The illustration still holds for us who know the heart as a life-giving essential organ. The law carved on our heart’s lining means every particle in our blood stream is subject to it and therefore our physical existence. Our blood feeds our mind so the law’s influence is felt there too. God’s ‘law’, or the way things really are, permeates our living. It should lead to wisdom, restraint, humility, and all other of Christ’s attributes. Does it?
Lord, you know my capacity for self-deception. Please keep me alert to the way things really are, including my relationship with you. Keep me close, full of you, serving you.
Hebrews 10:11-14
“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.”
“Under the old covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins. But our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand. There he waits until his enemies are humbled and made a foot stool under his feet. For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy.”
Sin is a problem and so is the understanding of sin. The world believes in degrees of sin, no-fault sin, and situational sin. God sees only sin. Satan creates complexity and confusion regarding sin. God makes things simple. All the purifying we need is provided in one perfect transaction, the cross. It is there for the taking for those with repentant hearts and a hunger for righteousness.
Lord, my heart is yours. I want to keep it there. Help me!
Hebrews 9:22
“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.”
“In fact, according to the Law of Moses, nearly everything was purified with blood. For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.”
Blood is important as evidence of death, not because it points to the death’s violence, though it does that too. Sin guarantees death. How we try to wiggle out of this! Sin’s consequences always come calling sooner or later. It’s alure overpowers our will. Our emotions become entangled. Consequences become literally unthinkable, and we become the walking dead. Our lives begin to putrefy. If willing, we allow this to call us to repentance, cleansing and healing. If not, our misery leads us down even darker paths.
Oh Lord I tremble at the danger of falling into sin and away from you. I step off your path many times a day. Please lead me to repentance, a turning away from that evil. Let me never allow that transgression to lead me farther still away from you. I am afraid of my weakness, my human propensity to sin. Please be my strength.
Hebrews 8:10-12
“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.”
“But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day, says the Lord; I will put my laws in their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already. And I will forgive their wickedness and I will never again remember their sins.”
Then, there will be peace on earth. It is the only answer to man’s messes that makes sense.
Hebrews 8:5
“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.”
“They serve in a system of worship that is only a copy, a shadow of the real one in heaven. For when Moses was getting ready to build the Tabernacle, God gave him this warning. “Be sure that you make everything according to the pattern I have shown you here on the mountain.”
1The old covenant gave hints of a heavenly reality. That is why the directions for building the tabernacle were so specific. The earthly meeting place, though it seemed solid, was nothing more that a collection of swirling atomic energy. It was only a representation of a truly real place in another realm. The closer science looks at our world the more ephemeral it seems. God calls us into relationship with him in a more real place where we will be more our real self. It will be a revelation to meet more-real loved ones gone before. I look forward to meeting them free of the darkness and heartache sin wrought in their earthly lives. Joy.
Lord, I look forward to this. Thank you for coming to teach us, call us, to be more real in you. Spirit, thank you for faith, hope and love you give me now. Thank you for the future you promise.
Hebrews 8:1-2
“ In essence, we have just such a high priest: authoritative right alongside God, conducting worship in the one true sanctuary built by God.”
“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. There he ministers in the heavenly Tabernacle, the true place of worship that was built by the Lord and not by human hands.”
Imagine Christ as worship leader. Certainly, there would be no more church wrangling over worship style and substance. He conducts worship of God though Christ himself is worthy of the same worship. But his purpose has always been to point to the father which he continues in eternity. This is a peak at how the triune God-head functions, glorifying one another, eternally fulfilling their roles as Christ taught us. Then, as now it seems worship is not just a part of prayer and the church service, but the center of our lives.
Lord, I am glad you lead worship in eternity because I will need your help. The older I get the more I struggle to find words for prayer. Unleash my head and mouth. Lead me in worship even now that my entire life may be worship of you.
Hebrews 7:23-25
“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.”
“There were many priests under the old system, for death prevented them from remaining in office. But because Jesus lives forever, his priesthood lasts forever. Therefore, he is amble once and forever, to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf.”
These verses tell us, in addition to the enduring the cross, Christ is also our high priest. Though the cross is emphasized in evangelical theology these two functions are really two sides of the same coin. Both are essential to our eternal destiny. The cross spans all humanity but Christ’s priesthood is more intimate. It is how I need him daily. It comforts me to know he faced my temptations victoriously. Even more to know he accurately transmits my situation to the father because he ‘gets it.’ God entered the world to save, come alongside and faithfully represent us. The cross is multidimensional.
Lord, you are good, wise and faithful. To know you is to love you, and I do! I am privileged to have your word before me, read and study it, and hear you speak through it. You are so great and I so small yet you know me well and truly. Thank you for providing so sufficiently, for loving me.
Hebrews 7:11-14
“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.”
“So if the priesthood of Levi, on which the law was based, could have achieved the perfection God intended, why did God need to establish a different priesthood, with a priest in the order of Melchizedek instead of the order of Levi and Aaron? And if the priesthood is changed, the law must also be changed to permit it. For the priest we are talking about belongs to a different tribe, whose members have never served at the altar as priests. What I mean is, our Lord came from the tribe of Judah, and Moses never mentioned priests coming from that tribe.”
Just as God is totally other from us, Christ is other from priests of the law. In no way does he represent a correction to or enablement of it. He can fulfill it, only possible because he brings something other to it. God’s provision of Christ as sacrifice for man’s sins came out of the blue, surprising everyone including Satan. Christ, a new, other, kind of priest, is exactly what we need, what I need.
Lord Jesus, thank you for interceding for me. You get it because you lived it along with us. I love you.