Sound Mind and Soul

We always plan our tomorrows with a serious “if the Lord wills”. Only God knows what tomorrow holds and this is why our predominate thoughts should be on Him and not on the things that might happen tomorrow.  We got back from Florida late Saturday night August 8.  We anticipated life returning to “normal’.  However, Joie’s brother in law was in a serious car accident on Tuesday night and we did not know if he was going to live or die.  We are now offering many thanks to our gracious God that Steve is coming out of his coma and things are looking much better.  He is breathing on his own and the ventilator should be removed today.  Many people have been praying.  Thank you.

It is time to read Hebrews 11 and learn about faith.  Read it.  Let it soak in with all its personal nature.  We are given a clear biblical definition of faith and then many examples of how faith is lived out by God’s people.  Each example is brief.  Don’t read over them too quickly. If you want, go to the Old Testament and read the details of some of these stories.

The verse for our concentration today is verse 6.  What is the key to pleasing God?  Why are our works not the key to pleasing God?  Why does faith please God?

APPLICATION:

Now, we could spend a great deal of time on the issue of believing in God’s existence but I do not think that this is the real area of struggle.  We get caught up with some mental and emotional wrestlings over the existence of God but it seems to me these are only stalling techniques to keep us from dealing with the real issue.  What is the real issue?  The real issue is, do you believe that God is the rewarder of those who seek him?  It is not the existence of God that we wrestle with so much as it is the character of God.

The whole argument of the book of Hebrews is for an experiential and enduring Christian faith no matter what obstacles get in our way.  The author’s strategy is to show who God is and what God has done in His Son Jesus so that his readers have reason to believe.  To believe the gospel is not leap into the dark.  Christian faith is a clearly reasoned faith.  This book challenges us to examine all that God has said and done so that we might have an experiential living faith in that which is eternal and unshakeable.

In your mind and emotions, is God someone that you love to come to because you know that in coming to him you will be blessed beyond measure?  Or, is your sense of coming to God religious, stiff, and filled with a feeling that you never measure up?  Listen to the gospel truth of Hebrews.  Let is sink deep with in you.  This is a God of great mercy and love who went to unimaginable lengths to save you.  You have a standing invitation to come into the presence of God.  The place he invites you to is a throne of grace.  He is rich.  He rewards richly.  His rewards come freely from his grace.  Don’t take your saintliness into the throne room, take your sin.  He sits on his throne of grace to meet with sinners specifically so that we can receive the grace of being forgiven and He can receive the glory of being God!

When we are helped, God is pleased.  When God is honored, God is pleased.  This is why faith is what pleases God.  Saving faith is the admission of our sinfulness before God and our total inability to do anything about it.  Then a casting all our hope on Jesus Christ, God’s Son, to forgive us and give us eternal life through His death, burial and resurrection.

I did not realize that I would unplug as completely as I have while being gone.  It has been a good time.  This Sunday, August 9, at LaGrange Baptist Church we will be looking into Hebrews chapter 9 in our morning worship.  We will also be taking the Lord’s Supper.  Read chapter 9.  Put your mind to work on what it means to need some one to appear for you in God’s presence because you cannot.  Then think harder on the fact that the Lord Jesus did appear in God’s presence on your behalf.  Have you been properly depending on your Mediator and resting in His work?  May God teach us all the joy of doing so!

I am sorry that I have made no posts in the last few days.  I have been out of town and out of touch.  Our second daughter was married last Friday.  We are now at a place where I have Internet access.  I will make a few posts, but I will not be back to a regular schedule until Monday, August 10.

It would be a good challenge to read Hebrews 10:26-39.  This is one of those difficult and controversial passages.  Once again we tend to lose sight of the simple meaning by over focusing on what seems difficult.  The direct warning and challenge here is to our faith and endurance.  The author simply wants to know if you are going to persevere to the end or not.  Strangely we look at faith the other way.  We look backwards and want to know if some one has made his “profession of faith”.  We are not too worried about their future if they have a “decision” in their past.  

So, what about you?  Are you more interested in being preserved, or persevering?  YES! Jesus does preserve us.  He saves us completely and eternally.  But, the biblical authors were far more interested in the fruit of our profession of faith than they were the fact of a past profession.  The proof of a true profession was ongoing and visible fruit.  As a Christian would you rather look like a jar of strawberry preserves, or like a plant bearing healthy, beautiful berries?  It might be time to get out of the false safety of your jar.  In your faith, are you running a race or depending upon some childhood experience?

APPLICATION:

For the genuine believer this is not a passage to fear but is one to rest in.  Face all that the passage says.  Feel the weight of its challenges.  Engage yourself in the race of perseverance.  Read the word.  Pray.  Love God.  Love your family, your neighbor, your church.  Be an excellent employee.  Bear fruit in keeping with a genuine repentance.

The second half of Hebrews chapter ten begins the practical application of the gospel truths we have learned in the first nine chapters of the book.  Today’s entry is short, but its application is long.  Read Hebrews 10:19-39.  This is a confrontive and difficult section of Scripture.  Don’t get caught up in the difficulties today.  Focus on verses 19-25.  The actions we are to take jump off the page at us.  Look at them: draw near, hold fast, consider how to stir one another up, don’t neglect meeting together, encourage one another, look for the Lord’s return.

APPLICATION:

Which of these direct actions will you begin to take today?  You select the one that is most appropriate for you and do it!  Don’t hesitate or make excuses, start now.  Do you think it might make a difference in you and those around you if you made it your aim to encourage people daily?

Hebrews can be divided into two main emphases.  The first emphasis is learning how to grow in your faith in Christ.  The word used by the author of Hebrews is rest.  He challenges his readers to labor to enter the rest God provides in Christ.  The second emphasis is to learn how to run as a Christian.  This simply means acting on what you believe.  In his letter, James told us the same thing by saying to not be hearers of the Word only but be doers of the Word.

Hebrews chapter 10 is where our author begins his practical challenges to live out the faith he has so clearly explained.  Today read the first 18 verses of chapter 10.  You will see that he is repeating some of the central truths he has already taught, but that he is stating them in strong and conclusive terms.  The writer is wanting his readers to truly rest in Christ for their entire salvation.  He wants them to know that they are saved and saved eternally by Jesus.  He does not want them to struggle with unnecessary doubts.  He does not want them to live under the tyranny of an over-active, accusing conscience.  He wants them to know the superior and sufficient person and work of their Great High Priest, Jesus Christ.

Now, get ready to put on your running shoes.  It is in the strength of resting in such a strong Savior and sure salvation that we are going to be challenged to a radical life of faith in Christ.  The author will be clear about what a believer in Christ has to run through in this earthly life on our way to heaven.  Without rest, we cannot run.

APPLICATION:

What should we do with these first 18 verses of chapter 10?  Take time to read them thoroughly.  Make note of  each assurance that God gives us about our salvation and forgiveness.  Do not neglect the truth that this covenant was worked by God and Christ.  It is not your work to do.  Christ, as the Son of Man, did the work for you.  You are to rest in Him.  Pray that God will help you and I to see the might, mercy and love of God for us in these words.  Then pray that we will have a proper and manly response to God that says, “God, here I am.  I am yours.  You made me, You redeemed me, I rest in the work of your Son.  Help me now to run in this life by your power and to your glory.”

There are many great things to focus on in Hebrews 9.   The chief essence of the passage is the priesthood of Christ and the perfect, eternal salvation he brings.  At the end of the chapter the writer challenges his readers with two alarming thoughts.  This pastoral author has kept the minds of his people focused on the work of Christ in the heavenly “tabernacle”.  He is reinforcing the faith of these believers by showing them detail after detail of the finished work of Christ on their behalf.  He has told them to “consider Jesus” and he is giving them many things to consider about their Savior to strengthen their faith in him during difficult times.

All at once he steps into their daily lives and brings them face to face with the practical realities of Christian living in the present.  Our present living is the proof of our past confession of faith and of our future hope.  What you are doing right now displays the true colors and dimensions of your faith in Christ.  The writer stuns us with his sudden mention of our death.  He reminds us, not only that we each will die, but that we each have a specific appointment with death.  To make sure we understand death in the biblical perspective (that is in its reality) he reminds us of the certain judgment that follows death.   BUT,  the author quickly says that Christ’s first appearance was to bear the sins of many, and that his second appearance will be to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Is your faith this three dimensional?  Is it this personal?  Notice just a couple of things with me please.  First, it seems that Jesus is coming again only for those who are eagerly waiting for him.  Is Jesus coming back to drag people into heaven?  What do you think?  What are you waiting for in life?  What do we teach our children to wait for?  It seems to me that many times we are so caught up in the things of this world that if Jesus did come back we would receive him more as an interruption to our plans than we would be eagerly expecting and hoping for him.  Second, it is Jesus that we are to be waiting for, not heaven, not happiness, not loved ones, but Jesus himself.  This is personal!  When I have been away from those that I love the most, I cannot wait to see them.  The author, after explaining all that the Lord Jesus has done in our behalf, expects that our love for our Great High Priest would have grown so much that our hearts would always be filled with a longing for his return.

APPLICATION:

Getting specific…

Do you ever stop to think about the fact that you are one day going to die?  Is this morbid? NO!  It is wise.  Being reminded of our mortality also reminds us that our Great High Priest ever lives to make intercession for those who come to God by him (Heb. 7:25).  We are reminded that his priesthood is forever by the power of an indestructible life (7:16).  My life can be destroyed.  My Savior’s cannot.  The Bible says that God’s children have died and their lives are hid with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3)

Life is lived to its fullest when we are ready to die.  This is a serious thought, but it is one we must deal with.  Death cannot be avoided.  Death cannot be cheated.  But, death can be defeated and has been by our Great High Priest!

The first nine chapters of Hebrews were written to teach us who we have faith in.  These last two verses of chapter nine open our eyes to the daily necessity and reality of this faith in Christ.

I realize some of what Hebrews deals with seems a bit removed from your daily life of family and work, so how do you translate things like this into your world?  It does take some time and effort, just like anything worth doing does.  The motivation is our love for our Great Savior.  Our love for Jesus grows as we come to better know him and his work done in our behalf.  It sounds too simple, but our love for Jesus grows just like any other love grows.  As we spend time with Jesus, his word and his people, we develop more of an understanding of him and his work and as a result our love for him grows.  He becomes more personal in a real sense to us, not some mere Jr. Highish emotional sense.

Yes, this sounds redundant.  These are things most of you have heard for years.  The question is what are you doing about them?  The easiest way to find out if you and I have been faithful in getting to know our Great High Priest is to ask, “what are we waiting for?”  Are we waiting for a new job, a new car, our kids to graduate from college, for them to get a good job or are we doing everything in life with an eye on heaven?  I would guess if we are (keeping one eye on heaven) there will be a pleasantness about our lives that our spouse, children and co-workers would notice.  Have you not realized yet that so many of the things you have waited on in this life end up disappointing you.  Do you somehow think that the appearance of Jesus, the Son of God is going to be disappointing? I don’t think so!  What, or rather Who are you waiting for?

Today lets read all of Hebrews chapter 9.  The writer has dwelt for a long time on the priestly ministry of Christ.  Chapter 9 brings that subject to a climax and we learn that Christ appeared in the very presence of God on our behalf  (Heb. 9:24).  This chapter shows us the connection of Christ’s work to the foreshadowing work of the Old Testament priests.  God is reasoned in His work to redeem us, not random.  These consistent connections in God’s work through time demonstrate that He is on a divinely determined course to save His people.  There is also comparison and contrast in this chapter to the Old Testament priesthood.  The comparisons have to do with purpose.  The priest is to be the go between for man to God and God to man.  Jesus is now the go between.  The contrast has to do with power.  The Old Testament priest worked with symbols and shadows.  Christ was the actual substance.  He was the sacrifice.  He appeared in God’s presence.  He truly forgave sins.

Hebrews 9 brings us into contact with stark reality.  The realities of life and death, sin and judgement, salvation and forgiveness.  How real are these to you?  Take some time with this chapter.  Look hard at what you would consider to be the most significant issues mentioned in it.  Then, do some personal evaluation. 

APPLICATION:

It is time to make the direct connections between your faith and your life.  What are the significant issues you see in this chapter?  Have you seriously considered them and looked for ways to make practical application to your daily life?

Lets take just one issue.  Verse 14 speaks of Christ truly cleansing our conscience.  It was at great cost that he performed such a feat.  Have you considered the freedom and joy that a genuinely purified conscience brings?  Maybe you need to think on this a bit more so that you can experience the wonder of God’s work in you.  Then, what about those you live and work with?  Do you think that if you were living in the freedom of a purified conscience that you might have a positive influence on them for the sake of Christ?  Can you imagine the refreshing difference in someone who lives transparently before others, without the need for self-protecting hypocrisy?  Do you think you might want to pass on such delight to your children?  You see, your experience with Christ is your motivation for sharing Christ.  The greater your experience, the higher your motivaiton.

Time for us to go to work…read…think it through…live it out…share it!

Gentlemen,

I just realized that yesterday’s post never made it to the blog.  Use this entry for today and I will produce an entry on Hebrews 9 for tomorrow.

Jesus Christ is the interpretive key to the entire Bible.  He is the main character and subject of the Scriptures.  Jesus himself said in the Gospel of Luke, “O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!  Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” and “every thing written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” (Luke 24:25-26, 44)

When we enter the New Testament, the writers understood that the promises of the New Covenant that were given to Israel applied to all of God’s children no matter what nation they came from.  The Church is now God’s covenant people not  Israel.  When we read the words of Jeremiah, quoted by the writer of Hebrews, we can apply them directly to anyone who is in Christ.  Be aware that there were many time bound and territory bound promises that God made to Israel that we do not claim for God’s covenant people today.  But, when the New Testament makes it clear that a promise of God extends from the Old Covenant to the new, we can confidently rest in the provision of that promise.

Take a look then at God’s initiative.  God said, “I will establish an new covenant”, “I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts”, “I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”

APPLICATION:

This leads us to three specific steps to take.  First, are you familiar enough with this new covenant so you can bank on its promises?  It would be ashamed to be rich and never know that you have money.  Step into the riches of God’s new covenant and find out what He has done for you.

Second,  do you stop regularly to read what God has put into your mind and heart?  Those new desires you have deep with in are from God giving you a new heart.  Are you cultivating them.  Yes, the law of God is in your heart and mind but you have to cultivate it for it to bear abundant fruit.  You cannot see your heart but you can sense those desires to know and serve God.  Look at the Bible, the visible word of God, read it and apply it.  It is amazing what happens to our soul when we feed it and exercise it on eternal nutrition.

Third, are you enjoying the immeasurable blessing of knowing that God is merciful toward you and not mad at you?  Do you remember that God does not remember your sins that He has forgiven?  If you know His covenant in Christ and learn His law of love that He has written on your heart you will live in the knowledge and delight of God’s abundant, overflowing, life-giving mercy!

Are you tapping into the resources God has provided through our Great High Priest Jesus?

Today we should read all of chapter 8 of Hebrews.  Take your time.  Read with calm concentration.  Let God speak through His Word.  This chapter instructs us about our faith.  It deals directly with what we are to believe.  How does a chapter like this help me in my daily living?  There are two ways it helps.  First, the knowledge you gain from a close reading.  You cannot believe something you do not know.  Faith is not a leap in the dark, it is a choosing to believe what has been reported to you by witnesses or discovered through research or revelation. This chapter informs us about the specifics of Christ’s work as our Great High Priest.  The more we learn, the deeper our faith can grow.  The second way a chapter like this helps us in our daily lives is that it teaches us how to act toward others.  The more we see and understand God’s gracious treatment of ourselves, the more able we are to extend to people gracious, god-like treatment.  When we model the grace of God in our relationships, especially at home, our lives become a catalyst for people to want to know God.

APPLICATION:

God confronts our sin and wrong.  Yet, at the same time offers us forgiveness and a covenant relationship with Him.  How is your balance with these things in your home life?  Do you lovingly speak truth with your spouse and children?  Do they know that you love them unconditionally, and that you will forget past wrongs and help them move successfully into the future?

Seek Christ and the richness of His sin forgiving-sin forgetting grace.  As you experience it, seek to demonstrate such love to others.