Hebrews 4:1-16

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Hebrews 3 (Part 2)

In the second half of Hebrews 3, the Holy Spirit warns us against hardening our hearts toward the Word of God, as well as testing God. Both can lead to spiritual paralysis and it's nothing to fool around with. I think questioning why you believe what you believe is a good thing... in fact it's important to understand why you believe what you believe. However, some people can't have a true worship experience or even belief in God unless He proves Himself over and over in signs and wonders. God has done so much for us! Do we really need any other proof to believe He is who He says He is?! Do we need signs and wonders to prove that Jesus is faithful and will do what He says He will do? Do not test the Lord your God, but open your ears to what He has to say through His Word, and do not let your heart be hardened.

I also like how the writer of Hebrews reminds us that we can't walk this journey alone! We need to encourage one another daily! Yeah for that! I have proven to myself over and over that I can't do it on my own... in fact when I try, I miserably fail. I need my brothers and sisters to walk beside me to encourage, love, counsel, and sometimes scold me! It is this daily encouaragement that motivates us to stand firm until the end. Are you encouraging fellow believers daily?

I long for Christ's holiness to be real in my life. To do that, I need to fix my thoughts on Jesus (Hebrews 3:1). Let's encourage one another to do this TODAY!

Hebrews 3 (Part 1)

In chapter 1, the author wrote that Christ is higher than the prophets and angels, and now in the beginning of chapter 3, the author points out that Christ is bigger than Moses. Moses is mentioned here because if you remember from the introduction, the author was writing to the Jewish Christians, and Moses is an important figure in Jewish history. Could it be that the Jewish Christians were putting Moses on a pedestal and focusing on his good deeds, rather than Christ’s sovereignty? The author acknowledges that Moses was a faithful servant in God’s house, but Christ is faithful over God’s entire house! Jesus Christ is greater than the greatest!

I’m starting to feel like the author of Hebrews is trying to tell us something. Why does he feel the necessity to remind us that Christ is higher than the angels, the prophets, and Moses? Why is he urging us to remember what we’ve heard so we do not drift away, and now in chapter three, why is he encouraging us to fix our thoughts on Jesus? I think the answer is obvious, but sometimes the obvious needs to be stated or we have a tendency to overlook it. Jesus Christ is THE link between man and God. If Christ is not the most important thing in our lives, then we are missing the mark. If our eyes are focused on angels and prophets, or everyday good people like philanthropists like Bill Gates or influential people like Oprah, or our pastors and leaders, then we are going to fall. These people may be good, but Jesus is greater (actually, they don’t even compare to His greatness!).

I just read a story that went along with this chapter. It was about a lady who held many records for long distance swimming. One morning she decided she would swim from the Catalina islands to the California shoreline (that really doesn’t mean anything to me since I don’t know where the Catalina islands are, but I assume it’s a long distance!). It was a foggy morning, the water was cold, and the sharks were hungry (she had people boating beside her who would shoot the sharks before they got too close!). After she had swum for several hours, her body was numb from the water being so cold and she told her coach she couldn’t go any further. Her coach tried to encourage her to keep going because she was almost there. However, due to the fog, she couldn’t see anything and she insisted that she couldn’t last any longer and needed help getting into the boat. She quit only to find out she was ½ mile from her goal! When interviewed, she said had she been able to see the land, she might have been able to make it. It wasn’t fear, the cold or exhaustion that caused her to fail, it was the fog. She lost sight of her goal.
http://www.ntu.edu.sg/home/hblim/reflections/goals.html

Jesus Christ is the goal that we need to fix our eyes on. Distractions are going to come our way. Bad things are going to happen, circumstances are going to change, and life is going to get messy at times. There are times when God is going to feel far away, unconcerned, or hard to understand. But Jesus Christ came to be the link between us and God. Jesus ministers to us like no one else can. He is there to help us understand how our trials and burdens are meant to perfect us. Jesus Christ is it, folks! Jesus Christ, our hope of glory!

Wow, and that was only the first half of Chapter 3!