What Will We Do

DEVOTION

HEBREWS

WHAT WILL WE DO

Heb 12:16-17

16 See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. 17 Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.

NIV

This seems to be a most difficult statement to understand. Who of us is sexually immoral or godless that we should apply this to our own lives? But yet it would appear to follow in the pattern of the previous statement of seeing to it that no one misses the grace of God. Still the original language carries the concept of being a prostitute or profane person like Esau. What does that mean? Could it imply that some people are in the condition of prostituting themselves to the world? That in fact they have sold their birthright, their blessing from God, for the sake of material gain, worldly comfort, personal ambition or self-interest? Surely we would suspect the most of the ungodly, or the godless people of this world are in that category, as they too are children of God, or at very least among his creation, for He is the God of all creation and thus all people are really His, whether they what to admit it or not. Yet here again we are to see that no one is like Esau, we are to see that no one does prostitute themselves or sell their birthright for the comforts of this world. That would also include all of us in the household of faith. That does raise the question even about missing the grace of God as we saw before. We have a responsibility to each other, to all people to encourage them to stay focused on God, and not get distracted by the comforts this world has to offer, and to engage in any illicit affair with this world system at all. The question we have to ask is have we forsaken our intimate relationship with God for the wiles of this world? Do we desire stuff, more than God? A hard question requires true introspection. At the same time we seem to have the task of sharing this truth with those who are like Esau. If people look to the blessings of this world rather than from God, it appears rejection is in their future. No matter how they cry out, it will be of no avail, for their desire was for personal comfort first, and their birthright was second. What will we do?

See To It

DEVOTION

HEBREWS

SEE TO IT

Heb 12:15-16

15 See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.

NIV

Just hold on a moment, isn’t that our pastor’s job? Why are we supposed to see to it that no one misses the grace of God? It sure looks like we are the ones who should be looking out for all the other people and seeing to it that we share the grace of God with them. That surely would mean that we have to talk to them about the Gospel message of Jesus Christ, telling them they need to repent and get saved. Well, we really do not have to tell them about repenting, or getting saved, we merely have to tell them about Jesus dying on the cross for their sins, right? But that is not all. It sure looks like we are also supposed to make sure that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. Now how are we supposed to do that? Maybe if we lived like we were superior to others because we are saved and they are not, it might make them bitter toward us. Then again if we confess Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior but live just the same as the unbelievers do, they might develop a bitter attitude about religion which in turn would be directed toward God and thus they would be defiled. Living by faith is a good thing,  trusting in God is a wonderful way to live, gaining eternal life is a wonderful reward, and sharing this message is a responsibility we have to all people. Yes we need to speak up and tell the story, but we also have to live in manner would is consistent with the message we tell them. Hypocrisy will surely cause a bitter root to grow. This live we live in front of them is not about following a bunch of church rules and regulations, that is of no value to them at all, in fact that might cause the root of bitterness to grow up even more, but it is about living a life of love, showing them the love of Jesus at work in us toward them. We need to be the most reliable, trust worthy, loving and caring person they know. Jesus died for us; can we not give ourselves for them? Is that not showing them the grace of God at work in a real way? Simply said, we have to see to it.

Hold Nothing Back

DEVOTION

HEBREWS

HOLD NOTHING BACK

Heb 12:14

14 Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

NIV

Make some effort, make a little effort, make quite a bit effort, make as much effort as you are able, no, wait that says make every effort. We cannot simply make a partial effort, or only when it is convenient, we are told to make every effort to live in peace will some people, no wait that say all people and then it says to be holy. But let’s just focus for now on this every effort thing. This is going to require a lot, whole lot of putting self aside. Selfishness may be the one and only motive that keeps us from making every effort to live in peace with all people. Then there are those few individuals which simply grate on us the wrong way, those who are so irritating, so arrogant, so boastful and just plain rude that it is nearly impossible to be at peace with them, so it is alright to exclude them from the all when we figure up how many that means. This making every effort to live in peace with all men is not as easy as it sounds, but it is what we are to do, and then tack on being holy, and are we noticing the warning about being holy? Without Holiness not one of us will see the Lord. Now of course we all know that we cannot have within us any holiness of our own, but is it the holiness of Christ that is referred to here. Jesus, himself, said that no man comes unto the Father except through Him. The only way we can see the Lord is being in Christ. That is the being holy, for God makes us holy. Yet this Greek word used here which is translated holiness carries the meaning of consecration, which is a solemn dedication to a special purpose or service. It literally means “To associate with the sacred”. This is the action, the attitude of our heart toward God. We must be dedication to His service. That would require us thinking that our purpose is to serve God and how could we benefit His kingdom rather than always looking for ways that He would benefit us. We would be asking how we can give to Him instead of always asking for things from Him. If all we think is that God is our provider, our own personal genie in the bottle that we can call out anytime we need something, then maybe, just maybe we may not get to see Him. This whole thing here is about putting self aside to the purpose of doing what God desires. Being a believer is so much better than being a self-centered individual. Let us make every effort, put is all in, give it every last bit of effort we have, hold nothing back. 

Be Healed

DEVOTION

HEBREWS

BE HEALED

Heb 12:12-13

12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13 "Make level paths for your feet," so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

NIV

Sometimes after enduring hardship for an extended time, whether that is from our own fault or as in the form of discipline from God, we can become exhausted, worn out, discouraged and even to the point of giving up. We may think when is it going to end, I cannot take anymore, but here we are encouraged to buck up, strengthen our feeble arms and weak knees, as their say, take it like a man. If the hardship we are enduring is due to the discipline of the Lord than there is a purpose, a plan, a divine plan for the betterment of our life as so we need to see that in order we do not become lame, but rather we are healed. Now if our hardship is due to our own fault, as from a bad decision, a bad choice or some other reason that is due to our action or inaction than we still need to make level paths for our feet, correct the mistake so we will not be lame or crippled in our life, but rather we will be healed. If we refuse the correction from God through the form of discipline that may in fact bring some form of hardship into our life, then we will be lame, we will be crippled both in the physical and in the spiritual. But is we see the purpose of the correction, that is we acknowledge our sin, our disobedience and understand His corrective action in our life, we will make straight, make level our path and walk tall, learning from the experience thus being healed from the dreadful disease we were so inflicted with. For some it may be far easier to fall under the hardship, than to strengthen ourselves in the midst of it, but the right course of action is to renew our faith in God, see what He is doing and make the level path, make the needed change and be healed, be whole, be at peak performance as one of His children, one of His Christian soldiers. As the song writer wrote, “Onward Christian soldier”  we need to move on, accept the training, and “Be the best we can be”.   Be Healed.

Change

DEVOTION

HEBREWS

CHANGE

Heb 12:7-11

7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? 8 If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. 9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! 10 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

NIV

Not sure what kind of discipline we are talking about here. Not sure if we who live in America have even had to endure hardship. Although there may be some people who are enduring a form of hardship as far as not having a job, being unable to find a way to support themselves and their family, their bills are mounting up, credit card debt is over the top, and hope is being lost. There are others who have gone through very difficult relationships, abuse, divorce, having to see the hurt in their children’s faces. There are hardships that some encounter, but can we say there are the result of God’s discipline? Although surely God does bear responsibility for our spiritual welfare and thus disciplines, trains us in His ways for our own spiritual well-being. The Greek word here used as discipline is defined as train up a child, educate, by implication, discipline using punishment as a means to the end. How can we tell if any hardship that we encounter, is just a result of life, or God’s discipline? It would seem right to consider if the hardship will bring about an opportunity for spiritual growth and maturity. We could look to see if a hardship will bring us closer to righteousness and peace. It would make sense if we do encounter a hardship, whatever form it comes in, that we must get our eyes off of our own suffering and look to assist others that are affected by our hardship, this would produce the desired result God is looking for. Do we wallow in our own self-pity when we are in the midst of a hardship that is the result of God’s discipline? Or do we buck up and learn from it and grow in our understanding of what God is doing and why?  Again, we may not truly understand real hardship, as some in other parts of the world are enduring, but when some form of hardship comes our way, we must examine it and determine is God at work in our lives, or is it a result of our own actions or inactions? If it is our own fault we can change it, if it is God’s discipline we can change us. In most cases, many people do not accept change very well, but if God is the reason, then change we must. 

Struggle

DEVOTION

HEBREWS

STRUGGLE

Heb 12:4-6

4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, 6 because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."  

NIV

Surely Jesus was resisting the temptation of not going to the cross when he was in the garden, for he sweat great drops of blood. But does this mean we should also resist sin with that kind of determination? Or within the context does this mean that we have not yet been called to give our life for our testimony of the truth? If we are sons of God than perhaps we should start acting as sons. That is to say we need to stand up for what is true, we should resist evil at every turn, both the evil that is within us and that which is opposed to us. Surely this struggle against sin could imply the sin that resides within each of us, but it also could imply the sin that is in the world which opposes the truth of God. Both these sins were the cause for the shedding of blood by Jesus on the cross. He was killed for His testimony of the truth, but He gave His live for the sin that is within us. Here we need to resist sin, our and theirs with every ounce of effort we can. We must put to death the sin that reside within with as much determination as Jesus had in the garden. All too often we give in to the sin within without even a struggle. We lose our temper, we speak ill-conceived words out of selfish concerns, we see ourselves as better than we ought to, thinking we live a good Christian life, when in fact we are sinners save by grace. We give in to silence, not wanting to stand our ground against the wayward acts of disobedience we see around us. Are we making light the Lord’s discipline here? Are this words about struggling against sin a rebuke? Is God training, educating us through a form of heavy handed punishment? The fact is we need to give up this acceptance of sin, making excuses for our own sinful ways, as well as stand up, speak up against the sin which so easily entangles us. The sin of the world, yes we need to tell people they are sinners, and God opposes they prideful arrogant disobedience. Jesus died speaking the truth, are we afraid to do the same? Let us speak the truth to both ourselves and to others, let us struggle.

Unceasing Stare

DEVOTION

HEBREWS

UNCEASING STARE

Heb 12:2-3

2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

NIV

There is more about these ideas which follows, but let us simply deal with the incredible statement here, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus”. Do we have more faith or maybe not faith but trust in the things we can see with our physical eyes than we do what we can only see with our spiritual eyes? Do we fret over having a job because we trust that employer to provide us with money? Do we concern ourselves with the future portion of our lives, trying our best to store up wealth for those years ahead? Do we think we can be a better Christian if we abide by all the church rules and regulations? Have we fixed our eyes on our self-ambitions, our goals, our desires and our needs instead on what we are commanded to do? We need to fix our eyes on Jesus. This means we must run the race that has been set out before us. We must follow the course of action God desires for us so that we may be a benefit to the Kingdom of God rather than looking to see how the Kingdom of God can benefit us. Jesus went to the cross for the benefit of the Kingdom of God. Yes, it is true He died for our sins, but does that not benefit the Kingdom of God. Because of Jesus we are now a member, a citizen of the Kingdom of God, it has become greater, bigger, stronger, and God has restored us to our rightful place in His kingdom. He is Master and we are His servants, and the servants only serve to benefit the master, not themselves. For the most part too many teach what God does for us which encourages a very self-orientated near-sighted view of life. But if we fix our eyes on Jesus, we must be able to see we are to serve the Kingdom of God, we are to view ourselves as His. If we do that we will not lose heart no matter the physical circumstances we find ourselves in here in the life. Our goal, the race we run is not one of self-interest, but a race for the Kingdom of God. Fixing our eyes on Jesus allows us to focus on the truth, the true future, the true finish line. We should consider fixing does not mean an occasional glance, but an unceasing stare.