LogosWalk Word Journal
Hearing God Speak through His Word

"But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word
in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance."
-- Luke 8:15 (NASB)

Archive for the '58: Hebrews' Category

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Hebrews 13:5-8 • Achieving Contentment

Saturday, February 23rd, 2008
“Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, ‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,’ so that we confidently say,

‘The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid.
What will man do to me
?’

Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
    —Hebrews 13:5-8 (NASB)

At a time when millions appear to be caught in the throes of the Faith-Prosperity Movement, subscribing to the notion that Christians should be reaping financial rewards in this life, I’m quite sure these verses aren’t regularly referred to in such circles. For such it can be an exceptionally hard thing to come to terms with the fact that a fixation on money is actually evidence of one’s discontentment with Christ. You either believe that in spite of modest financial resources by the world’s standards He is always with us, never forsaking us, or you don’t and show it by embracing such false doctrines as those twisting Scripture so as to make money a priority. Like most things in life for Christians, it’s a test of faith, a way of establishing that we AREN’T afraid because of our reliance on Him as our sole and ultimate help.
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Hebrews 12:9-11 • The Purpose of Discipline

Friday, February 22nd, 2008
“Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”
    —Hebrews 12:9-11 (NASB)

It’s unusual to encounter parents who do not have a vision for the kind of person they want their children to be. The parameters and direction of their discipline is often fueled by that vision, to not just produce a minimally acceptable “citizen” who behaves according to the norm, but whose feet are set upon the path to achieve what was envisioned. The topic of discipline is brought up here not as a reminder that God won’t turn a blind eye to sin or wrongful behavior, but in the context of having a greater plan for His children: “holiness” and “righteousness“.
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Hebrews 12:1-3 • Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus

Thursday, February 21st, 2008
“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”
    —Hebrews 12:1-3 (NASB)

One of my endearing personality quirks which has been known to drive some people cuckoo is my obsession with analyzing the lyrics of songs sung at church. I hold to the radical belief that musical style isn’t very important and whether it’s a modern chorus or an ancient hymn or something in between, the lyrics should be based on biblical truth. Recently I began obsessing over a worship team’s choice to use a song whose main tag line, repeated over and over throughout the song, is “I surrender to Your love”. As nice sounding as it may be, it’s not a phrase or concept that I can find in Scripture. And I would suggest that it distracts away from the stated truths that we should surrender to His will, surrender to His Word, or to fight against sin’s every influence. Nowhere in Hebrews does the author question the need for Christ’s love, only the proper response to it which is most often characterized by the word “endure”.
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Hebrews 11:8-11 • Where, How, When, & Why?

Wednesday, February 20th, 2008
“By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised.”
    —Hebrews 11:8-11 (NASB)

Abraham is one of the most often used examples of biblical faith. He is someone who left the old life, lived as a pilgrim going about as God directed during his days on earth, and never returned to the old life but established a foundation for obtaining and doing God’s will. As per the definition of faith in Hebrews 11, Abraham lived seeing and believing in God’s promises to the degree that he treated them as having already been accomplished, even though most of them would not ultimately arrive until well after his departure from this earthly life.
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Hebrews 11:1-3 • The Assurance

Tuesday, February 19th, 2008
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.”
    —Hebrews 11:1-3 (NASB)

As I’ve often pointed out before, both the Hebrew and Greek words for “faith” can also be translated “faithfulness”. To fully understand the proper context it’s often helpful to mentally switch between those words so as to derive the true biblical meaning of “faith’. In the case of this entire chapter devoted to the topic, it’s also useful to note what each and every example given has in common: perseverance. The biblical examples of faithfulness demonstrated their “assurance of things hoped for” and their “conviction of things not seen” by continuing in spite of the external appearance of their earthly circumstances.
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Hebrews 10:26-29 • Sinning Willfully

Monday, February 18th, 2008
“For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?”
    —Hebrews 10:26-29 (NASB)

As I’ve pointed out before, repeated polling data where American Christians are concerned indicate no statistical difference on nearly every issue of morality between those who regularly attend church and those who don’t. There’s no difference in the divorce rate, the incidence of adultery, or nearly any other condition addressed in God’s Word indicating that neither group actually regards the authority of Scripture. And yet God’s Word in both Testaments clearly provides the expectation that the evidence of someone having a right relationship with God is a life so changed from the heart that one is “born again”; that is, so different going forward that people who knew them before the experience can hardly recognize them after. But what happens when this isn’t the case?
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Hebrews 10:19-22 • How to Draw Near

Sunday, February 17th, 2008
“Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”
    —Hebrews 10:19-22 (NASB)

One of the things I believe we’ve in general lost sight of is how we’re supposed to come together before the Lord, prepared instead of seeking to BE prepared or motivated. In the way that modern church services are carried out, the planners of such services see it as part of their responsibility to get the crowd in the right mood, to use music and such to change whatever attitude the congregants came with into something more suitable. I dare say that most congregants these days expect it to happen this way as well. But the biblical teaching, established first in the Old Testament and confirmed in the New is that each person is supposed to be living faithfully to such a degree that when they come together, they’re already properly prepared to worship and engage Him from a right heart.
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