May 20th, 2008 Jeff
1 Let brotherly love continue. 2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. 3 Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. 4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. 5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we can confidently say,
“The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear;
what can man do to me?”
[Hebrews 13:1-6 ]
In the last chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews we see the power of the Messiah’s love at work in the life of His church. These Jewish Christians were enduring much hardship for their faith, and were called to persevere through seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Yet they will be asked to endure hardship that Jesus Himself endured as well (see Hebrews 12:1-6 ). God suffers with them (and us) in love.
Perseverance through discipline and hardship requires certain measures of sacrifice . Not all will be easy and well in this life. The author turns his attention to a list of specific sacrifices that please God. The whole letter is a "word of exhortation (13:22), and here are a few important ones in this section:
- Brotherly love shall always abound (v. 1)
- Hospitality to strangers (v. 2)
- Praying and caring for the persecuted and imprisoned (v. 3)
- Faithfulness in the marriage covenant (v. 4)
- Being content, free from the love of money (v. 5)
- Knowing that God Himself is our portion, Who will never leave us nor forsake us (vv. 5-6)
That’s enough to work on for today.
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April 4th, 2008 Jeff
“The sad fact is that many of us are simply not biblical in the way we use the Bible! Being biblical does not mean merely quoting words from within its pages. Being truly biblical means that my counsel reflects what the entire Bible is about. The Bible is a narrative, a story of redemption, and its chief character is Jesus Christ.”
–Paul David Tripp, Instruments In The Redeemer’s Hands, p. 27 (emphasis added)
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March 22nd, 2008 Jeff
How great the Father’s love for us, how vast beyond all measure. His love and just wrath mingled in the greatest event in history, the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ, the Son of God.
This is what God did in Christ:
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in His divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time, so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
[Romans 3:21-26]
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November 13th, 2007 Jeff
“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.” (Psalm 91:1)
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December 31st, 1969 Jeff
The ever-challenging Jared Wilson wrote a recent piece on "Five Ways to Feel Scripture ."
A little clip:
"We like to keep Scripture short and manageable, and that’s understandable. It’s certainly more convenient that way. But we will not be mastered by Scripture if we don’t occasionally allow it to overwhelm us, intimidate us, and force us to wrestle with it."
Read the whole thing …
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