Hebrews 6:19-20

Summary retelling of Hebrews 6:19-20

God’s promise is the very anchor for our soul.  Through Jesus our hope can enter into God’s “inner sanctum” – the place where only the highest of the high priests could once go.  Jesus has already gone there as a priest of the order of Melchizedek.  He is our forerunner, meaning that we hope to follow Him into the very presence of God.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

An anchor is a very specific tool.  Anchors keep a person grounded in a certain area.  Anchors on a ship keep a boat located in the same space on water.  Anchors on a wiki page take a link directly to the desired place.  Anchors in our mind are quotes and sayings and experience from which we draw strength and meaning.  In a nutshell, anchors keep us grounded where we need to be at any given time.  God’s Word – His promise for salvation – is our anchor in this life.

How does the promise of salvation keep you grounded where you need to be?  Can you think of a time when you didn’t care as much about God’s anchor in your life?  What was your life like without that anchor?  How is life different now that you have such an anchor?

Second Thought:

We have another mention of the name Melchizedek.  As we’ve talked before, Melchizedek was a high priest of God in Jerusalem.  David became a priest of the order of Melchizedek when he captured Jerusalem.  Since Jesus sits on David’s spiritual throne, we can say with confidence that Jesus is a high priest as well.  Since He is a high priest, we know He can go into the Holy of Holies – the place where God dwells on earth.  If He can go there – and God promises us salvation through Jesus – then we can have confidence that our hope will be fulfilled.  One day we too can go into the presence of God.

How can it help us to know that there is someone who died and rose from the dead already?  How can it help us to know that what God promises to do for us He has already done for Jesus?  Does it give you confidence to know that if God can do it once, He can do it again for us?

Third Thought:

The presence of God.  What an incredible place to be.  Imagine being in a place where there is no more suffering, crying, tears, death, pain, misery, frustration, disappointment … imagine being at peace with everything and everyone.  We cannot fully know what being in the presence of God is going to be like, but it is definitely something to which we can look forward!

What do you think you are looking forward to the most about being in the presence of God?  Does it bother you that you cannot fully know what that existence is going to be like until you get there?  Why or why not?

Passage for Tomorrow: Hebrews 7:1-2

Hebrews 6:16-18

Summary retelling of Hebrews 6:16-18

People swear by ideas and names of things that are greater than they in order to try and make a point for themselves.  God knows that human beings have this tendency to want to make oaths, so when He desired to demonstrate His purpose, He made an oath.  In this way, we who put our hope in Him for salvation can trust in both His character and His Word and we can reliably rest in the hope that comes from Him.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

Human beings like to swear by things greater than themselves.  In courts of law, we are asked to swear upon the Bible.  We have a tendency to swear by “all that is good and holy” or other such ideals as proof.  We swear upon sacred things such as “my dead <insert family relation here> grave.”  We as human beings think that by tying ourselves to things that are better and bigger than we are that we make ourselves more reliable.

Just because a person puts their hand on a Bible or makes some such oath, does that make them more believable?  What does James tell us about making oaths in James 5:12?  Why might James give us that advice in light of human nature?

Second Thought:

God made an oath with Abraham.  In fact, God made several oaths based on His own nature.  God told Abraham that his descendants would be like the stars of the sky.  For the record, given that all Jewish people can trace their heritage back to Abraham, I think it is fair to say that this oath was fulfilled.  God also promised that the nations (Gentiles) would be blessed through Him.  Considering that God sent Jesus Christ – a descendant of Abraham – to save the whole world, it is fair to say that God’s oath in that regard was fulfilled as well.

How does knowing that God has kept His oaths to Abraham make you feel about God in general?  Why is it important to see God as someone who keeps His Word?

Third Thought:

God did send Jesus.  Jesus died on the cross.  God promised to raise Jesus from the dead, and He did just that.  God makes promise after promise and He fulfills all of them.  God also promises that if we confess our sins He will forgive.  God promises that those who are in Him will receive the Holy Spirit.  God promises that those who have the Holy Spirit within them also have the promise of eternal life.  We who are in Him put our hope in Him.

Does knowing God’s ability for keeping His promises help you have hope?  Does knowing God’s character and His track record allow you to trust His Words?

Passage for Tomorrow: Hebrews 6:19-20

Hebrews 6:13-15

Summary retelling of Hebrews 6:13-15

We are reminded of God’s promise to Abraham.  God made this oath according to His own righteousness.  God told Abraham that he would be blessed and multiplied.  Abraham obtained the promise through His patient waiting.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

Isn’t it interesting that we are reminded here that God makes promises?  In fact, God made all kinds of promises.  The neat question is why God makes those promises.  Human beings make promises largely for selfish reasons.  We get caught, so we promise to change.  We want someone to like us, so we promise to do something for them.  Many – but certainly not all – of the promises we make are inherently self-centered.  Not so with God.  God doesn’t need us or need anything from us.  God makes promises to us in order to improve our existence.  God makes promises to us in order to make us more like Him so that our life together would be better than it is.

What promises have you made recently?  Why did you make those promises?  What promises has God made to you?  Why did God make those promises?

Second Thought:

Specifically in this reading we hear the promise that God would take Abraham and multiply his offspring.  In other words, God was going to turn a single person into a great nation.  God is telling Abraham that He desires to create a people who are faithful to Him as Abraham was faithful.  Now certainly Abraham was not perfect.  Abraham made his fair share of mistakes.  However, God’s promise was not based upon Abraham’s perfection.  God’s promise was based on God’s perfection.

In spite of Abraham’s mistakes, did God fulfill His promise to Abraham?  In spite of your mistakes, can God fulfill His promise to you?

Third Thought:

The one quality that the author lifts up about Abraham is patience.  Abraham did not have his offspring immediately after God promised it to Him.  In fact, Abraham had to wait until he was an old man.  Abraham even tried to bring about God’s promise on his own – a great mistake.  So as we said earlier, Abraham wasn’t perfect in his waiting, either.  But eventually the promise came true.  Abraham did have his offspring.  Many generations later that offspring had indeed multiplied into a nation.  Many, many generations later a savior of the world was born out of that nation and a new spiritual family was created.  God’s promise to Abraham required much patience to see fulfilled.

How patient are you?  How patient are your spiritual mentors?  Why is it that human beings tend to be weak with respect to being patient?

Passage for Tomorrow: Hebrews 6:16-18

Hebrews 6:9-12

Summary retelling of Hebrews 6:9-12

We are told that there are great things that belong to salvation – elsewhere in the Bible called fruit.  We are also told that God does not overlook the things that we do in the faith – especially things for the fellow faithful in Christ.  In fact, it should be each of our hope that we see these fruit displayed earnestly within each other.  We should want to be anything but sluggish followers of Christ; we should desire to be active imitators of those who are faithful to Him and patiently in Him.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

Fruit.  This is perhaps one of the simplest analogies used in the Bible, but it is also one of the most profound.  Jesus tells us that those who have the Holy Spirit will bear good fruit.  Jesus tells us that those who bear bad fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.  We are told that other people will be able to judge us by our fruit.  Other Christians will be able to recognize us by our fruit.  Just as fruit trees naturally bear the fruit for which they have been created to bear; so do Christians naturally bear spiritual fruit.  We bear it in different amounts of course.  But the reality is that all who are in Christ will bear fruit.

What are the fruit of your works?  How can people see the fruit of the Holy Spirit within you?

Second Thought:

God does not overlook the things that we do in this life.  Again, we need to be careful that we are not headed into works based righteousness.  We are absolutely saved by Jesus Christ.  But because of our salvation we should desire to do the work of Christ who called us.  And we can go about that work knowing that God our Father takes notice of what we do.  When we bear fruit, it pleases Him.  That is a very good thing indeed.

How often do you think about whether or not God is pleased with your efforts to serve Him?  In what ways do you please God?

Third Thought:

We are told to be imitators, not sluggards.  We are to imitate the faithful.  We are also to imitate the patient.  These characteristics go hand in hand.  Doing God’s work takes great patience.  Doing God’s work takes great faith.  The work of the Lord is seldom begun and finished in a single night.  Those who accomplish the work of the Lord do so by imitating the perspective of the Lord, willing to work slowly and surely in this life as the Lord has directed them.

Do you consider yourself faithful (or obedient) to God?  To you consider yourself patient?  Why are these qualities sometimes hard to keep?

Passage for Tomorrow: Hebrews 6:13-15

Hebrews 6:7-8

Summary retelling of Hebrews 6:7-8

The land that receives ample resources and does the work for which it was prepared receives a blessing from God.  However, land that receives ample resources and produces fruit that is not desired is called worthless, cursed, and burned.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

We are given an incredible promise here.  We are the analogy of the land.  Notice that in both cases the land is given what it needs to produce.  God can and will meet our needs.  We have an assurance that God will be with us.

Do you believe that God can meet your needs?  Do you live like it is God who is meeting your needs?

Second Thought:

The land that produces as He expects is praised.  We know that feeling.  We pursue the classes in school in which we do well.  We pursue the friends in our life that bring satisfying relationships.  We continue the jobs and tasks that bring satisfaction.  God is no different.  When God pours Himself into us, He is appreciative and satisfied when we produce desirable fruit for Him.

What do you think God considers desirable fruit?  What do you need to do to produce good fruit?

Third Thought:

The land that produces things other than what is desired is worthless, cursed, and rejected.  Again, this makes sense.  We avoid people who irritate us.  We don’t take those classes in school that cause us to struggle.  We get out of jobs that bring no satisfaction.  Again, God is no different.  If God gives us all we need to do His will and we do anything but, why shouldn’t He be disappointed?

How does it make you feel to hear that unproductive land will be worthless, cursed, and burned?  What do you think God would consider to be a life that produces “thorns and thistles?”

Passage for Tomorrow: Hebrews 6:9-12

Hebrews 6:4-6

Summary retelling of Hebrews 6:4-6

It is impossible that the ones who were once being illuminated, who were tasting the heavenly gifts, who became associates of Holy Spirit, and after tasting a good saying of God, powers, and the era that is about to be, and after falling beside to again renew into repentance, while crucifying the Son of God for themselves and while exposing to shame.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

There is no easy way to read this passage.  At first glance, it seems to be saying that people who follow Jesus cannot be saved if they fall away after beginning to follow Jesus.  We must understand that this is not at all what this passage is saying.  We must understand that all of us struggle with sin our entire life.  No matter how much we desire to follow God, we will always feel the temptation to sin.  To make the claim that a person who sins after professing belief in Jesus Christ is incapable of experiencing salvation again is really a condemnation of all humanity.  None of us are free from the influence of sin this side of the resurrection of the dead.

How does it make you feel to know that a person can be forgiven of sins that they do after professing belief in Christ?  Why is that important to you?

Second Thought:

In order to understand the point of this passage appropriately, we must really understand grammar.  This is why basic academic skills are so important.  All of the verbs in vs. 4-6 are past tense except for “crucifying” and “holding Him up to content.”  Those verbs are in the present tense.  From this, here’s what we can conclude.  A person who is presently – actively – scorning the cross and holding the work of Jesus contemptuously is not covered by grace.  People who are actively in the process of rebelling against God need to fear.  God gives us salvation for free.  It is called grace.  But when we live in such a way as to actively push aside God’s grace – regardless of how we’ve behaved in the past – we are outside of salvation.  We should therefore learn how to live a humble life so that when we sin – and we will sin – we are repentant and sorry for that sin rather than lead down the path of wanton rebellion against God.

Is there a difference between how I respond to sin that I stumble into versus sin that I enter into willingly?  Is there a difference in how I interact with sin that is not planned versus sin that is planned?  Which kind of sin is more likely to be continued?  How do these types of sin demonstrate our true relationship with God?

Third Thought:

The point of this passage is that we must repent before receiving forgiveness.  I cannot claim to be repentant of my sin while enjoying the promotion of my sin.  For the record, I cannot really claim to be a true follower of Christ while actively enjoying the promotion of my sin.  Either I am a repentant sinner or I am an unrepentant sinner.  Either I see God’s ways as worthy and am sorry for the ways I mess up or I do not.  The application of this principle can be messy, but the principle itself is very straightforward.

The money question seems to be fairly easy: are you a repentant sinner or an unrepentant one?

Passage for Tomorrow: Hebrews 6:7-8

Hebrews 6:1-3

Summary retelling of Hebrews 6:1-3

We are called to leave behind the simple truth of Christ and plunge ahead into maturity.  We must move beyond the point of repentance.  We must move beyond the point of embracing the faith that God gives to us.  We must move beyond our baptism.  We must move beyond the fact that we are set apart for ministry.  We must move beyond the resurrection of the dead.  We must move beyond trying to learn about the final judgment.  With God’s help, we can move beyond those things.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

Let me be absolutely clear with this opening thought.  All six of the doctrines that we must get past are absolutely important doctrines. (Repentance, Faith, Baptism, Being Set Apart for Ministry, Resurrection of the Dead, and Final Judgment)  All of those things are absolutely foundational to the faith.  The author is not suggesting that we ignore them.  What the author is suggesting is that we learn them, master the teaching as best we can, and move beyond them.  We’ll talk more about this in the next thought for the day.  But it is vital to stop and make sure that we don’t read these verses as saying that these doctrines are unimportant.  They are vitally important as the foundation of our faith!

How well can you talk about each of these six doctrines?  If you wish to consider yourself a spiritually mature person, do you think you could teach someone else about these foundational doctrines?

Second Thought:

The author of Hebrews tells us that we must move beyond these doctrines in order to be mature.  This is true for two reasons.  First, yesterday we talked about how mature Christians instruct others in the faith.  If we are to be able to instruct others in these basic doctrines, it is important we reach a point where we can say we have “mastered them.”  Now of course, that doesn’t mean w know every minute detail.  It means that we know enough to teach others about them.

The second reason that we must move beyond them is simple.  Have you ever met someone who is stuck in their repentance?  Even though they know God forgives, they cannot forgive themselves.  Or take someone who is stuck on baptism.  They focus so much on making sure they “get” baptism right that they never actually go forward and do any ministry.  Or take someone who is so worried about how God is calling them into ministry that they never actually get to the work of God.  Or take those people who all they want to do is focus on the coming judgment.  They focus on “scaring people into Hell” and they never really get to the true discipleship-making process.  What the author is saying is that we need to understand these doctrines and use them to compel us forward into God’s work.  If we get hung up in the fundamental principles and do not mature, we never get to the work of God.

Are you doing the work of God?  Are there times and places to focus on learning the foundational doctrines?  In your own words, can you explain why it is that spiritual maturity is connected to actually doing God’s work?

Third Thought:

It is through God’s help that we are successful in maturing.  This is an important point.  Think about a baby.  A baby is born into a loving family (hopefully).  While the parents and grandparents of the baby love the baby as it is, they also hope and pray for the day when the baby is fully mature.  The parents rear the child and cause it to grow.  Babies do not mature on their own; babies mature because the adults around them put the expectation of growth upon them.  So it is with us.  When we come to God, we are spiritual babies.  We need to be fed spiritual milk.  But the goal is for us to become spiritually mature.  It is God who works through this world to bring about that spiritual maturity.

Why is it important to remember God’s hand in the process of our spiritual maturity?  Do you ever forget how important God is in the process of your spiritual maturity?  Why do we often live as though we are the ones causing our own spiritual growth?

Passage for Tomorrow: Hebrews 6:4-6