THE CALL FROM HEAVEN

"Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess." Hebrews 3:1

Last week I attended a three day training along with several other teachers. There was a little common bond we developed over just those three days.  Now, back at work I know a each of the people in my group a little more than I did before. 

As Christians, we share in the heavenly calling. I am struck by the term "heavenly calling". In part, it is because of that calling that my relationship with Jesus has meaning. I think it is because we are supposed to focus on the eternal, not the temporal. From the throne of heaven itself we receive our calling to follow Jesus and live a life of faith. 

That calling is not alone. It is a shared calling. Shared with other believers the world over and the world next door. Shared with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 

Father, thank you for calling me to share in the heavenly calling to follow Jesus. Help me to walk in faith with my brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. Help me follow in faith and to fix my eyes upon my Lord. Praise be to you in us today!

TEMPTATION: TEASE OR ATTACK?

"Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted." Hebrews 2:18 

Do you look at temptation as suffering? I don't think I do. Maybe it's because I tend to see sin as "pleasurable for a season". If you think about the temptation of Eve in the garden of Eden (Genesis 3) and of Christ in the desert (Matthew 4) the devil was attacking man's central trust and reliance on God. "Did God really say?", "If you are the Son of God". Temptation is not a cute little tease, temptation is an all out assault upon the umbilical cord of the faithfulness of God our Father. 

Christ, our faithful High Priest, suffered temptation to a degree we may never know the depths of. But, because he experienced temptations awful pull, he is able to help you and me when we are tempted. 

What is tempting you? Is your faith in Christ being assaulted? Do you realize that temptation is not benign? However you are feeling the effects of temptation know that Christ is able to help? 

Christ is able to help...

Lord Jesus Christ, help us! Praise be to you in us today!

HARD THANKS

"He who sacrifices thank offerings honors me, 
     and he prepares the way
     so that I may show him the salvation of God."
 Psalm 50:23

Sometimes faith means thanking God when you don't feel like it. 

I think that when I can't see God working in my life, but, by faith acknowledge that his ways are not my ways, and that he alone is God and knows what is best for me and my family, and thank him for being my God, my Father and my Friend, then God is glorified.

There are times when I don't get what God is doing. That does not mean God is messing up. No, God is God whether I see him or understand his workings in my life. He does what he wants to do and what he knows is best not what I think is best. He is God, I am not. 

Thanks and praise be to God who works all thinks our for my good and for your good. 

Praise be to you in us today! 

NO LONGER IRRECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES

"For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people." Hebrews 2:17 

The reason Christ came was to make atonement for our sins. For my sins. For your sins. For everyone's sins. Some versions translate the word reconciliation. Just take a moment and remember what that means.

If someone needs to be reconciled to someone else it is because there was something done, in our case sin, that separates two people. A wrong was done that requires a serious work of reconciliation to bring the two people back together. In divorces people will say there are irreconcilable differences. Christ's death on the cross was the atoning act that reconciles us with God and others. Without Christ's death, we would be eternally separated form God. 

In Christ we have the atonement, forgiveness and reconciliation that allows us to be God's children. Healing and wholeness can begins. In Christ, the otherwise irreconcilable differences are atoned for. 

Thank you. Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for being our high priest and making atonement for our sins and reconciling us back to the Father! Praise be to you in us today!

WHAT YOU NEED

"For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people." Hebrews 2:17 

I really don't think our society understands justice. Maybe it's the emphasis on "social justice", or maybe it's quite simply that our society is rejecting God.  We have rejected truth, absolute truth, and exchanged it for each persons personal truth. 

But, God is truth. God is the Judge. God will hold each of us accountable on the day of judgement. Justice is how he sees it. His judgement is true. 

The Apostle Paul reminds us, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:23-24). 

The truth is that we all need his mercy. Christ Jesus is supreme because he did what no one else could, he became man that he might perfectly save us. That means that for you, for me, Christ is the perfect Savior. He faithfully serves as our Savior. Savior of the past, present and the future! That means your past, your present and your future...

Father, open our eyes to see your faithfulness in our lives. Thank you for being our perfect High Priest, interceding on our behalf! Praise be to you in us today!

HE'S BEEN THERE

"Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death, he might destroy him who holds the power of death - that is, the devil - and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death." Hebrews 2:14-15

I just got back from a week of summer Boy Scout camp with my son and his Troop. One thing I noticed was how the boys whose parents came up acted when their parents were there. They were a little more confident, a little more focused. 

I also watched some boys playing some basketball and there was a boy taller than most of the other boys. When he was on the team, those boys around him were pretty confident. He blocked shot after shot. In a similar way, we should know that since Christ is for us, it does not matter that the devil is against us, because Christ defeated death and the devil at the cross. 

When you are struggling with something remember that Christ became human to know and understand perfectly what we go through. Christ knows. Christ understands. He shares your struggles. If he dealt with death, the greatest of problems, he can surely deal with anything else.

Father, thank for sending Jesus to share in our humanity to rescue us completely! Open our eyes to see you in our lives. Praise be to you in us today!

NOT ASHAMED OF YOU

"Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So, Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers." Hebrews 2:11

I kind of felt sorry for my younger brother because he had to enter every class with a teacher who knew he was my brother. He was every teachers dream, while I was every teachers recurring nightmare.  I was not until we were in High School that I got my act together. Then only a few teachers would say, "You're his (spoken with disdain) brother..." By then I had given my life to Christ and was leading Bible studies and then my brother took up guitar and led worship. He would lead the worship and I would teach the Bible study. God redeemed us both and made us holy in his site. 

Jesus, has made us, who were formerly not so holy and possibly the "foolish" (see I Corinthians 1:20-2:5) of this world into the wisdom of God! I think that is amazing! How God has got me as far as he has gotten me is probably more miraculous than I can even imagine. That God is not ashamed of me is...beyond my ability to express!!! 

Think about that for a minute. We all have done things we not only wish we did not do, but, things we probably don't want anyone else to know. Peter, denied Christ three times at the most crucial moment in history! Yet, Jesus was not and is not ashamed to call him his own. 

Jesus is not ashamed to call you his brother! That is why Jesus is supreme! That is why he is the way, the truth, and the  life! 

Jesus is not ashamed to call you his brother...

Thank you, my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for making me holy and making me a part of your family! Thank you for not being ashamed to call me your brother! Praise be to you in us today!