NEW PLANS ARE CARVED ON YOUR HEART
Hebrews 10: 16-18 The new plan with Israel, with you, isn't written on paper nor chiseled in stone. No, it's carved on the lining of your heart. "I'll forever wipe the slate clean of your sins." Every Day. Clean Slates.
KEEP A FIRM GRIP ON PROMISES
Hebrews 22 -25 - "So let's do it—full of belief, confident that we're presentable inside and out. Let's keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps His Word. Let's see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the Big Day approaching."
DON'T THROW AWAY YOUR CONFIDENCE
Hebrews 10:32-36 Remember those early days after you first saw the light? Those were the hard times! Kicked around in public, targets of every kind of abuse...nothing anyone did bothered you, nothing set you back. So don't throw it all away now. You were sure of yourselves then. It's still a sure thing! But you need to stick it out, staying with God's plan so you'll be there for the promised completion. Another version says: "Do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised."
CRUCIFY THE "HOW" QUESTION
Martin Luther's Quote in 66 LL: "If you would believe, you must crucify the question, How?" Crabb goes on to say: "Stop trying to figure out what you can do to develop stronger faith (exactly what I was trying to do this day as I kept blowing it), brighter hope (exactly what I was hoping for this day on craigslist as we need a bed for my son), richer love (exactly what I was praying for my time with the relatives next week)." Oh my goodness! I'm stuck in trying to figure out what I can do. The "how" question! "Keep drinking the milk I've poured into your bottle. But come to My Table as an adult prepared to eat meat (5:11-14). I love you too much not to grow you up with solid food." So how do I do that? Crucify that "how" question!
Encouraging words for me today!
ReplyDeleteHebrews 8:19 -21 "So, friends, we can now—without hesitation—walk right up to God, into "the Holy Place." Jesus has cleared the way by the blood of his sacrifice, acting as our priest before God, . The "curtain" into God's presence is his body."
Somedays I can go on only because of His promises, for He is the way, the truth, the life and my comfort.
Hebrews 10:22 -25 "So let's do it—full of belief, confident that we're presentable inside and out. Let's keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let's see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching."
"don't throw it all away now. You were sure of yourselves then. It's still a sure thing! But you need to stick it out."
ReplyDeleteI need to hear this. It gets so hard to keep believing, keep up hope, not lose faith. I'm not going through anything near as hard as what the early Christians went through...but some days are hard. Just plain hard.
This whole book is a lesson in faith. Do you need this peptalk as much as I do?
John 16 Christ gives his disciples encouragement and uses the phrase "in a little while."
In a little while we will see Him. But we need to stick it out.
Let's add our name to the long line of faithful followers that have come before us. Let's give God room to work miracles in our lives today, just like He did for Abraham and Sarah, Joseph, Hannah, Naomi and Ruth, David, Elijah, Jonah, Mary and Joseph, Paul and so many others that we don't know by name.
In a little while all this will pass away. What remains is Faith, Hope and Love.
If only we could crucify those "how" thoughts of thinking we can do anything - it's already been done on our behalf. Rest. Believe. Trust.
ReplyDeleteA Perfect Fit Hebrews 7:26 – “So now we have a high priest who perfectly fits our needs: completely holy, uncompromised by sin, with authority extending as high as God's presence in heaven itself.”
Our Guarantee Hebrews 7:22 – “This makes Jesus the guarantee of a far better way between us and God—one that really works! A new covenant.”
Engraved Hearts Hebrews 8:10 – “This time I'm writing out the plan in them, carving it on the lining of their hearts. I'll be their God, they'll be my people.”
No More Dead-EndsHebrews 9:15 – “Through the Spirit, Christ offered himself as an unblemished sacrifice, freeing us from all those dead-end efforts to make ourselves respectable, so that we can live all out for God.”
Keep on Encouraging LoveHebrews 10:22-25 So let's do it—full of belief, confident that we're presentable inside and out. Let's keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let's see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.”
So thankful for this faith pep talk, too, Deborah!
How do we crucify the HOW question?
ReplyDeleteI am almost afraid to even make a comment about this.
I'm so trying to understand what Dr. Crabb is teaching here.
I know this...I want what is eternal more than what is temporal.
Either we go through life expecting God to be our genie-in-a-bottle that grants us all our wishes,
or
we trust Him to know what is best for us. And stay on the right road. Even if it is a road of suffering.
Others have suffered before us.
I have had more understanding about some of this very deep concept through the book I'm reading, 100 Days In The Secret Place. It's the "embrace the cross" concept and the crucifying of "self-love" that makes sense to me.
There is one throne in this temple of my body. And only one king can sit on this throne...me or Jesus who is God in a body.
A lot of the hurts we want fixed in our lives are brewing because of our focus on "self-love."
Now, maybe I'm confused with what Dr. Crabb is teaching. Or maybe what I say here is adding to the confusion.
I sure hope not.
And I want to understand...
How do I crucify my How question?
By loving God and loving others more than myself. That is at the heart of Faith. God is Able...more than Able to know what is needed for me in this life (that's the meat and not the milk).
Others? Do I care more about them and their spiritual needs than I care about my happiness or pride?
No. Christian maturity says to love my enemy. And so on and so on.
Just digging a little deep into this meat of Hebrews. I hope others are seeing this more clearly than I am some days.
Deborah, you add no confusion.
ReplyDeleteI think if you ask how to crucify the how question, then you are asking another "how" question. How do we do this? Another "how" question. By faith. By love. What does faith really look like as I walk this day? What does love really look like? Do I presume to think I really know? The Bible reads me. My world reads me and I fall so short. I don't know but like all of you, I'm not throwing away my confidence for when we have done the will of God, we will receive. Seems like too many people are trying to explain the Christian life. Your life reminds me of Romans. The opening chapter of Romans in 66 LL - You have a pure longing, a desire to ride God's reasonable words into a reality that reason cannot reach. It's the first paragraph in the Romans chapter where Crabb talked about "trying to reduce what God is saying to ideas I can understand." I know I am struggling over here where life is hard, yet not anything near like persecution that the early Christians faced. But God placed me in 2010 and in the U.S. not Haiti. What you and I face is very real to us. He knows. And He weeps. Your post made much sense to me.