So good!

So good!

I really shouldn't be blogging right now because I have a pile of reading and reports accumulating on my lap (sigh....I still love the reading haha) but this morning I was sending the youth students a word from God's Word along with a note of encouragement and I looked back at the entire chapter I was reading from.  It.  Was.  So.  Good. 

“Therefore, 

leaving the elementary message 

(or basics)

about the Messiah, 

let us go on to maturity, 

(apart from basics)

not laying again the foundation of 

(the following are the basics that should already be established in order to move into maturity):

repentance from dead works, 

faith in God, 

teaching about ritual washings, 

laying on of hands, 

the resurrection of the dead, 

and eternal judgment. 

And we will do this if God permits."

(If you're at a place where the above is in need of re-learning, then ask God if you need the basics again.  You might not, but if you do then be sure to ask God if that's really what you need.  If we stay at the basics because we feel more humble about that then it's crap.  We must return to the basics ONLY if God gives us permission to, otherwise we move on to maturity in Him.  Our actions in our relationship with God must be one of submission, not assumptions.)

"For God is not unjust; 

He will not forget your work 

and the love you showed 

for His name 

when you served the saints — 

and you continue to serve them."

(Notice here that this isn't just saying that God will remember how you served others.  This is NOT about serving others.  This is about God.  It's always about God.  It says "the love you showed for His name when you served". In other words, this is not about how much serving you did, but how much love you had for Him that overflowed into your actions.  The thing God will not forget is your heart.  That you truly loved His name so much that it burst into the action of any opportunity you had to show it.  He will not remember you serving others without this.  So why serve if it's from anything but love for His name?  It's your heart, not the actions, that counts.  Then again, be submitting to God as the final decision.  What does He want and what is His will for you today?  That is the deciding factor in all things, which you can't know unless you ask Him.) 

"Now we want each of you 

to demonstrate the same diligence 

for the final realization of your hope, 

so that you won’t become lazy 

but will be imitators of those 

who inherit the promises 

through faith and perseverance."

(The same diligence is that diligence you had at the time of learning the basics.  Always going back to praying for faith, repenting, being at the cross, and believing that you have been saved from the pits you once lived in.  Here is reminding us to, with that same diligence, move into maturity which is explained as the final realization of your hope.  Do you realize the final hope you have?  Is it yours?  What is your final hope?  How would you word it?  If you can't word your final hope, it indicates that you probably have not fully realized what it is or that it is yours!  This final hope is our defense against laziness, it is what inclines us more strongly toward making decisions and actions based on faith and perseverance rather than impulse or circumstances.  What is your final hope, and if it is not enough to bring you up from laziness or toward faith and perseverance, I would firmly encourage you to ask God if your final hope is the one He gave you.  Be willing to be corrected for the sake of having the real thing!  This hope is crucial, so if it's been false or weak this entire time then who cares about the time you wasted in holding onto a false hope, better to let go and receive true hope because this hope is like the fuel to your body motor.  If you're running on fumes your body will stop and get stuck.  You need the hope the fuels you and your body to run this race with perseverance!  This hope is what God alone gives us, and it's right there in our reach if we will truly seek it!) 

"Because God wanted to show 

His unchangeable purpose 

even more clearly 

to the heirs of the promise, 

He guaranteed it with an oath, 

so that through two unchangeable things, 

in which it is impossible for God to lie, 

we who have fled for refuge 

might have strong encouragement 

to seize the hope set before us."

(God wants to show us.  Here is one instance where it's not so much about faith, or seeing the unseen, but it's about being shown God's unchangeable purpose.  This means that what He shows us is a certainty, for sure, without any changes now or in the future, it is set in eternity.  We have this shown to us more clearly when we know our hope.  Two unchangeable things: God's purposes and Himself (or His nature).  In other words, heirs of the promise flee to Him for refuge away from life's cruelty and distortions geared towards self-sufficiency or idolatry, and in there we seize the hope more firmly.  It is there that we find what our hearts are truly seeking.  You will be most encouraged to find hope here, in His presence, you must flee to refuge.  Just like how dark clouds bring about a more sure disposition for rain, fleeing for refuge as heirs to God's promises bring about a stronger disposition to grasp the true hope.  If you're holding a false hope you will soon find out, because it will not be enough for you to continue on toward the gift of life you have been given.  You may become begrudgingly dissatisfied or numb or apathetic about life.  You need true hope, the hope that only God can give you, and that you cannot give to yourself by any means or convincing thoughts.  You flee for refuge when you need to.  For there in the safe and secure place, protected and at rest, is the Father who will give you the hope you need that keeps you living--and not just living like a dead person, but living as someone so loved and cherished....to know with increasing certainty that someone is crazy in love with you.  I came across this psalm distinguishing the one who flees for refuge and the one who does not:

“Here is the man who would 

not make God his refuge, 

but trusted in 

the abundance of his riches, 

taking refuge in his destructive behavior.” 

But I am like a flourishing olive tree 

in the house of God; 

I trust in God’s faithful love 

forever and ever.”

Psalms 52:7-8

Are you like a flourishing tree or are you trusting in what you accomplish or have in possession?  At first they might appear to be the same, to flourish might look and feel like you are comfortably lavished in good things, but upon closer inspection the one who does not run to refuge is the one who relies on the comfort of things and circumstance which, when disrupted or threatened, is combatted by destructive behaviors.  The one who runs to refuge with God is trusting just on bare naked love.  Love that needs no proof in gifts or persuasions.  This person is like that one Justin Bieber song "as long as you love me" where it doesn't matter if they have to be hobos or if he gets beat up by the girl's dad, or anything else, he's willing to die for this girl based on this bare pure love!  Haha I saw the video recently and it just came to mind, but this is a glimpse of that love we all desire!  The only thing is that no girl or guy can give us what only God can.  When we flee to refuge we flee to this kind of love, and when we do it is enough.)

"We have this hope 

as an anchor for our lives, 

safe and secure."

(Without this hope we are like a ship tossed by the waves of the sea.  Without this anchor we are neither here nor there, but our disposition will be based on wherever the wind of circumstances blows us!  Our feelings and our temperaments rule our security when we live without this anchor of hope.  But we have this hope!  It is like an anchor for our entire lives, each hour and every day it is our stability and grounds us to what we know is safe, secure and unchangeable!  This hope is safe and secure, not doubtful and self-condemning.  This hope is our moving into maturity.) 

"It enters the inner sanctuary 

behind the curtain."

(This hope enters our soul, behind the layers of our body, our thoughts, and our assumptions.  This hope enters into the core of our identity.  This hope is at the root of who we are, our inner sacred place where only we have access to.  The truth about who we are and why we do what we do lays in this place.  This inner sanctuary is our true identity.  Hope enters into here, and a good question might be...but how?  How does hope get in there or how do we open our inner sanctuary to this hope?  What do we need to do to get this hope in there?  Is this hope a feeling or God's voice or the Spirit?  What exactly is taking place for hope to enter the inner sanctuary of our self?)

"Jesus has entered there 

on our behalf 

as a forerunner, because 

He has become a high priest 

forever 

in the order of Melchizedek.”

Hebrews 6:1-3, 10-12, 17-20

(As mentioned earlier, we can't give ourselves this hope that is so crucial.  Jesus has entered there, on our behalf, and he stays there forever making atonement for our sins whenever we need because He enters into our hearts as our priest forever.  Forever.  Meaning, anytime the Israelites sinned in the Old Testament they would go to the priest and have a sacrifice offered on their behalf to be made clean, otherwise they would be dirty and unfit for the community and for God.  This was something that God implemented in order to show the real thing!  All those priests and animal sacrifices were only styrofoam examples of the real thing!   They were models built by the Architect before the actual Priest and the actual sacrifice of atonement would be revealed!  This is Jesus.  He enters into our inner core sanctuary and gives us this hope.  What is this hope?....you receive it when you get it from Jesus.)

“(for the law perfected nothing), 

but a better hope is introduced, 

through which we draw near to God.

but He became a priest 

with an oath 

made by the One who said to Him: 

The Lord has sworn, 

and He will not change His mind, 

You are a priest forever. 

So Jesus has also become 

the guarantee of a better covenant.

But because He remains forever, 

He holds His priesthood permanently. Therefore, He is always able to save those who come to God through Him, 

since He always lives to intercede for them.”

Hebrews 7:19, 21-22, 24-25

Jmegrey 

So good.