Hebrews 10:26-27

Hebrews 10:26-27

“For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.” (NKJ)

Matthew Henry writes:

From the description he gives of the sin of apostasy. It is sinning wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, sinning wilfully against that truth of which we have had convincing evidence. This text has been the occasion of great distress to some gracious souls; they have been ready to conclude that every wilful sin, after conviction and against knowledge, is the unpardonable sin: but this has been their infirmity and error. The sin here mentioned is a total and final apostasy, when men with a full and fixed will and resolution despise and reject Christ, the only Saviour,—despise and resist the Spirit, the only sanctifier,—and despise and renounce the gospel, the only way of salvation, and the words of eternal life; and all this after they have known, owned, and professed, the Christian religion, and continue to do so obstinately and maliciously. (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/henry/mhc6.Heb.xi.html)

Apostasy isn’t something that is talked about much these days. In fact, I can’t remember a time when I heard a preacher talk about the problems with apostasy and yet it is a circumstance that exists. Apostasy is when a believer totally turns away from God, totally rejects his or her salvation. It is more than backsliding, but it must begin with backsliding. It begins somewhere, with a first step.

The apostle Paul, in Romans 1, gave the description of a kind of continuum where sin begins and then takes full hold of a person’s life. He begins by saying:

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (v. 18, NKJ)

Notice that Paul talks about those who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. In other words, the first thing that happened was turning their backs on the idea that they had to be righteous and embrace sin. As Christians there is a sense that we must actively embrace righteousness, that we must actively turn our backs on sin and determine not to sin.

Galatians 5:16-17 (NKJ): “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”

When we choose to walk in the Spirit, we deny the lust of the flesh. It is a two-fold exercise. We not only walk in the Spirit, but we also refuse to fulfill the lust of the flesh. However, when we give into the lusts of the flesh, we do the things we don’t want to do. We sin. And when we sin, we suppress the truth in that sin. What is the truth? The truth is that God, through the death of the Lord Jesus, has freed us from being slaves to sin. We have a choice.

I think that’s something we often don’t want to think about. It’s easier to excuse our sin when we convince ourselves that we don’t have a choice, don’t have control. It’s much more comforting to think that we fall into sin without having the power to resist it. But we do have that power through the Holy Spirit. We can walk in the Spirit through prayer, through Bible study and meditation, through denying our flesh. We all know what it means to deny our flesh, but we really don’t want to do it. It’s so much easier to eat what we shouldn’t, to watch what we shouldn’t, to talk about what we shouldn’t. And yet, we have within us—through the power of the Spirit that resides within us—the ability to say no and to do what pleases God and brings glory to Him.

The problem is that a sin, done once, can gain a hold on us. Done twice, a sin is on it’s way to becoming a habit that is much harder to break. I can’t tell you how many adults I’ve talked to who warn their children not to start smoking. Why? Because it’s a habit that’s almost impossible to stop! Habits are difficult to change, so rather than do something once, twice, three times and risk developing a habit, how much easier is it simply to deny ourselves and embrace righteousness?

The Lord Jesus taught: Matthew 16:24 (NKJ): “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”

Today, I need to put my desires behind me and follow the Lord Jesus. Father God is more than able to take care of me, if I trust Him. So, today I will embrace the truth and choose not to develop one more bad habit that I have to deal with later on. I don’t want to start even the first step that could lead to apostasy.

© 2010 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

Ephesians 6:11-12

Ephesians 6:11-12

“Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (NKJV)

It’s really hard to keep remembering that my fight isn’t against those around me who oppose me, but rather is about whether or not I can stand in the will of God. Sometimes, I think, that the devil, he is me, that when I look into the mirror, my worst enemy is my own desires. I simply have a hard time waiting and waiting is what I need to do to allow God to work in the lives of those around me to do His will for me.

When Abraham was commanded to sacrifice his son, God didn’t provide until the last possible second, not until Abraham had tied up his son, laid him on the altar, and raised his knife to kill him. I’ve often wondered what was going through his mind at the time. Was Abraham deliberately slow in his movements, wondering where God’s provision was? Was he doubting what he had heard the day before, whether or not he had truly heard God? It takes an amazing amount of courage to do what he did, to look into the eyes of your child and know that you have to plunge a knife into his heart . . . and still trust God.

I am, right now, really wrestling with myself. A decision that, in my mind, needed to be made six weeks ago is still pending, leaving at least three teachers and two principles totally up in the air as to what will happen next year, including whether or not major programs will continue or be discontinued. It’s so difficult not knowing what will happen, particularly as the last day of class looms closer and closer. There’s becoming no time to prepare, no time to pack, simply a knowledge that we’re running out of time. All three teachers are Christians, but it is stretching our faith, this waiting.

And perhaps that’s the reason. Perhaps God needed the time to adjust our hearts and wills, to prepare us for what is going to happen next year. Or perhaps God is working in the hearts of the administrators who continue to delay the decision. I don’t know, but I do know that I feel like I’m wrestling because I’m learning to surrender to God’s will and His alone, not to promote my own. Whatever happens, God will work for my good and I’m at the point that I will embrace whatever decision is made.

Maybe that was what God was waiting for.

© 2010 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

Hebrews 10:22-23

“Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” (NKJ)

When all the fighting and protesting is done, God waits for me to draw near to Him. I think that I make more trouble for myself than my own circumstances ever do. I try to control, to manipulate, to manage. And all that is so painful because I am working in a realm where I have no ability and certainly no talent. When I’m honest (which I’m finding isn’t nearly as often as I’d like it to be), I can admit that I’m really not very good at decisions. Many of the ones I’ve made have been simply horrible with drastic results. But when I wait on God and allow Him to make the decisions, things work out so much better. He’s really so much better at decisions than I am, and rightly so, because He sees the future and knows what’s best for me.

All day yesterday I kept thinking about Romans 8:28 (NKJ): “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” It’s interesting that God doesn’t work everything for good for everyone, but only for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. And certainly not everything that happens is good or right or even pleasant. A great many things happen that are horrible. But as believers we have the assurance that God will work them for our good. How important it is to become a believer, to place our trust in the Lord. I walked through my school hallways yesterday with the realization that not all things in those children’s lives may work for their good but many will grow up not to believe or trust in God. How much I need to remember to pray for them and to witness to them as God opens the doors.

I so forget that my greatest privilege–and my greatest power–is that of drawing near to the Throne. There are four things God requires when we draw near to His throne, to the throne of the Most High, the Creator and Master of the universe: a true heart, the assurance of faith, the blood of Jesus Christ, and having been washed in the pure water of the Spirit. I know that I can come to God and be totally honest. As long as I trust Him to take care of things, I can pour out my frustrations, my hurts, my confusion and He will listen and respond. “He who promised is faithful.” Those are amazing words. He is faithful. He cannot be otherwise. Everything He does, He will do to work out good for me because He is faithful, because He is loving, because He is God and cannot do otherwise. I may not be able to depend on anyone else around me, but I can fully depend on God to take care of everything I need.

© 2010 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

2 Corinthians 1:8-10

2 Corinthians 1:8-10

“For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves in order that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead; who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us” (NAS)

Our pastor shared this scripture with us yesterday. It was God’s timing (which is always amazing to me) because this year I have felt burdened excessively. It’s been one of those years when there wasn’t one burden, one tragedy, one suffering, but rather one after another after another after another until I’ve felt that I could barely breathe. I certainly have become rather gun shy, wondering what possibly could happen next and knowing that, in all likelihood, what will happen next will be painful, unpleasant at best.

Interestingly enough, our pastor shared that this passage demonstrated that suffering can be beyond what we can bear within ourselves. Notice that Paul says, “we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life.” He told us that there is suffering that is beyond what we can bear to the point that death seems the only outcome, the pain is so severe. I can relate with that, with the idea that life has lost its flavor and that heaven becomes that only thing I want.

Perhaps that’s what the Lord wants for us. Not that He wants for us to be in pain, but that He is, like a shepherd, herding us toward the safety of His arms rather than for us to continue to believe that we can trust in ourselves. “We had the sentence of death within ourselves.” Why? “In order that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead.” For me, the death of dreams, the death of future plans, the death of knowing where to turn to trust has been the most difficult of all losses. But it is turning me to God. And I serve a miracle-working God, a God Who can turn death into life, possibly in ways that I could never imagine.

Hebrews 11 talks about such lives, lives of saints who saw only suffering without an end in sight, and yet who still trusted in God:

Hebrews 11:35-40 NKJ: “Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented--of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us.”

The fact is that these didn’t receive the promise here on this earth because God had something better. It’s amazing the things that they suffered, some of the sufferings which failed to be reported in anywhere in scripture except in these few verses. The writer of Hebrews tells us that the sufferings were so great that the “world was not worthy” of these people. And yet these same people continued to trust God even though the end of their suffering was death rather than rescue. The writer of Hebrews goes on to say:

Hebrews 13:5b-6 (NKJ): “He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we may boldly say: ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?’”

Paul was convinced of this inability of circumstances or powers to separate him from God: “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39 NKJ).

This only has value when I realize that the most important thing in my life is God and His love for me. Am I convinced that there is nothing else that matters? The fact is, that is the truth. In the view of eternity, only God’s love and my love for Him in response is important; everything else is a hiccup. In fact, I need to ask myself how much of what I fill my days with will be burned as rubble. Am I trading eternal value for junk when I place my expectations in those things which really don’t matter? Paul writes:

“Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire” (1 Corinthians 3:12-15 NKJ).

Perhaps the suffering I’m going through will help to build a work that will endure, either in my life or in the lives of those around me. Who am I to question God or to ask Him to deliver me from less than what others have experienced? A dear aunt, who is now in Heaven, cherished this verse from the Living Paraphrase:

“So take a new grip with your tired hands, stand firm on your shaky legs, and mark out a straight, smooth path for your feet so that those who follow you, though weak and lame, will not fall and hurt themselves but become strong” (Hebrews 12:12-13).

Obviously the writer of Hebrews understood the concept of being emotionally and physically exhausted, of no longer being firm, but shaky. And yet the encouragement came to take a new grip and to stand firm, marking our a straight, smooth path so that others could follow. My prayer for today would be that I would trust the Lord to make plain the path that I can endure, not through my own strength, but through His strength. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13 NKJ).

© 2010 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

Hebrews 9:11-12

Hebrews 9:11-12

“But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.” (NKJV)

I find myself so focused on things that, in the long run, probably don’t matter. John Wesley writes:

“For what purpose do you undertake and follow your worldly business? ‘To provide things necessary for myself and my family.’ A good enough answer as far as it goes, but does not go far enough for a Christian. We must go abundantly farther. Our purpose in all things is to please God. To do, not our own will, but the will of God on earth as the angels do in heaven. We work for that which endures to everlasting life.”

I’m obsessive. I know I am. And in these days of labels, I guess I could just embrace my obsessions and be proud of who I am. But the fact is, my obsessiveness gets in the way of my trusting the Lord. I have to know, to predict, to control and that often gets in the way of simply serving the Lord today and trusting Him for tomorrow. Frankly, my predictions of the future are so often wrong, I don’t know why I think I should have my way at all! Usually God “taking” something from me is actually protecting me. You’d think by now I’d get that. But instead I find myself arguing with Him, insisting that having my way is best for, oh, so many reasons.

Solomon, in the Proverbs, wrote:

Proverbs 3:1-2, 5-6: “My son, do not forget my law, but let your heart keep my commands; length of days and long life and peace they will add to you. . . . Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”

It’s more than just not leaning on my own understanding, though I think that’s the crux of the matter. It’s if I don’t lean on my own understanding, then I will have peace because God will direct my paths. In other words, the only way to find peace is to allow God to direct my paths.

I can’t tell you how much I’ve argued with Him, that the way that seems to be coming in my path can’t possibly be a good way; it can’t possibly be the way that will give me peace. I’ve cried tears, been angry, argued. (Imagine arguing with God.) And what I need to do is let go and trust. It’s out of my hands anyway, so it’s so foolish for me to try to change God’s mind. Instead, what happens when I fight with God is I lose my peace.

Father God has promised to take care of me, to work all things for my good. What I need to do is release tomorrow and focus on serving Him today through worship, prayer, and a humble life. That I can do, I think: serve Him today and release the problems of tomorrow completely to Him.

© 2010 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

Hebrews 7:22, 25

Hebrews 7:22, 25

“Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant. . . . Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”

The Lord Jesus is the better covenant. He is better than anything we can imagine or embrace or discover. He is able to save to the uttermost. Matthew Henry defines uttermost as “in all times, in all cases, in every juncture.” I think that I get confused or stopped in embracing this concept by an earlier, and wrong, understanding of saved. Salvation isn’t just about a one-time decision where the Lord saves me one time. It is about what He is doing in my life right now, all the time, everyday. He can save me in all times, both from my sin and from myself. He can save me at every juncture, in every circumstance. And He will save me in all cases when I come to God through Him.

I think, for me, there are times when I think He either can’t or won’t save me. But according to the writer of Hebrews, the Lord Jesus always lives to make intercession for me. John 1:3 tells us that it was through the Lord Jesus, as the Word of God, that all things were made. But now, His purpose—creation having stopped after the sixth day—is to make intercession for me. For me! It’s an amazing thought. The Lord Jesus stands at the throne of God and always is there to make intercession for me, saving me in all times, in all cases, and at every juncture.

The question, for me, then becomes whether or not I have the willingness to allow Him to save me or whether I think I can do a better job on my own. There are times—I know there are—when I think that He just isn’t doing a good enough job because the direction His will is taking me can’t possibly be truly saving me. And I take control and go in a different direction. And yet, His ability to save is never absent and His willingness to save is never lacking. He is always able to save and He always wants to save! I keep going back to Romans 8:28: “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” God is working all things together for my good. Even the things I mess up. Even the times I sin. He is still working all of that together for my good. As long as I love Him (Romans 8:28) and come to God through the Lord Jesus (Hebrews 7:25), I have that promise.

Father God has promised us this salvation in the very body of His Son. We don’t think much about sureties or even promises these days. We promise, but if keeping that promise becomes difficult, we often step away from the promise, believing that the person we promised should understand that the promise was obviously conditional upon our ability to keep the promise. Fortunately, God doesn’t make promises like that. Father God promised us a better covenant, a better means of salvation, and then gave the Lord Jesus as the surety or guarantee of that promise. In other words, the Lord Jesus is not only the proof, but the Person Who guarantees that the promise will be kept. And that surety or guarantee was provided through His very body and blood. So even if God were inclined (which He would never be) to back out on this covenant, He can’t because of the Lord Jesus. God backed up His own promise with Himself!

We can look around at all the other philosophies and ideas in the world that deal with religious concepts and realize that there is nothing that comes close to this idea. There is no other religion that boasts this kind of promise. The only part of our salvation that is dependent upon us is coming to God through Jesus; the rest is completely dependent upon God and has been guaranteed through the body of His Son. It is an amazing thing, a gift that I need to cherish everyday: the idea that the Lord Jesus is standing at the Throne, interceding for me, that He died for me, that He is both my guarantor and guarantee, that He is able to save me to the uttermost.

© 2010 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.