Writing about life, leadership, faith, and anything else I find interesting.

Hebrews 4:14-16 - Jesus, great and high Priest

So far, in Hebrews, we have hit on the realities that Jesus is our model of how to live and be fully alive as a human. Jesus is greater than the angels. Jesus is greater than Moses and Joshua. Jesus has set us free, canceling our debts on the cross. The author has pressed into us not to harden our hearts to Jesus and his love. Yesterday we dove into resting in God's love, actively seeking and striving for it. And all of this sets us up for the closing of Hebrews 4, that Jesus is our great and high Priest. All this makes me think of something I heard…

Hebrews 4:1-13 - Rest is Active

“Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.” - ‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭4:1‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Remember when we see “therefore” in the Bible, we need to ask ourselves, what’s it there for? To get that information, we have to go backward before we go forwards. This opening of the chapter carried on the same thought in Hebrews 3 that unbelief kept the generation that escaped Egypt from entering Canaan. This promise from the Old Testament still stands, the promise of entering God’s Rest.

Hebrews 3:7-19 - Today is the day

Here in verse 7-11, the Hebrew author is quoting Psalms 95:7-11.

“Today, if only you would hear his voice, “Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested me; they tried me, though they had seen what I did. For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.’ So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ” - ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭95:7-11‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Today is how this opens. TODAY - IF - DO NOT.

Hebrews 3:1-6 - We Are God’s House

The builder of all things is God. Maybe that stood out so clearly, so vivid because I watched Rob Bell’s Everything Is Spiritual last night. I have watched the original version that was recorded in 2006 countless times, but last night I watched his updated version from 2016 with Robin and Reia. It was different than the first version, but for nearly 2hrs (Rob in his very Rob way), he expanded upon the majesty, greatness, and sovereignty of God. The builder and creator of all things.

Hebrews 2: 5-18 - Set Free

I love watching good magicians; they are fascinating. Seeing Harry Houdini escape from death-defying situations is awesome! Netflix has an original series called Magic for Humans, where Justin Willman will blow your mind with his street magic. So much fun to watch.

There is something about these passages of text from the writer of Hebrews that got me thinking about magicians. The ability to escape just about anything, the ability to become free, and get out of certain death…

Hebrews 2:1-4 - Drifting Away

If we look back to Hebrews 1, yesterday's reading, we reflect on Jesus being the greatest, above angles. Remember, my dad can beat up your dad...right? Jesus is the greatest above all, and with that in mind, let's look at the opening here in chapter 2.

“We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.” - ‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭2:1‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Hebrews 1 - Jesus 

According to the Hebrews introduction from the NIV translation, neither the author nor the audience of this book is specifically named, but the book itself reveals its nature and purpose. The recipients are Jesus-believing Jews who are in danger of falling away from the faith. They are likely in Italy, since the author passes on greetings to them from those who are from Italy—probably their friends who are traveling elsewhere. The goal of the whole book is to show the superiority of the final realities God has revealed in the new covenant to the temporary ones of the first covenant.

James 5:19-20 - Play your part

I could pick a number of different ways to highlight the importance of playing a part. Think about your car...if one of your tires goes flat, the entire car is rendered nearly useless. Millions of parts on the car, and one of them isn’t playing it’s part, the car becomes unusable. The other day, my wife cut her thumb in the kitchen. Life got a bit harder with a thumb being nearly unusable for a while, she mentioned how hard it was to get her contacts in and out without the use of her thumb. I could go on, and on but I want to get to this really powerful closing to the book of James. We must play our part! If you knew that other Christians salvation was dependent...

James 5:13-18 - Just A Human?

Do you ever find yourself in awe of someone? That person you know or know of that is just amazing at whatever they do? Maybe you are thinking about someone that is so amazingly gifted; you just can never see yourself being like them or operating like them. We have nearly made it through the book of James, and he is someone I read about, and look at his life and am in total awe of. There are people in the Bible like the Apostle Paul, King David, Simon Peter, and so many others. My guess is we all have these thoughts and feelings that, in some way, we could never be like them, or can find ourselves stuck believing there is just something different about them, and they have something I don’t.

James 5: 7-12 -Stop Complaining

Patience is a Virtue. Have you heard that before? I am not sure of the origin of this statement, and I opted not to fall down a wormhole this morning, tracking that down. But I did gather the definition. It means the ability to wait for something without frustration; it is a useful skill and a good aspect of one's personality.

James shifts this teaching and his focus…