It's time for some good news... Heb. 4

     

It has been a week of bad news, coming in waves from far and from near. Bad news is wearisome, isn't it? Doesn't your soul just get tired? Doesn't bad news make you want to throw up the white flag? Hebrews 12 says to "run with endurance..." But sometimes it is hard to crawl out of bed much less run. 

How then are we to endure? By focusing on the good news, by  "fixing our eyes on Jesus..." Hebrews12:2
"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us." Rom. 8:18
 Jesus endured and Jesus was raised. Jesus intercedes and Jesus will make ALL things right again.

“I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that all the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage, like the despicable fabrication of the impotent and infinitely small Euclidean mind of man, that in the world's finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, for all the blood that they've shed; that it will make it not only possible to forgive but to justify all that has happened.”

The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Hebrews 4, Rest, God's Rest. It doesn't mean inactivity...it means deep soul rest. IT means peace in spite of circumstances, it means an end of attempting to make sense of what doesn't and make right what we cannot. It means trust in God's character and in His work.

v.2 "For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard."

v.6 "Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it (rest) and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience..."

God's rest is offered but not received. Why? Distrust and disobedience. What often leads men to distrust and disobedience? Suffering. 

Men suffer...men reason,
men "store the sand and let the gold go free."

"The sages have a hundred maps to give

That trace their crawling cosmos like a tree,

They rattle reason out through many a sieve

That stores the sand and lets the gold go free:

And all these things are less than dust to me

Because my name is Lazarus and I live."

The Convert-G.K. Chesterton (I've quoted this before and will again!)

Here's the hard truth: though we may reason and reason away ...we will never be able to make sense of suffering. We will never make sense of God through suffering if we do not trust in His healing and restoration of all things. 

And if we never trust
we will never obey
and if we never trust and obey
we will NEVER rest.

“Today, if you hear His voice, 
   do not harden your hearts.”
                                          Heb. 3: 15, 4:7b

  

Consider This...Hebrews 3

My house is silent except for the humming of my space heater. This is a part of my love affair with winter. Winter freezes you! It forces the busy Northeast into some measure of stillness...and the busy bees hate it so! How dare nature intervene in production!
...gotta get the nectar
...gotta work the hive
...gotta make the honey
      Even if we are lazy in our work ethic we may still be frantic in our spirits...restless, seeking, striving. People, God Himself rested! AND He offers us rest.
Why can't we let ourselves stop? Hebrews offers an answer: unbelief.
My daughter shared this thought from Beth Moore- "We may think we believe in God...but do we BELIEVE God? Do we believe what He says...do we believe what He promises? Do we believe what is true about who He is?"
Hebrews 3:1b "...consider Jesus".
Stop your crazy pace and take the time to get to know Him and what He taught about His Father. And as you do consider this as well:  Our opinions on God's wrath can be a barrier to belief and consequently, rest. Verses like: "...I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest." Heb. 3:11, cause us no small measure of doubt.
I offer the following thoughts on what wrath is and how it perfectly fits with the character of a loving God,
a God we can trust,
a God we want to believe.
Wrath is anger producing/inflicting injury.
Anger is a strong emotion that sets us into action. Godly anger is specifically against wrongs, injustices...all that is less than all that He made it to be.
Inflicting means to impose something unwanted.
Injury can be redefined by the word humiliation...i.e. mortification.
Mortification means a cutting away, a death of a part for the life of the whole.
In putting these together, my opinions on God's wrath have shifted profoundly.
God in His complete revulsion over the destruction of His creation was set into motion against the destroyer. His acts of violence are His stand against death, against disease, against injustice for men and women who think His ways an imposition. When men trample each other in pursuit of more nectar, when they work and worry themselves to death, when they sicken themselves with sweets that are bitter to the core...God says "NO!  You will not get away with it because I made you for so much more" To which men cry..."God, you're a tyrant or you don't exist!"
It often seems God is against us;
But here's another definition for you-
Against means both "opposed to" and "in contact with"
Our creator made us to know and be known by Him. He has not deserted us. He does not hate us. He must cut away what is killing us and oppose what is robbing us blind while remaining in contact with us.
Every person has within them a spirit that was made to know God, but in His love He offers each one a choice. For there to be love, there must be a choice. For there to be a choice, there must be opposing options. If there are opposing options, there will be conflict. Where there is conflict, there will be pain.
But for the pain, God gave us Himself.

"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died FOR us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him."
1 Thessalonians 5:3

So, "Consider Jesus..." (v. 1b)
believe
rest.

Hebrews 2:5-18 Call in the Expert!

Hebrews 2:5-18

5 It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. 6 But there is a place where someone has testified:

“What is mankind that you are mindful of them,
    a son of man that you care for him?
7 You made them a little[a] lower than the angels;
    you crowned them with glory and honor
8     and put everything under their feet.”[b][c]

In putting everything under them,[d] God left nothing that is not subject to them.[e] Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them.[f] 9 But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

10 In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. 11 Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.[g] 12 He says,

“I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters;
    in the assembly I will sing your praises.”[h]

13 And again,

“I will put my trust in him.”[i]

And again he says,

“Here am I, and the children God has given me.”[j]

14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. 17 For this reason he had to be made like them,[k] fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priestin service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Yesterday I came up with a new title for myself. I've decided to call myself a "novice-novice". The inspired name came from bowling with my husband. As I was chucking the ball down the alley I had to question how after all these years could I still be so very bad! The answer was, I'm a novice novice! A beginner at beginning because once a year or so I begin to try to learn to bowl...again!
Many areas of my life fall under this nomenclature...I'm a novice-novice harp player, skier, seamstress etc. Some things, I've advanced to calling myself average. I am an average organizer, cleaner, cook! Unfortunately my averages are in critical areas of life as a wife and mother!
When I'm discouraged about my skills (or lack of), I paint a room or move a piece of furniture...it helps. I seem to do well with picking paint colors and seeing where a sofa should situate! However even in my strength areas, I still get it wrong sometimes and call in an expert.
     The book of Hebrews was written to help novice Christians; Jewish people who were relearning what it meant to have a relationship with God. There were some misunderstandings to correct, bad habits to do away with and a new title to bear: "Christian". The new name, however, did not make them experts at their new life. The writer of Hebrews warned: "How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?" Unfortunately, their novice areas happened to be absolutely critical in life and in eternity. Even the letter's author seems a novice when he quoted "somebody, somewhere has said..." (v. 6). The Hebrew Christians needed the assistance of an expert if they were going to live out God's mission for humanity on earth; that is in verse 8- "God left NOTHING that is not in subjection to them."
 Have you considered this? God made man to manage the world! Not even the angels were entrusted with such a mission. But men are novice-novices! Do we manage well? Clearly, we do not.
Is there another "religion" that can claim their God solved their problem for them by intervening Himself? Is there another God or prophet or wise man who pioneered salvation for His people?
Jesus, instead of being ashamed of us claimed us as His family! He calls us brothers and sisters, children, His own!
Why is the world a mess? Because He entrusted us with a mission and we failed!
Do you understand that Jesus became fully human to solve our problem?
In the pages of the Bible we read how even though God through Jesus made the world, God through Jesus is rescuing the world.
Jesus said (my own paraphrase)-
"My brothers and sisters, You don't understand who God is! I will show you. You don't get how to live the life He made you for...I will show you! My children, You are so mistaken you cannot help yourselves! I'm taking you to Him."
Jesus,
expert at relationships,
expert at fulfilling His destiny,
expert at mastering temptation
expert at suffering,
expert at dying...
expert at living again.
Does life and death and the idea of God scare you? Are you tired of beginning to try to learn again on your own?
Call on the expert!