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!

Hebrews 2:1-4 Voices

 Hebrews 2 "That is why we ought to pay even closer attention to the voice that has been speaking so that we will never drift away from it. 2 For if the words of instruction and inspiration brought by heaven’s messengers were valid, and if we live in a universe where sin and disobedience receive their just rewards, 3 then how will we escape destruction if we ignore this great salvation? We heard it first from our Lord Jesus, then from those who passed on His teaching. 4 God also testifies to this truth by signs and wonders and miracles and the gifts of the Holy Spirit lighting on those He chooses."

"Our salvation is not only great, it is true. Of course it could not be great unless it were true." 
"The historical, moral, and spiritual reality of God's great salvation has been displayed." ( Being witnessed and testified to us through God himself, His Son, the gifts of His Spirit and His apostles) "Any lack of conviction on our part—any neglect of this great salvation—is owing not to them but to us. We are the ones who need to change. Our minds are careless or defiled (clinging to false ideas and desires) or too proud to receive the message that we need salvation." John Piper
-and I might add: "...or too wounded to see straight."

Voices 
Entangled in our hearts
Twisted truths, distortions, lies
Where Satan's taken liberties
wreaking havoc in disguise.
He prowls around, about us
Finding "doors" that stand ajar.
Then whispers words of doubt and fear,
Condemning us His voice is clear.
We listen with believing ears,
and search through blinding tears.

More steadfast than the hounding of our evil enemy
is the voice of our soul's lover
pursuing...endlessly.
He beckons us, the Voice of Love 
That's firm and calm and sure
Saying, "Child, trust in me.
I alone will help you see
all that you were made to be
The Truth will set you free."

"The Truth Will Set You Free" JC '15 revision

So many voices vie for our hearing. So many "witnesses" blur our vision. 
The Bible says in James 1:5 "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives generously to all and without reproach and it will be given to him."
If the truth is what you're after, ASK! He can handle it.

Hebrews: 1:5-14

We Grow Accustomed to the Dark

"We grow accustomed to the dark
when light is put away...

Then fit our vision to the dark
And meet the road-erect..."
Emily Dickinson

It is winter. Darkness overtakes us slowly. From June through December we lose light ; we lose day- little by little. Some of us acclimate more easily than others.
The Letter to the Hebrews was written a very long time ago...but we get the analogy.
When "Light is put away", our vision shifts without alarm.
The Hebrews were becoming too used to the increasing darkness of a culture that was turning off the Gospel. Fumbling and grabbing at other things... Jewish brothers were beginning to add to what could not be improved,
Christ.
...kind of reminds me of the pop-ups on my computer; flashing the latest campaigns, discoveries and depravities - discourses included with a click.
Hebrews 1:5-14, Let's turn the light back on.
The author makes it clear that tradition or hot philosophies or the trendsetting of the day had no place in a Christ follower's allegiance.
Christ
AND...?
NO!
We will never have more understanding, more health, more joy, more hope, more purpose than is available to us through a reconciled relationship with our God; and we cannot possibly add more to Christ's life and sacrifice for us 
to make that possible.
Jesus, wholly unique in His Deity.
Wholly superior as eternal creator.
Wholly loved and chosen by His Father to be 
THE message bearer, 
THE savior, 
THE King.

Anchored: A Letter to the Hebrews

Hebrews 1:1-4

"1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs."

Much time has passed since God began continually and creatively communicating who He is. The Hebrew prophets heard from him and shared what they learned with the fathers of the Jewish people. But in this period of history, we benefit directly from learning about Him through His Son. The Heavenly Father predetermined that His Son was the chosen One to assume the position of ultimate authority, rightful possessor of all that the Father is and all that he has.For it was through Christ His Son that the world came into being. His Son is the complete reality of the Father. He shines out from invisible perfection, a perfect visual of God. And God, the great author of the human story, 
so placed His trademark on humanity. 
He pressed into man exactly who He is. 
You see Him in Christ. 
Then, Christ marked humanity as his own. 
Oh how desperately we needed to have Him reclaim what we were meant for! How we need Him to take our distorted view of Him and bring God back into focus! How we need Him to take our contorted minds and hearts and restore them to His glory. 
He has! He does!
Jesus was wrung out for us. Ridding God's creation of contamination, after He accomplished all that needed to be done, He claimed His rightful place beside His Father. He took His seat as the extension of God's strength ever reaching, ever drawing His people. He remains the ever present help as men continue to learn and live in what He has secured. 
Superior in the Heavens, superior over all- Jesus the Christ; the Son of God.
By Him
Through Him

For Him

this is now our reality! 

By Him 
Through Him

For Him

this is now our weighty, immovable hook

that sinks into the flesh of Deity

and ties us firmly to our destiny with Him.

Acts 4:12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Anchored: A Letter to the Hebrews

If it weren't for blogging, I'd be scratching in my journal and keeping it between me and God. I cannot claim a right to be read but I offer thoughts anyway. Blogging has become a fun platform for theological discussions with my husband. We've been diving into thoughts on Hebrews; our church's new series so, beginning tomorrow, I'll be swimming in Chapter 1.
Please feel free to offer your thoughts and questions in the response section.
Dive in with me!

Long Lists

Col.2:8 "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces[a] of this world rather than on Christ."

Santa
Such a fun tradition...
such a benevolent fellow...
if you behave yourself!
There's always the threat of coal.

But God is not like Santa Clause...
Yes,
He knows when you've been sleeping
He knows when you're awake
But
He knows He must crush bad for good
He IS good
For Heaven's sake!

All this fussing about the long list of who's been naughty or nice.
God made a way to erase your name from the list of crimes and punishment. "Love keeps no record of wrongs..." 1 Cor. 13:5
He made a way to write your name on a longer list in
The Book of Life.
His greatest reward
is bestowed in unconditional love.
It is
a gift.
"She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." Mt. 1:21

It's a week before Christmas. I'm still reconfiguring my living room and the tree is not decorated. The gifts are piled up...waiting to be opened and enjoyed. God is also making things ready. His gifts are waiting to be opened and enjoyed, but we have a death grip on our lump of coal. It's hard, it's dirty and we don't even have a match to make it useful. So, God lights it up. He burns it away so we will be rid of it. Sometimes we get scalded in the process because it's so hard to let go!
This is how I've come to see sin. We turn away from Him and all the good He offers us, while the fingers of our soul reach and wrap around things that offer us nothing. We despise Him for the burning pain...
and are blinded to the hope His "severe mercy" secures...

"They say of some temporal suffering, ‘No future bliss can make up for it,’ not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory. This is the ultimate defeat of evil and suffering. It will not only be ended but so radically vanquished that what has happened will only serve to make our future life and joy infinitely greater.” Tim Keller quoting C.S. Lewis

Col. 2:9 "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority...

13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you[d] alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 (having canceled the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us- NASV),  which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. "

Who decorates your family tree?

John 17:20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."

There has been much discussion over the years about our family tree. Mystery lies within the line of Phil and the line of Jill!
Like any family tree, it is full of names both familiar and unfamiliar...storied and over-looked...compelling and sad.
Our family tree has lost branches,
mended broken ones
grafted in new ones...
that carry the family name.

There's been much discussion about Jesus' family tree as well. Mystery lies within the pages of Matthew and Luke...the line of Joseph and the line of Mary.
An ancestry full of no-names, big-names, good-names and bad-names.
Jesus Christ, Son of God, flesh of Mary's family tree
grafted into Joseph's line,
to redeem the lost
mend the broken
and graft His family back together.
So that we may be called by His name...
Christ-ian.

And so, our family celebrates the coming of Christ at Christmas.
His grace and beauty glow from our family tree, not because we are big-names or good-names;
not in spite of our no-names and bad names...
but because we carry His name.

Eph. 3:14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family[a] in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.