Hebrews 6 - Move Past Elementary Teachings

Hebrews 6 NIV
We have just passed through the season of Lent and those last days that we call Holy Week. Each day we follow the path that led Jesus to the cross and then we watch him die. Each year, during this season I find myself grieving. I am grieved that there seem to be so few who observe this season and learn from it a more complete picture of what Jesus did for us and for our salvation. Each and every year, I grieve for those who have turned away because as the writer to the Hebrews tells us: "To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace." Note that he writes, "to their loss." And... so I grieve over their loss. I grieve that the one who gave his life for us is loved so little and taken so for granted.

We cannot go from Christmas to Easter without something happening in between. Although both great and glorious events, Jesus did much more than be born to a virgin mother and then be born again from the grave. Jesus had a life between birth and resurrection. Let us move beyond these very elementary teaching so that we might understand all that Jesus did for us and why he did it.

May God help us to move beyond just a knowledge and acknowledgement of the glory events and realize the life he lived as true man included a life of loving and humble service. The temptations; the sufferings, the persecution, the execution, he endured were quite inglorious and there was so much more. Let us not subject him to further public disgrace by not moving past the elementary teachings that even the secular world knows.

God's Peace - Pr. J

Nahum 2 - Warning To Turn Back

God is against Nineveh. The people are warned to turn back. But, they will not.

I warn people all of the time to turn back to the LORD and worship only Him. Sadly, the warnings fall on ears that will not hear. I am often looked at like I am a silly old goose. I have been told that there is no God. Experience has taught me that there is, for sure. Experience has taught me what happens when one turns their back on the LORD and refuses to turn back to Him, again.

I know that I am not the only one whom the LORD has tried to teach these things to. I am not the only one who has been warned.  Let us all heed the warning that He will restore His children. Yes, the restoration of His people is a warning - it is a warning to those who would attack them. The LORD our God will deliver all who turn to Him from the enemy.

Which shall you be? A child of God or an enemy? Will you turn your back to Him or your face to Him that His light might shine upon you?

God's Peace - Pr. J

Hosea 14 - Repent and Be Blessed

This last chapter in Hosea has a little different tone than the preceding. The preceding chapters were mainly warnings: fall away and suffer the consequences. Today we hear that all who go to the LORD with repentant hearts will be blessed; will be forgiven.

God does not wish for any of us to be separated from Him and from His love. He calls us to turn again (repent) to Him so that we might be made whole.

God's Peace - Pr. J

Jeremiah 44 - Denying/Rejecting God's Mercy

Do not mistake God's mercy for blessings of false idols. He endured the sins of the remnant for long enough as they worshipped their false idols. And, now they are willfully turning their backs on Him saying: "We will not listen to the message you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord! We will certainly do everything we said we would: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and will pour out drink offerings to her just as we and our ancestors, our kings and our officials did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and were well off and suffered no harm. But ever since we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have had nothing and have been perishing by sword and famine." (Jer 44:16-18 NIV)

God's own people, the little remnant that God allowed to remain in Jerusalem and care for the temple; care for the land, have decided instead that they will give up their inheritance. They will go to Egypt; and they will worship this false goddess. They have chosen to ignore God's blessings. Rather than give Him the glory; they will give thanks to and glorify this "queen of heaven."

And... they will be lost.... The LORD will not stand for His people turning away from Him in this manner. He will send Nebuchadnezzar to Egypt. Nebuchadnezzar will overthrow them. The people who were once God's people, who worshipped in His temple, will not be able to return to the home they turned their backs on.

Do not, I pray, turn your backs on the LORD, our Maker and Redeemer. Return to Him, giving Him (and no other) glory for all that He has done.

God's Peace - Pr. J

Ecclesiastes 3 - Turn! Turn! Turn! to Everything There is a Season

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace. (Eccl 3:1-8 NIV)

 

"Turn! Turn! Turn! to Everything There is a Season." Many of you probably recognize Ecclesiastes 3 from actually reading it before. Some of you may have heard parts of it a funeral or maybe on Ash Wednesday when we hear words similar to "from dust you are, to dust you shall return." Some of you may remember these words from the song Pete Seeger wrote in 1959, which was recorded by various artists. Seger basically put the words from Ecclesiastes 3 to music and added 2 things:  the words "Turn, Turn, Turn" and "a time for peace, I swear it's not too late." In 1969 the Byrds' recording of it became a hit, making Ecclesiastes 3 one of the oldest lyrics (written by Solomon) to become a hit on the pop charts.

There is a time for peace, I swear it's not to late. There is a time and season for everything. It is not to turn our hearts away from the injustice of the world and turn toward the path which God intends for us to follow so that we might truly live life. It is not to late to turn our lives around and live in His presence and in His peace.

Let there be peace on earth. Let us treat one another justly, causing no one more anxiety. If there is to be anxiety, it will come in its allotted time and season for God's purpose. We do not have to manufacture it for ourselves or others. Let us take each day as it comes before us and learn to live life as God intended us to live, enjoying the fruits of the garden, enjoying the fruits of the day, even as we labor to eat and drink, to provide for the necessities of our lives. May God grant that we should be happy and find satisfaction in our toil. May God grant us peace with Him and with one another even as we strive to live life in this world accepting every thing that comes to us in whatever time or season.

God's Peace - Pr. J