Archives -- 2009 to 2013

This site will now serve as an archive for all articles written from 2009 to 2013.

New material for 2014 and forward can be found by clicking here. 

God's Good and Gracious Memory

“God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.” (Hebrews 6:10)

We decide to be followers of Jesus. We experience some joys and blessings mixed with some promised challenges.  We stay faithful over the years, but then experience some really severe trials, and we wonder. We wonder where God is or if God has forgotten our commitment and service. Our confidence is shaken a bit. That must have been the experience of those receiving the Letter to the Hebrews, and so much so that they were thinking about leaving Jesus.

Because We Have Jesus

I recently completed teaching an online class on the Letter to the Hebrews. For a few weeks I am sharing thoughts that came from this study.

"It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance..."(Hebrews 6:4-6).

Within this passage is a most positive message that we often overlook because it includes some troubling and disturbing words that we wrestle with. While there  is no doubt that the author means this as sober warning to readers who may have been in danger of leaving Jesus, he sets up his comments by reminding them of what we have because we have Jesus, and these are powerful thoughts that need our attention.

Gifts for the Mind

A trio of ideas came my way this week—all good ones for beginning a new year. So, I want to take a break from my thoughts from the Letter to the Hebrews and pass these helps on to you.

First, my good friend Steve Brown, in the midst of a long vigil at his dying mother’s bedside, shared with me that is he has been stopping three times a day to deliberately focus on God. Then I read a tweet from another old friend encouraging us to all pick one word that would give us direction for the new year. He added a recommendation to read his daughter’s new blog post. Clicking on the link, I found encouragement to stop other things for five minutes, several times a day, for spiritual contemplation.

Jesus Yawned

I recently completed teaching an online class on the Letter to the Hebrews. For a few weeks I am sharing thoughts that came from this study.

He [the high priest] can deal gently with people who are ignorant and easily deceived, since he himself is subject to weakness. (Hebrews 5:2 ISV)

In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. (Hebrews 5:7 ESV)

With these words, the author of Hebrews is beginning to make his case for Jesus being the new and greater high priest under a new and greater covenant. This writer, who began his work with great emphasis on the fact that Jesus is preexistent and divine (Hebrews 1), now, emphasizes Jesus’ humanity perhaps more than any writer in the New Testament.

Jesus...Our Emmanuel

I have just completed teaching an online class on the Letter to the Hebrews. For a few weeks I am sharing thoughts that came from this study.

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.  For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin.  Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:14-16 )

This wasn’t planned (at least by me), but it works out very well to look at this passage from Hebrews 4 the same week as the world pauses to remember the birth of Jesus. The author of the letter has not yet developed his important teaching on how Jesus is the new and greater high priest, but that doesn’t keep him from going ahead and pointing out that in that role Jesus can fully relate to us.

From "This is bad" Comes Very Good

I have just completed teaching an online class on the Letter to the Hebrews. For a few weeks I will be sharing thoughts that came from this study.

Of all the lessons we gain from the letter to Hebrews there is one that is very easy to miss and that is how God works for good even in things that are not good. You may ask where does the writer of Hebrews teach this idea. Probably no where explicitly.