Tag: Faithfulness

Morning Musing: Hebrews 11:11-12

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“By faith even Sarah herself, when she was unable to have children, received power to conceive offspring, even though she was past the age, since she considered that the one who had promised was faithful. Therefore, from one man – in fact, from one as good as dead – came offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and as innumerable as the grains of sand along the seashore.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

If you are at all like me, then your faith journey after Jesus has not been a smooth affair. Personally, by God’s grace, I haven’t had the bumps in the road that many people have had, but there have nonetheless been ups and downs along the way. Some of these have felt like walking along rolling hills. Others have seemed more like mountain climbing. Yet where I have stuck with faith, the end points of the many small journeys which compose the big one have consistently been better than not. As we dig into the next snapshot of Abraham’s life with the author of Hebrews, we are going to see the one that was most like a rollercoaster for him and Sarah. Let’s strap in and see how it went.

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Morning Musing: Hebrews 11:7

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“By faith Noah, after he was warned about what was not yet seen and motivated by godly fear, built an ark to deliver his family. By faith he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Bill Cosby used to be funny. Well, that’s not totally fair. I could still listen to his old stand-up routines and laugh until I cry. But the revelations of the real character of the man who used to be called “America’s dad,” made it a whole lot harder to engage with anything he did in the past. Still, I listened to him so much growing up, I have much of his old material memorized. I just about wore out those old records. And, yes, I do mean records. But my favorite routine was always the one about Noah. Maby it was because it was (loosely) based on a Bible story, but Cosby’s “Noah” act always made me laugh the hardest. What made it so funny was the fact that it is how many of us imagine Noah actually responding to God’s command to build a big boat. Let’s talk this morning about Noah, faith, and the path to righteousness.

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A Brief Honor to a Great Legacy

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“Give her the reward of her labor, and let her works praise her at the city gates.”
— ‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭31:31‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter)

The world saw the end of an entire era of human history yesterday. Leaders come and go like the changing of the seasons. We change Presidents the way most people change vehicles—every four to eight years. CEOs of major corporations rarely last longer than a decade or so. The average pastor tenure is only a few years. But for most of the people alive on the planet today, the only Queen of England they have ever known until yesterday was Elizabeth II of the House of Windsor. Let’s pause for just a moment this morning and marvel at a great woman.

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Morning Musing: Hebrews 10:35-39

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“So don’t throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you need endurance, so that after you have done God’s will, you may receive what was promised. For yet in a ‘very little while, the Coming One will come and not delay.’ ‘But my righteous one will live by faith; and if he draws back, I have no pleasure in him.’ But we are not those who draw back and are destroyed, but those who have faith and are saved.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever missed your chance? If you have, think about that moment for a bit. What was the opportunity, and why did you miss it? Were you late for it? Did someone else snatch it from you? Or was the loss a matter of patience? There are not a few opportunities lost to a lack of patience. We want things on our timetable, but that’s not always or even often the timetable on which they operate. If we demand ours anyway, we’re setting ourselves up to miss out on a lot. As chapter 10 comes to a close, the author calls us to stick with following Jesus, even when it gets long and hard, so we don’t miss out on the best part. Let’s talk about it.

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Digging in Deeper: Hebrew 10:26-31

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“For if we deliberately go on sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire about to consume the adversaries. Anyone who disregarded the law of Moses died without mercy, based on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment do you think one will deserve who has trampled on the Son of God, who has regarded as profane the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know the one who has said, ‘Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay,’ and again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever had one of those moments when you knew you had lost, and you were just waiting for the defeat to be completed? I’ve had lots of those moments while playing video games over the years. Honestly, most of the time I responded by simply turning the game off. If I’m watching one of my sports teams lose – especially in a big game – I’ll turn off the TV. Why bother sticking around when you know the results aren’t going to be what you had hoped? In life, though, that’s not an option. And with Jesus, grace and redemption are always possible. What the author of Hebrews is talking about here, however, is a situation when a terrible loss becomes unavoidable. Let’s wrestle today with what may be the most disturbing warning of the letter. Hang on tight for this one, and don’t look away until we reach the end. You’ll not want to miss this.

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