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Conditional Security – Hebrews 12:6-9

Hebrews 12:6-9
6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?

In the book of Hebrews, the author gives us 5 warnings as believers throughout the book. We are entering the fifth warning here and the author is developing the Father/son relationship, emphasizing the corrective posture of both our earthly father and our heavenly Father.

Within this particular passage, it is possible to understand the authors intent to simply spur on believers in the midst of trials. Many of the exhortations may focus on spurring on believers, and not enter into any conditional security topic. And yet, some of them may breach our topic of consideration in this series. With that said, for the next few posts, we are going to sit in this chapter and consider a few of the author’s messages in Hebrews 12 to the first century Hebrew believer.

In our first entry into this amazing chapter, we come to verse 6, where the author lays down the topic of discipline for the believer, and the reason believers experience this painful turn of events in their lives. He is quick to define the Lord’s motives, and that is not out of anger or frustration, which many earthly father’s experience, but out of pure love for His children. Don’t get me wrong – a good father, though angry and frustrated, will attempt to correct his son out of a foundation of love for the child. A non child, a neighbors child, or a young one he comes across in the grocery store does not affect the father as his own son’s bad behavior. No – it is the relationship that is emphasized in this passage as the motivating factor of discipline, and out of that, the proper response we are to exhibit towards our heavenly Father.

The exhortation to endure is a key element in this passage from the author. To endure takes on many descriptions throughout the book of Hebrews, but for brevity of this post, note the varied ways the author speaks of enduring just in chapter 12.

  • 12:5 do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him
  • 12:9 shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live
  • 12:13 so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed
  • 12:15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God
  • 12:15 See to it ….that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;
  • 12:16 See to it …. no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal
  • 12:25 See that you do not refuse him who is speaking

Some of these phrases we will deal with in later posts, but for our current passage, note verse 8 & 9, where I believe the author speaks of living in relation to discipline. Our mental and spiritual repose before the Father, that of respect and subjection to His authority over our lives, provides assurance of our continuing in the life He has provided us out of grace and mercy.

Be subject to the Father and live.

Does this ring of an ongoing relationship with the One who saved us? Of a continual ongoing respect to the Father that is required in order to live?

Of course, if my thinking is correct, I have to consider the apostles reference to “live”” as being alive in Christ, to be of a resurrected reborn man or woman of God, one who has claimed and practiced the Christian life. This seems obvious to me at this time, for why would the apostle simply speak of physical life. If only physical life, the very discipline of the Father, which may end in martyrdom, would be contradictory.

For example, might the apostle be trying to say – Endure discipline, to the point of physical death so that you may live (physically?) It doesn’t make sense to me, but I am open to your comments, and hope to hear your thoughts on this passage.

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Life of David – 2.06

The Lord Rejects Saul

As many who have followed me for a bit, I have fallen into the Psalms, and I can’t get up! (As if I would want to.) The Psalms are a majestic collection of poetry, of heart felt human experiences that constantly challenge me in my own frail attempt to follow the true King. As many of the Psalms are written by David, my study on the Psalms has spurred me on to looking at the life of David, is the main contributor to this book, and to follow the victories and tragedies of the shepherd King of Israel.

Many times in the narrative, we will see the Lord Jesus, imperfectly, yet a reflection of His spirit in a man with weaknesses.

Saul’s Repentance

1 Samuel 15

24 Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.
25 Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may bow before the LORD.”
26 And Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you. For you have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you from being king over Israel.”
27 As Samuel turned to go away, Saul seized the skirt of his robe, and it tore.
28 And Samuel said to him, “The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you.

Saul, hearing of the his loss of his kingdom from God’s prophet, repents. Sort of.

He admits to sin before the Lord, though not specifically of any one act of sin, and even now may be trying to convince Samuel that it was the peoples fault for this act of rebellion.

His act of repentance/regret illustrates the motivation of the typical politician, that is to seek the favor of the people and not the Lord. How often have you heard of a politician changing his stance on a topic due to a change in the general consensus of the ones he governs? So typical. So unwise for a leader to be led by the people as opposed to the Lord.

This was the third time Saul had fallen into this trap of being a man pleaser, and his time of having the blessing of God on his Kingdom rule was closing up on him.

Saul was finished. Desperate to maintain some control over the situation, Saul turned to physical violence. Tearing the robe of Samuel was no accidental occurrence. Saul was desperate to keep Samuel near, and Samuel was done with Saul, wanting to leave a man he had anointed before God to be the king of Israel.

Two wills are pictured in this narrative, with a torn robe the outcome. This robe refers to a garment worn over the tunic, usually representing a man of rank or authority. In Samuel’s case, his robe identified him as the man of God, and Saul’s grasping and tearing of the robe was a desperate act of gaining Samuel’s attention. Saul was successful in gaining Samuels attention, but it only reinforced the message of rejection.

Your kingdom is torn from you Saul.

At this point in history Saul’s kingdom ceased to be, yet he still sat on a throne. The true king was in the background, and when Samuel informs Saul that the kingdom has been given to a neighbor that is better than him, I am sure David came to mind. If the thought was not fully formed in Saul’s mind at Samuels declaration, it would be very soon, for the people would speak of David as one better than Saul.

1 Samuel 18:7 -8 And the women sang to one another as they celebrated, “Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” And Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him. He said, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands, and what more can he have but the kingdom?”

After all, Saul, being the one who listened to the people, must have immediately heard in the back of his mind their estimation of David’s skill and Samuel’s description of his competition for the throne. Of course, there was no actual competition for the throne, for when the Lord declares a judgement, it stands. No human manipulations, severe as they may be, will affect the outcome. Unless….

Unless we seek the Lord’s favor, humble ourselves before Him, and seek His mercy, admitting to the authority of God’s will over our own. In Hs mercy and wisdom, His tremendous grace towards us, He has previously relented from judgement upon a deserving people. In other instances the judgement has fallen. He is kind and good to those He loves, even in difficult trying times!

May His will be done.

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.

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Let Me Tell You a Story – Rats!

let-me-tell-you-a-story.jpg

Romans 5:2-5

Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

I was listening to a podcast recently – forgive me if I don’t recall the name of the presenter, but as I was listening, he told a story of a scientist who drowned rats for science sake. Yes – rats! I told my wifey ’bout this and she was all in – She hates the vermin and would like to see them all perish.

Nevertheless, this scientist spent copious amounts of time studying rats and their responses to being in a tub filled with water. Two types of rats were studied. First, a dozen or so of the domesticated rat, the type that experienced interaction with humans. These rats, once they were placed in a tub they could not escape from, were initially docile, floating about for a short period of time. Eventually, within a minute or so, they began to swim about in the tub, looking for a way of escape. A few drowned fairly quickly, (do I hear my wife cheering?) but a majority of these domesticated rats swam valiantly for days, finally drowning from exhaustion.

What did the scientist learn? At this point nothing to speak of other than the hope of the domesticated rat was quite amazing.

The second stage was to use wild rats, rats that had to continually fight the elements, swim through rivers and fast rushing streams, fighting off all enemies. First thought as I listened was that these rats would survive much longer than the “soft” domesticated rats, but such was not the case. After a few minutes of discovering their predicament, all the wild rats simply rolled over and died.

Did you expect that outcome? Do you have any idea why this unexpected outcome occurred? Let’s push on to the next stage in this scientists study. This next stage may hold a key to this mystery.

The scientist tried the same experiment with a twist. Using domesticated rats again, the scientist placed a number of the rats in the same tub, and proceeded to let them fight for their lives. At the point of drowning and succumbing to death, the scientist pulled each rat out of the water, dried the rat off, resuscitated the rat and provided care to a level state of life.

Once the rats had been stabilized, the scientist placed them in the same tub.

What might you expect from these rats. The scientist discovered these rats would fight for far longer than the previous struggle, and the only difference was that the rats had HOPE, hope of being rescued from a death experience.

HOPE.

Without it we are just waiting for our death. With it we can experience far greater perseverance than previously thought possible. Of course we are greater than rats, yet at times we may sense we are only treading water, waiting for the inevitable. We are just keeping our nose above the waves, second by second, minute by minute. But for us as believers, there is hope of rescue, for we have experienced that first “plucking out of danger”, as the rats were plucked from the water and resuscitated. We have a new life and a living hope, granted to us by our Savior. He provides that hope, and from that hope, we can exercise a tenacity to hang on in the darkest of situations.

If you are suffering through a difficult time, hang on. He is our Hope, our Saving God, and He has impeccable timing.

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion

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Names of God – AMEN – 28

My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.

The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.

The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.

May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.

28
 
AMEN
 
Rev. 3:14 And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation.
Our God is named Amen. But other than our using this word at the end of a prayer, do we understand what it means? Prior to doing any further reading, take a second and consider what you think “Amen” means.

Take a look at the Hebrew word translated as amen in the Old Testament – אָמֵן ʼâmên, aw-mane. Ok now take a look at the Greek word translated as amen in the New Testament – ἀμήν, Hebrew אָמֵן.

See any similarity?

You should since the Greek word is the Hebrew word. The similarity is that the Hebrew word is the Greek word, it did not go through a transformation to be included in the Greek vocabulary.

Take a second look at the Greek term – ἀμήν. By replacing the Greek letters with the English equivalent, we get amen. The word refuses to change or to be morphed by the sands off time. And that is somewhat typical of the word meaning itself, for it has a root meaning of firmness, faithfulness.

To be the amen, is to be the faithful one, the one who is firm, unshakable, true and trustworthy.

The Laodiceans were to understand that God’s name, the name of Jesus Christ, is trustworthy, firm, and faithful. The phrase immediately after our Name of God being considered, is reiterates the very same thought.

He is the Faithful, Firm and Trustworthy God, who is the faithful and true witness.

Can we trust Him?

I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.

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Philippian Bits – 3:1

For this series in Philippians, I am going to limit each post to one verse, and hopefully produce a short, succinct read for my friends who follow.

3:1   Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you.

Paul is begninning a section in Philippians where he begins to warn the church of the enemy within the church, or that will come to visit the church. Instead of this section starting out with dire warnings (for they will come) or descriptions of terrible teachers pouncing on the church (for they will arrive also), Paul starts out with joy. Not a doctinal stance, or an exhortation to prayer, (which is such a required practice for the believer) but joy.

He says to rejoice in the Lord. First off, a truly joyful believer is indominable, to the extent that the believer finds his joy in Jesus. Not in religion, or church attendance, or law keeping or ceremoniual bathing or sacrificial giving, or increasing population of the church. No – the joy in tho be found in the Lord only, and this is a settled joy that increases and increases as we walk with Him and see His activity in our lives in a daily way.

The joy I experienced at salvation was intense, very emotional, and unattainable to maintain. Now don’t hear when I say the intensity of the joy was unattainable to maintain as a cop out, for as I have sought to walk with Him, He has provided a settled, calming joy, a joy that does not spike and plummit, as emotional trips so often do. This joy is somewhat unnoticable until it is touched by a sadness, by a disapointment, or by a trial. Although the joy of the Lord is resident in me, it is with the difficulties that the joy comes into full bloom.

I found a quote from the preacher F. B. Meyer, regarding our cooperation in the cultivation of this joy. We are not to consider this experience of joy to be something we are passively recieving, but based on our relationship with the Lord, and His guidance in our thinking.

“It is a duty for us to cultivate this joy. We must steadfastly arrest any tendency to murmur and complain; to find fault with God’s dealings; or to seek to elicit sympathy. We must as much resist the temptation to depression and melancholy as we would to any form of sin.” (Meyer)

Was it not even within this letter that believers were told to not gripe or complain. Complaining, murmuring, disputing and whining are joy busters, for when we complain, we are not looking to the Lord but to our problems, not seeing God’ blessings but our supposed needs.

To rejoice in the Lord is an exercise of focusing on Him, and though times may be good or bad, our eyes are to be peering to Him for our daily strength. The Joy of the Lord is not “ours” but His, and a believer’s effort to generate it independant of Him is an exercise in futility. The joy of the Lord is not something that can be generated by self help books, or by an act of the will to be happy, but to look to Him in our day to day lives, listen for His voice.

In focusing on Him (and not seeking joy), we actually recieve love joy peace…

Rejoice in the Lord. It is actually a command! Go ahead – be sullen AND in the midst of being sullen, realize you are in sin!

Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion

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Psalms for Psome – Ps 55.04

My wife and I are reading through the Psalms in our evening reading and occasionally a nugget of the Psalms jumps out of the page. Don’t you love it when, after years of reading the “Old Book” passages become alive, reinforcing old teachings or simply warming your heart.

This is the book of Psalms, and it is rich.

I pray I can communicate a portion of the blessing we receive from this wonderful book.

12 – For it is not an enemy who taunts me– then I could bear it; it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me– then I could hide from him.
13 – But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend.
14 – We used to take sweet counsel together; within God’s house we walked in the throng.
15 – Let death steal over them; let them go down to Sheol alive; for evil is in their dwelling place and in their heart.

In our last post we considered David’s prayer for confusion on the counsel to his son Absolom, in the beginning of the rebellion. David, if my understadning of this psalm is correct, addresses Ahithophel. Ahithophel, who was David’s equal, a familiar friend, a companion. David, in using the term companion, is describing Ahithophel as a friend who is gentle, one who is docile towards him. No violence, no treachery, no underhandedness. As David speaks of him as a “familiar friend”, he introduces the concept of knowledge, of understanding each other as friends. Ahithophel was not an aquaintence of David, but had a deep friendship with the king, appearing to be open and honest with each other.

The king speaks of the sweet counsel he shared with Ahithophel, even in the temple of God. While David was in the temple, Ahithophel was with him. David and Ahithophel shared times of being before God together, sharing a faith, and communing with God together. Who could David trust more? To whom would David share his greatest vulnerabilities? Who could hurt David the greatest?

It is obvious in this passage that to be a familiar friend, a companion, a man that has your trust, is to open yourself up to the greatest treachery. But to love and to be loved, this consideration cannot be considered. It will poison the relationship, so if there is a back stabbing, it will not only come as a stunning surprise, but the pain and shock associated with this turn will be deepest! So it is for David, and so is his reaction so understandable.

In our past we had some believers turn on us, believers we trusted, and that we thought were trustworthy. For the period when we experienced abandonment and rejection, shock carried the day. How could this happen? I will not detail it out for it is in the past and the Lord has provided healing for us, and hopefully for them. Nevertheless, to be betrayed by a friend is a very deep cut!

And David wanted blood! He is a warrior, a fighter, a man who enters battle intent on winning, dominating over the enemy, crushing those who oppose him.

Let death steal over them; let them go down to Sheol alive

For David to speak thus is to see his pain come out, to see his sense of justice come to the surface. In no uncertain way was David going to allow this to go unpunished, and he sought justice before the Lord, asking the Lord to let them enter Sheol alive! Whatever that specifically meant for the Old Testament believer is beyond me, but it can’t be good!

During our time of betrayal, when the shock lessened and I had some lucid thoughts, I must confess I had evil thoughts towards my friends who hurt us. The Lord moved us on, and a healiing eventually came, but I can somewhat identify with David’s heart.

There is One who did not seek death over His enemies, but entered into death for His enemies. He is altogether different than David in this regard, and exercised grace greater than any I entertained within my own life.

He is the One who did not seek justice over his enemies, but showered grace and mercy upto those who spit on Him, cursed Him, whipped Him, and nailed Him to a cross, eventually killing Him through a slow agonizing death. He is so much greater in His acts of love, grace and mercy, than we can imagine, little llone to compare with His weak and fragile creation.

He is the Lord, and He has experieinced the treachery of His creation, reacting to it in grace and love towards us. He is so different!

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion.

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Names of God – ALTOGETHER DESIRABLE – 27

My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.

The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.

The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.

May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.

27
 
ALTOGETHER DESIRABLE
 
Song of Songs 5:16 His mouth is most sweet, and he is altogether desirable. This is my beloved and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.
This passage is found in the Song of Songs, otherwise known as the Song of Solomon. It is an erotic poem between a young woman and a man, likely Solomon. As a literal poem it speaks of the physical love experienced between and man and a woman, and in parts, becomes very explicit.

Yet, as a believer, if we consider the Word to always represent Christ, to picture Him, to foreshadow His person or mission, it is not difficult to see this forgotten book as a wonderful expression of the intimate love God desires with His people.

This should not shock my reader, for Israel was considered the wife of Yahweh, and we are the Bride of Christ. Our lives are but a shadow of the reality, and the relation a man has with his wife includes not only a friendship that surpasses any earthly competitor (or at least it should) but a sharing of our bodies with each other. This is a tremendous blessing from God and only because of the warped society we live in do we shy away from this truth.

After her beloved had attempted to find her, and yet missed meeting with her, she lamented His disappearance. Her heartbreak in not being with Him pored out in a description of His person.

Take a few seconds and consider this love struck ladies description of the only one she wanted.

Song of Songs 5:11-15
His head is the finest gold; his locks are wavy, black as a raven.
His eyes are like doves beside streams of water, bathed in milk, sitting beside a full pool.
His cheeks are like beds of spices, mounds of sweet-smelling herbs. His lips are lilies, dripping liquid myrrh.
His arms are rods of gold, set with jewels. His body is polished ivory, bedecked with sapphires.
His legs are alabaster columns, set on bases of gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, choice as the cedars.

After this description of her lover, she speaks the verse we are considering today.

He is altogether desirable.

She found nothing in this man undesirable, and the combination of all his attributes only increased the total effect He has on her. She was awestruck, and as she expresses earlier on, she is sick with love. He consumed her attention so she saw no one else.

Jesus is altogether desirable, if we have eyes to see!

I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.

Come join us at Considering the Bible