Day 117 - Hebrews 6
Day 116 - Staff Devotional
“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
In October of 2021, a hiker got lost climbing Mount Elbert in Colorado. The hike was only supposed to last seven hours, but he did not return. Search and rescue called him several times to check in on him and to tell him to return. However, the Hiker’s phone kept saying “unknown number,” so he kept rejecting the calls. When he returned after nearly 24 hours lost in the woods, he told search and rescue that he had gotten lost trying to find his way back and that he didn’t answer because the phone number said, “unknown caller.” In commenting the Hiker said, “I didn’t think anyone was looking for me.”
Family, we are prone to wander. Sin is still with us, and those that claim otherwise call God a liar – to paraphrase 1 John 1:9. But what matters most is that we answer his calls when we are lost and that we come to him. Some of us don’t know who is calling because we couldn’t possibly think it was God. We think “I didn’t think he was looking for me.” Let me remind you that he does. He leaves the 99 sheep to find the one and celebrates. He searches frantically to find the lost coin and he celebrates. He embraces the prodigal son at his return, and he celebrates. Some of us know the Lord well, and when we wander we refuse to answer because we fear how he will respond. But every call serves to beckon you back into his presence. He calls you because he will never cast you out. He calls you because he prepares a place for you. He calls you because he has immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness for you. He calls you “…before his throne of grace that you might receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16).
In other words, we must run to him. Again and again and again and again. Know that his heart welcomes you. He does not grow tired of you. He vows to keep you and to carry you into glory. All we must do is trust in him. Return to him. And believe him when he tells you that “where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.”
Perhaps that isn’t enough for you. Perhaps you need some more tangible action steps – help me get this better pastor. What can I do to be better at this? To you – the avid spiritual workaholic – a prescribe one thing: nothing. What I see from the question “what more can I do?” is a tendency to ask “how can I deserve this?” The point is, you don’t. You will never deserve this. Stop asking God how much the gift cost on Christmas morning. Simply receive it.
I want us to learn how to be in Christ before we do for Christ. So your to do list is to do less. Untrain your capitalistic view in the economy of God. He gives freely. All we must do is receive. Then, once we received, we cannot live as those who do not possess his immeasurable riches. We will not continue to sin because the gift of his heart outstrips the value of the cheap promises of sin. What you reject when you choose to sin isn’t a cold hard contract. It’s the very heart of God. Live in such a way that you know you are loved. Learn what his voice sounds like. Add him to your contact list. Answer the call.
Day 115 - Hebrews 5
Day 114 - Hebrews 4
Day 113 - Hebrews 3
Day 112 - Hebrews 2
Day 111 - Hebrews 1:1-2 Devotional
God’s Final Word
Ligonier Ministries Devotional
“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 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.”
Hebrews was written to convince its original audience of the superiority of Jesus to everything that came before Him, and the author gets right to the point in the opening verses of his epistle. In Hebrews 1:1–4, we have a theologically rich expression of the greatness of our Savior, focused particularly on Jesus as our Prophet, Priest, and King.
Verses 1–2 emphasize Jesus as the final and perfect Prophet, drawing a contrast between the way God has spoken to His people in “these last days” with the way He spoke before. Before the advent of the Son of God in the flesh, our Creator revealed Himself “at many times and in many ways” (v. 1). Of course, the author is referring to how our Lord spoke under the old covenant. He communicated “at many times”—during the era of the patriarchs, in the day of Joshua and the judges, under the administration of the monarchy, and while the people were in exile and immediately after their return. And God spoke “in many ways”—through direct speech, through dreams and visions, through the prophets’ oracles, through angelic messengers, and even at one point through a donkey (for example, Gen. 12:1–3; 37:1–11; 46:1–4; Num. 22:22–30; Josh. 1:1–9; 2 Kings 19:1–7; Ezra 5:1–2; Dan. 7).
Those ways of speaking were sufficient for their day, but they were not the highest, most glorious, or final way that God has spoken. “In these last days”—our present era of salvation history inaugurated by Christ—God “has spoken to us by his Son” (Heb. 1:2). With the coming of Jesus, our Creator spoke in a new and better way. This way is better not in that Jesus’ teaching is somehow more inspired or more authoritative than the words of the old covenant prophets. After all, every word of Scripture is equally inspired by God (2 Tim. 3:16–17). Instead, God’s speaking in Jesus is better because Christ is the final word from our Creator regarding salvation, the One in whom God’s love for His people is most clearly demonstrated, the One who has shown us exactly what it takes to reconcile us to God. Earlier prophets pointed out the way to God; Christ alone is the Prophet who is the way to God (John 14:6).
Jesus is better revelation from our Creator because He is also the One through whom God created the world (Heb. 1:2; see John 1:3). Moreover, He is the heir of all things (Heb. 1:2). He has inherited all of creation and shares it with believers, His coheirs (Rom. 8:17).
Since Jesus is God’s final and best Word to us, we should not expect any new revelation from the Lord until we see Him face-to-face. The only place we can find His will for our lives is in His inscripturated Word of the Old and New Testaments. The Lord inspired the Scriptures and continues to speak through them to us even today. This is why it is vital that we continue to study them our entire lives.
Day 110 - Hebrews 1
Day 109 - Philemon
Day 108 - Titus 3
Day 107 - Titus 2
Day 106 - Staff Devotional
The Inspired Word
Pastor Jake
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
The expression “breathed out by God” is actually one Word, θεόπνευστος (theopneustos). This word in Scripture is utterly unique, occurring only here, and many scholars believe Paul may have even coined the term.
Friberg’s Analytical Greek Lexicon defines the term as such:
“Scriptures as communication that has been ordained by God's authority and produced by the enabling of his Spirit; strictly, it is translated God-breathed; hence divinely inspired…”
This is the Word I want us to cling to: inspired. What does it mean for something to be inspired? The truth is, the English term “inspire” is directly connected to Paul’s word for “Breathed out by God.” Inspire combines the word In (which literally means “into, or toward”), and spirare, the Latin term for “breathe.”
When we say God’s word is inspired, we say that God is the one who breathed into these Words. God not only gives these words to the authors of Scripture, but makes authoritative His Word as the incomparable, sufficient source of truth for his church. Whenever God breathes, life is the result, and this is true for the words on the pages of your Bible.
In the Chronicles of Narnia, there is a scene near the end of the story where Aslan breathes on the petrified victims of the White Which. Throughout the story, she is armed with a special wand that turns whomever it touches into stone, and then preserves them in her sanctum. But when Aslan arrives, what does he do to make them alive again? He breathes on them. If you remember the story, this is a major plot development because Aslan reanimates an army that turns the tide of the war at the First Battle of Beruna which ended the White Witch’s reign.
In the same way, when you open the Word of God, what you read aren’t just the stale words of some historical era recorded by ancient authors. Without the breath of God, yes, these would just be words. But these words are alive, having been given a kind of life that can only imbued by God himself – words of life that have transformed you and me, bringing us “…out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Pet. 2:9). The same breath that gave life to humanity at creation has given life, authority, validity, and power to the Word of God. That same breath has melted our hearts of stone, freeing us to follow Christ. Rank and file, behind the lion, we march onward knowing that the battle has already been won.