Hebrews 3- “Moses was faithful steward over God’s house. Jesus was faithful as a son over God’s house. WE ARE HIS HOUSE.”  God instructed Jesus to build His house-God’s house. Jesus completed that task. Verse 6 states that ,”we are His house, IF we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.”

Every day is a battle for my will, emotions and beleif. I must choose every day NOT to harden my heart. Surrounding myself with encouragement to finish this life. “As long as it is Today….” encourage one another. Don’t quit. Don’t stop short of the finish. Don’t give up on the edge of the destiny.  The writer of Hebrews reminds us that the first generation of Israelite children coming out of Egypt ‘NEVER ENTERED THEIR REST’.  Wow. That is stunning. They were delivered and rescued from slavery. God walked them into a place in the desert where every basic need of their lives was met. BUT GOD had more in mind. He was trying to take them to a place of “REST”.  As miraculous as  their deliverance was, God’s heart for his people was much greater. 

I want the destiny of REST. I am tired. I am tired of paddling as hard as I am paddling.

“And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest; if not those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter because of their unbelief.”   Hebrews 3:18-19

GOD- I want the whole taco! I want rest, Promise Land, provision, protection. I also agree with you and with the process that there will be battles to fight in that land. But I will fight with the full knowledge that you are with me. The place of REST is often a place of war.  Rest comes in the Land that God has provided. Rest comes in Your Presence.  I want to be where you are and where you want me to be.

Belief is the only thing that we bring to this buffet table of God’s love, grace and mercy. My one small, raggedy sack of belief that on good days is usually only half-full; that is all that I bring to the relationship, this adoption party, that God throws for me everyday that I am alive in this universe. The greater my belief, my faith, in what God has ALREADY done, the greater my capacity to experience the wonder of Him while I am on this earth. Everything has already been done. He is waiting for my belief to enlarge so as to contain it, revel in it, celebrate it and live in it.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with EVERY spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.”   Ephesians 1:3-6

I believe. That’s it. B.O.W.-believe, obey and worship. Everything else in my life: business, relationships, family, finances, et al……..  Everything is in his hand.  I cannot keep myself in this relationship. He keeps me. God chose me for this life “before the foundation of the world”. My calling and my choice is to believe Him. When I do, life gets much much more simple. Not necessarily easier, but more simple.

I choose today to trust, and not fear, anything that this life, this world or the Enemy can bring against me or my family. I will believe You. I will believe with my heart, for my mind cannot conceive, that all of my days were chosen and ordered before the foundation of the world.  I will partner with You. I will put my faith and belief in You. Every heavenly blessing is stored and deposited for me. Your grace, mercy and sovereignty is trustworty and more certain than the sunrise. I BELIEVE YOU.

In recent years the Christian community has developed some of its own, self fulfilling, self made theology and doctrine. The most alarming of which, at least for me, is centered around an idea that real-deal, followers of Jesus should be leading a victorious, Enemy-free, culture averse…prosperous in every area kind of life. No pain, no hard times, no emotional trauma. divine health, and if necessary, divine healing.  And…if they are not. Something is broken and needs to be fixed.

I love this! Who wouldn’t.  The problem is…I cannot see it in the Bible. My reading of the Word reveals this to me: (right or wrong, this is what I see)

There are two kinds of suffering:

1. Suffering that is caused by our own will.      The Biblical principle of sowing and reaping applies to every area of life.  If we sow mercy, we reap mercy. If we sow anger and resentment, we reap anger and resentment. If we sow relationship and friendship, we reap the same.  Seed always reproduces after its own kind.  When we sow disobedience, poor decisions, un-Godly relationships, etc…suffering can result.  There is a suffering that is caused by our own will.

2. Suffering that is God’s Will.  There is a difficult, but necessary, part of God’s plan in the lives of His kids.  It is called suffering. None of his children are exempt. Not even Jesus (see Hebrews 5) was exempt from this process. Suffering is the ‘perfecting’, the ‘polishing’ of the believer. Jesus, once he was perfected, became the author of salvation. (Hebrews 5:9) (1 Peter 4:12-19) We have to stop blaming it on our lack of faith and especially on the Enemy. It is God that is causing this perfecting process of wilderness wandering. Give Him the credit! Give Him the praise!  (Sounds weird, huh?)

There is a trial, a suffering, that is very much from the hand of God. Without it, character is not born and destinies are not reached.  If it was good enough for Jesus…well, I guess that it is good enough for me.

I guess I had better get to re-writing my theology books.

This entire chapter centers around the idea of suffering. Jesus suffered. We all know that Jesus suffered on the cross. However, Hebrews 5 intimates other forms of suffering that were the make-up of his character. The writer of Hebrews says, “although He was a son, he learned obedience through the things that he suffered.”  The thought that Jesus had to ‘learn’ anything is a mind boggler for me.  My (faulty, incomplete and weak) theology seems to believe that Jesus came to the earth as some pre-packaged automaton. Programmed from the factory of heaven to complete the task at hand-no questions asked.  Obviously, I am terribly and painfully wrong.

Suffering is an integral part of the plan of God. WHY? WHAT DOES IT DO? 

1. It disciplines our flesh. (1 Peter 4:1-2)     Suffering removes our flesh from the equation of life in the kingdom. “He who has suffered in the flesh ceases from sin, that he should no longer live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.  Suffering removes the entrapment of living for our own desires, while leaving in the flesh to carry out our position and calling in the Kingdom. However, to carry out that calling we have to be more attuned to our spirit and less to our flesh. Suffering helps to accomplish that.

2. We share something in common with Jesus (1 Peter 4:12-13)   This one is a booger bear!   We get to share and understand some part of Jesus life. Great!  The part we get to share is earthly suffering. Bummer!  This kind of suffering IS the will of God.  

How can suffering be the will of God?  I will have to ponder that one…………..

“Daddy, give me eyes to see everything in the earth the way that you see it from heaven.  If I could have your view my vision would certainly change, my perspective would alter and my attitude would improve. Let me see what I can process. Nothing more. Nothing less. I want everything that you have for me, right now.  Speak to me in grace, mercy and truth and love. But speak.”

At the Feast of the Passover, Jesus had a celebratory meal with his disciples. It was to be their Last Supper together as a group.  Jesus, knowing what was to come, spoke truth to them, prayed for them and served them. He instructed them to ‘remember me’ everytime you eat.  John’s account describes Jesus’ washing the disciples’ feet. Jesus filled up a basin with water. He them washed and dried the feet of the 12 men that table.

What occurred to me this morning was this:  Jesus washed (served) Judas’ feet KNOWING full well that he would leave that supper and betray Him. Jesus prophetically foretold that Judas was about to betray him. He even told Judas to hurry up and get on with it. (“What you must do, do quickly. (vs. 27) )  Judas was about to betray the perfect love of Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. He would subsequently commit suicide and take his own life because of the guilt of the betrayal.  Jesus washed Judas’ feet anyway. Jesus loved him anyway. Jesus CHOSE to love his enemy.

I know all of the arguments about Jesus knowing what was going to happen anyway. I know all of the “EXPLANATIONS” that Jesus was God and ………  Here’s what I don’t know. How does a man do that? Not how does God do that? How does a man do that?  Jesus was a man, flesh man, filled by God. A MAN.

ANSWER:  Jesus had an absolute, unwavering trust of his Father’s plan and an absolute love for Judas. Judas actions never effected Jesus’ love for him.  True, unconditional love is never altered by the receiver’s actions. Judas’ betrayal didn’t lessen or shrink Jesus love for him. In fact, I think that Jesus heart was more hurt and broken by Judas than by any other disciple.  Judas SAW the things of God and the Lordship of Jesus for over 3 years. He saw but he never received. (See October 29th and 30th blogs)

“Thank you God for that kind of love toward me. Thank you Jesus for that kind of love toward me. Thank you Holy Spirit for that kind of love toward me.  You know what I have done and will do and yet you wash my feet, you serve me and love me anyway.”

By the end of Acts 2, Peter has preached a caustic, abrasive, yet truthful sermon about the authenticity of Jesus’s life and purpose as Messiah. Verse 41 states that about 3000 people received Christ that day. Why did Peter have to give them the word IN ADDITION to the signs and wonders of that incredible day?  What are the keys to seeing AND receiving the work of God in our lives.

3 things come to mind:

 1. Repentance – we have to repent. The prophets called it from the people. John the Baptist called it out, Jesus called for it and Peter gave it as a pre-requisite to receiving the Spirit and power of God (Acts 2:38)   2.

2. Hearing the Word – people need to hear the Word as well as see the word.  “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.”  This is a frightening and sobering truth of the God’s kingdom. Many times God allows his people to explain and preach and teach His Word to call, convict and activate faith in other people’s lives. Lost people need the Word. People who have known Christ for 50 years, need the Word. The Word is crucial.

3. Desperation – we have to want it. We have to be desperate for God’s truth. We have to sick and tired of being sick and tired. We have to actually WANT what God has for us. The 120 in Acts 2 were waiting in desperate anticipation of what God would do next. When the wind and fire of heaven came they embraced and received it. When the languages of the earth came to manifest the power of God, they opened their mouths and spoke them. Desperate people act and believe more than they think and ponder.

When these 3 elements entered the hearts of the people, the mockers became believers.

REPENTANCE. THE WORD. DESPERATION.

Words to live by.

Acts 2 records the account of the first corporate encounter with the Holy Spirit by the new church. There appears to be 2 distinct groups of people at that encounter: Those who saw it and those who experienced it.  And there is a major, titanic difference between the two. The visible evidence of the Holy Spirit was: the sound of a rushing wind from heaven that filled the WHOLE HOUSE, divided tongues of fire that sat upon their heads, speaking in other tongues (languages). Because it was time of the Feast of Pentecost, Jerusalem was full of men and women “from every nation under heaven”.  When the sound occurred a multitude came together. I am not sure how many constitutes a “multitude”. But let’s just say many came together because of this never-experienced, sound of God.

The Bible says in verse 7(a Biblical number of completion)  that “they were all amazed and marveled saying to one another, “Are not all these who speak Galileans? And how is it we hear, each in our own language in which we were born?”

Verse 12 and 13 are disturbing to me. These verses record that “all were amazed and perplexed” and “others were mocking and said, ‘they are full of new wine’ “

How does the heart mock the miraculous?  How can people see the miraculous, unexplainable hand of God and mock it? Why did some people instantly ‘get’ the Holy Spirit and others only saw Him?  How can you see the Holy Spirit’s work and not be internally impacted by its power?

The only answer is that our hearts become so hard and unbelieving that we cannot see. That’s a scary place to be.

Seeing?  Experiencing?  I want to experience God not only see Him.

Peter says that in the last days that the people will mock the name of the Lord.  Peter also make a disturbing statement: “They deliberately forget that God caused the galaxies to come forth and the waters to come out of chaos.”

WOW. I think that we are there. People have chosen to forget the hand and power of the Lord.  From this poignant sentence from Peter, I would guess that ‘deliberately forgetting’ the creative acts of God is basic to a massive deterioration in character and purpose for human beings.

“God help us. Help us to repent. Forgive our sin. Heal our land (US). Heal our planet.”

Daniel carried a deep burden for a backslidden people. He was heartbroken by their captivity. Daniel’s attitude of confession of his own sin and of the people.  God heard his heart and a remnant was returned to Israel.  Nehemiah did the same: repented for himself and the people. Walls were re-built and city gates were restored.

John the Baptist’s message was one of repentance. Jesus echoed the voices of the prophets and the Baptizer: Repent (Matthew 4:17)  The Holy Spirit came in Acts 2 through a message of repentance.

OBSERVATION:  A major key to walking with and staying in relationship with God is repentance. Am I a good repenter?

Jesus final words to the 120 were interesting to say the least. He had fulfilled every prophetic word ever uttered in the Old Testament. Additionally, He completed every type and shadow of the Feast of Passover, the Passover Lamb, Scape Goat, Blood sacrifices….everything.  He did the unthinkable, the unimaginable, the miraculous.  Then in Acts 1 he upstage himself with his own earthly exit. Not stage right or stage left, not through the audience, but UP.  Yeah, UP.  He ascended from the earth.  The Messiah took to the air-he flew, levitated, elevated….whatever. Even more stunning than his exit was THE PLAN: the eleven remaining disciples and the other 109 WERE THE ONLY PLAN FOR THE CONTINUANCE OF THIS STORY.