Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgement without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgement! (verses 12-13) - These verses provide such an interesting juxtaposition of contrasts. Law and freedom. Mercy and judgement. Act as if you’re going to be judged, we’re told, yet live in freedom. This passage spills out of a discussion of favouritism in the preceding verses. Don’t do i

Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, an

Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (verses 2-4) - (I wrote this piece five years ago after a very painful accident to my knee.) I’ve always clung to this passage. I memorized it years ago, refreshing it many times, and now I recite it regularly in my morning devotions. It’s a wonder

We're skipping back to Philemon (which we skipped over earlier in the Spring) - here it is now! PHILEMON I appeal to you for my son Onemimus, who became my son while I was in chains. Formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to me and to you. (verses 10-11) - Paul is writing to his friend Philemon with an appeal that will stretch both friendship and faith. It seems that Philemon’s slave, Onesimus, had run away, likely stealing from Philemon as he went.

Verse 23 (I’ll give you the full verse at the end of today’s blog) - I can’t leave the book of Hebrews without sharing a very personal encounter I had with these scriptures a number of years ago. It was one of those moments when the significance of a biblical statement went beyond its original meaning, but connected into my own experience, confirming that the Lord was clearly directing. I had been pastoring the church I’d grown up in for 23 years when I sensed the Lord calli

May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. (verses 20-21) - What a wonderful prayer to receive at the end of this lengthy epistle. I want to grab hold of it fully. Let’s take it piece by piece. · May the God of peace

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead ... (1 Peter 1:3)

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. (Colossians 2:13-14)

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”So we say with confidence,“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” (verses 5-6) - A few years back, we were planning for future retirement, looking at savings and expenses and wondering if we’d have enough to sustain our current patterns after the paycheque stopped. Of course, there were man

You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm … But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the s

Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not

And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were t

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country … (verses 8-9) - “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness” (Romans 4:3). The Apostle Paul uses this quotation from Genesis several times over in Romans 4 as he takes the whole chapter to highlight Abraham as a mod

By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command … By faith Abel … was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings … By faith Enoch … was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. By faith Noah … in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and bec

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. (verse 1) - These words grip me. So simple, yet so deeply stretching and challenging. “Sure of what we hope for.” It reminds me of being on the final station of a ropes course at a camp I love. I’d arrived at a circular platform, only big enough for my feet, hugging a tree trunk about 10 meters above the ground. The final action required me to leap out and grab hold of a trapeze suspended a meter a

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who pr

… by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever th

The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! (verses 13-14) - There was an awful lot of animal sacrifice that went on in Old Testament times. Animals were slaughtered, t

… only the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance. The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was still standing. This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of t