A Study on the Book of Hebrews

“Therefore let us go on toward perfection, leaving behind the basic teaching about Christ, and not laying again the foundation: repentance from dead works and faith toward God, ² instruction about baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. ³ And we will do this, if God permits. ⁴ For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, ⁵ and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, ⁶ and then have fallen away, since on their own they are crucifying again the Son of God and are holding him up to contempt. ⁷ Ground that drinks up the rain falling on it repeatedly, and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. ⁸ But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is worthless and on the verge of being cursed; its end is to be burned over.” Hebrews 6:1-8

“Dave Branon puts it this way…

Few of us look in the mirror and come to the conclusion of Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Namath. During his heyday as a player, Namath wrote a book titled I Can’t Wait Until Tomorrow … ‘Cause I Get Better-Looking Every Day. As egotistical as that title sounds, it can help us see how we as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ should view ourselves in the lifelong process of becoming like Him. Scripture tells us that to become more like Christ, we need to keep getting better every day. The development of Christlikeness is called sanctification. It begins the moment we put our faith in Christ for forgiveness of our sins. In God’s eyes we are sanctified, or “set apart” from the ungodly, and placed in God’s family. But sanctification is also the ongoing process in which we become more and more like our Savior as we allow the Holy Spirit to develop in us His characteristics. Our part is to “press on,” striving to reach spiritual maturity. Ask yourself this question: Am I better-looking spiritually than I was yesterday? It’s a good test of whether you are becoming more like Jesus.” (Dave Branon, Our Daily Bread, RBC Ministries)

What a question: Am I better looking spiritually today than I was yesterday? Are you? What strides have you made in your spiritual life, your spiritual understanding, your biblical literacy, and the sharing of your gifts with the church and others? We never can say we have achieved all we need to achieve when it comes to living the Christ-like-life. That kind of life is a journey – the journey ends when we die. We cannot retire from this life – we live into this life – from one day to the next, into eternity.

We are all made beautifully and wonderfully in G-d’s eyes. And since G-d already sees us as loved, children of G-d, we should seek to keep our spiritual—outernature in the best possible shape. How? By exercising our spiritual muscles, running the race of faith, and eating and drinking the body and blood of Christ often.

Pastor Dave

A Study on the Book of Hebrews

“About this we have much to say that is hard to explain, since you have become dull in understanding. ¹² For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic elements of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food; ¹³ for everyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is unskilled in the word of righteousness. ¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.” Hebrews 5:11-14

 “Ray Stedman introduces this section writing that…

It has been quite evident thus far in Hebrews that the pastor’s heart of the author has been deeply troubled over the spiritual state of some of his readers. Twice he has warned them at some length that they are in danger of repeating the unbelief of the Israelites in the wilderness and failing, therefore, to enter into the spiritual rest which they had been promised. Once again he confronts them with their perilous state.

They are slow to learn, he declares, and because of this dullness, he has difficulty in explaining to them the extraordinary advantages of the Melchizedek priesthood of Jesus. If they had been growing as they should, they ought by now to be able to pass the great truths of the faith along to others. They would no longer be learning elementary truths of God’s word for themselves but could be teachers of those coming after them. The high priestly ministry which Jesus wants them to learn represents an advance on the introductory truths of the Christian faith. But instead of responding to his exhortations they seem to require those basic truths to be explained to them again.

At best, they are spiritual infants who need to be taught over and over the elementary truths as a baby needs to be fed milk and is not ready for solid food. At worst, they are not Christians at all, but are like many of the Israelites in the wilderness. They also are in danger of failing to act in faith on the teaching they have received. (Ray Stedman, Hebrews 5:11-14, The Spiritual State of the Readers)

Oh how I believe that our people have become dull in understanding – and by people I mean Americans – and by dull I mean wandering in the wilderness of faithlessness, without a working knowledge of even the basics of faith. Without a core of faith understanding, many people have nothing to fall back upon when their lives come apart. As such, there is an enormous gap between people (those who have no faith or little faith) and the G-d who created all things. As people of G-d, we need to return to the basics when it comes to teaching and living out the Gospel. We need to know the context of our communitities, the influences of our families, and the troubles and distresses that they face – and then link our ministries to those needs. Once we begin to serve people in the name of Christ, then we can begin to teach them about the ways of Christ – his love for all, his grace for all, and his mercy for all. Since church is not the place to be on Sunday for most Americans, we need to stop waiting for them, and take the church into our communities.

Pastor Dave