Wow! So much in one little verse!!!

Hebrews 11:6(NKJV)

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

As you know I have written many times about how important faith is to God.  This verse really puts that into context doesn't it?  It is IMPOSSIBLE to please God without faith.  The verse goes on to say that there are a couple of things that one who comes to God must believe. 

The first thing is that one must believe that there actually is a God.  The second thing we must believe is that God rewards those who diligently seek Him.  How does He reward them?  Many ways I am sure.  But the biggest reward I can think of is the comfort of that deep personal relationship with God.  That absolute feeling of security knowing that God has your back! 

Does that mean everything will always turn out right?  Nope.  But it means that I know with certainty that God has the end covered for me and my family.  Hmm.  That certainty is just another word for faith isn't it?  :)

God is…complete!!!

As I continue my word study I am finding that it is hard to draw a lesson from some of the words.  Complete is one of them.  Here are some verses.  Read through them and I'll offer some thoughts.

Philippians 1:3-6(NKJV)

I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, 

always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, 

for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, 

being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; 

2 Timothy 3:16-17(NKJV)

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 

that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Hebrews 13:21(NKJV)

make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Revelation 15:1(NKJV)

Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous: seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them the wrath of God is complete.

If I were to draw one overriding impression from these verses it is that God likes to see things through.  If God gives us a vision of His will then God will always give us what is necessary to complete the vision.  The problem too often is that we give up instead of seeing it through.

The other thing I see here is in Revelation.  For those who reject the idea of God sending anyone to hell I would suggest that they reconsider.  Revelation specifically says that God's wrath will be complete!  That doesn't sound like letting people slide to me. 

The Bible and the Law

As a financial adviser I found this interesting.  Here is something that was written a couple of thousand years ago in the Bible and it is exactly what the law is in the US today!

Hebrews 9:15-17(NKJV)

And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. 

For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives. 

What is another name for a testament?  A will (to keep it simple I am not including trusts here).  This is a legal document that governs the disposal of your assets when you die.  Your will has absolutely no legal power while you are alive.  But at the instant of death, it becomes the document that winds up all of your affairs here on earth.

Isn't it interesting that the Bible got it right so far ahead of time?  :)

One of the single most powerful passages Scripture in the whole Bible, in my opinion!

I love this passage of Scripture.  Another foundational passage as it were.

2 Timothy 3:16-17(NKJV)

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 

that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

God gives us all we need to be "thoroughly equipped for every good work".  So let there be no doubt, if you are constantly seeking God's will in your life and you are letting Him direct you, He will lead you to succeed in the good works He has inspired you to undertake. 

That doesn't mean that everything will go smoothly and everything will be easy.  As I wrote the other day, some life lessons can only be learned from adversity and so we have to know how to take adversity in stride.  We just need to keep in mind that adversity doesn't necessarily mean not ever, it just means not yet.

Now what is the key to dealing with not yet?  Come on now.  I've written about it so often I know you all know the answer.  All together now.

"Take joy in your tribulations!"  And why do we take joy in our tribulations?  "Because it is an outward expression of our inner faith!" 

Never forget and never doubt for a minute, if you are a "Child of God", God has your back!  If you aren't a "Child of God" then not so much.

There are many who would argue that we are all "Children of God" because God made us all.  According to Scripture that is incorrect.  Take a look.

John 1:12(NKJV)

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 

Receive who?  Jesus!  According to all I have read in Scripture, there is one way and only one way that you become a "Child of God".  That is by accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior. 

Have you done that yet?  Have you asked Jesus to come in to your life and lead you?  It's easy.  Why not do it right now?  Just have a conversation with Jesus.  "Dear Jesus…."

Hmm. A clue!

I think it was Dr. Robert Schuller who wrote a book called "Why do bad things happen to good people?"  Here is at least part of the answer.

Hebrews 5:8(NKJV)

though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. 

Here the author is speaking about Jesus.  Think about what the author is saying.

God has a lesson He wanted Jesus to learn.  Now this is God's kid we are talking about here.  He loves His kid.  He doesn't want His kid to suffer needlessly.  So why didn't God just make it easy on Jesus and impart the lesson to Him in a way that didn't involve suffering?

One of my long held beliefs is that there are just some life lessons that cannot be learned any other way than through adversity.  I don't know why it has to be that way but I think this verse confirms that belief.  Even Jesus, the Son of God, had to learn some lessons the hard way.  If Jesus had to learn it that way, why should we be any different? 

Make sense?

Now since we can't avoid learning some of the lessons of life through adversity let's talk about how we should respond in the tough times. 

Let's go to one of my foundational verses for the answer.  As I have said many times I believe this is God's success plan all rolled in to one.  And it begins with how we handle adversity.

Romans 5:3-5(NKJV)

And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 

and perseverance, character; and character, hope. 

Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

I'll bet many of you can say this before I even type it.  "Taking glory" in our tribulations is an outward, physical manifestation of our inner faith.  It's the concrete way that we show that 

 we truly believe that God has our back and things will ultimately work out for the best. 

It takes faith to do that!  It takes faith to see the worst of humanity going on around us and still believe that God has our back.  It takes faith to believe that God will always keep His promises.  It takes faith. 

And isn't that what the Christmas season is really all about?  Faith that the little baby born on Christmas day all those years ago would grow up to become the Savior of the world.  Faith that Jesus is who He and God said He is.  Faith that Jesus would lead us to a deeper and everlasting relationship with God!

Thank you so much Jesus for doing so!

Once again I have to disagree with Paul.

Here is what Paul wrote in Hebrews (Hebrews is attributed to Pauline authorship but there is quite a bit of disagreement within the Christian world on that point). 

Hebrews 6:4-6(NKJV)

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, 

and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 

if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.

It seems to me that Paul is saying that if one falls away for a time and then wants to return to the family of God it will not be allowed.  In fact Paul says it is impossible for that to happen. 

Now let's compare that to what Jesus said. 

Matthew 12:31-32(NKJV)

“Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. 

Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.

Who ya going to believe?  I will side with Jesus every time.

But let's go a little deeper.  Is Paul trying to purposely deceive?  I don't think so.  One of the things I have noticed in Paul's writings is that he is a bit like a little Jewish mother, he is really good at trying to lay guilt trips on people to manipulate them. 

This is purely speculation on my part but I think this is an emotional manipulation on Paul's part.    Paul seems to be saying how can you fall away after tasting all the goodness of being part of the family of God?  Don't expect to be welcomed back. 

But think it through.  That is an awfully unforgiving attitude isn't it?  In fact it is the opposite of Jesus' real message isn't it?  Jesus said "Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him…..".  Jesus didn't put any time limit on it nor did Jesus say hey this is a onetime offer did he? 

To me this is another example of why we need discernment as we study God's Word.  Man adds and man subtracts from God's Word.  Almost always with good intentions.  I'm sure Paul had the very best of intentions in this case even though he directly contradicts Jesus. 

I caught our Pastor doing something like this in a class a couple of years ago.  He made a statement that while well intentioned simply wasn't Scripturally correct and I called him on it in front of the class.  When I explained the error he agreed and we moved on, no big deal.  It was funny though because for the rest of the night if he was getting ready to say something close to the edge he would glance over at me like he was thinking "oh crap is he going to correct me again?".  :)

So how do we discern which is which?  First and foremost rely on the Holy Spirit for guidance.  That is one of His primary purposes.  In addition try this Bible study rule that I use.  I am always looking for confirmation of a principal or belief in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.  And I always put the words of Jesus above all others! 

"senses exercised to discern both good and evil." What does that mean???

 

Hebrews 5:12-14(NKJV)

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 

For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. 

But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

I find a couple of things interesting about these verses.  First I like that it distinguishes those who are "babes" in the word verses those who are of "full age" in the word.

In my opinion this is talking about those who like to quote a single verse here or there but they don't really understand the full meaning of Scripture because they haven't really dug in and studied it.  Theirs is more of a cursory reading and understanding of Scripture. 

A great example of that is the whole "thou shall not judge" thing.  We hear it all the time like that one Scripture is the complete and final word on the subject.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  These Scriptures are a perfect example.

We are told that we need to exercise our senses to discern both good and evil.  What does that mean exactly.  It means we have to practice recognizing the difference between good and evil.  That requires repeated judgements does it not? 

One might ask "isn't evil readily recognizable?".  In some cases sure it is.  For example the evil of a mother purposely injecting her child with a deadly disease is easily recognizable to everyone.  Even a "babe" would recognize it.

On the other hand we have many in the Christian community that insist that it is not the fault of the poor that they are poor, that the whole system is against them and there is nothing they can do about it.  Those who do this think they are being compassionate. 

It takes a person of "full age" Scripturally to recognize this as stealing people's hope and understand that stealing peoples hope is one of the most evil things you can do to someone in my opinion. 

The last thing I will call your attention to is this:  "those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."

Notice it doesn't mention anything about feelings.  We are to use the reason (intellect) that God gave us to recognize good and evil!