My Daily Pause

As you prepare for worship today, consider making an extra effort to really concentrate on the prayers led during the service. That is a time that we can come together as a group and talk to God as one.

God wants us to talk to him and has given us plenty of reason to. He has invited us countless times to pray for what is needed for ourselves and for others. Here are just five:

Praying hands

• Matthew 7:7-11 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:…
• John 14:13-14 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
• Philippians 4:6 Be careful [NKJV: anxious] for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
• James 1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
• 1 John 5:14-15 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

Daily Bible reading for August 18

Psalm 16
1 Samuel 3
Jeremiah 48
Mark 15

The Hebrew writer gave brotherly love first place in a list of items that please God (Hebrews 13:1-16)

Five Ways Brotherly Love Works

As you go to your next worship service, keep in mind that brotherly love is one of the reasons for going to church. It is a time to strengthen the bond of those we study and worship with. Those bonds:

Brotherly love is not only good for us, God requires it!

• help us become teachers
• help us become charitable
• help us learn from the examples of others
• help us feel grow to maturity
• help us practice compassion

John has a very specific warning about our place with God in relation to the love we have for our brother. (1 John 2:9-11) Practicing kindness, making connections and not being a busybody are ways to get into God’s light. Given everything else we need to be in the light, a lack of brotherly love will shade into darkness.

Daily Bible reading for August 4

Psalm 2
Judges 14
Jeremiah 30
Hebrews 13:1-19

Here is an exhaustive listing of the places in the Bible that mention “faith only” (Or “faith alone” depending on your version)

Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. – James 2:24 KJV

Yes that’s it. The complete and unabridged list.

Faith is a Milestone

While faith is a very important milestone on the path to salvation, the path doesn’t end there. As I have outlined on my Gospel Plan of Salvation page, faith comes very early on that journey, but at this point, the seeker is only beginning to see the goal in the distance. God has never accepted a person’s faith by merely taking his word for it.

In my post, But, What Do You Do By Faith?, I listed off a few points for consideration when discussing “faith only” salvation vs. the requirement to be baptized for the remission of your sins. (Acts 2:38) With those points (and even more) we can quickly determine that we need a deeper study of the word if we have taken any passage and tried to prove “faith only.”

The Heroes of Faith didn’t get away with Faith Only

Moses Striking The Rock – Pieter de Grebber, 1620

One of the points in the But, What Do You Do By Faith? post looks to Hebrews 11 as proof that God requires more than just believing or “accepting” God. Each and every one in that chapter had to go do something:

• Faith led Abel to offer the correct sacrifice (Hebrews 11:4)
• Faith led Enoch to actively please God (Hebrews 11:5)
• Faith led Noah to build the ark (Hebrews 11:7)
• Faith led Abraham to pack up and move his family (Hebrews 11:8-10)
• Abraham and Sarah had innumerable descendants through their faith (Hebrews 11:11-12)
• Abraham knew that God could raise Isaac after he sacrificed him (Hebrews 11:17-19)

…and the list goes on. We know that we need faith to please him, (Hebrews 11:6) but we can also see that if any one of these folks in Hebrews 11 had failed to act on God’s command, the outcome would have been very different for them. (See: Moses Strikes the Rock)

God has a complete plan for us. It is up to us to complete the plan.

The Old Testament was meant for the children of Israel. It was just a place holder that featured mere shadows of Christ, his life and the job he came to do. Now that he has come, died and risen, we are heirs to his covenant that improves on the one given to Israel.

Ten ways we have it better

Since the gospel was given to all, it can only follow that it was superior in every way to the old law. With Christ, we have a:

• better revelation (Hebrews 1:4) – In 7 Reasons Christ is King we examined his credentials as the Christ, the one the law and the prophets were looking for. It is through those qualifications that the revelation he brings us is better, and in fact the ultimate authority of all things spiritual.
• better expectation (Hebrews 6:9) – Those that know the gospel know how to please God and therefore are better people. Even the world expects more from us.
  

  Jesus brought us a better Covenant

• better priesthood (Hebrews 7:7-11, 20-28) – In 8 Reasons Christ was like Melchizedek we compared Christ to Melchizedek. Even he was of a better priesthood than the tribe of Levi. Melchizedek was without recorded beginning or end, his ancestry and descendants were not recorded, and even Abram paid tithes to him.
• better hope (Hebrews 7:19) – The did not motivate and inspire people to righteous living. The Spirit was not there as the Comforter. The Gospel gives us that and more – now we may draw near to God, in fact he commands it (James 4:8)
• better testament (or covenant ESV) and better promises (Hebrews 7:22, 8:6) – With all of the old laws and rituals being made on the shadows or types of things to come, under the new covenant we have them made on Christ and the spiritual.
• better sacrifice (Hebrews 9:23, 26) – The sacrifices under the old law did not cleanse sins, the bloodshed had to be repeated on a regular basis. Christ’s sacrifice and bloodshed was once and for all.
• better possessions (Hebrews 10:34 ASV) – We have the Holy Spirit. We have Christ confessing our name to the Father. We have redemption. We have a home in heaven.
• better country (Hebrews 11:16) – The Promised Land of the new covenant is with the father (John 14:2)
• better resurrection (Hebrews 11:35) – This could be talking about our spiritual resurrection being a vast improvement over any form of earthly prolonging of life. (Philippians 1:21)
• better things (Hebrews 11:40, 12:24) – A summary of the arguments in Hebrews

The Jews had to be reminded of these things as the book of Hebrews was written. The writer understood that  as Christianity progressed, we would be able to take these things for granted. So much so that collectively, we forget to talk about them and review them often enough.

Daily Bible reading for August 2

Song of Solomon 8:8-14
Judges 12
Jeremiah 27-28
Hebrews 11:1-12:2

Hebrews spent a lot of time on selling Christ as superior to the old Law and as deserving of our full service. Here are the eleven items that support living a Christian life. While we don’t know who the writer of Hebrews is, we can see from other books in the Bible that an exhortation of “Let us” was usually given as a command with apostolic authority. Practicing these things not only makes us obedient but, will help make the lifestyle easy and a joy to participate in …

…so let us:

• Fear ( Hebrews 4:1) – The gospel message doesn’t benefit us if we do not have faith or continue to grow our faith
• Labor (Hebrews 4:11) – We must be careful to remain obedient and strive to stay on the narrow path. Failure means we fall from grace. (Philippians 2:12, Revelation 20:12)
• Hold fast our confession (Hebrews 4:14) – Our name is mentioned to the Father when we confess Christ! (Matthew 10:32-33) Although not very popular today, it is our responsibility to acknowledge Jesus on an ongoing basis.
• Confidently draw near to the throne (Hebrews 4:16) – Christ, who has our nature and know our trials, is sitting there at God’s right hand. He looks forward to our approach (Matthew 25:23)
• Go on to perfection (Hebrews 6:1 KJV) or leave the elementary doctrine (Hebrews 6:1 ESV) – We are to grow beyond the basics and really get to know the word of God. After we understand the basics that qualify us for salvation, we are to go on to try for perfection like God is perfect (Matthew 5:48)
• Draw near (Hebrews 10:22) – We never really get close to God until we have obeyed him, purified our hearts and have a live and growing faith. (James 2:24)
• Hold fast our confession of hope (Hebrews 10:23) – See the Hebrews 4:14 above. Our hope is based on God’s promise of eternal life for those that love and obey him.
• Consider one another (Hebrews 10:24) – Discussed previously in 3 “One Anothers” that Make a Strong Church
• Lay aside every weight and run with patience (Hebrews 12:1) – There are things that will pull us away from our service to God. When we encumber ourselves in such a way, we make it difficult to serve him properly. A job, our friends, a hobby or any number of other things we give priority over God apply here.
• Have Grace (Hebrews 12:28 KJV) or be grateful (Hebrews 12:28 ESV) – Christians have membership in a kingdom that will not fall. (Matthew 16:18) The opportunity to serve is a credit only to God’s plan.
• Go forth (Hebrews 13:13) – Christians have a number of responsibilities, they begin with the word Go (Matthew 28:19-20, Mark 16:15-16)
• Offer the sacrifice of praise (Hebrews 13:15) – The Hebrews knew the sacrifice of praise as an occasional ritual but ours is now a continuous one. Our prayer, our confession of Christ’s love and mercy and any other oral testimony should be on our lips often and always. (cf. Hebrews 3:13)