Therefore, Let Us Also
Hebrews 12:1 declares, “Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.” The word “Therefore” is the beginning of a […]
Looking for a City
Hebrews 11 is a chapter filled with 16 characters from the Old Testament who provide great examples of faith to those who followed afterward. Among those 16 are the names are two women (Sarah and Rahab). Additionally, there are two other names found whose examples were anything but examples to imitate: Cain, who in jealousy […]
Faith Unto the Saving of the Soul
The writer of Hebrews admonished his readers: “For ye have need of patience in that, having done the will of God you may receive the promises. For in yet a very little while he that cometh will come and shall not tarry. But my righteous one shall live by faith and if he shrink back […]
“I AM”
William Shakespeare’s character, Hamlet, speaks the words, “To be, or not to be.” While he is pondering the ideas of life versus death, the question of being is one that has plagued mankind since the inception of philosophical thought. How did we come into being? Is there a higher power who put us into being? […]
You Have Need of Patience
The Hebrew writer has spent a lot of time instructing his Hebrew brethren that their choice to accept Jesus of Nazareth as their promised and long-awaited Messiah was the right choice. He has contrasted angels with Jesus, showing Jesus to be better than angels. He has shown that Jesus’ covenant is better than the one […]
Having Boldness
“Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the way which he dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;…” (Hebrews 10:19-20). This passage tells us that we may enter the holy place with boldness. He has spent […]
Where a Testament Is
Hebrews 9:16 says, “For where a testament is, there must of necessity be the death of him that made it.” In earlier verses of this chapter Paul (if he is the author of the book) spent time detailing the Most Holy Place of the tabernacle God had shown a copy of to Moses. Paul reiterated […]
The Fullness of the Godhead
Colossians 2:9 (NKJV) says, “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily …” Jesus Christ is far more than an inspired prophet, an extraordinary moral teacher, or even some kind of supernatural Being. The very substance or nature of God exists in Jesus the Messiah in His coming in the flesh, His […]
An Error in Hebrews 9?
The writer of Hebrews had in chapter 8 quoted Jeremiah 31:31 in which God, through Jeremiah, had said, “… I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah” and then commented, “in that he saith a new covenant, he hath made the first old. But that which is […]
Worship or Entertainment?
In our entertainment-oriented culture, many churches find themselves trying to “out do” themselves with more and more elaborate additions to worship. What began as special music by a choir becomes a full orchestra with professional soloists. A dramatic reading necessitates a full Broadway stage production (think Cirque du Soleil, seriously). And as long as those […]