Category: Daily Devotionals

So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.  Hebrews 4:9

When is the this ‘rest’ that God promised, the Sabbath rest?  It’s a reference, primarily, to my eternal rest.  I will work as Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden.  Like it was for them, the work will not be accompanied by frustration, failure, fatigue, even financial restrictions.  I can’t even conceive of what happy labor might be without the influence of the Fall.

Frustration: There will be nothing to frustrate the work; criticism from others, abusive power, lack of resources, disharmony with other workers.  This eternal work will be accompanied by encouragement and complete harmony.

Failure: There will be no such thing as failure.  I will be like Jesus.  Whatever ability I need, I will possess.  Knowledge and skill will be innate. I will see closure wherever I invest my time.

Fatigue: There will be no weariness.  With no stress, and with a glorified body, I will have an endless supply of energy.  I will work joyfully without limits.

Financial Restrictions:  Everything resource I need to work at peak capacity will be available to me.  It will be excessive because God is generous and is the Giver of all good things.

But even now, there can be tastes of the Sabbath rest to come.  How can that be if I live in a Fallen world?  Because Paradise has been restored internally.  I am at peace with God.  In the Spirit, I am one with Perfection.

Frustration: Whatever angst I feel has a release when I offer it up in prayer.  His grace is mine to offset the intensity.  Peace is mine to replace striving.

Failure:  When I fail and condemn myself, others may glory in my shame.  God wants me to know that this need not weigh me down.  If I gave something my good faith effort, I need only draw near to Him in prayer to hear ‘Well done.’  If I’ve pleased the King of Kings, there is rest in His favor.

Fatigue:  I do get weary. He leads me to green pastures. I do get depleted.  He restores my soul.

Financial Restrictions: In the review of my life, I can be tormented by the limits caused by financial restrictions.  Perhaps I couldn’t finish college.  Perhaps I couldn’t raise the capital to start the business of my dreams.  Perhaps I went bankrupt due to poor financial choices or the betrayal of a business partner.  I can be confident that, in this life, I will achieve God’s best for me on Earth as I look to Him to be my Provider.  He is sovereign and loving even when I perceive He may be withholding.  Trusting his character is tested here but my faith can prove sterling when I ask for supernatural help.  His Word provides faith.  His Spirit provides insight.

Lord, I want everything that can be mine in you – now.  But I am also strengthened by everything to come. How you love Your children!  Amen

But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Hebrews 4:11

The offspring of sin is deception.  If I sin, I am deceived until I repent and have my conscience cleansed of all sin’s effects.

A child of God will not set out to sin with these thoughts in mind.

“I can’t wait to grieve God.”

“I love unrighteousness.”

“I will pay dearly for this but that doesn’t really bother me.”

What tempts me to sin are the lies that entice.

“I will do it just this one time.  It won’t be a big deal.”

“Scripture does talk about it but not all that much.”

“Other Christians have done it and I don’t see that it ruined their lives.”

“I live in the age of grace and God will forgive me.”

If sin and deception go hand in hand, does deception have an additional bedfellow?  Yes. Hardheartedness.  What I once felt guilty for doesn’t affect me anymore.  And, every time I repeat that sin, I care a little less.

Today, if I am grieved over my sin, I should thank God.  If I feel the heavy hand of conviction, my heart is still feeling the effects of the Spirit of God in me.  Being broken is a gift for it compels me to make things right and to once again have a purified conscience.  Spiritual rest and the peace of God can be restored.

Hardheartedness is a horrible state.  The harder the heart, the more time has passed since the sin, or the more times that sin has been repeated.  When I make a sin a pattern and refuse to acknowledge it, that particular iniquity becomes entrenched over time and turns into a stronghold.  My boundary lines are under siege and I was too busy enjoying my sin to notice how deep in the mire I was sinking.

God’s love for me is never threatened.  No matter how far away I stray, no matter what sin I commit, no matter how many times I’ve committed it, God’s power to save and deliver is greater still.  The blood of Christ and my sin are in no contest.  Nothing, absolutely nothing, disqualifies me from his call to repentance and His offer to forgive.

Don’t let me numb out.  Keep my heart tender and my spiritual senses ~ sharp.  Amen

While the promise to enter His rest remains, let us fear that none of you should miss it.  For we also have received the good news just as they did; but the message they heard did not benefit them, since they were not united with those who heard it in faith.  Hebrews 4:1

The Israelites never entered the promised land because they stopped exercising their faith.  I can easily look back at their mistakes and think, “You blew it.  Why didn’t you trust God and go out on a limb?  Really?  After all the divine power you saw on display?  And, after such stunning displays of God’s faithfulness you still chose to doubt and disobey?” 

But then I wonder, am I doing any better today?  What I say I believe and what I’m willing to risk for ‘what I say I believe’ are two different things.  Believing isn’t enough.  Without exercising faith to prove it, I’ll never enter my rest either.  God is not pleased just because I say the right words.  The only thing that counts is whether or not I obey through faith.  “Without faith, it is impossible to please God.” Hebrews 11:6

What words of God don’t I follow up with action?  I’m not talking about the big things like going to the missionfield.  I’m referring to forgiving when I don’t feel like it, trusting God when I’m called to step into the dark, waiting for God’s answers instead of moving ahead with my own solutions, following God’s prompting to attend a small group when I am shy of the intimacy, trusting God with my children and not feeling the pressure to save them; these are the kinds of things that lead to blessing.  In every place I fear, I trust.

I can be eloquent in speaking of God’s ways but my words are just the empty clichés of a sage unless I support my words with personal stories.  Faith in action is what will be contagious.  Sermons given without the history of personal application are lifeless.  Listeners can tell the difference, too.  I recall what the crowd said after encountering Peter and John.  When they saw their courage and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.  Luke 4:13 

When I stop acting out of my flesh, trust you instead, oh – the stories I have to tell.  I get two things.  I see You move on my behalf and I get to experience rest from the turmoil.  Don’t let me live by my soulish defaults.  Amen

For who heard and rebelled? Wasn’t it really all who came out of Egypt under Moses?   And who was He provoked with for 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? They were unable to enter because of unbelief. Hebrews 3:16-19

Is God easily provoked?  Do I see Him as a picky Father who punishes the least little thing?  Do I find myself sticking up for the rights of the Israelites to enter the promised land?  Maybe I excuse their unbelief because they were just scared.  Every enemy was different in character and in their number.  Every turn on the journey held a different and unwelcome surprise.  Didn’t they just feel helpless and afraid?  And when people are afraid, they do lash out and do unpredictable things.

But, to put their unbelief in perspective, I consider a child who holds a father’s hand.  They’re about to encounter something frightening and this exchange takes place.

 “Daddy, I don’t want to go. I’m scared.”   

“I know you’re scared.  Trust me and it will be okay.”

“But I’m really scared.  How about if I stay here and you take someone else?”

“No, I really want to take you. Please trust me.”  The father squeezes her hand tighter and she decides to go. 

The father would not be angry because she was scared.  He would not be angry that she thought of an alternative.  He was eager to repeat, “Don’t be afraid.  Trust me.”  He knows how frightening things looked and the important thing was her obedience in the end.

Translating this to Father God and His children of Israel, their sin was not in having to work through fear.  It was not that they were intimidated by armies that far outnumbered them.  It was not that they despaired when they ran out of food.  That, He understood.  The Old Testament is dotted with conversations where God comforts and says, “Do not fear!”  So, that wasn’t it.  Their sin was in the action they took to do what they felt was best instead of doing what God asked of them.  Their unbelief caused them to go to war when they shouldn’t have, to build idols instead of fast and pray, and to intermarry to satisfy their desire to fit in instead of being willing to be separate, to be God’s unique and chosen people.

God was not picky, He was patient.  They didn’t go their own way just one time.  They sinned, in stiff-necked rebellion, throughout 40 years.  They did have sterling period of faith but for the most part, their lives could be characterized as people who were unwilling to listen to the voice of God.  While much of their unbelief did begin with fear, it quickly morphed into ugly entitlement.  “How dare you bring us to the wilderness.  And you say you love us?!”

It’s good to re-read the Exodus/wilderness account again, slowly, and ask God to see the events from His perspective.  As human parents, we would have been provoked and then probably lashed out much sooner than God did.  In spite of the fact that their unbelief kept them from the promised land, God was still longsuffering and merciful.

Why am I so easily led to dispute Your love and discount Your promises?  Now, that is the question. Amen

Watch out, brothers, so that there won’t be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that departs from the living God. But encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception. Hebrews 3:12-13

So, how does it happen?  If you’ve been a believer for a while, you’ve heard the story of a strong Christian who just woke up one morning and snapped.  He announced that he wanted to completely change his life ~ starting with leaving the faith.  He said that he doesn’t believe any of it anymore and he simply doesn’t want the life he’s known.  When news spreads, there is disbelief among his family and friends.  They didn’t see it coming at all.

Today’s scripture highlights what can cause such extreme behavior.  While it appeared that this person’s decision was sudden and out of the blue, it probably wasn’t in his inner life.  None of us throws everything away because our heart hardened overnight.  None of us will wake up one day to discover that we no longer believe.  The journey away from God is a slow process and I must be intimate enough with God to guard my faith. The initial warning needs to be discerned in neon lights.

The writer of Hebrews ties unbelief and deception together.  For someone to defect, it started with a seed thought that germinated over time.

“I don’t trust God because . . .” 

“If God loved me, then He wouldn’t have allowed . . .” 

“God didn’t keep His promise when . . .”

An uncontested lie metastasizes.  I am naïve to think that it won’t affect all the other areas where I do believe God.   It will.  Unbelief is connected to something important that didn’t come to pass, or it’s attached to something that did transpire that I couldn’t handle.  The birthplace was deep pain and disappointment.  I may not voice the churning but my heart says, privately, “If I can’t trust God in this one big thing, then how can I trust Him with everything else?”  Instead of facing the unbelief head on with scripture and warfare, the hurt and lies get rehearsed and seeds germinate.

Distrust and disappointment have hardened many hearts along the way, including my own.  I can look back and see how fragile my faith was at certain points. The safeguard is knowing my Achilles heel. It is staying open to the Spirit as He brings unbelief to center stage.  It is staying close to a handful of believers who hear me process my life’s story as it happens.  It is giving them the power to listen compassionately, to encourage transparency in order to understand how I am interpreting life’s events. Spirit partners are critical to encourage faith when faith doesn’t make sense.  They are not policemen but wise counselors.  They are not immune to faithlessness but are well acquainted with how wounded hearts heal.

Lord, no wonder you said to take every thought captive.  It’s rugged introspection but lies are identified when they first happen ~ before passing thoughts make themselves at home.  Help me.  Amen

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works for 40 years. Hebrews 3:7-9 

One of the signs of getting older is telling others the same stories over and over. You think it’s not going to happen to you, but I find myself saying quite often, “If I’ve told you this, stop me!”  Most of the time, stories over lunch need only be told once.  But there are exceptions.  Teachers repeat themselves to get important facts across.  Parents repeat themselves to teach fundamental principles.  Lovers build a repetitive love language because they can’t help themselves and they know that you can’t say ‘I love you’ often enough.  I, perhaps like you, even have things I repeat to our pets.  I make up songs, poems, and enjoy calling them endearing nicknames. It’s fun to sing them and eventually, the animals come running when they hear something they recognize.

One thing about scripture is how often it repeats itself.  Jesus quoted the Old Testament 78 times.  Most books will also reference direct quotes from previous authors and there are also indirect quotes.

• Direct quotes: 302
• Allusions to other passages: 493
• Possible allusions: 138

When God repeats Himself, as His child, I must sit up at attention to ask why.  God is not forgetful, so He is intentionally choosing to say something a second or third time.  There are no stray words that exit His mouth.  No word or phrase is insignificant.  Furthermore, God doesn’t even need language to make a point.

In today’s scripture, the writer of Hebrews reaches back to quote Psalm 95.  The topic is ‘being careful not to harden my heart.’  God not only repeated himself this once, but it’s repeated 42 more times.  It must be critical.  I must not know how easily I allow my heart to get hard and calloused.  It’s instinctive to my flesh and therefore I must be on guard to prevent it from happening.

For me, hardening my heart happens for several reasons.  When I want something different than what God wants for me and turn off my ears to a command, when I repeatedly refuse to embrace a promise as mine, when I refute His proclamations of love because He doesn’t relieve my pain, when I’m tested and get angry with the test, when people I love hurt longer than I think they should, when the person delivering God’s Word is someone I don’t like ~ these are often the catalysts.

God tested His people in the wilderness.  Testing was to bring about spiritual growth, to tone their faith muscles, but they strained under the lessons and chose the easy way out.  Unbelief and rebellion were always the result.  The long-term tragedy was that most in that generation never saw Canaan.  The cost for turning off God’s voice is more than I can afford but I think I’ll be the exception. Satan lies!  I’ll miss out on what I believe I’m seeking elsewhere ~ blessing and reward.

I’m asking this one thing today, Father.  Have I hardened my heart about anything that You’ve told me?  I am sincerely asking.  Show me.  Amen

Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.  Hebrews 3:5-6

Put yourself in the center of the plot of the following story.

Next Christmas, around December 1^st, you receive a beautiful looking envelope in the mail.  It’s obviously a card of some type.  It’s as thick as a wedding invitation.  You wonder who it is that’s getting married.  You open the envelope and the inside of the flap is gold foil.  You gasp and remark out loud to yourself, “This might be the most beautiful stationery I’ve ever seen.”

Inside that envelope is another one, also foil lined, and you discover that you’ve been invited to a royal Christmas event at the home of a well-known and well-respected person.  You have several weeks to plan what you will wear.  You rehearse what you might say to the host to express your delight in being included on his guest list.

The day arrives.  You’ve got everything laid out.  You are more dressed up than you can remember being for some time.  This occasion has called for extra attention to attire and presentation.  You arrive at the home.  It is lit up so beautifully and the entrance takes your breath away.  At the door, you are greeted by the senior footman.  He has been entrusted to represent the owner and he is impressive.  His manner is gracious yet professional.  He makes you feel welcome and you are mesmerized as you watch this footman welcome each guest in the same way.

The footman further captivates you as you see his attention to the beautifully laid out table and his meticulous execution of the serving of the meal.  He never misses a beat and never have you seen a man so impressive.

The owner is there all evening and is extremely engaging.  He makes it clear that he’d like to include you at more estate events.  For some odd reason, you are in his favor.  But all these realities are mere distractions.  What arrests you, and leaves you speechless, is the footman!  You go home to tell of your experience. They are dying to hear all about your adventure but are incredulous that you never mention the owner and master of the estate, the one who initiated your invitation and signed it personally. Your stories revolve around a hired servant of the household.

Preposterous, right?  And yet, is this not what today’s scripture describes?  Moses, one of God’s servants, has become the focus.  The Son – who owns the house – is not glorified.

The Jew’s confidence was not to be in Moses, nor was it to be in Abraham, the father of their faith.  Their hope was to be placed in the Messiah.  Likewise, our confidence is not in those who passed down their faith to us.  Parents, grandparents, pastors and teachers; they are the servants.  May I never glorify feet of clay and lose the stars in my eyes for the Alpha and Omega who invited me to be His very own.  I’m feasting at His table and who else is there just pales in comparison.

Lord, I thank you for every faithful servant who has shaped my life. They testify of you and your glory begs to be seen.  I hold You high above my life and boast only of You.  Amen

For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself.  Hebrews 3:3

Oh, what little god makers are we!  No matter where we worship, if it’s not at the feet of Jesus, it’s both laughable and tragic.  Whether golden calves or statues of Athena, God made the gold and the bronze and He is not even considered.

If I read Hebrews and imagine Paul, or whomever, writing a series of verses as casually as he would write a letter to a friend, I misjudge him.  I render myself incapable of imagining the intensity with which he speaks.  At what hour of the night did he awaken to light a candle and pour out these powerful words.

“Wake up. Jesus is more glorious than Moses.”

Though this letter was written to Jewish people, and though most (to this day) still revere their heroes of the faith, I am easily as guilty of holding God’s creations in reverence. I can dream of meeting Moses one day because he held the 10 commandments in his hand and saw the face of God.  Why am I not as taken with beholding the face of God for myself? I hold something greater in my hands than a tablet of stone; the completed revelation of God.  At this moment, it sits inches away from me as I write.  At great cost to Martin Luther, and others, it has been translated into English so that I could enjoy the privilege of opening it and feasting at God’s table.

I can worship a famous musician, a sports star, a well-known Christian author, a childhood home, even things such as a rare collection of cars, teapots, Hummel figurines, gold coins, rare books, and grey tabby kittens.  The list is endless and whether man, or object, each is preposterous.

The writer of Hebrews has beheld Jesus in all His glory.  The message is clear and compelling.  Look up.  See who is in front you.  You’re overlooking the creator and fixated on His creation.  You’re missing the greater glory.  Your awe is misplaced.   Hear the distant thunder of hooves.  The glorious One, with more glory than you can ever comprehend is coming for you.

“I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.” Revelation19:11-16

For because He Himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.  Hebrews 2:18

Just after Ron and I were married, we had a neighbor we got to know quite well.  Her first question when seeing either of us was, “How are you?”  If one of us said that we broke our ankle, her reply was, “I’ve done that!”  If you had pancreatitis, again she would say, “Oh, I’ve had that.”  Whether the flu, thyroid imbalance, or an ingrown toenail, she’s always ‘had that.’  It became a joke.  How effective do you think her empathy was for whatever we were facing?  Not very.

When scripture says that Jesus is perfectly able to help us in our time of need, there is His incarnation to back it up.  I’m sure He understood us well without coming to earth but I don’t think we would have a deep assurance that He did.  We needed to know that He lived here, made friends with those like us who were flawed, that He got sick, that He struggled with family, that He truly understands the layers of complexity that go with human pain.  A year’s illness doesn’t just make you feel physically sick.  It’s accompanied by temptations to question God, to explore how prayer works and wonder, at times, why God doesn’t answer the way you want.

No one can comfort like the one who has really walked the same road.  If I experience the death of a child, I’m going to turn to one who has also lost a child.  They are well familiar with the days surrounding the death.  They know the numbness, the shock, and the surreal experience.  They know the auto pilot that sets in at the funeral.  They know that the absence of tears doesn’t mean there isn’t any grief.  They can predict that three months down the road, there will be a moment when the loss will be more real and overwhelming.  They know that I will really need comfort then, maybe more comfort than at the beginning.  These subtle understandings of the journey are only found in those who have walked it.  All those who say they understand probably don’t.  And in our gut, we can tell the difference, right?  The one who quotes a bible verse offers a Bandaid and is probably a quick study from someone else’s story.

There’s a difference between sympathy and empathy.  “You poor thing” is not something any of us want to hear.  It is not helpful nor is it encouraging.  Empathy, however, is being able to feel another’s pain from firsthand experience.  How comforting to hear, “There’s not a thing I can say to you right now but I want you to know that I’m here and I care.”

Jesus empathizes.  Whatever crisis of faith you are experiencing, He understands and can walk you through it to generate faith instead of fear.

How many times have I heard you say in prayer, “I know.”  I trust Your embrace and Your comfort.  Amen

Therefore, He had to be like His brothers in every way, so that He could become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. Hebrews 2:17

Propitiation is a word we usually pass over when it appears in a scripture verse.  It’s intimidating and hard to pronounce but it just means ‘substitute’.  Jesus was our substitute sacrifice.

Man was born with an awareness of his estrangement from God.  Worshippers, even in the world, knew this well.  They would bring their sacrifices; animals, even newborn babies, and kill them at the altar, all for the purpose of appeasing angry gods.  While their faith was misplaced, their conscience was right in know that a god who bore wrath needed to be appeased.  Praise God that He sent Jesus, who bore God’s wrath for us, so that we could appear guiltless before His Father.

William Cowper, a prolific hymn writer, came to Christ through understanding the meaning of propitiation.  Orphaned at six years old, he was sent to a boarding school where he suffered extreme mistreatment by bullies.  He was a frail child with an artistic temperament, an easy target for peers who abused power.  In 1756, when he was just 25 years old, he was committed to an asylum to supposedly live out a life sentence.  He is quoted to have said, “My sin!  My sin! Oh, for some fountain to cleanse me.”  The torment which fed his instability was little more than recognition of His need for forgiveness.

God heard.  He sent a doctor who was a gentle old man, a follower of Christ.  God used him to bring William to faith.  When He shared Hebrews 2:17 with him, the power of Christ’s death washed over this broken young man and he understood the magnificent implications.  He embraced Christ and the powerful experience was captured with his pen.

There is a fountain filled with blood

Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;

And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,

Lose all their guilty stains.

Many have ended their lives in suicide because they were overcome with guilt.  Others live out a life sentence of depression and regret as they rehearse their failures like a favorite old movie.  The track record haunts them like a ghost.  Some with OCD scrub their hands till they bleed in order to find a kind of cleansing that brings relief.  All if offered in Christ.  Complete cleansing, one that lasts forever, is offered in the fountain of his blood.

I stand in the flow and, with tears, say thank you. Amen