TODAY IN THE WORD

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Hebrews 5:11-6:3
Solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. - Hebrews 5:14
TODAY IN THE WORD

Well-known devotional author Oswald Chambers has said, ""If you believe in Jesus, you are not to spend all your time in smooth waters just inside the harbor, full of delight but always moored. You have to get out into the great deeps of God and begin to know for yourself, begin to have spiritual discernment...Beware of harking back to what you were once when God wants you to be something you've never been.""

You won't find a better description of the people to whom the book of Hebrews was written. They were like adolescents stuck in kindergarten, or college students struggling with their ABCs. We could shake our heads at these spiritually stunted saints--except when we look in the mirror and realize how often we fail to act on the truth we know.

The writer of Hebrews was in the middle of some important teaching about the priestly ministry of Jesus when he looked up, as it were, and saw that he was losing his class. The Hebrews had become slow spiritual learners. This was not an indictment of their mental abilities, but of their shaky commitment to Christ and their growth in the knowledge of Him.

Spiritual dullness is a serious problem for any believer. But its effects ripple outward from individual Christians to the body of Christ. By the time this letter was written, the author felt these Hebrew believers should have been ready to teach others. Instead, they were in need of teaching so basic that the writer pictured them as infants still on the bottle.

That's a painful assessment, but it fit the Hebrews. There's nothing wrong with ""pure spiritual milk"" (1 Pet. 2:2), the basics of the Christian faith. Peter tells us to crave this truth--but not for the rest of our Christian lives. The purpose of milk is to help babies grow into maturity so that they can eventually digest solid food.

Just in case his readers didn't get the point fully, the writer laid out his challenge explicitly in verses 1-3. In the words of Oswald Chambers, it was time for the Hebrews to leave the ""smooth waters"" of spiritual immaturity and ""get out into the great deeps of God.""
TODAY ALONG THE WAY

This Good Friday, as we remember the suffering of Jesus Christ on our behalf, would be a great day to take a new step of Christian growth.

Maybe you can name an area of your spiritual life where you want to see growth: prayer, stewardship, love, obedience, faith, or patience. One tangible step you can take this weekend is to get out your Bible concordance and see what the Word has to say about your topic. Most important, decide that you will obey the truth as God reveals it to you.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Hebrews 6:4-20
We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. - Hebrews 6:11
TODAY IN THE WORD

Isabel Smith was a happy young nursing student when she was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1928. Her family sent her to a nursing home for what they thought was a few months of treatment, but Isabel wound up spending the next twenty-one years in bed. She refused to give up, however. She read widely and wrote letters and taught other patients to read and write. She even met a young man, a fellow tuberculosis patient, and dreamed of marriage. Although Isabel came close to death several times, she eventually married the man she loved. She then went on to write a book, Wish I Might, about all the good things life had brought her.

In several ways, the remarkable life of Isabel Smith pictures what the epistle writer hoped for in the lives of the Hebrews. They had been afflicted with a debilitating spiritual disease that was severely stunting their growth in Christ. So serious was the problem that dire warnings were called for.

Verses 4-6 are difficult to interpret, and at least four different scenarios are suggested. It seems best to understand these words as a warning to true believers against being disqualified for God's service by failing to remain faithful to the truth they know (see 1 Cor. 9:24-27, which describes a similar problem).

The fire in this text, then, is not the fire of hell, but the scorching of an unproductive field so that it could be replanted in hopes of a fruitful crop. The danger for the Hebrews was not losing their salvation, but living such unproductive lives that everything they did would be burned up in the end (1 Cor. 3:10-15).

Verse 10 shows that these believers had known better days, having logged faithful service in the past. They needed to continue on this path (v. 11), the end of which is a secure hope.

The Hebrews had a great example of faithfulness in Abraham, a man who believed God and received His unchangeable promise. Even more encouraging is the truth that a believer's hope is secure because it is anchored in heaven, where Jesus Christ now serves as our ever-faithful High Priest.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY

The day before Easter gives us a great reminder of the faithfulness that our Lord showed, even in the face of death.

With Jesus as our model of perseverance and faithfulness, as well as the One who paid for our sins on the Cross, how can we fail to be faithful to the God who has called us? Paul told the Galatians they were running a good race--until someone ""cut in on"" them and tripped them up (Gal. 5:7). How is your Christian race today?

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Hebrews 7:1-10; John 19:17-30; 20:1-9
When he had received the drink, Jesus said, ""It is finished."" - John 19:30
TODAY IN THE WORD

One of the most fundamental principles of the Old Testament priesthood was this: a priest could not come before God empty-handed. He had to bring a sacrifice to cover both his own sins and the sins of the people. That sacrifice anticipated the perfect, once-for-all sacrifice that Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, offered on the Cross. This was not for His own sins, for he had none, but for our sins.

What better day than Easter Sunday to consider Jesus' high priesthood? The result of His sacrificial death is salvation for us today and forever. When Jesus cried out on the Cross, ""It is finished,"" He was announcing that the full payment for sin had been made. The debt God held against us had been canceled! Praise God for the love that took Jesus to the Cross.

Today, however, we celebrate the fact that Jesus did not remain in the tomb. ""He always lives to intercede for [us]"" (Heb. 7:25). As our eternal High Priest, Jesus is the perfect fulfillment of the priesthood practiced by the somewhat mysterious Old Testament figure named Melchizedek.

The author had started to explain the importance of Melchizedek's priesthood earlier (Heb. 5:1-10). But he despaired of his readers' ability to understand, given their spiritual immaturity. After a parenthetical warning, the author returned to his subject in this passage.

We know very little about Melchizedek, to whom the writer of Hebrews assigned some lofty titles. His name is very significant, however, meaning ""righteousness"" and ""peace."" These two attributes alone are enough to identify him with Jesus Christ.

The writer, however, had other reasons to present Melchizedek as a priestly forerunner of Christ. Neither this man's parentage, birth, nor death were ever recorded. Although the writer is not claiming that Melchizedek is eternal, this lack of human record makes him a fitting representative of the eternal Christ.

But there's another point the Hebrews needed to understand. As a priest according to the order of Melchizedek, Jesus is superior to the priests of the old covenant. Therefore, the ministry He instituted is superior to the priesthood and the sacrificial system of the Mosaic Law, which was never meant to be permanent.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY

It's hard for us to imagine the earthshaking change that Jesus' death meant for those who had grown up under the Law.

The change was symbolized when the great curtain in the Jerusalem temple, which barred access to God's direct presence, was torn in two as Jesus died (Mark 15:38). Two thousand years later we are still enjoying the full benefits of Christ's death and the assurance of eternal life that His resurrection brings us. Sometime today, try to get alone for a ""mini-retreat"" with the Lord to praise Him for His death on your behalf and for His glorious resurrection.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Hebrews 7:11-19
What the law was powerless to do...God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man. - Romans 8:3
TODAY IN THE WORD

Imagine the following scenario for a moment. As you back your car down the driveway tomorrow morning on your way to work, a local police officer pulls up behind you and gets out. The officer comes to the driver's window and says, ""Don't worry, nothing's wrong. I'm just here to escort you to work, to help make sure you don't violate any traffic laws on the way. It's a new service we're offering our citizens to help them obey the law.""

If that happened to you, you'd look around for the friend who was playing a bad practical joke on you. Or you might look for the hidden TV camera--anything that would prove it wasn't real. You would know something was up, because the law simply doesn't work that way. Obedience depends on you. The officer shows up only after there has been a violation.

That's the problem with the law. It can only do two things: command and condemn. It has no power to help you obey. Even so, we respect the law. To an even greater extent, a first-century Jew would have respected the Law. Therefore, the readers of this letter must have been startled when the author called the Mosaic regulations ""weak and useless"" (v. 18). The writer, however, was not attacking God's Law; he was simply pointing out the temporary nature of those legal statutes.

Since the Law could not make anyone perfect in relationship to God (vv. 11, 19), a change was necessary--specifically, a change in the priesthood. Why was this change necessary? For a number of reasons.

First, the Levitical priests were themselves sinful men who had to offer sacrifices for their own sins. They had no power to help the people obey and no authority of their own to forgive sins.

Second, the Levitical priests died out and had to be replaced in each new generation. Although the human priesthood could not be truly permanent in nature, Jesus' priesthood is built on ""the power of an indestructible life"" (v. 16).

A third reason change was needed is that the sacrifices of the Law covered sin only temporarily. God never meant for the blood of animals to make permanent atonement for sin.

What a blessing it is to know that the death and resurrection of Christ have decisively addressed every inadequacy of the Law! The Hebrews needed to understand that, instead of turning back to the Law, their hope lay in going forward with Christ.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY

The freedom from the Law that we enjoy in Christ (see Rom. 6:14) should become even more precious to us after a study like this.

Given the finality of Christ's sacrifice, it would be a shame for us to fall into the trap of trying to earn God's favor by our performance. Yet even sincere Christians can do this to themselves and to others. Are you judging yourself, or someone else, by a performance standard you have created? If so, make this a day of release.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Hebrews 7:20-28
He is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. - Hebrews 7:25
TODAY IN THE WORD

Two words are central to the author's argument for the superiority of Christ: perfect and better.

These words hold the key to today's passage. Jesus is a perfect High Priest, totally separate from sin; therefore, He brought in a better covenant. This is the basic truth to grasp in the verses before us.

The author is building the case for his declaration that the Law of Moses, under which his Jewish Christian readers had been brought up, had been done away with in Christ. Chapter 7 is part of an extended section, stretching into chapter 10, in which the superior priesthood and covenant of Jesus Christ are revealed.

The oath of God is one reason that the new covenant Jesus established is better than the old. The Law of Moses did not require an oath from its priests. Even if those priests had been required to swear their faithfulness, their oath would have lasted only as long as they lived. Every new priest would have had to swear a new oath.

The priesthood of Jesus forever settled the issue of an oath; God Himself took an oath that Jesus would be ""a priest forever"" (v. 21). This verse and verse 17, quotations from Psalm 110:4, show that God made this promise long before Jesus came to earth to fulfill His ministry. Since the oath of God cannot be changed, Jesus is guaranteed an eternal priesthood.

It seems that every paragraph we encounter in Hebrews gives us another reason to thank God for the new covenant in Jesus' blood (Luke 22:20). It's obvious that human spiritual leaders are imperfect people who grow old and die, just like everyone else.

It's one thing to lose leaders. It's another thing to have to rely on those leaders and their endless sacrificial rituals for our acceptance before God. The whole Levitical system had a sense of impermanence about it that nothing could fix--except a totally different priesthood and a perfect High Priest!

Jesus meets this need (v. 26). Look at His qualifications, compare Him with every other priest, and you'll praise God that He appointed His perfect Son to be your High Priest.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY

No one but Jesus can ""save completely those who come to God through him"" (v. 25).

The book of Hebrews helps us understand about the ""present tense"" of salvation. This is the priestly work that Jesus Christ is carrying out in heaven today to help us in our struggles and to keep us cleansed from sin. Because He always lives to intercede for you, you can bring Him your deepest need or burden today--and we urge you to do so.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Hebrews 8:1-13
I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more. - Hebrews 8:12
TODAY IN THE WORD

Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna in what is now modern Turkey, was a worthy defender of the Christian faith. Born in 65 AD, he counted the apostle John among his teachers. It was John, in fact, who named Polycarp to the office he held for more than fifty years. He died at the stake in 155 AD, after many years of defending Christian truth against paganism and mystical heresies such as gnosticism, the error that threatened to engulf the church in the decades immediately after the apostles.

Polycarp considered his life of little importance in comparison to the truth of God. We can't say whether or not the author of Hebrews became a martyr for Jesus Christ. But the fact that the book is anonymous tells us that the writer considered God's truth far more important than personal identity. Like Bishop Polycarp, whoever wrote Hebrews was a worthy defender of the faith.

Chapter 8 is another vital link in the writer's argument for ""the truth that is in Jesus"" (Eph. 4:21).

Some people tend to think of Hebrews as somewhat hard to understand. Clearly this was not the author's intention. He wanted the Hebrews, and the larger body of Christ, to understand exactly what he was saying.

And what could be clearer than the teaching of verses 1-6? Jesus Christ is a High Priest who serves at God's right hand in the true tabernacle in heaven, of which the tabernacle Moses built was just a copy and a shadow. Therefore, both Jesus' ministry and His covenant are superior to the old.

Even the promises of the new covenant are better. The writer proves this by quoting the great new covenant promise of Jeremiah 31:31-34. We recognize this as the salvation purchased for us by the blood of Christ, a salvation which included not only full forgiveness of sin (v. 12), but also the promised indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.

What was deficient about the first covenant? As we saw earlier, the problem was not the commands of God but the people's inability to keep them. If God had not provided a way for us to be forgiven for our transgressions of His Law, none of us would be able to stand before Him.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY

Israel's sacrificial system crumbled when Jerusalem was attacked by Roman invaders in 70 AD.

Even before that event, Jesus Christ had already made the offering of animal sacrifices obsolete. But that does not mean we have no sacrifice to offer God. Instead of offering God a lamb to cover our sins, we are instructed to bring Him ""a sacrifice of praise--the fruit of lips that confess His name"" (Heb. 13:15). This week, let's bring the Lord this sacrifice by sharing about His faithfulness to someone who needs Christ.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Hebrews 9:1-14
Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. - EPHESIANS 5:2
TODAY IN THE WORD

Dr. G. Campbell Morgan (see the April 9 study) said this about believers who are reluctant to commit themselves wholeheartedly to Christ: ""When our convictions are yielded to Him completely, He is able to give Himself to us in all His fullness. Until that is so, He cannot trust us. How true it is that we often miss the joy and strength of our Christianity because, by withholding ourselves from Christ, we make it impossible for Him to give Himself to us in all the fullness of His grace and truth.""

What an accurate description of the spiritual loss the recipients of Hebrews were in danger of bringing upon themselves! By pulling back from their commitment to Christ--perhaps under persecution from certain Jewish elements or the threat of it--they were risking the loss of unspeakable blessings.

The first half of Hebrews 9 spells out clearly the two choices facing these believers in terms of their commitment. They could go back to the familiar--the old covenant with its repeated sacrifices offered by imperfect priests. Or they could go on with Christ to enjoy the blessings of the new covenant.

We have hinted at this several times, but it becomes very obvious in today's text: if you ever have reason to doubt the advantages we enjoy in Christ, turn to these verses immediately. The contrast could not be greater.

Notice, for example, the difference between the ""earthly sanctuary"" of the old covenant and heaven's ""greater and more perfect tabernacle,"" in which Christ offered His sacrifice (vv. 1, 11). And this is just the beginning.

The priests under the first covenant had to offer sacrifices ""regularly,"" while the high priest had to go into the ""inner room,"" the Holy Place, every year (vv. 6-7). But Jesus entered the Most Holy Place in the heavenly tabernacle ""once for all"" (v. 12), one of the key phrases in Hebrews. Also, the Old Testament priests brought the blood of animals (vv. 7, 12-13), while Jesus came into the Holy of Holies on the merit of His own sacrifice (vv. 12, 14).

And here's the best part. Although the blood of sacrificial animals could not make a final cleansing for sin, the blood of Christ has washed away sin's stain forever (vv. 10, 14)!
TODAY ALONG THE WAY

Notice that everything about the old system required human effort.

The tabernacle was built by human beings, someone had to raise the animals for sacrifice, and the blood was offered by human priests. But Christ's sacrifice and present priestly ministry are divine; the writer even says the heavenly tabernacle was ""not man-made.""

The point? The work of redemption has been done for us. We are free to ""serve the living God"" (v. 14). Where has He called you to serve Him today, or this week? Serve Him with all your heart!

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Hebrews 9:15-28
But now [Jesus] has appeared once for all...to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. - Hebrews 9:26
TODAY IN THE WORD

D.L. Moody was determined that a lack of finances should not deter any student who wanted to come to his new Bible school in Chicago. So Mr. Moody instituted the policy of not charging student tuition--a tradition that continues to this day at Moody Bible Institute! Mr. Moody told the young man who would later become the school's first graduate: ""You come to my school in Chicago, and God will provide the funds.""

The writer who gave us the book of Hebrews would have concurred with Dwight Moody's faith. In fact, this anonymous author argued something very similar in relation to Christ's finished work: ""You come to Christ, and He will provide the necessary payment for your sins.""

This is the ""will"" or covenant that Jesus has mediated for us. Its wonderful provisions are in force because the One who drew up the will died to put it into effect. Although a covenant and a will are not exactly the same, the ""outcome"" is the same. Christ's death provided ""the promised eternal inheritance"" (v. 15) to all of those who are called by His name and who are His heirs. This inheritance is salvation in all of its fullness--past, present, and future.

Once again, Moses and the ""first covenant"" he received from God are set in contrast to what we have in Christ. We have been told that the Law's endless sacrifices could never deal with sin once and for all. Here we are reminded of the reason for that inability. The blood offered under the old system was the ""blood of calves"" (v. 19) and other animals that could never take away sin once and for all, but cover it only temporarily.

It was necessary that another blood sacrifice be made, since God requires that blood be the means of atoning for sin and providing the forgiveness that sinful people need so desperately (v. 22).

Jesus' death fulfilled these requirements perfectly and permanently. His death put His ""will"" in force, so that those who are trusting in Him can receive everything promised both in this life and in the age to come when Jesus appears a second time.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY

It's hard to imagine a greater blessing than knowing that we can look forward to Christ's return, not with ""a fearful expectation of judgment"" (Heb. 10:27) but as heirs receiving an inheritance!

If you want a really solid reason to thank the Lord, you won't find a better one than this. Think of it: Jesus kept our appointment with judgment (v. 27) when He died on the Cross for our sins. That's good news worth praising God for today--and it's worth sharing with someone else.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Hebrews 10:1-18
These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. - Colossians 2:17
TODAY IN THE WORD

U.S. critic and lecturer John Mason Brown was giving a lecture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art when he noticed in the light of the slide projector that someone in the audience was mimicking his every move. Brown, annoyed, invited the person to leave. No one moved, and he continued his lecture. The mimicking shadow appeared. It took the nervous Brown another ten minutes to realize that he was seeing his own shadow.

That story illustrates the problem with focusing on a shadow. Since it's not the real thing, you can get distracted from the business at hand.

The writer of Hebrews called the Law of Moses a shadow--not the reality. That was not a negative statement toward God's holy Law, but simply a statement of the old covenant's built-in temporary nature. The system of sacrifices instituted under Moses was designed by God to foreshadow the coming of Christ and His once-for-all sacrifice.

But by the time Christ came, many in Israel did not recognize Him. They were so caught up in the rituals of Judaism that what was intended to be a shadow had become a thick cloud, obscuring the very Person the Law was meant to foreshadow.

Somewhere in all of this were the people we know as the Hebrews, apparently feeling intense pressure to step back into the shadows of the old system. But in chapter 10, the writer of this book continued his eloquent plea for them to come back to the light of Jesus Christ.

As we have seen time and time again, there was really nothing for them to go back to. Since Christ had rendered the Law obsolete by His atoning death, God was not pleased by the continual offering of sacrifices (v. . The priests may stand and offer their sacrifices day after day, but the fact has already been established that those sacrifices can never take away sins (v. 11).

Since atonement for sin could never be achieved through the bodies of sacrificial animals, God prepared a body for His Son. It was in that body that Jesus offered Himself on the Cross as the final sacrifice. The Hebrews, and all believers before and since, were the beneficiaries of Jesus' death.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY

Two of the ways we have benefited from Christ's death are mentioned in today's passage.

We were ""made"" holy at salvation (v. 10). This is God's declaration that we are now righteous before Him by virtue of Christ's death. And we are ""being made holy"" (v. 14). This is the ongoing process of Christian growth, of becoming more like Christ. In light of these exciting realities, why not renew your determination not to become distracted by the ""shadows"" around you?

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Hebrews 10:19-31
Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith. - Hebrews 10:22
TODAY IN THE WORD

John Bunyan, author of The Pilgrim's Progress, once wrote that when Christians begin to lose communion with God, one of the first things forgotten is that they live in God's very presence and their lives are in God's hands.

This kind of spiritual affliction should sound very familiar by now. We have been following the reasoning that the author of Hebrews used to convince his readers that defection from Christ was nothing but spiritual disaster. The final verse of today's reading underscores the danger in stark terms: ""It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God"" (v. 31).

We're in the middle of another warning section in which the Hebrews were cautioned against turning away from grace and going back to the dead rituals of Law. Most Bible teachers call this a ""parenthetical"" warning, since the writer seems to interrupt his thought to give this warning.

When you compare the warm exhortations of verses 19-25 with the strong warnings of verses 26-31, you can see why generations of Bible commentators have wrestled with the meaning of Hebrews.

These people are the writer's ""brothers."" They are urged to draw near to God in complete confidence, meeting together as the church for mutual teaching and encouragement (v. 25). All of this is possible because the God who called them to Himself is faithful (v. 23).

Yet with the next strokes of his writing instrument, the author says that anyone who rejects Christ can look forward to nothing but God's fearful judgment. Some try to solve the puzzle of this passage by claiming that the Hebrews were not true believers and that the judgment spoken of is eternity in hell, the final penalty for all unbelief.

But we believe these people were genuine Christians. That doesn't weaken the author's warning, because God takes sin among His people very seriously. We can fall into God's hands in the sense of experiencing His fiery judgment without being lost forever. Some Corinthian believers had died prematurely for their sin (see 1 Cor. 11:30), but Paul does not imply eternal separation from God.

The lesson for us is that instead of trying to walk on the edge, we need to draw close to our Lord in loving fellowship!
TODAY ALONG THE WAY

One key to understanding this passage and our response to it, is found in the phrase ""deliberately keep on sinning"" (v. 26).

The idea is to willfully continue sinning. This recalls the defiant sins for which no sacrifice was possible (Num. 15:30-31). In light of this, what must we do today? We need to continually adopt God's attitude toward sin, which is to loathe it and run from it. Today, let's take the warning of Hebrews seriously and pray that God will keep our hearts tender toward Him.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Hebrews 10:32-39
My righteous one will live by faith. - Hebrews 10:38
TODAY IN THE WORD

Most people tend to think that great artists and musicians produce their works in relatively quick bursts of creative energy. But the facts suggest otherwise. It is said that Beethoven rewrote each bar of his music at least a dozen times. For his work ""Last Judgment,"" considered one of the twelve master paintings of the ages, Michelangelo produced more than 2ꯠ sketches and renderings during the eight years it took him to complete his masterpiece.

It's safe to say that anything of lasting value requires patient commitment even in the face of adversity. That includes the Christian life. First-century believers must have needed that reminder often. Otherwise, we wouldn't have all those great verses in the New Testament urging us to walk faithfully with Christ no matter what the cost.

The Hebrew believers who received this letter were among those early believers who needed this strong word of encouragement. The closing verses of chapter 10 reveal that they were not just a group of weak-willed Christians who were ready to renounce Christ in a heartbeat. They had walked with the Lord long enough to have experienced some pretty intense suffering.

These Christians had suffered public persecution, imprisonment, and loss of personal property in the earlier days of their Christian lives. They even suffered such losses joyfully because they had their eyes on eternal things.

There is a suggestion here that one of the Hebrews' current problems was that they were uncertain regarding Christ's return. They may have been expecting Him to come to relieve them of their suffering; and when that did not happen right away, they began to lose heart.

We know that the earliest generations of believers expected Christ to return in

their lifetime. The Thessalonians became upset when some of their fellow believers began dying and Christ had not returned. Paul had to comfort them and set them straight about the issue (1 Thess. 4:13-18).

Whatever the reason for their wavering, the Hebrews needed to recall those early days of faithfulness and repeat them. Their confidence in Christ would be ""richly rewarded"" (v. 35).
TODAY ALONG THE WAY

Today we read about Christians who ""joyfully accepted the confiscation of [their] property"" (v. 34) for the Lord's sake, and maybe we wonder if the same could be said of us.

We don't know what God may require of us in the days ahead, but we can help prepare ourselves by adopting the attitude that everything we are and have belongs to Christ. So today is a good time to ask yourself, ""Am I holding my possessions in an open hand? If God were to take something I value, would I respond in obedience or in anger?""

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Hebrews 11:1-7
Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. - Hebrews 11:1
TODAY IN THE WORD

You may be aware that a debate is currently raging in scientific circles over whether the complexity of the universe allows for the possibility that it is the product of ""intelligent design."" Interestingly, the argument has revealed that many scientists hold to their presuppositions about the origin of life with the same fervor as the most passionate Bible believers.

That should not surprise us, because Paul says belief is a matter of the human will, not simply a question of evidence (Rom. 1:18-20). The problem is not that people can't believe; it's that they refuse to believe.

Hebrews 11 is one of those great New Testament passages that has come to have a life of its own. We are so familiar with it that we almost forget that this wonderful chapter has a definite context. Setting Hebrews 11 in its proper frame only enhances its blessing.

Yesterday we read that these Hebrew believers needed to hold on to their faith in the face of opposition. If they were faithful, God would richly reward their confidence in Him.

Chapter 10 ended on a mixed note of warning and hope (vv. 38-39). Those who shrink back fall under God's displeasure and are destroyed. That's a strong word; but remember that the writer was not talking about the loss of eternal life, but rather God's stern discipline of saints who shrink back.

That is the context for Hebrews 11. The best antidote for unbelief is faith, and a wonderful way to encourage the fainthearted is to remind them of those who ran the race well and were richly rewarded by God. Put these two thoughts together, and the result is the chapter often called ""God's Hall of Faith.""

Verses 1-3 are a prologue to the chapter, showing that faith involves a comprehensive world view that sees God as the Author and Creator of everything.

Verse 6 reminds us that faith is not the sort of dreamy, make-believe fluff that secular minds often make it out to be. Faith is real-life stuff, the core of a life that pleases God. Abel took faith very seriously, as did Noah. And Enoch was such a person of faith that God took him straight home without his ever experiencing death!
TODAY ALONG THE WAY

God often asks His people to do things that don't make much sense from a human perspective. But He richly rewards faith.

Maybe you're facing a Hebrews 11 kind of challenge today. Here's a simple exercise that may encourage you. Write on a card: ""By faith, I can..."" Then fill in the step of faith you believe God is asking you to make. Write Hebrews 11:1 after your statement, and use the card as your Bible bookmark and a prayer reminder for the next few days as we study this great chapter.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Hebrews 11:8-22
God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. - Hebrews 11:16
TODAY IN THE WORD

Let's suppose you are out driving on a hot day with your windows rolled up and the air-conditioner humming. You pull alongside another car at a red light and notice that the driver, whose windows are also rolled up, is tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. His mouth is moving and his head is swaying slightly back and forth--all for no apparent reason. Would you assume he was crazy, or would you just look away and drive on?

Chances are you would do the latter, having concluded that the other driver was simply listening to a song you couldn't hear.

That's the way it is with faith. God's Old Testament faithful ones were not beside themselves with the desert heat. They persevered because they ""saw him who is invisible"" (v. 27). They were, in effect, listening to a song others couldn't hear.

Abraham remains the classic example of a life of faith. Consider the greatness of this amazing man's faith. He journeyed forth at God's command, not knowing where he was going. He looked forward to a city that he was never to see in his lifetime. By their faith, he and Sarah had a child when it was all but impossible for them to conceive.

And in the greatest individual act of faith ever recorded, Abraham set out to sacrifice his long-awaited son, not knowing how God would fulfill His promises.

No wonder Abraham's descendants could also speak of things even far in the future as if they had already happened! Joseph spoke of the exodus from Egypt and ""gave instructions about his bones"" (v. 22) many years before the actual event.

Notice how the author of Hebrews stopped in the middle of his narration about Abraham to make some important summary comments (vv. 13-16). Given the readers' current situation, these verses would have carried a good deal of impact.

The point seems to be that if believers such as Abraham could keep on in faith throughout their whole lives without seeing all of God's promises fulfilled, the readers could make it too.

Moreover, Abraham didn't keep looking over his shoulder, sighing over what he had left behind and wishing he could go back to the easy life he had known. The obvious parallel to the Hebrews' condition could not have escaped their notice.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY

Do you ever have a little ""sanctified nostalgia,"" reminiscing about the good old days when you were a new believer, full of faith and on fire for the Lord?

Well, those days may be gone--but the Lord is the same today (Heb. 13:! Would you like to be more daring, more enthusiastic for Jesus Christ as you walk with Him along the way? We suggest you talk to Him about this today. Just be ready for the answer--a desire for greater faith pleases the Lord.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Hebrews 11:23-31
[Moses] persevered because he saw him who is invisible. - Hebrews 11:27
TODAY IN THE WORD

On April 27, 1874, Mississippi Senator L.Q.C. Lamar made a politically risky speech to his surprised colleagues. Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, an abolitionist who was said to have been the most hated man in the South, had died. But Lamar eulogized Sumner as a man who loved and defended freedom. The dramatic speech helped the cause of postwar reconciliation, although it could have backfired for Lamar and cost him his seat in the Senate.

Moses knew what it was like to take a risk for something he believed in. Why would the adopted son of Pharaoh trade the palace for the desert, give up the robes of royalty for the rags of a shepherd, and choose mistreatment over endless pampering?

Today's verse holds the answer. Moses was one of God's faithful who saw something others didn't see. Take away the faith factor, and the life-threatening risk Moses took by siding with the Hebrew slaves doesn't add up at all.

But Moses wasn't adding things up by human equations. He was a child whose life had been spared by his parents' faith in God; even so, when he came of age, Moses acted on what he knew best.

Now if you know the full story of Moses and the exodus, you will recall that his first attempt to identify with his Hebrew brethren involved the murder of an Egyptian. Why didn't the writer of Hebrews include that unsavory detail?

For the same reason that none of the failings and foibles of God's faithful are mentioned in Hebrews 11. The emphasis was on their great faith, not on those moments when they failed to act faithfully. Besides, the writer was not trying to hide anything--the readers knew the full story just as we do.

The faith choice that Moses made must have been another powerful encouragement to the Hebrews. They also needed to decide whether suffering ""disgrace for the sake of Christ"" (v. 26) was more valuable than any temporary advantage they might gain by going back to their old way of life.

You will face that choice yourself more than once. When the test comes, it makes all the difference whether you are looking back or ""looking ahead"" (v. 26).
TODAY ALONG THE WAY

Sometimes, it can seem as though we traded a good deal to follow Christ.

Let's consider some of those tradeoffs. When we put our faith in Christ, we traded eternal death for eternal life. We swapped out hopelessness for hope, and exchanged a futile way of living for a life filled with purpose. But that's not all. We also gave up the fading, rusting, moth-eaten rewards of earth for an everlasting inheritance in heaven. Today, we have many reasons to choose to stand up for our belief in Christ. Let's pray that God will strengthen our faith in a tangible way during the next week.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Hebrews 11:32-40
These were all commended for their faith. - Hebrews 11:39
TODAY IN THE WORD

Dan Southern, president of the American Tract Society, tells of a friend in a small town whose house was on the route of a local parade. Because few people came out to watch, this woman stood outside her home waving at the marchers and greeting them. As the parade went on, she became more excited and began responding with great enthusiasm. Suddenly, a VIP in the parade came over to Dan's friend and gave her a hug. It was the state's governor who had noticed her enthusiasm and wanted to say thanks.

We can almost imagine the readers of Hebrews, watching the parade of the VIPs of God passing by. But the writer did not simply want his readers to watch the parade of the faithful. He was calling them to fall into step and join it.

Remember, Hebrews 11 was not written just to praise the Old Testament spiritual giants. The Hebrews were being given an armload of reasons for not shrinking back from Christ, but for persevering and gaining ""what He has promised"" (Heb. 10:36).

Verses 32-35a speak of triumph, escape, and displays of power. It's no surprise, then, to find David, Gideon, and Daniel in this list, although Daniel is not mentioned by name (v. 33).

But beginning with second half of verse 35, the picture changes from conquest to weakness and suffering. About a dozen kinds of persecution are cataloged here, and it's possible that the Hebrew believers had experienced some of them.

No one can accuse the author of sugarcoating the suffering that might await those who are committed to Christ. The Bible never denies that believers will suffer. Jesus assured us we could expect trouble (John 16:33). So the issue is not whether we will suffer, but how we will suffer.

Moses was a model of godly suffering for the Hebrews--and for us. Only someone looking to the things of eternity would choose affliction with the people of God over the short-lived pleasures of sin (Heb. 11:25-26).

This powerful chapter closes with an amazing statement. All of these great saints of the past still lacked the ""something better"" which believers on this side of the Cross enjoy: the coming of Christ and His perfect sacrifice for sin. In that sense, only together with us are they made perfect.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY

We have a great advantage over the Old Testament saints. We can see the fulfillment of God's promises, we know the reality of the Cross, and we hold God's complete revelation in our hands.

It follows, then, that our commitment to live by faith should be as great as theirs, if not greater. Is that true of us today? Each of us needs to answer that question before the Lord. Maybe it's time for a spring weekend walk as you talk with the Lord and allow Him to examine your heart.