Hebrews 12

We must lay aside like old clothes the things that entangle us & keep us from running the race that is before us. When it gets tough, and the temptations are fierce, and the pain is deep and burning, consider (that means think about) Jesus. He endured the cross. He hung on two pieces of wood, probably getting splinters in His already raw, scourged, torn & bleeding back, with nails through His arms & feet, with long sharp thorns digging into His scalp for about six hours. He had nothing to eat since the day before, and nothing to drink. He was stripped and hung up to die a humiliating death before a crowd of people. To be executed this way indicated He had committed a serious crime. But He was sinless. He endured the humiliation and death you & I deserved, and died for our sins. He endured the cross. In your striving against sin in your life, have you resisted to the point of shedding blood? Or are you bucking against the discipline of the Lord, which for a season is quite unpleasant, but will produce in you the very righteousness, peace, strength, and sanctification (holiness) you desire?

Some of the "what abouts" mentioned in the blog a day or 2 ago were very painful things. (When you say "give thanks for all things" people immediately say, "All things? What about...?") Most of us have experienced those kinds of pains, trials and wounds. In what I have said, and in what I'm about to say, please hear this: When wounds are deep, you are going to feel hurt, physically &/or emotionally, and probably anger, and maybe an array of other feelings. This is normal. This is okay. (Look at Job, and Jeremiah). What isn't "normal" for the Christian (it may be common, but it isn't normal) is to stay there. "See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled; that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau who sold his own birthright for a meal." You see, God has grace for every situation. He has dying grace for a dying day. He has cancer grace (and radiation and chemo grace). He has my baby is crying & I don't know why grace. He has rape grace. He has incest grace. He has abuse grace. He has I failed miserably grace. He has jobless grace, homeless grace, tornado grace....  Do not fall short of that grace. It is your way out. To refuse the grace is to refuse to embrace Him. To refuse His grace is to hold on to the hurt, and that results in bitterness, and more pain, and more defilement. To refuse His grace will result in looking for other ways to ease the pain. Like Esau, you will grasp something the world offers. Since the world will someday end, that's essentially giving up the eternal for the temporary. It's giving up your birthright for a meal. It is not faith. It is the doorway to sin. See Tuesday's blog for more on that. The way to grasp the grace is gratitude.

You see, you have not come to Mt Sinai, where Moses went up to get the law, and the voice of God speaking to Moses was so awesome that the people requested God stop speaking out loud. No, instead of the mountain of the law, you have come to Mt. Zion. The city there is the one Jeremiah spoke of when he foretold the coming of the righteous Branch of David saying: "Jerusalem will dwell in safety; and this is the name by which she shall be called, 'the Lord is our righteousness'." (Jer.33:16) The righteousness of God Himself is the city He has given us to dwell in. He has brought us to Himself, to dwell in His presence with Jesus Christ as mediator of a new covenant based on our being sprinkled clean by the blood of the lamb to enter into His presence and abide there forever.

Even so, there is a warning. Just as the earth shook when God spoke, giving the law at Sinai, He will shake the earth again, and only those things that are eternal will remain. What are you holding onto? When the shaking comes in your life, if you are not holding onto Him, you will be left holding onto nothing, because "created things" will be removed.

Now, I'm not suggesting that child abuse, bullying, rape, incest, or any of these other hideous sins of men are God's methods of chastising people. Those things are sins of men, birthed out of evil, lustful hearts of men who neither glorify God as God or give thanks. What I am saying is that if you have experienced any of these things, they are part of the "all things" of your life. And, God can use them to help you let go of things that will not last anyway, and learn to embrace Him. There is nothing else to hole onto that is dependable. There is nothing else that will bring you healing, comfort, rest, peace or restoration. There is no one else as trustworthy, who will never let you down or forsake you. Only the eternal will remain stable through shaking as severe as what you have experienced.

Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire" (Heb.12:28-29). Whether it is a gentle, or even a firm, chastisement from the hand of a loving heavenly Father, or cruel defilement from the heart of sinful man (even an earthly father), when entrusted to the God who is faithful, the results are the same - a kingdom which cannot be shaken. Therefore, the response should ultimately be the same: "always giving thanks for all things."