My Morning Meal

Jesus is a priest forever. That’s what the writer to the Hebrews emphasizes this morning. Jesus is foreshadowed in a guy that Abraham ran across almost 2,000 years before Christ entered this world, Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God (Hebrews 7:1). Like Melchizedek, Jesus has “neither beginning of days nor end of life” (7:3) . . . Jesus comes from a line apart from the Levitical line (7:14) . . . in fact, He has become a priest not on the basis of “bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life” (7:16). Thus He is ” a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek” (7:16).

And what does a forever priest do?

Consequently, He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.  
                                                                                  (Hebrews 7:25 ESV)

While it is true that work of atonement for sins was finished on the cross . . . that through the once for all offering of Himself, Jesus completely and fully paid the ransom for my redemption . . . I’m reminded this morning that Jesus is far from “being in retirement” . . . that Jesus’ work continues . . . a priest forever . . . always living to make intercession for those who have drawn to God through Him . . . that they might be saved to the uttermost.

Saved to the uttermost . . . that’s what I’m lingering on this morning. I am a work begun by God . . . to be completed through the Spirit of God . . . aided by the risen, ascended Son of God as He makes intercession for me.

Saving to the uttermost isn’t just about being saved forever, it’s about being saved completely . . . saved to the fullest extent . . . saved perfectly . . . the finished product being all the Maker had in mind when He began the work. At that moment I believed, I was utterly saved FROM THE PENALTY OF SIN through the work of Christ on the cross. One day, I will be utterly saved FROM THE PRESENCE OF SIN when I go to be with Jesus and am removed from this world of darkness. And today, I am in the process of being utterly saved FROM THE POWER OF SIN through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit and the never-ending intercessory work of the One who is my Great High Priest forever as I’m transformed and conformed to His very nature.

And I’m just a bit taken aback this morning at the thought of Jesus, even now, making intercession for me. Not because I don’t think I need it . . . oh, do I need it! . . . but because of the eternal commitment He has made to those who are His. Jesus came that we might have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10) and, to that end, He has forever linked His eternal being with our feeble frame as He draws alongside through His blessed Spirit and as He intercedes before the Father as our Great High Priest.

And as such, though I stumble . . . though I struggle . . . I believe that this born again sinner will be saved to the uttermost . . . saved completely . . . saved to the fullest extent provided by the grace of God.

Saved to the uttermost . . . for my eternal blessing . . . more importantly, for God’s eternal glory.

Even so, Lord Jesus, intercede . . .

My kids loved picture books. You know those big, over-sized children’s books that cared less about narrating a story but instead captured the imagination with full-page graphics and photos. It seemed they never got tired of them . . . we’d pull them out again and again. But eventually my kids grew up . . . and while there may be fond, nostalgic memories of those picture books, my girls don’t read them anymore . . . don’t rely on them for their intellectual stimulation. They moved beyond picture books . . . started reading “chapter books” . . . and now read “adult books.” My reading in Hebrews 5 this morning reminded me that, as the people of God, we need to move beyond picture books, as well.

. . . for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
                                                                            (Hebrews 5:13-14  ESV).

The writer to the Hebrews wants to take His readers deep . . . “connecting the dots” of Scripture with the Person of Christ . . . showing them that Christ is the Messiah, and has become the Author or Source of eternal salvation . . . that He is a High Priest after the order of Melchizedek . . . BUT . . . screech to a stop . . . the writer to the Hebrews can’t plumb the depths of this thought because his readers had become “dull of hearing”.

He says that by now, with how long they have had exposure to the Word they should be teachers . . . instead they need someone to take them through the basics again — they are still on “milk” and not “solid food” . . . still babies . . . not mature. They need to get out of Sunday School . . . move beyond the “Bible stories” and picture books . . . and get deeper . . . stop sucking on the sippy-cup and get their teeth into the meatier stuff. It is possible — and perhaps too prevalent in the Church — to be “unskilled in the word of righteousness” (5:13). Inexperienced . . . bottle-feeders . . . unable to chew on the solid food of the Word and digest it themselves.

I have often thought that we don’t spend enough time showing believers the basics on how to feed themselves. We focus on pre-packaged Bible studies (good stuff, not saying it isn’t) without also spending time on how to study the Bible . . . how to read and correctly handle the Word and get beyond the Sunday School stories and dig out of the pages of Holy Scripture solid teaching for themselves. To experience for themselves the rush that comes from making an observation to then find the Spirit stirring their souls with illumination.

For too many, their sole intake of the Word, I fear, is the pre-digested, 3 or 4 point sermon on Sunday morning. I’m not saying there isn’t a place for gifted teachers to open up the word for others and feed the sheep — there is . . . it is an integral part of how the church is intended to grow. But we also need to equip the sheep with enough tools so that they can be Bereans . . . that, after receiving the Word with gladness on Sunday morning, they can go home and “examine the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11) . . . to take in “solid food” for themselves and grow up.

If we don’t move beyond the picture books, the people of God are in such danger of looking like and living like the world about us . . . rather than being salt and light. Without “constant practice” . . . without having “our powers of discernment trained” by handling the living Word of God we lose our edge to discern good from evil . . . and can so easily settle for “good enough.”

Constant, habit-forming, consistent use . . . reading . . . studying . . . meditating . . . obeying. It’s as we seek to get deeper . . . as we “use” the word . . . that we develop the spiritual discernment concerning good and evil . . . that we recognize what’s beneficial and what’s not . . . that we distinguish what’s just good, from what’s better, from what’s best.

It doesn’t happen overnight . . . but maturing isn’t an overnight process . . . it occurs over a lifetime. We need to move beyond the “Sunday School stories” . . . and put away the picture books . . . and ask God, by His grace and through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, to take us deeper as we exercise ourselves in the Word . . . desiring  to become “skilled” in the Word of righteousness.

For our benefit . . . For His glory . . .

Captured by a phrase this morning. One of those truths that I can so easily blow by. One of those things I’ve known for decades but which, as I think about it, so rarely really grips my being. One of those declarations of Scripture that I’d do well, from time to time, to ask myself, “Self, do you really believe that?” A characteristic of the Savior that I’m probably prone to diminish because I’m prone to think of Him as being more fully God than being fully man. But an attribute of the Savior which uniquely and completely qualifies Him as our “great High Priest.” What’s gripping me this morning is that Jesus has “been there!”

Since then we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one Who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.    (Hebrews 4:14-15 ESV)

This morning I’m reminded that I have a High Priest who is able to sympathize with my weakness because He has, IN EVERY RESPECT, been tempted and tested as I have . . . He’s been there!

Really? Been there? In every respect? (ESV) . . . in every way? (NIV) . . . in all things? (NASB) . . . experienced it all? (MSG) . . . the same testings? (NLT)

That’s what God’s breathed-out revelation tells me this morning. That’s what the Spirit’s directed illumination is casting light on. That Jesus was all in when He entered His creation’s reality. That, while He never stopped being fully God, He was nothing less than fully man . . . yet without sin. And in that fullness of man He was in every respect and in every way tempted and tested as we are . . . yet without sin.

He knows firsthand the feelings . . . He experienced the struggles . . . He endured the oppression . . . He worked through the trials. There is not a temptation common to man that Jesus, in some manner, cannot relate to because of His personal experience. There is not a testing known to man that Jesus cannot, from firsthand knowledge, draw alongside and whisper, “I get it.” Really? Yeah . . . if I’m reading this correctly . . . then really! . . . yet without sin.

What set’s my Savior apart is not that He candy-coated His 33 years on this planet . . . not that He side-stepped the tough stuff of the human experience. But what sets Him apart is that He fully entered the fray, yet without sin. He alone has won every battle with the flesh . . . He alone endured every assault righteously without wavering . . . He went through it all, yet without sin. He won!

And because He’s been there, He is able to sympathize with those of us who are going through it now. Because He has firsthand experiential knowledge of the creation’s struggle, He is able to fully enter into and sympathize with our weakness. Because God became man, the Man, Christ Jesus, could become our great High Priest. Having already offered Himself as the once-for-all sacrifice, He now lives to make intercession for His people . . . with a depth of understanding, empathy, and sympathy that can only come out of direct experience . . . and to provide access to the same divine help and strength He drew upon when He was here.

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.    (Hebrews 4:16 ESV)

Tempted in every respect? Faced all the same testing we do? Been there? Really? Yeah . . . really!

O’ what a Savior!

They were a stubborn people. They had a long history of rejecting God’s direction and instead relying on their own intuition . . . for ignoring His way and instead leaning to the way of their own understanding. Even when they sought to be zealous concerning the King they did so by elevating themselves to the throne, confident in their own works and their own perceived righteousness. You would think that eventually God would say, “Enough!” But my God is the God of abounding patience . . . my God is the God who goes to extreme lengths to provide a way of redemption and restoration . . . my God is the God who gives second chances — and third, and fourth, and fifth, and . . . My God is the God who cries out, “Today!”

Since therefore it remains for some to enter [God’s rest], and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again He appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.”   (Hebrews 4:6-7 ESV)

My God is the God of Today.

Strictly speaking, the context is the continued appeal to these Hebrew readers to recognize Jesus as the Christ . . . to know by faith that the reason He died was to provide the once-for-all atoning sacrifice for their sins . . . to believe that the reason His body was missing from the tomb was because He rose again from the grave, conquering sin and death, and had ascended to the right hand of the Father on high . . . to set their confidence in His work and His work alone . . . and thus, to enter into the promise of rest. And though they had repeatedly rejected the message . . . again, God appoints a certain day . . . Today . . . that they might enter that rest.

And I can’t help but think that for those who have owned Christ as Savior and Lord . . . for those who have already entered into that eternal promise of rest . . . but for those who sometimes struggle with entering into the day-by-day rest (aka me) . . . that God still continues to appoint another day . . . that though I may have “taken a rain check” on the promise yesterday, that today there remains a promise of rest.

Yesterday I was talking to a friend about something that I was worrying about. He said, “Pete, let me tell you about a Book . . . ” And this buddy reminded me of Jesus’ teaching concerning worry . . . and the Holy Spirit reminded of the Father’s offer of a peace which passes understanding . . . and though I may have missed out on some of that rest yesterday . . . He has appointed another day . . . Today . . . and offers anew His deep, abiding, calm from the storm.

Mine, then, is to not harden my heart. To not enter another day determined to carry the same burden in the same way. But to avail myself of the promise . . . to believe the calling . . . to hear again His voice . . .

“Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”   (Matthew 11:28-29 ESV)

O’ thank God that there remains a rest for the people of God (Heb. 4:9). Thank You, Father, that You have appointed another day to enter that rest.

Thanx for Today!

It was a year ago today that we were abruptly ushered into our current season. After my readings this morning I couldn’t help but pull up the e-mails of a year ago and read through them. E-mails to a network of praying people who were petitioning a listening God. E-mails that tried to inform of the emerging details of a crisis that surprised us . . . and that tried to also convey the reality of the presence of the God which sustained us. Sustained by the One who is not ashamed to call me “brother” . . .

For it was fitting that He, for Whom and by Whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the Founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one origin. That is why He is not ashamed to call them brothers . . .   (Hebrews 2:10-11, 14a ESV)

O the degree to which our God determined to enter our world! The depths to which His blessed Son willingly chose to identify with His wayward creation. God in flesh . . . God doing life on this orb . . . God subject to the frailties of the human body . . . God experiencing the realities of a world spoiled by sin. All that the Shepherd might know experientially what it was to be a sheep . . . “that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God” (2:17).

And because “He himself partook of the same things”, sharing in the flesh and blood of the children (2:14), He is able to help those who are being tempted (2:18) . . . able to come alongside those who have been thrown into the spiral of confusing circumstance . . . able to stabilize the shaking ground . . . able to impart Spirit-infused grace sufficient to maintain equilibrium.

Because He became flesh, He is not ashamed to identify with us as brothers and sisters. And because He has graciously elected to so connect Himself with us . . . to so encounter our realities . . . to so engage in our lives . . . we can know that ever present help in times of need.

And the wonder is less about realizing a happy ending than it is about knowing His abiding presence. It’s not great just because it could have been worse, it’s amazing because of the tangible reality of that which we embrace by faith. It’s not praiseworthy because it’s turns out how the way we want, it’s worthy of praise because He is all He has promised to be.

He calls me brother. I own Him as Lord.

Having promised me His world, He prepares me for it . . . having entered my world, He helps me through it . . .

A friend loves at all times, And a brother is born for adversity.   
                                                                        (Proverbs 17:17 ESV)

Kind of rambling this morning . . . kind of thankful this morning . . .

By His grace . . . for His glory . . .

It’s been getting a lot of press over the past couple of years. More and more of us are multi-tasking behind the wheel . . . and it’s getting a little dangerous. The old “10 and 2” two hands on the steering wheel is increasingly becoming one hand at 12 or 6 and the other hand all over the place . . . holding a phone to our ears . . . quickly responding to a text . . . putting on a bit of makeup . . . stuffing that burger in our mouths. Not casting stones . . . I’m guilty (not so much of the phone, texting, or makeup . . . but a burger every once in awhile). And who hasn’t been next to that vehicle with the distracted driver? Often, even before you see what they’re doing behind the wheel, you know something’s not being attended to because the vehicle starts to drift. Kind of that way with the things of God as well . . .

Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.   (Hebrews 2:1 ESV)

The writer to the Hebrews is contending for a group of believers who have heard and believed the Word . . . who have started to run the race . . . but are now getting distracted. For many of them, they are spending more time looking in the “rear view mirror” of the religious system and life they left rather than staying focused on the road in front of them. Doubts are setting in as they focus on the fact that they have left the popular for the unpopular . . . have left the majority opinion and adopted the position of the minority . . . have moved from the ranks of the multitude on “the wide road” and are experiencing the counter currents of trying to navigate the narrow way (Matt. 7:13-14). And they’re starting to drift . . . leaning again towards the shadows rather than the substance . . . being drawn again to the ritual rather than the reality . . . fading towards the temporal rather than staying the course toward the permanent (thanks Bill MacDonald for the contrasts).

And to this “distracted driving” the writer to the Hebrews cries, “Pay attention!” Stay focused, keep you eyes on Jesus . . . the fulfillment of the shadows . . . the reality behind the ritual . . . the King of kings forever. Put all your effort and concentration to keeping the things of Christ near to you . . . fixate on the wonder of His Person . . . meditate often on the amazing grace of His salvation . . . speak often of the hope that lies before . . . draw near often within the holy of holies offering worship to Him who is alone worthy. Pay attention . . . otherwise there’s the danger of “the drift”.

I’m guessing the number of people who wake up one morning and consciously make the decision to stop pursuing the things of the kingdom are relatively few . . . my bet is that for most who disengage it is a slow drift . . . caused by “distracted driving”. The focus becomes the trial . . . the prize becomes the wealth . . . the blessing is the happiness I can know here and now . . . the priorities look a lot like the priorities of the world. And the reading of the Word becomes more superficial and eventually skipped altogether . . . and meeting with God’s people just doesn’t fit into the weekend schedule . . . and fellowship with God is no longer nurtured but somehow assumed by default. Nothing terribly overt . . . just checking a text . . . putting on a bit of makeup . . . enjoying a burger. But enough to start the drift.

Oh how I need to keep first things first. How I need to be disciplined in seeking first the kingdom of God. How I need to keep my eyes on the road.

Not that I can power my way to the destination . . . that is a work of grace . . . by the Spirit of God . . . through the Word of God . . . in the Son of God. But I can seek to keep myself on the road. To pay attention to the things I have heard . . . to stay focused on those things which are being revealed by the Spirit . . . to hold fast — a “10 and 2” two-handed grip — on the things I have believed . . . lest I drift away.

I need to “put down the phone” . . . to resist the temptation to text . . . to trust Him to satisfy my hunger and let go of the burger . . . to lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares me and run with endurance the race that is set before me (Heb. 12:1).

By His grace . . . for His glory . . .

It’s a no-holds-barred type of argument. It comes out of the gates quickly and hits hard. It’s unrelenting in its rapid fire delivery of the facts. If it were being backed by an orchestra, as each example is given, the music would get louder building to a crescendo . . . the implications evident . . . the conclusion un-mistakable . . .

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name He has inherited is more excellent than theirs.  
                                                                            (Hebrews 1:1-4 ESV)

Faith was fading for a number of these believers . . . questions were entering in . . . the temptation to go back to the old ways was, for many, increasing . . . and so the writer to the Hebrews comes out hard and comes out heavy in his letter. And he hits at the core of the gospel . . . he shines the light on the foundation of salvation . . . he starts by re-connecting the dots . . . it would all come down to what they believed about the Person known as Jesus of Nazareth.

The books of history would record the simple facts and data that, for most of His life, Jesus was a little known son of carpenter . . . that He surprisingly exploded on the scene when He was thirty and turned Israel upside down with His teaching and the signs and wonders that accompanied His claims about the kingdom of God . . . that the religious establishment was quick to put Him on their “most wanted” list for His blasphemous claims that He was Son of Man, the promised Messiah, the Son of God . . . that He was crucified on a Roman cross . . . that He was buried in a rock hewn tomb . . . and that His body disappeared. Them’s the facts . . .

Cue faith . . .

Did He simply die on a cross or did He make “purification for sins” . . . did His body mysteriously disappear or did He rise again, as He said He would, and ascend to heaven to sit down “at the right hand of the Majesty on high”? Was He “just Jesus” . . . or is He the Son by whom God is speaking to this world in these last days? Was He “just a man” . . . or, as He claimed, is He in fact the Son of Man . . . Heir of all things . . . Creator and Sustainer of all things . . . the radiance of God’s glory . . . the exact imprint of His being?

Was He just another human being . . . or was He God in flesh . . . superior to any and all created beings, superior even to angels? To which of the angels did God say, “You are my Son (1:5) . . . Your throne, O God, is forever and ever (1:8) . . . You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning”? Answer: None! Implication: He is superior and above all things . . . His name is not just another . . . His Name is the most excellent of names!

And when that is settled by faith . . . following just becomes the Spirit-infused, supernatural thing to do. The questions find answers . . . the temptations to go back or to give up are told, “Get behind me!”

Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.  
                                                                                (John 6:68-69 ESV)

O’ that we would see Jesus . . . and know afresh that Name that is above all names! Amen?