Today Our Daily Bread Hebrews 13

Hebrews 13: 1 - 25
1 Continue to love each other with true Christian love. F59 2 Don't forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it! 3 Don't forget about those in prison. Suffer with them as though you were there yourself. Share the sorrow of those being mistreated, as though you feel their pain in your own bodies.
4 Give honor to marriage, and remain faithful to one another in marriage. God will surely judge people who are immoral and those who commit adultery. 5 Stay away from the love of money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, "I will never fail you. I will never forsake you." F60 6 That is why we can say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper, so I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?" F61
7 Remember your leaders who first taught you the word of God. Think of all the good that has come from their lives, and trust the Lord as they do. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
9 So do not be attracted by strange, new ideas. Your spiritual strength comes from God's special favor, not from ceremonial rules about food, which don't help those who follow them. 10 We have an altar from which the priests in the Temple on earth have no right to eat. 11 Under the system of Jewish laws, the high priest brought the blood of animals into the Holy Place as a sacrifice for sin, but the bodies of the animals were burned outside the camp. 12 So also Jesus suffered and died outside the city gates in order to make his people holy by shedding his own blood.
13 So let us go out to him outside the camp and bear the disgrace he bore. 14 For this world is not our home; we are looking forward to our city in heaven, which is yet to come. 15 With Jesus' help, let us continually offer our sacrifice of praise to God by proclaiming the glory of his name. 16 Don't forget to do good and to share what you have with those in need, for such sacrifices are very pleasing to God.
17 Obey your spiritual leaders and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they know they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this joyfully and not with sorrow. That would certainly not be for your benefit.
18 Pray for us, for our conscience is clear and we want to live honorably in everything we do. 19 I especially need your prayers right now so that I can come back to you soon. 20 And now, may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, equip you with all you need for doing his will. May he produce in you, through the power of Jesus Christ, all that is pleasing to him. Jesus is the great Shepherd of the sheep by an everlasting covenant, signed with his blood. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen. 21 * [No text] 22 I urge you, dear brothers and sisters, F62 please listen carefully to what I have said in this brief letter. 23 I want you to know that our brother Timothy is now out of jail. If he comes here soon, I will bring him with me to see you. 24 Give my greetings to all your leaders and to the other believers there. The Christians from Italy send you their greetings. 25 May God's grace be with you all.
FOOTNOTES:F59: Greek with brotherly love. F60: Deut 31:6, 8. F61: Ps 118:6. F62: Greek brothers.
The New Living Translation

~Lena’s Journalin’~
I’m thinking each other means other Christians, and strangers means non-Christians, those in prison may speak of those bound up in sin and the unfairness of life’s dealings. Compassion has got to be our lifelong friend. Judgmentalism and condemnation cannot be a consideration in my thinking, if I am as He is- Love. I wonder if I love this way, if it means I carry the blessing of angels, like angels get "assigned" to attend those who are His and behave as though they are as He is?
I just got an e-mail, a real humdinger and recently I've been the "brunt" of some judgmental comments against me as a business person. It does not feel very good and my initial response is to rise up and defend myself, my business name, my family etc. Then I realize I just need to extend love as much as I can. The reputation is more about who He is in me, than who I am as a businessperson. As much as I can I should extend peace to even my accusers. I step back, take a deep breath and bless anyway. Words have been laid out unfairly, but I’m praying God will clear it up if clearing up is needed. It amazes me how people feed on misery and want to have something or someone to criticize, how someone would take the name of another and long to associate dirt with it. I pray I will purpose to not do the same in return, no matter the merit.
I keep thinking of how much I deserved to die with the penalty of disobedience to God as payment of my resistance to God, yet Jesus stepped in when I was not worthy of His great love and said, "Ill take her place, whip Me, mock Me, scourge Me!" It was so unfair, He was perfect and perfectly pleased God, where I did not even want to please God, and if I wanted to, I was unable.
Then I turn my thought to the ones who deliberately mock my name and hate me and speak ill words against me and my family and I see Jesus also stepped in for them as well. Even when they did not appreciate it, or ask for it or care that it happened. If He did that for us, we are worthy of Love and consideration and patience and a bit of tolerance.
Dear God help me tolerate others while they despise truth, forgive them for they don’t know what they do. Neither do I half the time, for I still despise truth in areas that have not yet been revealed to me and I also choose darkness rather than light in other areas, Help me choose life and light and have mercy on me as I do others! Whew, Forgive me as I forgive others! Double whew. That’s the truth of the word, if I do not forgive, neither will I be forgiven. God is not looking at degrees. We’ve got to remove the degrees.
(P.S. I sent an apology e-mail, humbly asking forgiveness for any offense caused by my business- the apology was accepted with sincere apology for the quick put down and threat to spread a bad word about us! Praise God for loving favor.)
Because of the angels? God angels or evil angels? Both! There is a very alive spirit world and all things in our natural world are swayed by the supernatural world. Why would I care about what I do or don’t do, who I serve or don’t serve? Whether my head is "covered" or not? Who I serve or don’t? It will be very clear on a day when we stand before God, all we did not see or refused to see will be revealed and it will be as "clear as day" and we will regret ever having not seen what God has told us to look at in our lives here on earth. Why is it not an easy road? Because it is a battle between God’s and satan’s. We’ve got to take sides and stand firm. Then there’s that verse that says if we don’t or won’t choose a side it has already been chosen by the host of the sway of evil. Why should I be in and honor the hardest thing there is to stay in? Because when I do I honor the very nature and character of God. Marriage on all levels, whether in business, whether in church, whether in relationship is a covenant. God is a covenant KEEPing God, satan is a covenant breaking god. Satisfaction is found in Him and only Him. The sway causes us to think or hope we can get it elsewhere, but its ways will always fail us, he will never leave us, never fail us! Money and its love WILL fail us, will leave us. If we choose it above God, we have chosen "sides". What do you think it means when it says, "Let us go outside of the camp"? I believe it is referring to how we can follow Him, by forsaking the sway of the world’s pull, by saying no to its call. "Be successful, get rich, spend more time away from your family, leave your family, find out who you are by how physically disciplined you can be, be the "best" of the world, by the world’s standards, etc, etc" At that we must go outside of the "camp" and be who He has called us to be no matter what the other voices are saying. That takes covenant commitment and a lot of faith in Him and His voice and His call and His will. We’ve got to know who he is, what He did, who He loves and why we are here. It is a spiritual battle in the "heavenly" realm on earth for eternity’s sake! In covenants there is a covenant mark, a scar, a wedding ring, something to mark one for the covenant. In the spirit the forces of good & evil look for the mark of the Lord Jesus on us, look for a people covenantally committed to His work, not casual friends who say Hi and Bye. When marked with covenant scars we are in the force that cannot be reckoned with. There ARE more that are WITH us than of those who come against us! Amen.