Hebrews 13 I Delight to Do Your Will Oh God!

Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.

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Hebrews 13
Concluding Words
1 Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters.[a] 2 Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it! 3 Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt 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 Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said,

“I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.”[b] 6 So we can say with confidence,
“The Lord is my helper, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?”[c]

7 Remember your leaders who taught you the word of God. Think of all the good that has come from their lives, and follow the example of their faith.
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 9 So do not be attracted by strange, new ideas. Your strength comes from God’s grace, not from rules about food, which don’t help those who follow them.
10 We have an altar from which the priests in the Tabernacle[d] have no right to eat. 11 Under the old system, the high priest brought the blood of animals into the Holy Place as a sacrifice for sin, and the bodies of the animals were burned outside the camp. 12 So also Jesus suffered and died outside the city gates to make his people holy by means of 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 permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come.
15 Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name. 16 And don’t forget to do good and to share with those in need. These are the sacrifices that please God.
17 Obey your spiritual leaders, and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this with joy 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 And especially pray that I will be able to come back to you soon.
20 Now may the God of peace—who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus,the great Shepherd of the sheep, and ratified an eternal covenant with his blood—21 may he equip you with all you need for doing his will. May he produce in you,[e] through the power of Jesus Christ, every good thing that is pleasing to him. All glory to him forever and ever! Amen.
22 I urge you, dear brothers and sisters,[f] to pay attention to what I have written in this brief exhortation.
23 I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been released from jail. If he comes here soon, I will bring him with me to see you.
24 Greet all your leaders and all the believers there.[g] The believers from Italy send you their greetings.
25 May God’s grace be with you all.
Footnotes:
a. Hebrews 13:1 Greek Continue in brotherly love.
b. Hebrews 13:5 Deut 31:6, 8.
c. Hebrews 13:6 Ps 118:6.
d. Hebrews 13:10 Or tent.
e. Hebrews 13:21 Some manuscripts read in us.
f. Hebrews 13:22 Greek brothers.
g. Hebrews 13:24 Greek all of God’s holy people.

~ Lena’s Journalin’~
If you look up the word for “adultery” in the Greek Strong’s it takes on a whole new meaning, especially where the walk of faith is concerned. The definition is “faithless towards God”. Remember in Hebrews 11 it says it is impossible to please God without faith? In Romans 14 it says, “Whatever is not of faith is sin”. Why is all of that so crucial? Well. When we follow after God we are following by faith in pretty much what and who we do not tangibly see. When we obey Him, we obey what we do not see and may not see the reward of until we leave earth. We walk a walk of faith in God. Obeying His word is done in faith. Adultery is not just for a man and a woman, we are the bride espoused to Christ. We are one with Him, are in relationship with Him and are the expression of His Body, we re-present Him to and in the earth.
So committing adultery takes on a whole new light here. Do we have faith for our covenant relationships outside of our personal relationship with God? Like do we have faith for our natural marriages, or for our relationships with people at church? How about our co-worker and employer relationships? If not, we may have to examine and judge that situation and bring faith to it, lest it be judged faithless.
The word “judged” here does not so much mean “sentenced”, but it is close to that. It says, ”has a valid reason to be against”, “counted as an enemy of”, that sounds like “I do not know you”, for If I knew you, it would be because of your faith….
To be in or stay in any relationship, we have to be in it by faith. Ok, so we are in it and it goes awry, but we’re now married, what then? Have faith. Have FAITH in whom? In the relationship, yourself, or your spouse? No, in God and in His word. Faith in and for what you do not see, this pleases God!
Don’t LOVE money, does not mean don’t have any. It means don’t trust it, rely on it, count on it, or love and serve it. I think the number one reason we hear that people can’t or won’t come to church or Bible Study or prayer meetings is that they HAVE to WORK. Think about it in principle and not in practicality. Take a moment and look at it with kingdom glasses.
You get Born Again. It is not magic, it is the very beginning of a lifelong relationship with God. If you quit, you’ve divorced the faith, you are no longer in relationship with God. Relationships take a lot of time to build. You walked one way, now you walk with God, to do that takes time. God gives us a hint to make it work. Seek My kingdom and My righteousness first and everything you ever need will be added to you. That takes a tremendous amount of trust. You can never add that up, ever. He says give tithe, off the top, before you pay your bills and go have fun or get pleasure and rest from all of your hard work. That never adds up. Yet if you never do these things your new life walk never adds up and you wonder why? You said you’d give your life to Christ, but you’re not, that’s why it isn’t working.
Ok back to making money. You say you have to work, you’re too busy because of work, and you’re too tired from working. God, His house, His word, worship, fellowship and being with the body to grow is NOT happening for you, you don’t have time for this. Bottom line, if we don’t make the time, do it anyway, tired or not, make a decision to do it no matter, it won’t work and pretty much God has no time for that. He can see what is more important to you. Then again, if you do it grudgingly and because you have to, that’s religious and it is not in faith and so it is not blessed either. This is a faith-walk.
I have seen many determined people decide to work it out where working their income is concerned, telling their bosses what is as important to them as their jobs. I’ve seen switches in schedules and times all happen in faith and be oh so blessed by God. He blesses us when we believe His word enough to do it. Seek first….I do that and I have favor at work. Many times I’ve heard people say, I never thought to ask my boss, or tell my boss what was important on Sundays or Wednesdays and when I did it was so easily rewarded me. Ask and you shall receive. That is a witness to a boss, for someone to say. God is #1 w/me. If you say that, you need to be sure and do it too. I’ve also seen people decide that they have to quit a certain job that would not give them the leeway they desired and God gave them a new job that would. The question is, is my present job the source of my needs being met, or is God my source?
How often do you bless those who lead you in the way of faith, those who plant the word into you and explain it to you? How often do you bless them with your tongue? How often do you work a bit over on no –church days, to give them some money? Remember them. The best best gift of all, where a leader is concerned, is to follow him, do what he’s teaching you to do. Don’t pick and choose so much. It will not hurt you to try something a new way, really. Leaders are not good leaders without good followers.
The hardest thing for any leader is a rebellious, prideful and resistant “follower”. It causes the leader to feel like a failure. It makes them think to quit, which would not be good for us. It is not easy sailing to lead, especially when those being “led” won’t follow! The main reason people don’t follow is they have a difference of opinion. How about the laying down of one’s opinions for another? That’s love exemplified. Believe me, the leaders do that all the time.
There are so many things in life we need. Most are self serving in nature. They’re our day to day comforts and helps. We do have to live and stay nourished etc, but the reason we are here is for Him, for our service unto Him. Paul prays we’ll have all we need to do His will. What kinds of things do we need to do His will? Things like Faith, a willing heart, motivation, boldness, confidence, direction, provision, vision, desire, love, etc.
I pray you have all you need to do His will and that you are willing to do it.

Daily Thought to Ponder -
“Oh Give Thanks to the Lord for He is Good!”