Hebrews 10 Today w/ Long Journalin' :-)

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God Bless You Today, Lena B

Hebrews 10
Christ's Sacrifice Once for All
1The old system in the law of Moses was only a shadow of the things to come, not the reality of the good things Christ has done for us. The sacrifices under the old system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship. 2If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared.
3But just the opposite happened. Those yearly sacrifices reminded them of their sins year after year. 4For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. 5That is why Christ, when he came into the world, said,
"You did not want animal sacrifices and grain offerings. But you have given me a body so that I may obey you.
6 No, you were not pleased with animals burned on the altar or with other offerings for sin.
7 Then I said, 'Look, I have come to do your will, O God— just as it is written about me in the Scriptures.'" F43
8Christ said, "You did not want animal sacrifices or grain offerings or animals burned on the altar or other offerings for sin, nor were you pleased with them" (though they are required by the law of Moses). 9Then he added, "Look, I have come to do your will." He cancels the first covenant in order to establish the second. 10And what God wants is for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time.
11Under the old covenant, the priest stands before the altar day after day, offering sacrifices that can never take away sins. 12But our High Priest offered himself to God as one sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down at the place of highest honor at God's right hand. 13There he waits until his enemies are humbled as a footstool under his feet. 14For by that one offering he perfected forever all those whom he is making holy.
15And the Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so. First he says,
16 "This is the new covenant I will make with my people on that day, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts so they will understand them, and I will write them on their minds so they will obey them."
17Then he adds, "I will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds." F44
18Now when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices.
A Call to Persevere
19And so, dear brothers and sisters, F45 we can boldly enter heaven's Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. 20This is the new, life-giving way that Christ has opened up for us through the sacred curtain, by means of his death for us. F46
21And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God's people, 22let us go right into the presence of God, with true hearts fully trusting him. For our evil consciences have been sprinkled with Christ's blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.
23Without wavering, let us hold tightly to the hope we say we have, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. 24Think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds. 25And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near.
26Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received a full knowledge of the truth, there is no other sacrifice that will cover these sins. 27There will be nothing to look forward to but the terrible expectation of God's judgment and the raging fire that will consume his enemies. 28Anyone who refused to obey the law of Moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29Think how much more terrible the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the Son of God and have treated the blood of the covenant as if it were common and unholy. Such people have insulted and enraged the Holy Spirit who brings God's mercy to his people.
30For we know the one who said, "I will take vengeance. I will repay those who deserve it."
He also said, "The Lord will judge his own people." F47
31It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
32Don't ever forget those early days when you first learned about Christ. Remember how you remained faithful even though it meant terrible suffering. 33Sometimes you were exposed to public ridicule and were beaten, and sometimes you helped others who were suffering the same things. 34You suffered along with those who were thrown into jail. When all you owned was taken from you, you accepted it with joy. You knew you had better things waiting for you in eternity.
35Do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord, no matter what happens. Remember the great reward it brings you! 36Patient endurance is what you need now, so you will continue to do God's will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.
37 "For in just a little while, the Coming One will come and not delay.
38 And a righteous person will live by faith. But I will have no pleasure in anyone who turns away." F48
39But we are not like those who turn their backs on God and seal their fate. We have faith that assures our salvation.

FOOTNOTES:
F43: Ps 40:6-8.
F44: Jer 31:33-34.
F45: Greek brothers.
F46: Greek his flesh.
F47: Deut 32:35-36.
F48: Hab 2:3-4.

Lena’s Journalin’

These OT sacrifices helped reveal to man his dire need for God’s spotless and blameless Son to come be the last and final payment of the debts we owed His Father. They showed our state of deadness and our need for becoming alive unto God as Our own Father. They were so hard to obey, and if one attempted to follow them now, they’d still be impossible to keep. The point there was no matter how hard one tries to be oh so good on his own, he cannot, alone.
Man needs a Savior. Jesus is the Savior, anyone who believes in his need for Him and relies on His work, with a new life lived by faith, showing it by jumping wholeheartedly into this chosen life of faith will be a beneficiary of the work He accomplished for mankind.
Man was never meant to be alone. He needed, pined for, longed for, became desperate for God’s Spirit of Life to live on the inside of his person. This was made possible to any who would believe in Christ Jesus and live willingly giving up rights to surrender to God’s will of Jesus being their Lord.
This benefit was made available to each and every person now alive on earth. If your mother or father or brother or sister has the spirit of life, it is great for them, but you still have the empty longing to make Jesus Lord personally, all emptiness felt in life is like an alarm system going off on the insides of each of us to say, Jesus is still waiting to be crowned personal Lord of your life. If He’s Lord of your relative, that’s good, but one is asking on the inside, is He Lord of me personally? This decision is only made in each man, woman, or child alive. It is a decision each person who will stand before God must make.
To make or offer a sacrifice is way easier to do than to live for God and obey Jesus as Your Lord, daily.
God is not well pleased with us only going through goodie religious activity. He’d like for us to do the things He asks, like going to church or giving tithes, but these actions are not what pleases Him. They rather help us grow. He wants our hearts and all of our hearts freely given over to His will, not because he makes us and we should, but because we know its best and we want what’s best. We want Him. The one that does these things because of a great appreciative love for His Son and what was done to demonstrate their love humanly is probably in love with God through revelation of the extent of the love of God given for us.
Jesus came to do the will of the Father and to invite many followers who would willingly be trained to do and be the same. He willingly said words of promise to His Father and then followed it up with action – He said, Father, I haven’t come just to make the sacrifice we agreed upon, but I came because of love, because of a deep love for Your will, because I love who You love and I want to do what You want to. We are One!
Jesus wanted for His Father to look upon His bruised, torn body and He was inwardly and through active faith saying, watch what I’ve done Father, look at how I follow My words with living action. Look Daddy, I’m doing whatever it takes that You’d have Your desire. I’m saving the world You love.
He made a way for the penalty, the death penalty to be erased from those who believe in and love and follow after Him. No one else could do that. No animal ever succeeded at it, but He did that finished work and offered its benefits to anyone who was willing to lay down their own agendas in life and follow His.
To these, who give of themselves and love freely, He gives new desires, desires that match His. Those who’s hearts are after His, get it.
The cross was the way to believe upon and receive the Lordship of Christ. It was the place I associate what He did for me personally, enough to know I needed to die there, but Oh SO thankful that He stepped in as me and paid it all for me. I willingly see that and it is my confession. I was a sinner in need of a Savior. I’d be willing to be charged with my own sin, and am so grateful He chose to step in and pay for it for me. I realize it cost a high price and eternal price. I could never ever afford it on my own ever.
I appreciate it so much that I now give my life, of my own free will to the use of God. I’m saved because of Him, not because of any good or right thing I’ve ever tried to do. The only real right thing I’m doing is yielding my whole life to God’s plans, His way. Not what I think the plans are or how they might fit my lifestyle or how glamorous I feel ministry may be or how noble I think traveling as a missionary is. I give it up, my way, I yield my own ideas, my opinions, my personal agendas, everyday, to become just as He is.
That was the cross. If it was not your cross experience, just bow right now and give it up today, allow today to be the new day. Then get up and go to Your Father, check in as a new man, an unselfish man, who may have thought coming to God was to comfort you or help you or whatever. It will comfort and help us, but that is way far away from the purpose for coming to God. I am crucified w/ Christ, nevertheless I live, BUT it is not I who now lives ( is most evidently alive in my life), I live by faith in the Son of God who saved me and gave His very life as a ransom for mine. Gal 2:20
The throne is the way to live, the place to stay. We don’t go back to the cross every time we sin or miss the mark or make a mistake or even will to do wrongly. We go straight to our Father. The cross was the way to the Father, to a restored relationship with God as Father. Now that Jesus restored us, we’re free to stand before God as Father and give daily accounts. To go back to the cross is to say you do not believe the cross was your bridge to God!
Jesus said I am the Way, the Truth, the Life, no man comes to the Father except by Me. If we don’t come through Him at the cross, dying to self, then we don’t go. Our sins keep us outside of the throne, they are eternal sins that need remitting, so we can stand eternally clean before an eternal Father who loves us and gives us grace to grow.
If your child has a heart after you and they mess us do you reject them? I so hope not. In fact the mess ups probably tell us they are at least trying to grow and we get a lot of joy out of seeing their growth. So we kiss the boo-boo and put them down to walk again, or we have a heart to heart talk, impart wisdom, look for human understanding, and tell them to try again. This is throne-room living. It’s like living in a family a good healthy loving family. God loves us, sent Jesus to pave a way so we could and would come to Him, wants a relationship, daily relationship with us. It’s time to call home!
We’ve been restored to a Fatherly relationship with God, a relationship that grows.
Jesus, and the angels and even the saints who have gone home to heaven before we do, are up in the heavenlees cheering us on, that we’ll see and know Him as He is and have such and inner desire and motivators to stay all the way and get deep into His earth plan by serving and loving. Part of learning, serving, and loving is being with the Body of Christ regularly, and giving wiling accounts of our faith walk and growth. God set men here for us to be face to face with to help one another grow. This NT scripture is not suggesting this to us only, it is stating that without this new active lifestyle, we will die spiritually, for we will have been born again, but will never grow without spiritual food and spiritual family members caring for us, or we’ll be greatly hindered in spiritual growth and maturity. Remember God did not make man to be alone.
God’s commands are always to benefit us, not to dictate life to us just to control us, no they are wisdom to help us, because He loves us so.
Yes He corrects us, wouldn’t you also correct who you love if you saw they were about to crash or they could get somewhere faster or more efficiently? Why do you offer help to those you love? You want what is best for them, you don’t like to see them waste time or money or go the long hard road to get somewhere. If God put that in us, we know He ‘s this way much more.
The entire word of God was sent to us, printed for us, translated for us, that we’d learn from someone else’s mistakes, and their wrong decisions, and so that we’d learn to desire to walk in obedience through love.
There’s always a test to every word of faith. The test is to see how real the words were to the actual speaker of the words. Were they words that even God can trust in and be associated with, or just tales, and wishes, or hopes at best?
In our end, it will not so much matter what we said we wanted to do or how we felt about the Bible or church, what will be the evidence of our life? What we did with His Son, with His Body, with His word.