Hebrews 3, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: YOU AREN’T ALONE

Are you convinced that no one cares, that no one can help you, hear you, or heed your call? If you know the feeling, you aren’t alone. I don’t mean you aren’t alone in knowing the feeling. I mean you aren’t alone, my friend. That raw, dark sense of isolation and powerlessness? It’s not here to stay. If you think it’s up to you and you ain’t much, John the apostle has some stories for you to ponder. He interwove a tapestry of miracles that were “written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31).

That’s God’s goal for you: life! Life-giving belief. Abundant, robust, and resilient faith. We find strength beyond our strength. We see solutions beyond our wisdom. Remember, friends, you are never alone.

Hebrews 3

The Centerpiece of All We Believe

So, my dear Christian friends, companions in following this call to the heights, take a good hard look at Jesus. He’s the centerpiece of everything we believe, faithful in everything God gave him to do. Moses was also faithful, but Jesus gets far more honor. A builder is more valuable than a building any day. Every house has a builder, but the Builder behind them all is God. Moses did a good job in God’s house, but it was all servant work, getting things ready for what was to come. Christ as Son is in charge of the house.

6-11 Now, if we can only keep a firm grip on this bold confidence, we’re the house! That’s why the Holy Spirit says,

Today, please listen;
    don’t turn a deaf ear as in “the bitter uprising,”
    that time of wilderness testing!
Even though they watched me at work for forty years,
    your ancestors refused to let me do it my way;
    over and over they tried my patience.
And I was provoked, oh, so provoked!
    I said, “They’ll never keep their minds on God;
    they refuse to walk down my road.”
Exasperated, I vowed,
    “They’ll never get where they’re going,
    never be able to sit down and rest.”

12-14 So watch your step, friends. Make sure there’s no evil unbelief lying around that will trip you up and throw you off course, diverting you from the living God. For as long as it’s still God’s Today, keep each other on your toes so sin doesn’t slow down your reflexes. If we can only keep our grip on the sure thing we started out with, we’re in this with Christ for the long haul.

These words keep ringing in our ears:

Today, please listen;
    don’t turn a deaf ear as in the bitter uprising.

15-19 For who were the people who turned a deaf ear? Weren’t they the very ones Moses led out of Egypt? And who was God provoked with for forty years? Wasn’t it those who turned a deaf ear and ended up corpses in the wilderness? And when he swore that they’d never get where they were going, wasn’t he talking to the ones who turned a deaf ear? They never got there because they never listened, never believed.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Monday, September 14, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:

Revelation 21:1–5

A New Heaven and a New Earth

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”[a] for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’[b] or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

Footnotes
Revelation 21:1 Isaiah 65:17
Revelation 21:4 Isaiah 25:8

Insight
Today’s passage gives us a glimpse of heaven, describing it as a physical place (vv. 1–2). Jesus said He was going to prepare a place for us (John 14:2–3), and this promise is fulfilled in the New Jerusalem, the Holy City (Revelation 21:2). While it’s a great comfort that heaven is a perfect place (v. 4), the most important thing is that it’s the dwelling place of God (v. 3). In this final vision of the beginning of eternity (21:1–22:9), John hears Christ declaring, “It is done” (21:6). The New Living Translation renders it, “It is finished!” echoing Christ’s victorious cry from the cross (John 19:30). Sin’s curse will one day be completely removed and reversed (Revelation 21:4–5; see Genesis 3:16–19).

Goodbyes and Hellos
God himself will be with them and be their God. “He will wipe every tear from their eyes.” Revelation 21:3–4

When my brother David suddenly died of cardiac failure, my perspectives on life changed dramatically. Dave was the fourth of seven children, but he was the first of us to pass—and the unexpected nature of that passing gave me much to ponder. It became apparent that as age began to catch up with us, our family’s future was going to be marked more by loss than by gain. It was going to be characterized as much by goodbyes as hellos.

None of this was a surprise intellectually—that is just how life works. But this realization was an emotional lightning bolt to the brain. It gave a fresh, new significance to every moment life gives us and every opportunity time allows. And it placed a huge new value on the reality of a future reunion, where no goodbyes will ever be needed.

This ultimate reality is at the heart of what we find in Revelation 21:3–4: “God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Though today we may find ourselves experiencing seasons of long goodbyes, our trust in Christ’s death and resurrection promises an eternity of hellos. By:  Bill Crowder

Reflect & Pray
How do you cope with grief and the loss of loved ones? What comfort does it bring to know that you will one day see them again?

Father, I thank You that You’re the living God who gives everlasting life. I pray that You would use our eternal hope to comfort us in our seasons of loss and grief.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, September 14, 2020
Arguments or Obedience
…the simplicity that is in Christ.  —2 Corinthians 11:3

Simplicity is the secret to seeing things clearly. A saint does not think clearly until a long time passes, but a saint ought to see clearly without any difficulty. You cannot think through spiritual confusion to make things clear; to make things clear, you must obey. In intellectual matters you can think things out, but in spiritual matters you will only think yourself into further wandering thoughts and more confusion. If there is something in your life upon which God has put His pressure, then obey Him in that matter. Bring all your “arguments and…every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” regarding the matter, and everything will become as clear as daylight to you (2 Corinthians 10:5). Your reasoning capacity will come later, but reasoning is not how we see. We see like children, and when we try to be wise we see nothing (see Matthew 11:25).

Even the very smallest thing that we allow in our lives that is not under the control of the Holy Spirit is completely sufficient to account for spiritual confusion, and spending all of our time thinking about it will still never make it clear. Spiritual confusion can only be conquered through obedience. As soon as we obey, we have discernment. This is humiliating, because when we are confused we know that the reason lies in the state of our mind. But when our natural power of sight is devoted and submitted in obedience to the Holy Spirit, it becomes the very power by which we perceive God’s will, and our entire life is kept in simplicity.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

The sympathy which is reverent with what it cannot understand is worth its weight in gold.  Baffled to Fight Better, 69 L

Bible in a Year: Proverbs 19-21; 2 Corinthians 7

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, September 14, 2020
Happy Delays - #8786

I was at the end of seven weeks of ministry travel and, believe me, I was really anxious to be home. Delays, of course, are just a part of air travel and I'm used to them, and I'm usually patient with them. But when they announced that the very last leg of my journey home was going to be significantly delayed, that was a test of my patience. Every half hour, they would tell us that they would get another update in another half hour. I knew the plane was there, the crew was there, all those passengers were sure there, but the flight just kept getting postponed. My homing instinct was going crazy.

When we were finally boarded and about to take off, the pilot explained what had been taking so long. He said, "Just before we were going to board you, our mechanics found a problem with two of our tires in a routine maintenance check. We had to replace both tires." Hmm...well, I have actually been on a plane that blew a tire on takeoff one time - a potentially life-threatening situation. So all of a sudden I was surprisingly grateful for the delay that had been so frustrating.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Happy Delays."

Now, there was a very good reason for that particular airline delay. I have to tell you, the airlines don't always have a good reason for their delays, but God always does.

The Old Testament prophet Habakkuk had been waiting a long time, by his reckoning anyway, for God to come through with an answer to his impassioned prayers. Our word for today from the Word of God is the word that God gave to his prophet in that situation and maybe to you right now. In Habakkuk 2:3, the Lord says, "The revelation awaits an appointed time...Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay."

Habakkuk, like us, thought God was already delaying his answer. But God was saying, "It's not time until it's My time, Habakkuk. That's the right time. And it won't be a minute late when it's time. So cooleth your jets even if your flight is delayed considerably longer. It will certainly come, and it will come right on time."

That day when our flight was delayed due to replacing some faulty tires, I couldn't help but reflect on the ways of God over and over in my life. How often has He seemed to be taking forever, delaying the answer I'd been praying for. But in every situation, without exception, there was always a good reason for what seemed like a delay. And, like those mechanics whose work delayed my flight, God isn't always taking time to make it better for us. He's getting a perfect answer ready for you...He's getting you ready for the answer...He's doing it in the time and the way that will most amaze you and those around you. He's doing it in the way it will give Him the greatest glory and you the greatest good. And in the time and the way that will best help you become more like His Son, Jesus.

I told the staff member who was traveling with me on the day of the tire delays, "Do you know what we were just experiencing? That is the answer to all those prayers for our safety that people pray for us every day." (By the way, if you happen to be one of those, thank you, thank you, thank you!) They were praying, and God responded to their prayers by getting bad tires changed on our plane. That's pretty cool!

I can't begin to see all the incredible purposes of God, the unexplainable ways of God, but I can begin to settle down and trust that any delay - that every delay is for my good and for His glory. And when I finally do see some of His reasons for the delay, I will be so grateful that He took His time!