Hebrews 9 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: OUR EVER-PRESENT HELP IN TROUBLE

The father may have thought he was walking the road to Capernaum all alone. Quite the contrary. Christ had supernaturally gone into the nobleman’s residence and not only healed the son, but also won the hearts of the entire household. Was the father’s prayer answered? By all means. It was answered in a manner greater than he had requested.

Yours will be as well. Perhaps the answer will come this side of heaven. Perhaps it awaits you on the other side. Either way, this story urges you and me to keep walking and believing in our God who is our “ever-present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1 NIV). Ever present. You’ll never be put on hold or told to check back later. Ever present. As near as your next breath. Ever present help. He is here to help. That’s the message of this miracle, and that’s the message of the Gospel. Remember, friends, you are never alone.

Hebrews 9

A Visible Parable

That first plan contained directions for worship, and a specially designed place of worship. A large outer tent was set up. The lampstand, the table, and “the bread of presence” were placed in it. This was called “the Holy Place.” Then a curtain was stretched, and behind it a smaller, inside tent set up. This was called “the Holy of Holies.” In it were placed the gold incense altar and the gold-covered ark of the covenant containing the gold urn of manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, the covenant tablets, and the angel-wing-shadowed mercy seat. But we don’t have time to comment on these now.

6-10 After this was set up, the priests went about their duties in the large tent. Only the high priest entered the smaller, inside tent, and then only once a year, offering a blood sacrifice for his own sins and the people’s accumulated sins. This was the Holy Spirit’s way of showing with a visible parable that as long as the large tent stands, people can’t just walk in on God. Under this system, the gifts and sacrifices can’t really get to the heart of the matter, can’t assuage the conscience of the people, but are limited to matters of ritual and behavior. It’s essentially a temporary arrangement until a complete overhaul could be made.

Pointing to the Realities of Heaven
11-15 But when the Messiah arrived, high priest of the superior things of this new covenant, he bypassed the old tent and its trappings in this created world and went straight into heaven’s “tent”—the true Holy Place—once and for all. He also bypassed the sacrifices consisting of goat and calf blood, instead using his own blood as the price to set us free once and for all. If that animal blood and the other rituals of purification were effective in cleaning up certain matters of our religion and behavior, think how much more the blood of Christ cleans up our whole lives, inside and out. Through the Spirit, Christ offered himself as an unblemished sacrifice, freeing us from all those dead-end efforts to make ourselves respectable, so that we can live all out for God.

16-17 Like a will that takes effect when someone dies, the new covenant was put into action at Jesus’ death. His death marked the transition from the old plan to the new one, canceling the old obligations and accompanying sins, and summoning the heirs to receive the eternal inheritance that was promised them. He brought together God and his people in this new way.

18-22 Even the first plan required a death to set it in motion. After Moses had read out all the terms of the plan of the law—God’s “will”—he took the blood of sacrificed animals and, in a solemn ritual, sprinkled the document and the people who were its beneficiaries. And then he attested its validity with the words, “This is the blood of the covenant commanded by God.” He did the same thing with the place of worship and its furniture. Moses said to the people, “This is the blood of the covenant God has established with you.” Practically everything in a will hinges on a death. That’s why blood, the evidence of death, is used so much in our tradition, especially regarding forgiveness of sins.

23-26 That accounts for the prominence of blood and death in all these secondary practices that point to the realities of heaven. It also accounts for why, when the real thing takes place, these animal sacrifices aren’t needed anymore, having served their purpose. For Christ didn’t enter the earthly version of the Holy Place; he entered the Place Itself, and offered himself to God as the sacrifice for our sins. He doesn’t do this every year as the high priests did under the old plan with blood that was not their own; if that had been the case, he would have to sacrifice himself repeatedly throughout the course of history. But instead he sacrificed himself once and for all, summing up all the other sacrifices in this sacrifice of himself, the final solution of sin.

27-28 Everyone has to die once, then face the consequences. Christ’s death was also a one-time event, but it was a sacrifice that took care of sins forever. And so, when he next appears, the outcome for those eager to greet him is, precisely, salvation.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Friday, October 02, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:

John 10:22–30

Further Conflict Over Jesus’ Claims

Then came the Festival of Dedication[a] at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon’s Colonnade. 24 The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”

25 Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all[b]; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”

Insight
The Festival of Dedication, also known as Hanukkah or the Feast of Lights, celebrates the rededication of the temple in 164 bc after it had been desecrated by the Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes in 167 bc. It’s in this context that Jesus says, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30), which recalls the central belief of Judaism known as the shema, “The Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4). By recalling the shema, Jesus identifies Himself with the God of Israel. For Jesus to be one with the Father is nothing less than a claim to deity.

He Won’t Let Us Go
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. John 10:28

Julio was biking across the George Washington Bridge—a busy, double-decked thoroughfare connecting New York City and New Jersey—when he encountered a life-or-death situation. A man was standing on a ledge over the Hudson River preparing to jump. Knowing that the police wouldn’t arrive in time, Julio acted quickly. He recalls getting off his bike and spreading out his arms, saying something like: “Don’t do it. We love you.” Then, like a shepherd with a crook, he grabbed the distraught man, and with the help of another passerby, brought him to safety. According to reports, Julio wouldn’t let go of the man, even after he was safe.  

Two millennia earlier, in a life-or-death situation, Jesus, the Good Shepherd, said He would lay down His life to save and never let go of those who believed in Him. He summarized how He would bless His sheep: they would know Him personally, have the gift of eternal life, would never perish, and would be secure in His care. This security didn’t depend on the ability of the frail and feeble sheep, but on the sufficiency of the Shepherd who’ll never let one be snatched “out of [His] hand” (John 10:28–29).

When we were distraught and feeling hopeless, Jesus rescued us; now we can feel safe and secure in our relationship with Him. He loves us, pursues us, finds us, saves us, and promises to never let us go. By:  Marvin Williams

Reflect & Pray
What makes you feel insecure in your relationship with Jesus? How do you feel knowing that your security in Him depends on His sufficiency and not your weakness?

Jesus, when I let go of You because of my sin, You never let go of me because of Your grace.

To learn more about Jesus’ offer of salvation and His resurrection, visit ChristianUniversity.org/CA206.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, October 02, 2020
The Place of Humiliation
If You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us. —Mark 9:22

After every time of exaltation, we are brought down with a sudden rush into things as they really are, where it is neither beautiful, poetic, nor thrilling. The height of the mountaintop is measured by the dismal drudgery of the valley, but it is in the valley that we have to live for the glory of God. We see His glory on the mountain, but we never live for His glory there. It is in the place of humiliation that we find our true worth to God— that is where our faithfulness is revealed. Most of us can do things if we are always at some heroic level of intensity, simply because of the natural selfishness of our own hearts. But God wants us to be at the drab everyday level, where we live in the valley according to our personal relationship with Him. Peter thought it would be a wonderful thing for them to remain on the mountain, but Jesus Christ took the disciples down from the mountain and into the valley, where the true meaning of the vision was explained (see Mark 9:5-6, Mark 9:14-23).

“If you can do anything….” It takes the valley of humiliation to remove the skepticism from us. Look back at your own experience and you will find that until you learned who Jesus really was, you were a skillful skeptic about His power. When you were on the mountaintop you could believe anything, but what about when you were faced with the facts of the valley? You may be able to give a testimony regarding your sanctification, but what about the thing that is a humiliation to you right now? The last time you were on the mountain with God, you saw that all the power in heaven and on earth belonged to Jesus— will you be skeptical now, simply because you are in the valley of humiliation?

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

It is perilously possible to make our conceptions of God like molten lead poured into a specially designed mould, and when it is cold and hard we fling it at the heads of the religious people who don’t agree with us.
Disciples Indeed

Bible in a Year: Isaiah 14-16; Ephesians 5:1-16

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, October 02, 2020
Trapped Where You Don't Want To Be - #8800

It seemed harmless enough when I entered. I was just a kid at an amusement park in Chicago, and the ride was just this big cylinder that made you feel like you were walking into a washing machine. They called it The Rotor. I stood against the edge and I waited for it to do its thing. Then it started to do what something called The Rotor might be expected to do - it rotated. As it began to spin faster and faster, the floor started to disappear in front of my feet. I was plastered against the side of that cylinder, looking down into this yawning black hole. I hated it. I wanted off. Too bad!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Trapped Where You Don't Want To Be."

It's one thing to be stuck on a ride you really don't want to be on. It's something else to be stuck in a life you really don't want to be in. And a lot of people are; sometimes, people that might surprise you.

I read a few years ago in this national magazine a candid interview with a guy that they called at that time "TV's hottest action hero." He was starring in one of the most successful, talked about shows on American television, but he seemed to be on a ride he really didn't want to be on. Too often, his feelings of being as he said "trapped" and "caged," cause it actually caused him to revert to alcohol for some relief. Here's how he felt about it in his own words. "I should be able to wake up in the morning without going, 'Oh, no! Where's my boot?' Or, 'Where am I?' Or 'One of my friends didn't happen to bring my car home, did they?' It's not a very clever way to live, and I don't want to live like that." This admirably successful star went on to say: "I have a few drinks and I'm not so worried about tomorrow and I'm not thinking about yesterday. Then the next day, I go, 'Oh, don't let me do that again.' So why do I do it again, and again, and again?"

His battle echoes the battle raging in a lot of hearts; the feeling of being trapped in a cycle that's going nowhere and leaving us disappointed or even disgusted. It's not a new struggle. One of the writers of the Bible, Paul, wrote these words in Romans 7, beginning in verse 15. It's our word for today from the Word of God. "I do not understand what I do...I have the desire to do good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing...Who will rescue me?"

There's a me I want to be, and then there's the me I am. In between is this darkness that I can't overcome. I think we all know that feeling. That darkness has got a name. The Bible calls it sin. We're trapped in a cycle of doing things we know we shouldn't do, treating people ways we later regret--especially people we love, and of handling life in ways that hurt us and hurt other people.

And, as the Bible writer suggests, our only hope is spiritual rescue. We can't get ourselves out of our sin. We can't get ourselves out of the hell that is the eternal death penalty for our sin. We need a rescuer. Paul goes on to answer his "who will rescue me?" question, with these words, "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!"

Sin's power could only be broken by a sacrifice that was even more powerful--the death of Jesus Christ, God's Son, on the cross. He gave His life there to pay for my sin and to break its hold on me and on you. Three days later, He demonstrated His supreme power by walking out of His grave. Death couldn't hold Him, and now He stands ready to walk into your life with all that love and all that power so you can be forgiven for every sin and be rescued from sin's cycle of defeat and despair.

But you do have to grab the Rescuer and let Him rescue you. He's waiting to do just that this very day. It's a matter of you talking to Him and saying, "Jesus, I'm tired of my sin. I'm ready to turn from my sin and turn to You as my only hope. You died to rescue me. And here I am." That's how your new beginning happens.

Listen, if you want to begin this incredibly life-changing relationship with Him, would you go to our website? I think it will give you information you need to get this settled. It's ANewStory.com.

Things don't have to be the way they've always been. Jesus died so you could be free, and He's waiting to do for you what only He can do.