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Seven months ago, we began a journey to understand what it means to love what God loves and hate what He hates. That journey has brought us to the discovery that God’s soul has no pleasure in those who pursue life according to their own agenda. While I doubt we have arrived at our final destination, the place we now find ourselves is surprising. Not so much in the description of those with whom …
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So, we have spent the last 11 weeks reviewing the The Story, to understand the background of the warning of Hebrews 10.
As the story unfolded, we found three key developments.
Life
When The Story began, we had Life. That is, our existence had meaning.
We had an identity. We were created to represent God – to bear His image. When you look at us, you were to see Him. We were somebody.
We also had significance. As His …
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So, if I get to go to heaven simply by trusting Jesus for forgiveness, and if this discipleship-thing is so demanding, why go to all the trouble? Sure, it might make me a “better person,” but I’d rather do my own thing. And, if we’re Christians, we’re all going to end up in the same place anyway. Yeah, a really committed Christian might get a few extra perks, but the difference is not really …
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So Jesus comes as the Christ, announcing the Kingdom, and calling individuals to follow Him as disciples. How does this discipleship fit and what is involved?
Let’s begin with John’s statement that if we believe that Jesus is the Christ, we will have Life (John 20:30-31). And as we saw last week, when Jesus appeared as the Christ, He called individuals to follow as His disciples. Does that mean that we have to be His …
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So, when the Christ shows up, what does He do, and what kind of response does He require?
Well, two emphases dominate Jesus’ ministry from the very beginning.
Matthew and Mark summarize the first of these with the statement that Jesus began to proclaim that the Kingdom of God was at hand (Matthew 4:17; Mark 1:14-15). Our minds tend to interpret this in light of our modern Christian experience, and probably envision something along the lines …
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We have journeyed through the Old Testament, tracing the hope held out since man decided to pursue life on his own terms. Following it through the millennia, we have seen the hope grow from a glimmer in Genesis 3:15 into a full-blown image with surprising detail. By the time we get through The Prophets, we are able to put together the following description –
He will crush the Enemy who challenged God’s Kingdom on earth.
He …
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So far, this little journey to understand what is going on in Hebrews 10 has turned into an expedition that is in its seventh week. Seems like we have been talking about this forever. In fact, it’s hard to remember why we are here, or where we are going. Wait. What was the question?
Oh, yeah. We are talking about the “pleasure of God’s soul” in Hebrews 10:38-39 –
“But My righteous one shall live by …
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(Note – Some of the material in this article is taken from the previous article – “Looking For ‘The Kingdom’”, and presented here, in the context of the flow of the story.)
There is much background behind Hebrews 10. But we are making progress.
Beginning in the Garden, and moving through Noah, God’s covenant with Abraham, and most recently, His covenant with Israel, given through Moses, we have seen several key developments in the Story –
The …
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Yep. Hebrews 10 is still our destination.
In our re-examination of the story, we have moved from the Garden, through Noah and the Flood, to God’s covenant with Abraham. At this point in the story, we have learned that The One Who Is Coming to crush the Enemy will indeed bring, not simply relief from the curse, but, in it’s place blessing.
And so, Abraham begets Isaac, and Isaac, Jacob. Jacob is renamed “Israel”, and it …
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No . . . I haven’t forgotten about Hebrews 10.
But, if we want to understand the warning found there, it’s going to take more than a quick reading of the text, and a few background comments. For most of us, it’s going to require a significant development in our understanding of what God is up to.
In re-examining the Story, we have begun to see that God is about the recovery of all that was …
