Morning Musings with the boys at breakfast...
Please read Hebrews 13:1-16
Entertaining strangers...have you ever had that joy? I have, numerous times over. What a joy and blessing to turn those strangers into friends! Blessed wonderful friendships and fellowship that have afforded lasting, mutually enriching relationships and pleasure.
I can't say whether any of those stranger-friends were actual angels in disguise but they certainly, at least most of them, were/are angelic in character. So do 'reach out and touch someone' today...you just never know what marvelous outcome surprise package awaits.While entertaining strangers, the Hebrews were also exhorted to remember their brothers and sisters-in-Christ who were in prison. Paul, Peter, and John among 100's of others have been imprisoned for their faith in Jesus Christ at one time or another. Some have had prolonged captivity. This type of persecution has never stopped throughout the ages and is still ongoing in many countries today. We too can remember them in prayer. We can find Christian organizations who do actually engage in the hands-on, at ground level remembrance. They do the actual visiting and/or helping of the families of the prisoner: helping with food, clothing, livelihoods and etc. Donate to these causes and smother them in prayer. Consider hands-on helping yourself; Google: Good Samaritan; World Vision; Barnabas Aid Fund; Voice of the Martyrs among others, who reach out to our more afflicted family of God for information on how you can be of service.
Pray. Donate. Go and give hands-on help. This is all part of Christian living and remembering those who are in bonds.
Perhaps you know of some in such dire need of financial help or even of moral support in the area where you live. Find out. You may have to develop a covert op to bring aid but ask God for wisdom in so doing. Get advice from other trusted people of God. Remember them as being "imprisoned...and mistreated" with them. Empathize as much as possible.
The "entertaining strangers" and the "remembering those in prison" seem to have been written all in one breath. So as we "entertain strangers" understand that some of those "strangers" may well be those in prison, and their families. Ponder on it towards positive, helpful action.
Keep marriage sacred before and after the nuptials, the Hebrews are next admonished. That's right, only engage in that close intimacy allowed within the marriage context with your own spouse. "God judges the adulterer and all the sexually immoral" (v 4). As 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 states, all such as these do not have a place in the kingdom of heaven. However some of them had repented. We, too, should we fall into such sin, have recourse with God if and when we confess it to Him in repentance and gain His forgiveness (1 John 1:9).
Virginity is a most precious treasure and gift one could give to one's spouse on their wedding day. Guard it well. Guarding the sanctity of marriage thereafter is an ongoing gift.
Take note that it is God who judges a person, not me or anyone else doing the judging. It's a serious matter to Him.
Next on the list, the writer of Hebrews exhorts them to "keep your lives from the love of $$". "Be content with what you have" (Philippians 4:11 and Hebrews 13:5). Don't let the love of $$ rule you as it would then be your god and cause you to sin.
When a person is content with what they have they can then realize that "God will never leave them nor forsake them" (v5). Money can come and go plenty quickly if one is not careful. It is reassuring to know that God is our helper and Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever (vs 6, 8).
It's good to be content with what one has but it shouldn't stop us from the following...a quotation from John Wesley of yesteryears..."Earn all you can, save all you can in order to give all you can." Be the master of your $$ not the other way around.
We have a responsibility to look after our family first or you'll be labelled an "infidel" (1 Timothy 5:8). If there are widows of certain criteria among your relatives, they too must be cared for, as marked out in 1 Timothy 5:3-16. Family first then look to your community and beyond as the noble woman of Proverbs 31 did; her driving force being the "fear of the Lord" (Proverbs 31:31).
Remembering our leaders is important. Too often we complain and grumble about what they do or don't do. There is often much malice and slander hurled at them; fiery darts that hinder and hurt and defile many. We seriously need to repent of this. Instead, "consider their outcome and way of life and imitate their faith" (v 7). How are we going to honor them? With proper salary? With words of encouragement? With random acts of kindness? The ultimate remembrance I think, would be to imitate their faith; to keep on keeping on for Jesus. Are you willing to do this? Work together with, not against, them.
Throughout most of the epistles of the apostles in the New Testament we'll read warnings against false teachers and teaching; here in Hebrews 13:9 we encounter them again. They're called "strange teachings", those that deviate from the true gospel they'd first heard.
How can we be prepared against such? Read God's Word avidly to absorb knowledge of God and His ways so as to NOT be so easily swayed and to be enabled to detect the false and strange teachings more readily with Holy Spirit help too, of course.
A prescribed set of rules and regulations governed those priests/high priests who ministered at the Tabernacle and later in the Temple. It was imperative for them to follow the procedures meticulously as a matter of life or death to themselves and even to the whole congregation and assembly of the Israelites. In the New Testament Hebrews' day, and in ours too, we have "an altar of grace" (vs 9, 10), activated by God through Jesus Christ. This altar of grace followed no such restrictive rules as did the Judaic altar.
It's called "an altar of grace" because we followers of Jesus Christ have been washed by the blood of the Lamb authorizing us to freely enter God's presence. We no longer need to bring any blood sacrifice. Jesus is our perfect sacrificial Lamb and High Priest. Thank-you Jesus.
We are empowered to go into God's presence and bathe in Him and offer our sacrifice of praise. The High Priest, Jesus, had to offer His blood for the atonement of your and my sins. As the Old Testament picture showed, the high priest had to yearly make a sacrifice; one for his own sins and one for the sins of the people. These he had to bear with him into the Holy of Holies (Most Holy Place). Without this offering he dare NOT enter. So too, we cannot gain access to God our Father, nor ever get into Heaven, without acceptance of Jesus's sacrifice of Himself. Praise the Lord though that I can and have the privilege to offer this praise "continually".
Why don't I then?! Often grumbling and complaining and dissatisfaction rear their ugly heads. "Life is unfair." "That person or this person offended me! How dare they...!" The list could go on. Truly, praise to God is indeed a "sacrifice...from the lips". Let us repent of our murmurings and complaining, confess them to God in Jesus's Name and turn instead to praise and thanksgiving. He has done so much for us, let us show our gratitude to Him and be content.
The book of Psalms is a good place to start. Why not use Psalms 103; 122:1; 136, 138, 145-150 as spring boards into your own words of praise, thanksgiving and adoration to God. Blest be His Holy Name. "Praise God from Whom all blessings flow." (Author of song possibly Anglican Bishop Thomas Ken.) Praise Him for all He's done for you.Indeed, "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord." (Psalm 150:6). These sacrifices of praise God will be well-pleased to hear as the "fruit of lips that confess Jesus's Name" (Hebrews 11:15).
~ERC 2016~
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