How am I encouraged in Christ?
For that matter how am I encouraged at all? As I wake up each day and face a new set of challenges.
What can I take with me as I step out through my front door?
One of the things I can be certain of is God’s Word.
I can be assured that if I soak myself deep in the Bible, then I have the Word of the Lord on my heart and I am so much closer to Him.
And this is the essence of the beginning of the book of Hebrews.
The writer tells his readers that God has spoken to His people in the past, in many ways, through the prophets who bore the message. Now however, in Jesus Christ we can see that the baton has been passed on to the Word Himself.
In the past we are told that God has communicated with his people through the prophets. Today, with Jesus as our High Priest, it is through Him that we are assured of hearing from God, and through those things which Christ has spoken which we have in the form of the Bible. If we are serious about a relationship with Jesus, then we have to concentrate on His Word, knowing that this is the main way in which He will communicate with us. As Wiersbe in his notes on Hebrews states, "...the way we respond to the Word of God is the way we respond to the Son of God, for he is the Living Word."
O, to have the Living Word in our hearts!
Indeed, we have this assurance in the opening verses of the Book of Hebrews.
Verse 2 tells us with certainty that God has spoken through the Son. Everything has been promised to Jesus as an inheritance, and through Jesus everything in the universe has been brought into existence.
These first few verses are vital in that they establish Jesus’ authority.
He is above the level of the angels, indeed, he sustains “everything by the mighty power of His command.” As the third verse continues are we not shown that following his work of the cleansing of our sins he assumed the place of honour at the right hand of God.
Once and for all the Son’s authority is declared. F.B. Meyer tells us that in Jesus we see “the channel of creation, providence and redemption.” What then are we to make of the prophets mentioned in verse 1?
Reference here is obviously to Noah, and Abraham, to Isaac, and Jacob, down to Moses and through to Malachi. It is fair to say that, yes, God’s revelation has been given to them, and is preserved for us to read in the Scriptures, however, isn't God’s revelation given to us in the person of Jesus Christ is so much greater?
What we need to realise is that the prophets were human, and indeed were not bringing us their own message but the message of God himself.
In Christ we have the “completion of God’s revelation.” (BNTC)
In truth that's how I am encouraged, because I can pick up my Bible and read the Words that God intended me to read. The Words that God uses to speak into my heart. They give me solace, and courage, and strength, even to step out of my door each day to face with life and peace and grace those situations that happen.
Amen.
For that matter how am I encouraged at all? As I wake up each day and face a new set of challenges.
What can I take with me as I step out through my front door?
One of the things I can be certain of is God’s Word.
I can be assured that if I soak myself deep in the Bible, then I have the Word of the Lord on my heart and I am so much closer to Him.
And this is the essence of the beginning of the book of Hebrews.
The writer tells his readers that God has spoken to His people in the past, in many ways, through the prophets who bore the message. Now however, in Jesus Christ we can see that the baton has been passed on to the Word Himself.
In the past we are told that God has communicated with his people through the prophets. Today, with Jesus as our High Priest, it is through Him that we are assured of hearing from God, and through those things which Christ has spoken which we have in the form of the Bible. If we are serious about a relationship with Jesus, then we have to concentrate on His Word, knowing that this is the main way in which He will communicate with us. As Wiersbe in his notes on Hebrews states, "...the way we respond to the Word of God is the way we respond to the Son of God, for he is the Living Word."
O, to have the Living Word in our hearts!
Indeed, we have this assurance in the opening verses of the Book of Hebrews.
Verse 2 tells us with certainty that God has spoken through the Son. Everything has been promised to Jesus as an inheritance, and through Jesus everything in the universe has been brought into existence.
These first few verses are vital in that they establish Jesus’ authority.
He is above the level of the angels, indeed, he sustains “everything by the mighty power of His command.” As the third verse continues are we not shown that following his work of the cleansing of our sins he assumed the place of honour at the right hand of God.
Once and for all the Son’s authority is declared. F.B. Meyer tells us that in Jesus we see “the channel of creation, providence and redemption.” What then are we to make of the prophets mentioned in verse 1?
Reference here is obviously to Noah, and Abraham, to Isaac, and Jacob, down to Moses and through to Malachi. It is fair to say that, yes, God’s revelation has been given to them, and is preserved for us to read in the Scriptures, however, isn't God’s revelation given to us in the person of Jesus Christ is so much greater?
What we need to realise is that the prophets were human, and indeed were not bringing us their own message but the message of God himself.
In Christ we have the “completion of God’s revelation.” (BNTC)
In truth that's how I am encouraged, because I can pick up my Bible and read the Words that God intended me to read. The Words that God uses to speak into my heart. They give me solace, and courage, and strength, even to step out of my door each day to face with life and peace and grace those situations that happen.
Amen.