Hold on a minute… or more.
I started reading Hebrews. No one knows who wrote it but it was written to Jewish Christians who were being persecuted and considered giving up their faith in Jesus.
Life is hard. I’m trying to leave behind my old worldly culture and create a new way of living based on my belief in Jesus and following him as my master. When life gets harder still, the temptation is to quit forging ahead, quit pioneering this new life and to run back to the familiar. That’s like running back to a cemetery and expecting to to find life. Our worldly culture has nothing to offer except death and hell but it’s familiar so sometimes it feels comfortable. The writer of Hebrews encourages us to continue in our faith because Jesus is worthy of following.
I am encouraged by these words.
“14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. 17 For this reason he had to be made like them,[k] fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest. 2 He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house. 3 Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. 4 For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. 5 “Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house,”[a] bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future. 6 But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.”
Jesus has destroyed death and the power of the devil and has made atonement (at-one-ment) for us. He has made a way for us to be with our father God again.
And here is the challenge for us who believe. Hold on.
“12 See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. 14 We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. 15 As has just been said:
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion.”[c]
Hold on to Jesus.
Peter’s Posts 