Hebrews 6 - 5.14.24

SCRIPTURE:  Hebrews 6:13  "When God made His promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for Him to swear by, He swore by Himself, saying, "I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.  And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised."  

OBSERVATION:  The author is anonymous.  In this chapter he focused on God's promise to Abraham that was referenced in Genesis 22:16,18 regarding when Abraham did not withhold his only son Isaac from being sacrificed as a burnt offering, and because Abraham trusted and obeyed God's voice, He was promised that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through his seed.  (Jesus is that seed Who came through Abraham's family line).    

Abraham was 75 years old when God gave him the promise that he and Sarah would become parents, and Abe waited 25 long years for that promise to be fulfilled when he finally became the father of Isaac at the ripe old age of 100!   Many things happened in-be-tween the promise and the fulfillment of that promise.  When the waiting got tough, Sarah devised a plan, and Abraham agreed, to use Sarah's Egyptian slave girl to bear a child with Abraham.  They soon found out the hard way that all that did was to mess things up by trying to "help" God out!

NOTHING is able to thwart the plans and purposes of God, and even though Abraham and Sarah had gotten impatient and tried to speed things up on their own, God kept His promise, and it was miraculously fulfilled according to HIS perfect timing! God did as He swore;  He blessed Abraham, and he is the father of all those who come to God by faith.  All the nations of the world are blessed by the nation of his descendants.  

APPLICATION:  God has given us His written Word, and EVERY single Word is true!  Jesus' desire is to become the ultimate source of our assurance, and one of the many ways to test the measure of our faith is while we are in, you guessed it... WAIT MODE!  Our faith is made strong as we feed on God's Word.  Jesus is the Bread of Life.  His Word nourishes us, sustains us, and builds our faith.   EVERY promise He has made is trustworthy, and they NEVER change!  Even when we fail Him, He remains faithful to us. We may try to go ahead of Him, and in the process mess things up, but in the end, His plans and perfect timing are ALWAYS fulfilled according to what HE has promised!   

PRAYER:  I pray that I will hide God's Word in my heart, know His promises, trust in His perfect plan, and in His perfect timing.  I pray I will depend on the power of the Holy Spirit to give me the patience I need as I am in wait mode.  I pray I will depend on Him to keep me from becoming weary while I wait.  May I have confident trust in God's promises, and never forget that His greatest promise to me is that I have been saved through Jesus!  And, I pray,  as I wait that I will focus on being about my Father's business as I allow His plans to be accomplished in and through my life as I continue to put my trust in His Word and my hope in Jesus. 

- Robin Orefice

Hebrews 5 - 5.13.24

Scripture

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭5‬:‭12‬ ‭NLT

“You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food.”

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Observation

The author is urging for spiritual growth and maturity amongst the believers. The author knows that some of them have been Christians for awhile, yet they still seem to be messing up over and over again regarding the same issues. They still can’t distinguish between right and wrong. The author compares them to babies. They need to be spiritually fed milk. They have not yet matured enough to even eat solid food. So the author implores the reader to not be stagnant in their faith. They need to be constantly growing.

Application

Striving for spiritual growth.

Imagine for a moment; a full grown adult, still drinking from a baby bottle, needing to be hand fed everything with a spoon, while a grownup makes airplane noises as they spoon feed them each bite? Pretty silly right? Then why should it be any different when it comes to our spiritual growth?! We who have been following Jesus for awhile now shouldn’t be acting the same as we did when we first became Christians. There should be some sort of growth and spiritual maturity in our lives. We shouldn’t want to be that Christian who has been following Jesus for years and years, and yet seem to be repeating the same grade over and over again. We need to strive to be maturing and progressing in our walk with God each and every day.

But how does that look like?🤔

Well, first of all it starts by not just depending on a Pastor to teach you God’s Word on Sunday mornings. We should learn to “feed ourselves” by getting into God’s Word daily and journaling about what we are learning. We should be more involved in church Bible Studies and serving in church ministry. It should also show in our personal prayer life. Don’t just depend on others to pray for us like they have special access to God. We have that same access to God ourselves too! So take it to the Lord in prayer. Spend some quality time with God thanking Him, praising Him, asking for your needs and praying for others. We should be living a life where we are learning from our sinful mistakes. We need to ask for God’s forgiveness, and turn away from those mistakes. We need to ask the Holy Spirit to give us the strength and discipline to not repeat those same sinful mistakes again. And finally, a mature growing Christian is one who should be sharing their faith and making disciples wherever they go-(see Matthew 28:18-20). Don’t just keep the Good News of Jesus to ourselves, share it with others!

It’s definitely a process that each of us has to work on each day. I believe the “churchy” word for it is sanctification. It’s the process of becoming more like Jesus (perfect) each day. It’s something we won’t be able to accomplish until God calls us home. But until then, we need to keep striving, keep grinding, and keep growing. 😊

“Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.” -Colossians‬ ‭1‬:‭10‬ ‭

Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father,

I pray for not only myself, but Your Church. I pray for a yearning to grow and mature in our faith and walk with You. May we not settle for just being saved and stagnant in our faith. But may we yearn to know You more each day and have you known by others. Guide us in our path as we try to be more like Jesus each day. Give us the strength and discipline to carry on, even when we’re knocked down. Thank You for Your grace and mercy and patience as You see us through. Thank You for hearing our prayers, and I thank You in advance for answering our prayers. In Jesus name I pray, Amen. 🙏🏽

-Moses Gaddi

Hebrews 4 - 5.10.2024

Scripture - Pick one verse that stood out to you.

Hebrew 4: 1-3
Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed. Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said,

“So I declared on oath in my anger,
    ‘They shall never enter my rest.’”

And yet his works have been finished since the creation of the world. 

Observation - What about this verse stands out to you?

The words, “Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, [...]” is what stood out to me. I had to re-read Hebrews 3 and this what stood out to me:

Hebrews 3:12-19
See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. As has just been said:

“Today, if you hear his voice,
    do not harden your hearts
    as you did in the rebellion.”

Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.

Application - How will you apply this to your life?

Thank you for sharing with me what I need to do Lord. I do admit that my heart has become hardened over the years. Yet here You are in your word providing a warning and a remedy. I must encourage other believers in Christ, and other believers in Christ need to encourage me—daily. Yikes. I am going to start with today. I will encourage another believer today.

Prayer - Write out a prayer.

My Lord, help me to develop a better routine in my life. Help me start today right now. Help me not to turn away from you and help my belief/faith/love in You to grow. Please, help to soften my heart. Help me to encourage my near and far family in Christ daily! Help me to stand firm in my faith like Moses. Help me to be quick in my faith like Joshua and Caleb. Help me to develop that defense and armor that keeps sin and unbelief as far away from me as possible, Lord!!