Hebrews Chapter Two: Becoming Human

My tummy is happily full of delicious dinner. If you haven't discovered this for yourself already, bacon makes everything awesome. A moment of silence for bacon now please.

.............*silence*............

For an explanation of how I'm doing this study, please see chapter one's blog post. Alright, Hebrews two:

1 Here we have a warning to pay attention to what we have heard. But if you're anything like me, you're asking what it is we have to pay attention to...

2-4 Here we find the answer: salvation. In verse two it talks about how if every little sin (violation and disobedience) were punished, we would be in trouble. There would be no escape for us. But Jesus provided a way out, and the people that heard him during his ministry on earth passed on the knowledge of how to obtain that sweet salvation. Not only do we have their take on it, but we have signs from the Lord himself and the Holy Spirit burning inside of us.

5-8a At the present time, the angels are above us because they share in the glory of the Lord. But God did not destine them to share in his glory forever. He made us to share in that someday! I'm using an NIV translation of the bible, and in the footnote for verse seven, it mentions that you could also say, "You made him for a little while lower than the angels".

8b Everything in existence is under the power of God. There is nothing and no one more powerful than he is, and although our human bodies limit what we know about heaven and earth, we know God is above all. How wonderful is he!

9 By suffering death and bringing salvation to us, Jesus exalted himself and is once again crowned with glory and honor. Now he's not only our Lord, but our savior. He is our perfect high priest.

10-11 When Jesus suffered death, he not only brought himself glory, but he brought glory to us by washing us clean. The author of salvation, Jesus, made perfect by defeating death. Isn't this like, the most amazing thing ever? Can I get an amen? Now we are all perfect and of the same family, so Jesus doesn't even have a problem with calling us his children and brothers.

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!"
~1 John 3:1

12-15 Psalm 22 is quoted here, and I recommend you take the time to read it right now. Jesus was only able to suffer death by becoming human like us. He took the power of death away from the devil, showing that he had complete power. Death was the only weapon the devil had, and even that was taken away from him at the cross.

16 Again, the lord did all this for us, not for the heavenly beings. When a point keeps being repeated like this, we should take note. This is for us!

17-18 By becoming like one of us, Jesus is able to understand what we're going through. He walked the same earth with all the same temptation and lusts. He knows what it's like, yet he still lived a perfect life. Although he knows we can't be sinless like he was, he provided the example of saying no to temptation by never giving in. The temptation was there, but he never let it have its way. We have the ability to do the same, and say no to the things of this world.

In closing, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for sort of falling off the face of the earth recently. I no longer have a Facebook and won't until next year sometime, but I still check my email every week at the least, so if you need to reach me there you can do that. I'm obviously still active here on my blog as well, so if you'd like to comment me anything, feel free. Have an awesome day! :D

Hebrews Chapter One: Above The Angels

Finally, my study on the book of Hebrews! I'm so excited about being able to study this book with you, I think it's going to be awesome for both you readers and me writer...or something.

Here's how this is going to work: I want you to have your bible with you as you read this study, so instead of typing out each verse word for word, I'm going to put the verse number followed by my notes on the verse. Read the assigned verses in your bible first, and then read the notes here. Alright? Let us begin.

1-2 Back in the old testament, God used prophets to speak his words to his people, but now he uses his son Jesus to speak to each one of us individually. We went from having this indirect connection through other people whom God revealed himself to, to having a direct connection where God speaks exactly what he wants to each one of us.

3 Jesus is an exact representation of God. After he provided a way for us to be purified of sin, he went back to heaven to be that connection to God. The writer is comparing the two here, and saying how God and Jesus are so much alike and in fact, one, so we understand how accessible God is to us now.

4-7 Jesus is above the angels because he is the very son of God! The angels are commended to worship and serve him.

8-9 The throne of God, his heir, his son Jesus, will last forever. It was already explained to us how Jesus is our connection to God, so if Jesus lasts forever, our connection lasts forever.

10-12 Psalm 102 is quoted here, and I highly suggest you take a moment to read through it at this point. God remains the same. He doesn't change his mind or decide to do things differently. This earth and everything in it is going to wear out and come to an end. Isn't it better to put our hope and trust in HIM who will never end and never change?

13-14 Jesus conquered our enemies forever. He has complete control over them, and they must do exactly as he says. The angels don't have this power, they are simply servants. We don't have this power. Only Jesus, who defeated death, the only power the enemy had, has this power.

Another Psalm is quoted here, Psalm 110. After reading it, I think it's a good companion chapter to this one, so I'll take you through it real quick.

"The Lord says to my Lord:
'Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies
a footstool for my feet.'

The Lord will extend your mighty
scepter from Zion;
you will rule in the midst of your
enemies.
Your troops will be willing
on your day of battle.
Arrayed in holy majesty,
from the womb of the dawn
you will receive the dew of your
youth.

The Lord has sworn
and will not change his mind:
'You are a priest forever,
in the order of Melchizedek.'

The Lord is at your right hand;
he will crush kings on the day of his
wrath.
He will judge nations the nations, heaping up
the dead
and crushing the rulers of the whole
earth.
He will drink from a brook beside the
way;
therefore he will lift up his head."

The key verse for me here is verse four: "'You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek." Melchizedek was the father of a long line of priests, and it was the priest's job to go into the Holy of Holies and ask the Lord to forgive the sins of the people. He was the only one allowed to go into the presence of God and intercede on the behalf of imperfect people, who couldn't be in the presence of God because of their sin. Jesus became the new high priest who closed the gap between us and God. He's our new and prefect priest. We can go to him as often as we like because of what he did for us.

"Such a high priest meets our needs - one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself."
- Hebrews 7:27

Forgiveness (Because that's all I could come up with)

BAM! I'm back!

I had the weirdest experience while doing laundry today. I came across my beloved Skillet shirt, the only one I have, which I bought at my first and so far only Skillet concert. I put it on its hanger, and as I straightened it out, admiring it's awesomeness, I had a sudden impulse to kiss it. Yes, I'm about the strangest individual you will ever meet.

Anyways, a lot of things have happened to me in the two weeks I've been gone. Some of them were just normal changes in life, some of them were life altering, and one in particular was amazing. I experienced forgiveness. However commonplace forgiveness may be nowadays, this forgiveness was one of the best feelings I've had in a while.

It starts with sin. I know for a fact that all of you have something you're struggling with. Some of you have told me what that thing is, and some of you might not have told anyone. Whatever it is, I can relate. For a long time now, I'd been living with sin in my life. It didn't seem like a big deal, just little things here and there. But it had been eating me away (Skillet song reference) slowly, bit by bit, until I no longer recognized it as sin.

This is how the enemy works. He knows you. He watches you. He knows where and when you'll be willing to make exceptions. He knows what you desire, what you feel you're lacking, and he will do whatever it takes to make you think you can't get that fulfillment from the Lord.

It's hard to see your sin growing. It might not feel like you're doing anything wrong after a while, so you'll let yourself go further and further until your little sin becomes something you can't control. If I know anything about anything, I'd describe your matured sin as blowing up. Yes, blowing up, and suddenly, everyone knows. No matter how well you hide and cover up the tracks of sin, you'll always get found out.

"My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from me, nor is their sin concealed from my eyes."

~Jeremiah 16:17

I love how I'm right around the same age as most of you lovely readers, because now is the time I can relate to you and what you might be going through. Because I know what you must be thinking: "But I'll just get into more trouble if I tell someone about my sin!" I know, because I've thought the same thing hundreds of times. It's better to just hide the broken vase under the table than to tell your parents and get punished, right?

Going back to my sin. I hid this for so long, and when it did come out and my parents knew, I felt considerably worse. Being disciplined isn't fun. The situation hurt, and I know it was hurting others besides my family too. But I wasn't hiding anymore, and for some reason I thought things would just get better now. I confessed hadn't I?

This wasn't the case however. My relationship with the Lord was hurting, especially in my praying. I was and still am praying about important things right now, and it literally felt like I was praying to the walls. My voice was dead air. Not only were my prayers going nowhere, I couldn't hear the voice of my Lord either. I wasn't sure what he was trying to say at all, and that scared me.

"We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will."
~John 9:31

Last night, as I sat in church praying, I knew what I needed to do. I needed to go to my parents and apologize for what I'd done, and I needed to mean it. I needed forgiveness. I asked the Lord right then and there to forgive me for what I'd done, and to give me the strength, no matter how hard it might be, to never do it again. Instantly, I could feel the Lord's presence around me again. He was there with me, and it felt amazing. As soon as I got back from church, I made things right with my parents.

These next few months are going to be some of the hardest I've had. But I'll wait for a lot longer than that if it means I can remain close to the Lord.

I encourage you guys to make things right in your life as well. Whoever it is you may be hurting through your sin, your family, your friends, or your God, go to them and ask for forgiveness. Say you're sorry and mean it. That's all it takes.

If you like, I'm always willing to listen if you need to talk. Post it on the Get Help page, or send me an email and I'll do my best to help you out. I'm praying for each one of you. I don't want anyone to ever be separated from the Lord.

"Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."
~James 5:16

P.S. I'm not able to use Facebook any longer, so if you happen to have one, I would very much appreciate it if you'd take a few seconds to share a link to this blog on your wall. Self promotion I know, but I'm shameless ;)