Hebrews Chapter Six: Convicted

Something interesting you might like to know about me is that I'm a hunt-and-peck typer (I don't know if that's the correct term, that's just what my mom calls it). I don't place the fingers of my left hand on asdf, the fingers of my right hand on lkjh, and my thumbs on the space bar. Rather my fingers hover over the key board and I look down at it as I type. I have a pretty good idea where each letter is, but if I take my eyes away I'm clueless. I use all my fingers except my pinky fingers, so if you didn't watch me too closely I actually look like I'm using proper form. I'm a fast typer for sure, however I don't do it “correctly”.

Heres and eaamsplr ps ke dad;e I ra[e weodklpa ;pp;imd ad the dkeiaoce.

Translation: Here's an example of how badly I type without looking at the key board.

Thank you for your understanding about last week's post. It was much needed and it felt good to write. As a reward I will now resume my study of Hebrews where we left off in chapter six. This is the first chapter that I'm truly nervous about, because I might not have the best or even the right translation for some things discussed here. I may have said this before, but I'd like to remind you that everything I say on my blog is strictly my opinion on what I'm reading in the Word of God, and if you disagree or find fault in my words, I'd be more than happy for you to let me know. In fact I encourage you to correct me if something I say doesn't sound right.

1-3 The end of chapter five and the beginning of chapter six flow into each other here. If you remember, chapter five ended with a call for Christians to mature in the Word and not stay in the elementary teachings of the bible. We don't grow with age, we grow in our relationship with Christ, and one of the ways we do this is by reading his Word and digesting it. We should already know to avoid sin, what baptism is, to lay hands on people as we pray, and the basic stuff like this. We continue to do them of course, but there comes a time when we need to dive deeper into what God has to say to us. Sometimes I'll read a certain scripture, and it'll inspire me to read more on the subject or to pull out the dictionary to help me fully understand what's being said. A few verses about God's grace and the song, “Your Grace Is Enough” by Matt Maher were enough to inspire me to go on this long study of God's grace, and ultimately to do this study on Hebrews. This is my way of eating up the Word of God.

4-6 I think the way most people would translate what's being said in these verses is that if someone accepts the gift of salvation and then falls away, they can't be saved again. The way I translate it is a little different. I think that once someone receives Jesus as their savior, they're saved for the rest of their life. If they fall away, this is a sign to me that maybe they weren't really saved in the first place. Once you experience Jesus and the Holy Spirit, it's impossible to just leave the faith. I know that when I'm in sin or when I'm not doing what I should be doing in my relationship with the Lord, the Holy Spirit convicts me like crazy. I might be able to handle it for a little while, but eventually I get found out or I confess what I'm doing and stop doing it. If someone gets saved and then neglects their relationship with the Lord later on down the road, I would seriously question if they were ever real in their faith. I don't understand how someone could have the Holy Spirit burning inside them and remain in sin. You should want to get rid of that!

"You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness."
- Ephesians 4:22-24

7-8 These verses help us to further determine of someone is truly saved or not. We are represented as the land in this picture, and the kind of crop we produce tells others what's going on inside of us. Those of us who are saved produce a good crop that other people can use, but if we're just pretending, we produce a crop that's good for nothing but to be burned.

9-12 If we do happen to fall away from doing the work of God, He promises us that He'll still accept us and remember all we've done for Him. We shouldn't grow lazy in our work, but it's not like God will get mad at us and revoke our salvation privileges if we screw up every now and then.

13-17 When it says that God swore, it doesn't mean that he said a naughty word or anything like that. Rather swearing means that he made a promise or an oath to Moses, and to secure that promise, he swore by Himself, since there is no one greater than He is in the entire universe. By doing this, he showed Moses that he wasn't playing around with this. He meant what he said when He told Moses that he would make his descendents innumerable. God doesn't need to swear to make his promises steadfast and true, however. I believe He did this to destroy any lack of faith in Moses and His people. When God says He will do something, you better believe He's going to do it.

18-20 Now that we know that God can't lie and that there is nothing and no one greater than Him, we can put our absolute trust in the hope of salvation He has offered to us. We should be encouraged by possessing such a great and secure gift! There is nothing that can take away our title as a child of God, nothing!

In verse 19b, there's more priest stuff I'll explain for you real quick. Before Jesus died for us, the only way to be purified of our sins was to enter into the presence of God and make a blood sacrifice to cover up what you did. There was one place God could dwell among the people, and that was in the Holy of Holies within the Tabernacle. I'll talk more of this in the next chapter, but all you need to understand for now is that the high priest was the guy that was required to make the sacrifices and ask for God's forgiveness in place of the people who weren't allowed to enter God's presence. When it says in verse 19 that Jesus went behind the curtain on our behalf, it means that Jesus, who is our great high priest, provided the blood and the forgiveness we needed to enter into the presence of God. Now we can come to God whenever we like, because we've been washed clean of all sin.

Like I said, in the next chapter I'll write more on the Tabernacle and the high priest. We have reached the end of our studies for today unfortunately, but there's a little thing I want to start doing for the remainder of Hebrews. I've already been kinda doing it here and there, but I want to ask you to do something at the end of each blog. We'll call it the Hebrew challenge, or the Epic Fish, or maybe How-I-Want-You-To-Get-Involved or something. Maybe name suggestions would be a good Idea. Remember last week, it was to show someone your smile, and a few weeks back I asked for you to comment your favorite verse. This week, I want you to go to the “Contact Meh” page on the blog, and comment a prayer request. It doesn't have to be real long or detailed, and you're more than welcome to comment anonymously. I just want to know how I can pray for you, and I also want my readers to pray for each other. Next week, I'll provide a verse for each request I get, even if I only get one from the one reader I know will comment. ;-) Have an amazing day!