Mind the Gap

So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it. Hebrews 2:1

Daarom moeten wij al onze aandacht richten op wat we gehoord hebben, dan zullen we niet uit de koers raken. (Hebrews 2:1)

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Every single day we have to believe the truth again. This is not to earn favour with God. Nor is it because God isn't capable of saving us. Jesus' work on the cross is enough. The gift is complete. Nothing needs to be added or topped up. Yet we stray. We forget.

We jump to attention when sin calls us to action as if we are still under Sin's command. We are free, but we have developed a habit of obeying sin rather than God. We are easily deceived and we need to regularly remind our hearts of the truth. Jesus must be our focus. Jesus must captivate our hearts. 

Do you have a daily spiritual check list? When life gets difficult do you have a truth list you tell yourself?
Here are some of the items on my check list:

• God is good!
• God loves me.
• God is in control.
• Nothing happens by chance and nothing is out of God's control.
• God knows best. ( God knows better than me!)
• Jesus died for me.
• Jesus loves my enemies. 
• Jesus forgives all my sin, past present and future.
• I need to do nothing to earn God's favour.
• I am not a slave to sin; Jesus has set me free.
• Jesus rose from the dead to give me an abundant life. 
• An abundant life does not consist of things!
• Jesus will meet my needs, not leave me alone, cares for my soul and has shown me the way in his Word and will guide me through the church and the Holy Spirit speaking truth from His Word.
• To follow Jesus requires suffering and persecution.

(and more depending on what my heart must hear.)

What is your list?

Can you find some of the truths I tell my self in Hebrews Chapter 2?

Why not have a look for yourself.
http://bible.com/116/heb.2.1.nlt

Mistaken identity

Genesis 21:1-7 ESV

The Lord
visited Sarah
as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised.
And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age
at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac.  And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old,
as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said,
"God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me." And she said, "Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age."
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How many times have you heard this story? I know I've heard it many times. And it seems to me every time I've ever heard it before I've left thinking of Abraham and even more so of Sarah. And to be sure both of them are key characters. We should empathise with them. It is an exciting miracle. A very old couple have become first time parents. Sarah is ninety! Ninety year old women don't have babies!
But this is not first and foremost a story about Abraham, Sarah, or Isaac.

This is a story about God!

If you take a moment to thumb through your Bible around these chapters in Genesis. Look for the number of times the narration punctuates the action with God or the Lord. God said. The Lord said. The Lord went. God came. God caused.
And crucially in these seven verses above, God has made.

Listen to how Paul puts God the focus of Abraham's sorry in Romans,
Romans 4:19-22 ESV

He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead ( since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was "counted to him as righteousness."

Romans 9:8-11 ESV

This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. For this is what the promise said: "About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son." And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls—

Later the author of the book of Hebrews sheds this light on these events,

Hebrews 11:11-19 ESV

By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore. These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named." He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

In every case the story is about God. Is your life story about God? Are you putting your faith in the promise of God to you?

When you review your past or contemplate your future is it seen though the lens of God's plan and God's promise?

Don't try to be the star of this epic saga. Trust God who, keeps giving. Expect God to enable you to fulfil his promise to you.

Do you even know God's promise to you? Here's a clue it is a promise about Jesus. Jesus is the son of promise, born out of time. Born into impossible circumstances. Born to declare God's intention to save. Born to show God to you. Jesus is ultimately the one who in every way fulfils the many promises of God.

Do you know him?
Do you trust him?
Are you expecting him to work out the promise of God to you?
Are you making sure the story of your life is a story about God fulfilling his promise through Jesus?

To the best informed it's nonsense.

Luke 24:11 NLT

But the story sounded like nonsense to the men, so they didn't believe it.

(Please read more of the story below.)
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Jesus told them plainly he would die and then rise from the dead. Somehow it was too fantastic of a claim so they didn't believe it.
Now it had happened, and actual angels have come to tell the women, and the men refuse to believe.

Jesus performed amazing miracles including raising people from the dead. Jesus healed lame, cured diseases, fed thousands, calmed storms, cast out demons, walked on water, made the blind see, yet the news that Jesus had rose from the dead sounded like nonsense?
These guys had seen it all but they still didn't believe.

Can you see 'belief' must be a special work of God. It is not proofs, facts, or persuasion! It's not meeting Jesus or spending time with him. It is not even listening to his teachings. The disciples had all this and they thought the resurrection from the dead of Jesus was nonsense.

To be sure we must teach the Word of God. We must expect God to be able to do the miraculous. We must persuade, show proofs, and declare the facts. But this is all still nonsense until God brings belief to the person's heart.

Pray God opens the heart and brings belief to the individual. The gospel message sounds like nonsense to the most initiated.

Remember these disciples had seen it all, had it all explained to them and were plainly told the plan of God for Jesus to be killed, buried, and rise from the dead. But when they heard it, they thought it sounded like nonsense!

Are you trusting in God to convert the souls of those you love? Are you resting in God's work to bring about belief? Can you see how unlikely it is that anyone would believe?

Belief in the Gospel is a miraculous work of God. It is not the sum of exposure to the truth or proofs. Belief is not an act of human will or emotion. Belief isn't even being in love with Jesus the teacher or man.

Belief in the Gospel is a work of God.
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Luke 24:1-12 NLT

But very early on Sunday morning the women went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. They found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. So they went in, but they didn’t find the body of the Lord Jesus. As they stood there puzzled, two men suddenly appeared to them, clothed in dazzling robes. The women were terrified and bowed with their faces to the ground. Then the men asked, “Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive? He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Remember what he told you back in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and that he would rise again on the third day.” Then they remembered that he had said this. So they rushed back from the tomb to tell his eleven disciples—and everyone else—what had happened. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and several other women who told the apostles what had happened. But the story sounded like nonsense to the men, so they didn’t believe it. However, Peter jumped up and ran to the tomb to look. Stooping, he peered in and saw the empty linen wrappings; then he went home again, wondering what had happened.

The problem of rust.

Matthew 6:19-21 NLT

“Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal.  Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal.  Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.

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People don't really believe in heaven. Many people do believe in pensions, investment portfolios and savings accounts. Others believe in a good education or hard work and determination. But people don't believe in heaven. Some people believe in global warming, the effects of an eco-friendly life, their carbon footprint or saving the shark from extinction but they don't believe in heaven.

Do you really believe in heaven? Do you believe in God up above? Do you believe he rewards those who desire his kingdom more than the things in this world you can love?

Are you hoping to be comfortable, secure and well off because of your wisdom, your savings and shrewdness? Are you trusting in things of this world? Or have you set your heart upon heaven and believed in the promise of God? Have you put your hope in God's goodness and set your heart on things stored up above?

Be honest with yourself, does heaven fit in your plans?

God wants you to live.

For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. Jn 3:16
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Do you believe?
Do you believe that there is a God?
Do you believe that God loved the world?
Do you believe God sent his Son? 
Do you believe in the Son of God?

Jesus is the son of God.

Do you believe that God gives eternal life to those who believe in Jesus?

Jesus didn't come to be a judge, he came to save it.

This story starts with God's love. But quickly the question is raised, "Do you love God?" People loved darkness rather than light. Can you see the sad story of rejection and unrequited love?

God loved the world but the world loved darkness because their deeds were evil. The world did not love God.

"But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants."

Look at the promise of life.  God wants you to have life. Belief in Jesus results in life.

Do you have life?
Do you have confidence in God's gift of life?
Do you believe?
If you believe you have life, you have the love of God, and you have the promise of eternal life.

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John 3:16-21, 30-36 NLT

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.  God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.  And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.  All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”

He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less. “He has come from above and is greater than anyone else. We are of the earth, and we speak of earthly things, but he has come from heaven and is greater than anyone else.  He testifies about what he has seen and heard, but how few believe what he tells them! Anyone who accepts his testimony can affirm that God is true. For he is sent by God. He speaks God’s words, for God gives him the Spirit without limit. The Father loves his Son and has put everything into his hands. And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment.”