Friday, December
21, 2018
Think back on those early days when you first learned about Christ. Remember how you remained faithful even though it meant terrible suffering. Sometimes you were exposed to public ridicule and were beaten, and sometimes you helped others who were suffering the same things. You suffered along with those who were thrown into jail, and when all you owned was taken from you, you accepted it with joy. You knew there were better things waiting for you that will last forever. So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised. “For in just a little while, the Coming One will come and not delay. And my righteous ones will live by faith. But I will take no pleasure in anyone who turns away.” But we are not like those who turn away from God to their own destruction. We are the faithful ones, whose souls will be saved, Hebrews 10:32-39(NLT)
Covenant-breaking, the act of
starting-out in faith, and then turning away from that faith, is not a light
subject. Nor is it a subject you will
find lacking in the Scriptures:
Moses warned God’s covenant people
Israel:
…and if you break my covenant by rejecting my decrees, treating my regulations with contempt, and refusing to obey my commands, I will punish you. I will bring sudden terrors upon you—wasting diseases and burning fevers that will cause your eyes to fail and your life to ebb away. You will plant your crops in vain because your enemies will eat them. I will turn against you, and you will be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will run even when no one is chasing you! “And if, in spite of all this, you still disobey me, I will punish you seven times over for your sins. I will break your proud spirit by making the skies as unyielding as iron and the earth as hard as bronze. All your work will be for nothing, for your land will yield no crops, and your trees will bear no fruit. Leviticus 26:15-19(NLT)
Jesus warned his followers about
being shallow seed (Luke 8:13), and gets really specific a few chapters later
about people who profess faith, and then, through spiritual laziness allow
unbelief to take over:
“Anyone who isn’t with me opposes me, and anyone who isn’t working with me is actually working against me. “When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, searching for rest. But when it finds none, it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from.’ So it returns and finds that its former home is all swept and in order. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before.” Luke 11:23-26(NLT)
In his debate with the chief
priests and elders at the temple (Matthew 21) Jesus warned them that the
kingdom would be taken from them because of their turning-away from God. The same about his Parable of the Talents
(Matthew 25:24), where those who took the position of disciples later got
disillusioned and just quit due to unbelief.
Jesus’ teaching at this point can be summed-up in one simple, but
chilling statement:
“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. Luke 16:13(NLT)
Timothy was warned by Paul about
the shipwreck
of faith (1 Timothy 1:19), even naming Hymenaeus and Alexander, two disciples
who turned away. He also warned the
young pastor (1 Timothy 4:1ff) about disciples getting overwhelmed by seducing
spirits, dwelling on one obscure or interesting sideline kind of
issue (like somebody else’s sin), and getting lost by taking your eye off the
priority of serving.
Peter, the impetuous disciple,
became quite a leader, warning the flock about (of all things) a lack of
patience:
You already know these things, dear friends. So be on guard; then you will not be carried away by the errors of these wicked people and lose your own secure footing. Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 3:17-18(NLT)
Turning the leaf back over from
unbelief to faith, trusting in God, staying the course in and out of season,
remember the great reward Hebrews offers to faithful servants. God’s choice for His servants isn’t wrath,
punishment and pain. Rather, God wants
to bless us – but we’ll never see it if we turn away!
For You Today
Have you been walking through a rough
patch? Is it getting so you only dwell
on the sins and failures of others, and the loneliness that accompanies serving
Christ?
Take heart as we give the Apostle Paul the
last word today:
So let’s not get tired of doing what is
good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t
give up. Galatians 6:9(NLT)
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.
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