Current Mood: Intelectual

Current Mood: Thrilled

Would you look into your heart right now and respond to a very personal and important question? Do you judge yourself to be stronger in the things of God than you have ever been before? I hope so, because that is exactly the way it is supposed to be. Every day with Jesus should be sweeter than the day before. Each moment should find us moving up in our experience with a deeper sweeter faith than we had the moment before.

Current Mood: Thoughtful

Although the book of Hebrews has been greatly ignored by Christian scholars and laymen alike, it contains some of the most important, basic doctrines in the Bible. Spiritual subjects that are scarcely mentioned by other writers have been fully explained by the author of Hebrews. Perhaps the reason for its general neglect is twofold. First, it leans very heavily upon Old Testament imagery and typology. Many modem Christians seem to feel that it doesn’t fit in with the tone of gospel freedom enunciated in Paul’s other epistles. Secondly, the book may be shunned because it contains some very clear statements that seem to conflict with positions held by the majority of Protestant Christians. Three of those areas of controversy are woven throughout the book of Hebrews. Although at first glance they may seem to be quite unrelated to each other, these three subjects are very closely tied together. The nature of Christ’s humanity, the high priestly work of Jesus in the heavenly sanctuary, and the subject of perfection are interrelated themes of truth in the book of Hebrews. The first two chapters are devoted in general to the position and nature of Christ before and after His incarnation. Chapter three begins to talk about the role of Jesus as the true High Priest in contrast to the earthly ministry of human priests. That theme carries through the next ten chapters, and within those chapters the term “perfect,” or forms of it, are used nine times. Now let us try to discover how these three major threads of doctrine—Christ’s human nature, His priesthood, and the perfection of God’s people—are really part of the same great truth. Click on the image to read the rest of the PDF File.

Current Mood: Thrilled

An Amazing Fact: Abraham Lincoln didn’t live long enough to witness the official end of the Civil War, but he was able to give the famous Emancipation Proclamation—freeing every slave in America. One day, a former slave living in Washington, D.C., who had escaped from the South during the war, approached Lincoln. He took some money from his pocket and offered it to the president. “What is this for?” asked Lincoln. The freed slave said that he only wanted to pay Lincoln for securing his freedom. But the president answered, “I can’t take your money.” The ex-slave protested, explaining, “But I want to give you something. I am so thankful!” Lincoln paused a moment, thinking, and then said, “Before you try to offer that again, I want to show you something.” The president then began walking around the neighborhood, until finally he pointed, saying to the grateful man, “You see that home over there? There’s a woman who lives there that lost her son, her only son, in this war fighting for your freedom.” And he continued, “See that house over there? That woman lost three sons fighting for your freedom.” Then he said, “You see that house over there? That’s an unusual house. In that house the woman lost her husband and two sons fighting on opposite sides.” Then the president turned to the man and said, “When you consider how much your freedom has already cost, are you going to give me money?”  The ex-slave said later of his encounter, “I realized that it would be an insult to offer money after they had paid so much.”  Click on the image to read the rest of the PDF File.