In a culture that screams violence and hatred, Lord help me to be one who shouts of your love for all nations, all people, all genders. Help me to be a voice in the wilderness that by my actions You are seen. Help me to cling to what is good and abhor what is evil. Help me to have a soft and compassionate heart like Yours.
Hebrews 3:14-15 For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, 15 while it is said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
No matter how difficult our circumstances seem God is always in there. He never leaves us alone. We are totally dependent on His gift of Holy Spirit in our lives. He will transform our minds and replace our hearts of stone into hearts for Christ and the Fathers love for all of His creation. Carla
This citation from Psalm 95:7–8 summarizes the argument thus far. It recalls Israel’s failure to obey God in the wilderness. This is a warning for the present generation who has the opportunity to inherit God’s rest (Hebrews 4:1). Faithlife Study Bible
Exhorting each other to continue in the faith is important. Believers must hold their faith firmly to the end of their lives if they are to be partakers of Christ (verses 15–19). Partakers is the same word translated companions in 1:9. Believers will be partners with Christ in His future kingdom (Revelation 2:26, 27).
The author of Hebrews speaks of the Israelites’ unbelief as sin (verse 17) and disobedience (verse 18). The Israelites did not enter God’s rest, the Promised Land (verse 11), because they did not believe in God’s promises to them (Numbers 1:1–34). They failed to possess their inheritance because they did not trust in God (Deuteronomy 12:9; Joshua 13:7).
The Jewish Christians to whom this letter was addressed were in danger of following in their ancestors’ footsteps. They were tempted to doubt the words of Jesus. With the rhetorical questions in these verses, the author of Hebrews was encouraging them to place their faith firmly in Christ (10:26; 12:1, 2). The NKJV Study Bible
Psalm 95:7–8
For He is our God,
And we are the people of His pasture,
And the sheep of His hand.Today,
if you will hear His voice:
“Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion,
As in the day of trial in the wilderness,
Hebrews 3:6–8 but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:“Today, if you will hear His voice…
Hebrews 4:7 again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said:
“Today, if you will hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts.”
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
1 Corinthians 15:2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
God's desire
God's desire is no political agenda, nor an economic vision.
It is simply kindness toward all,
a world that includes everybody, that offers beauty,
that gives life, free and abundant,
tendered in verdant hands,
that weaves us together in one living being,
one body, one life.
It is simply passion that the wanting child be fed:
for she is your own.
The “self-made” who disbelieve are the wounded
whom the Spirit sends us to heal;
the “successful” who cling to their food
are the oppressed who need to be set free.
Only the grateful are wise;
only the compassionate see clearly.
Only those who would suffer to free others
are truly free.
The divine in you is not the power to conquer wrong
but simply brave kindness.
It has its own power to open eyes, to set free.
The martyrs and prophets,
who have known glares and stones,
pogroms, marches and fire hoses,
each trail of tears the same Via Dolorosa, they know:
this is not a goal or agenda, a plan or a program;
it is not born of human will at all.
It is a gift of God, the life of the Spirit breathing in you,
the maker of worlds commanding, “Let there be light.”
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Sixty-two years ago today, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial before 250,000 people who had come to Washington, D.C. to march for civil rights. In his booming voice, he gave his famous "I Have A Dream" speech.
So today, I needed to pause. To listen to his speech. To remember. And to acknowledge at my core, that we still need to hear—and honor—these words today.
I am a minister (old school called a “preacher of the Word”). Although, maybe we should be called “rememberers”. Because in a world where fear and distrust and judgment and hatred are real (meaning we are “not free”), it is easy to forget. To forget that every single one of us is imprinted at our core, with the Sacred (the Imago Dei). An identity (the “Word” if you will) that spills compassion and kindness and inclusion and reconciliation and healing. No one is on the outside. One word, one gesture, one helping hand at time.
And in this Sabbath Moment, I’ve included the final few paragraphs.
“Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
So even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day down in Alabama with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, one day right down in Alabama little Black boys and Black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day…
And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, Black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last. Free at last. Thank God almighty, we are free at last.” Sabbath Moments
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