Awakening, day 1

Hi everyone,

I thought we'd continue this blog during the fasting period just so that we can track some of our thoughts, our prayers, and maybe even some answers during this time, and also to encourage each other to keep going, and to help each other refocus when we struggle.

Just so that you guys can keep me accountable as your leader, here's some things I'm giving up for these few weeks:

- food other than fruits, vegetables, and liquids
- television other than the daily show and the colbert report *
- video games, flash games included **

I have a few other commitments I'm making, but these are some of the things I hope everyone will keep me accountable on. And I hope at the end of these 3 weeks, we'll be able to look back on some of our entries and see God at work.

Anyone and everyone is free to post, even things like new prayer requests for the group to pray for.

Blessings,

Josh

* I'm a staunch believer in keeping up with the news. My sources are the "Latest Headlines" tab in Firefox, and Comedy Central of all places. Also, please do not ruin shows for me by telling me what happened on House or Scrubs that week.

** I will make an exception if we play as a LIFE group with the intent of building relationships with others not in our group, but this is the ONLY exception.

Hebrews 13

The last chapter of Hebrews! It's full of exhortations as Paul is getting ready to conclude and end his letter... and as we're about to end our break.

First (v.1-6), he talks about love, the most important which is continuing in brotherly love (v.1), then showing hospitality (which is love of strangers). He uses the analogy of entertaining angels which should remind us of Abraham and Lot (v.2). He calls us to also seek out those in prison and love them as well (v.3), remembering that they are part of the body of Christ and if one part suffers, every part should suffer with it. And loving your spouse, keeping the marriage bed pure. I think we can do that by keeping our hearts guarded, patiently waiting for that future girl or guy.

v.7 talks about imitating your leaders' faith as you look at the outcome of their lives. We may look at our leaders now and see the fruit they bear, but back then, many of their leaders died because of their faith.

In v.9, Paul warns them about being led astray by strange teachings, some dealing with foods.

From the foods, he transitions into food/animals being sacrificed. That they didn't bring the animals' bodies into the holy places (most likely in the temple) but kept them outside the camp (v. 11). And likewise, this pointed to Jesus, who suffered outside the city in order to sanctify the people through his own blood (v.12). So Paul exhorts us to go outside to be with Jesus, so that we may remain with him, and share in his sufferings, bearing disgrace for the sake of Christ. Because our home is not an earthly one but a heavenly one.

Now we no longer have to offer any more sacrifices of animals, but we should offer "a sacrifice of praise" and this sacrifice should be offered continually (different from the Jewish tradition of offering animals at set times throughout the year).

In v.17, Paul shifts to tell the Christians to obey their leaders, so that they can do their work with joy rather than with groaning. From there he asks them to pray.

And with that, I'd like to ask you guys to keep us, Josh, Euge, and I in prayer, as your lifegroup leaders. Some things you could pray for are --- our relationships with God, unity as we lead with one heart, one mind, wisdom and understanding to lead our lifegroup, discernment in discipleship, and that as we imitate Christ, you'd imitate our faiths.

See y'all very sooon :)
Break was definitely too short for me this time.

Reverence and awe

I want to focus mainly on verse 18 and onwards

but from 14-17, Paul writes more about need for holiness and godliness.

All or nothing

I love how for Paul it is always all or nothing. We are to "make every effort to live in peace with all men" (verse 14).


He emphasizes the need for peace among the body, need for holiness to see and share with God. We are not to miss but rather receive grace (verse 15) and to not allow bitterness to take root to cause trouble (lack of peace) and defilement (lack of holiness) (verse 15). We are to be godly and make wise decisions and to not be rejected from our blessings (verse 16-17).


FOCUS of PART 2: Reverence and Awe
"Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our 'God is a consuming fire.' "

Contrast
Old Testament/Covenant: Verse 18-21

"Trembling with fear"

This section describes during and before Moses received the Ten Commandments. Before Moses received the Ten Commandments (Exodus 19), there were sets of directions given to the Jews. They were asked to be consecrated. Before they could meet God, the people needed to be cleansed. No consecration=death (verse 20). God was absolutely pure and holy and people "could not bear what was commanded" (verse 20) and begged no further word be spoken (verse 19) and the "sight was so terrifying that Moses said, ' I am trembling with fear'" (verse 21).


New Covenant/Jesus: Verse 22-24

Who can bear and fulfill the Law perfectly? No one can perfectly. Until Jesus came. He became "the mediator of the new covenant" (verse 24) who sits next to "God, the judge of all men" (verse 23). It is his" sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than Abel" (verse 24). Jesus' blood and sacrifices washes and atones for all sins and for all of time.

Warnings Against Refusing God: verse 25-29

Before, God "warned them on earth;" He warned them at Mount Zion and gave them laws to follow. When the Jews did not obey, they "did not escape" God's judgment (verse 25). Now, we are under a new covenant under Jesus, who is in Heaven sitting at the right hand of Father. How much more if we refuse Him (verse 25).

Cannot be shaken

Because of Christ, we have a "kingdom of that cannot be shaken" (verse 28). It will always remain and cannot be removed (verse 27). So we are to worship God with "reverence and awe" and to be thankful (verse 28) for receing such a everlasting kingdom.

Discipline

I decided to split Hebrews into two parts. Here is part one. I did a different way than previous entries but hope u guys will get much out of it.

Hebrews12: God disciplines His Sons

What

Paul is challenging the Jewish Christians who were undergoing severe persecution to finish their marked race (verse 1) with perseverance throwing off everything that hindered them, including sin. They were to be sinless and to resist it to the point of shedding blood (verse 4). Paul wants us to “endure hardships as a discipline” from our heavenly Father.

Why?

Mark of sonship and love

Just as our earthly fathers disciplines us, so God treats us as His heirs when He disciplines us/gives us hardships (verse 7-10). We are not to take it lightly and not to lose heart because he disciplines those He loves and accepts as His sons and heirs of His Kingdom (verse 5-6).

Sharing of holiness

He not only disciplines out of His love, but for our own good. So that we might share in His holiness. Later, Paul says we are to make every effort to be holy for without it, NO ONE will see the Lord (verse 14). Discipline brings holiness and makes us more into the image of the Lord as we are able to share and see Him.

Harvest of righteousness and peace

Discipline is gonna hurt ( verse 11) but if we persevere through it, it will “produce a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it” (verse 11). This is rather interesting. Paul starts by challenging us to finish a race (verse 1), and now he hints that we are to do it through discipline. That is our training; it is how we are to win this race. It also shows that this training and harvesting takes time (verse 11) and we might go through seasons of training and harvesting.

HOW

Christ as our example and answer

Yes, discipline is training by which we need to finish this race. But we don’t have to do it alone. Christ is our example and our source.

In Chapter 11, faith was the main topic. Here, Paul points to Christ as “the author and perfecter of our faith” (verse 2). We are to fix our gaze on Jesus (verse 2). He is the one who endured the cross, scorned shame, and later was raised and seated next to Father (verse 2). We are to consider Jesus. The way Jesus lived His life gives us the hope and strength we need (verse 3: so your heart will not grow weary and lose heart). Who Jesus is, his identity and power will give us the faith that is needed to persevere like the examples listed in Chapter 11. Also refer to Jars of Clay section in II Corinthians. Reminded me of it as I read this passage.

Prayer Request

Please, if you would, just say a little prayer for me regarding James 4:Section of Submitting yourself to God

This section is just really getting at my heart, especially lately. That whole section is something I want to pray through and I hope you will just say one short prayer for me regarding it. Specifically Verse 9: Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. Just coming to God in repentance and finding grace.

<3s>

Hebrews 11

Hi all, hope everyone had a wonderful New Year's day.

Let's jump right to it. Chapter 11 is all about faith.

The writer starts off with an informal definition of faith, and makes it an ever present thing by using the word "is" in v. 1: "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." It is how Christians should define their lives, through things hoped for and the conviction to live it out even when these hoped-for things are not seen.

From there, the writer lists and describes the faith of a whole slew of Old Testament figures important to the Jews in their history and religion; the list includes Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Moses, the Exodus generation, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel, and all th eprophets. I don't really have to summarize their feats (or leaps) of faith because it's, well, in the Bible and very accessible to us all, but here are some of my thoughts.

Strangely enough, it is recorded in Genesis that Sarah laughed when she heard that God promised a child to Abraham whose offspring would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. How does this imply faith? In Judges, it is clear that Gideon was slow in moving to war though commanded by God, Samson broke many of his Nazirite vows and quite fond of drink and women, and Jephthah made a foolish vow that he kept. Eventually, Moses grew proud and broke faith with God and never entered the Promised Land. David committed adultery and murder. Yet, the writer includes them in this "Hall of Faith".

I think that what the writer is trying to say is though our faith may be imperfect, it does not impede God in commending them for it. In v. 13, it says "These all died in faith, not having received the things pormised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth." The men and women listed here kept their trust in God, knowing they will be rewarded even though they seemed so inadequate at times.

So then, for us Christians, what does that mean? I think the concluding verse for this chapter is quite sufficient in leading into the next section, about Jesus as the center of our faith. Vv. 39-40: "And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect." These words remind us that that we should look forward in faith, secure in our salvation though the fruits may be slow in coming and the blessings few and far between at the present.

In other news...

It's been a very quiet, relaxing break for me. I finished Beloved, by Toni Morrison, which is an excellent novel - I highly, highly recommend it. I'm reading four or five other novels at the same time, but Beloved was the one I couldn't put down. I also finished the game Assassin's Creed, which also comes highly recommended though the enemy AI was quite moronic and formulaic at times.

I decided in these last few days to sort and organize our family photos. Which I realized is insane, because they're all printed and there are stacks upon stacks of them. My dad took too many pictures when we were younger. I stayed up until 5 AM last night just putting them into categories. And I don't think we have enough albums for these pictures. But it was really cool looking into my family's past, seeing how our surroundings and ourselves have changed.

Looking forward to seeing you all in a few days :)

Hebrews X

Greetings from California, and a happy new year to you and your loved ones. 

I just returned from swimming  (I spent more time gazing at the sunlit, wispy cloud-streaked sky than I did swimming) and am looking forward to dinner with my family.  I hope you have enjoyed your new years just as much, and even more so, than I have enjoyed mine thus far.  I will spare you the details of my winter break, knowing that your lives are much more vivacious than any account I can give of mine. 

And so, onto Hebrews 10.  What follows is simply my thoughts/observations on the chapter, and as such they can woefully wrong.  If you disagree, God bless you and please do correct me.  I’m more than happy to hear others’ perspectives.  I will partition the chapter as my beloved NASB bible does.

vv. 1-18

• in verse 1, the Law is described as a foreshadowing of sorts for “good things to come”, and “not the very form of things.”  Its interesting how the word “and” is used to connect the two things, not “but” (even though I think in most circumstances, but is more appropriate).  The “and” is not found in the original, but is implied. 
• verse 1, what does “things” refer to?  Its awfully vague. 
• verse 1 exposes a shortcoming of the Law: it can never make perfect those who draw near
• verse 2, its interesting how Paul notes that “having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins?”.  That seems to imply that after being cleaned, we forget our past sins.  The phrase “losing consciousness of sins” bugs me, because to me it seems to indicate that though we lose recollection, the history/memory of the sin is still there as the past is immutable. 
• verse 3-4 reveals the purposes of those sacrifices, as a reminder, as they cannot take away sins.  
• verse 5-7 comes from Psalm 40, although “BUT A BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME” is a reference to something else (Hebrews 2:14, 5:17, and 1 Peter 2:24) 
• verse 9, Christ came to take away the first (sacrifices) and to establish the second (to do God’s will).
• verse 10, Christ’s sacrifice was enough to sanctify us 
• verses 11-14, Christ’s sacrifice can take away sins, while the offering time after time of sacrifices cannot take away sin.  Christ is Lord, as He has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God, and His enemies will be made a footstool. 
• verses 16-17 is a reference from Jeremiah 31:33-34
• verse 16-18, now here is the promise of grace, that because of Christ’s sacrifice, our sins will be wiped away, and God will no longer remember them no more.  v. 18 “Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.”

vv. 19-25

• verse 20, I don’t quite get the veil imagery.  There is something significant about it, and without it, I don’t understand the verse completely.  In other words, I only see a shadow, but not the actual image of the thing.  A veil is used to cover something, perhaps something holy or perhaps something that would otherwise be viewed as unclean/sinful (I’m thinking of veiled women at this point), but what need do we have of a veil?  His flesh is the veil. 
• verse 20, I like the reference to a “new and living way”; seems the old way was a dead way. 
• verse 22, “let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”  It can be said that Christ’s blood is so powerful, so potent that it only most be sprinkled to make something clean, whereas for a medium like water, the object has to be completely immersed with potentially the application of some physical exertion. :p
• verse 22, “let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” A sincere heart and full assurance of faith, something I think that is much more easily said than done.  It may even be considered idealistic, but nonetheless it is something that we should strive for, ask for. 
• verses 23-25 paints a beautiful portrait of one aspect of a community: stimulating one another towards love and good deeds, not forsaking one another, encouraging each other all the more as the end draws near. 

vv. 26-39

• verses 26-27, a truly terrifying prospect.  “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of  fire which will consume the adversaries.”  what may be considered sinning willfully? 
• verse 28, perhaps sinning willfully means setting aside the Law of Moses, for anyone who does such a thing dies. without mercy on the testimony of 2-3 witnesses.  Thus, the grace of God is not to be taken for granted, to be manipulated and used to one’s own benefit. 
• verse 31 sums it up: “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” 
• verse 34, "…accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one.”  I think it would be incredible if somebody could say the same about us today. 
• verse 35, our confidence will be greatly rewarded, though Paul does not explicitly state how. 
• verse 36, endurance, another necessity/good attribute.  Again, another promise in this verse, when we have done the will of God.  (Although, this brings to mind the question how we could not do the will of God.  Perhaps its a question of willingness).
• verse 37-39, a reference to Habakkuk 2:3-4.  We shall not shrink back, for those that do find no pleasure in God.

Side note, I met a girl at RYCE (a retreat) named Acacia.  Now I do think that that is a most beautiful and clever name. (: 

Have a happy new years.

Hebrew 9

Hello everyone! Chapter 9 of Hebrews is pretty long but also awesome so let's delve right in! In my Bible, it is divided into two parts: Worship in the Earthly Tabernacle and The Blood of Christ. The theme of this chapter is to compare the old rituals to the new rituals, made different by Christ's sacrifice. Worship in the Earthly Tabernacle describes the "old" way of worship in the tabernacle (Old referring to the Old Testament). In those times, there were two rooms: the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place behind the Holy Place. Important relics were the "gold jar of manna, Aaron's staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant" (v. 4). The high priest entered these rooms only once a year with animal blood to atone for the people's sins. Yet the distinction is made that these rituals were only placeholders until the new convenant arrived, explaining why animal blood has (thankfully) fallen out of style. Verse 10 explains, "They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings-external regulations applying until the time of the new order". Now that there is a new convenant, the rituals change accordingly.

The Blood of Christ section starts at verse 11. Christ's blood is now the sacrifice and obviously much more precious than simple animal blood. The animal blood was not enough to "cleanse our consciences" but Christ's blood is (verse 14)! This is how the new convenant is new and improved, the ascent from mere animals' blood to the blood of Christ. The necessity of the new convenant is stated as "a ransom to set them free from teh sins committed under the first convenant" (v. 15). Again I assumed that this referred to the Israelites again and their disobedience regarding the jounrey to the Promised Land and such. It makes sense since Moses is mentioned a bit later in the chapter. Starting in verse 16, it describes how blood is needed to prove the validity of a new covenant (assuming that the words will and covenant are synonyms/interchangeable). In Moses' time animals' blood was used, but for the new covenant Christ's blood was used. There is a constant comparison/reminder of animals' blood in the Old Testament/old covenant and Christ's blood for the New Testament/new covenant. Jesus died for our sins and then entered heaven. The enormity of this sacrifice only needs to be done once as opposed to the continual slaughter of animals that the old rituals required. Through this act, Jesus has forever wiped away our sin, thus negating the need for further animal sacrifices. This singular act is compared to mortal deaths, which only occur once as well (v. 27). To me this seemed like an unworthy comparison for us at least, to have Jesus' one death compared to our one death. There is such a big jump in intensity from the first to the second covenant that the first covenant seems to be referred to as "copies of the heavenly things" compared to the second covenant which is the real deal (v. 23). The last verse prophecies Jesus' return where he will bring salvation. Perhaps then rituals will change again to accomodate this new addition. Personally I really liked this chapter because of the logical juxtaposition between old and new. I hope I analyzed it well enough (and clearly enough!) but please feel free to add on your own thoughts and such!!

In Pittsburgh I've been hanging out with friends, watching movies, etc. Let me know if you want any details on Twilight, Australia, 7 Pounds, or Bolt. hahaha Just relaxing and sleeping a ton (probably way more than necessary). It's not as deathly windy here which is a nice change. Actually today was in the 60s? Craziness. I do miss the sermons/LIFE group meetings from ACCESS though. The sermons at my home church are just not cutting it. :/ Hope everyone is doing well and see you all soon!!


Chrissy :)