We are supposed to be people working to gain new followers for Christ along the way, and then all Christ-followers entering God’s rest by His grace. Our faith in action.

Maybe it’s silly, the chuckle I get out of this imaginary meme portrayal of God appearing on a podcast, being interviewed by Steve Bannon who is famous for talking about action, action, action:

• God: And on the 7th day I rested.  And—
• Bannon: “Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait, hang on.  What do you mean you rested? Walk us through this.  You were doing all these miraculous things and you decided to what, slow down?!  Explain to the audience please.”

Why did God rest? 

“Genesis 2:2 By the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on the seventh day He rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done.” 

At the conclusion, the finish line, there is no more work to be done, no further gain to attain, no more progress to reach perfection.  Six days of Creation and it was complete.  Perfect.  So, He rested.

I like to picture the days of creation as analogous to God’s installing software in the cosmos and in the world, programming the earth to sustain life.  He wrote the perfect software, made certain there were no bugs, and inspected the perfect installation, step by step. “God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.” Then He rebooted, shutting down and restarting.  “And there was evening, and there was morning. “ 

After it was all done, there was no more installation,
there were no more updates, it was finished.  
Perfectly ready to function. 
The Rest is History.  
That is, God’s rest is.

Another New Year resolution from the Book of Hebrews, then, is to “Embrace the promise of entering God’s rest.  Don’t fall short of it.”

Hebrews 4:1 Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.

As people of action, we work daily (yes even on Saturdays or Sundays as your tradition suggests for a sabbath) … but that work is to advance the Gospel so no one falls short of God’s rest which is coming when our work is done.

Questions for today:

Do you rest when you’re tired or it’s refreshing after working hard? 

Is there anything wrong with that?  Why not?

What would make it wrong? Read Proverbs 24:33-34 and the sayings after observing “the sluggard.”

When will the work of sharing the Gospel be complete?

All the accolades one might have received, congratulations on a job well done, successes galore, fastest running speed, hope of crossing the finish line with a vision of the checkered flag finale, are completely ruined if one doesn’t finish well.  It doesn’t matter how well a race you were running if you didn’t finish.  No kudos for those who start well and finish poorly.

How many of us have ever had a contractor work on our home, or a financial planner, landscaper or lawyer, or anyone else who started well but finished poorly, if at all?

God hates that when it comes to faith.  So, He tells us not to harden our hearts.  Today.  Because Lord willing, every today leads to a tomorrow and to our need to finish well.  As Scripture says,

Hebrews 3: 14 We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.  15 As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.”  16 Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt?  17 And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness?  18 And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? 19 So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.

Quitter’s Field has a full infield and outfield.  Its bleachers and box seats are full.  It’s season ticket holders never finish anything but quit when the going gets tough.  Don’t go there.  Stay in the game. 

In praying about why not to quit, I discovered the second Friday in January is called “Quitters Day” as people in droves give up on New Year resolutions by that point.  This year, they couldn’t last more than 2 weeks.  That’s because they didn’t get theirs from the Book of Hebrews and have the Holy Spirit to intercede for them. 

Pay Careful Attention.  Fix Your Eyes on Jesus.  Don’t Harden Your Heart.  Don’t Give Up.  Finish Well.

Questions for today:

In Revelation 2 and 3, there are letters to seven churches.  The idea of being victorious is spoken to all seven.  They’re inspired to finish well.  Be victorious.  Why might Jesus have said it to all seven churches?

How are you doing on following Christ? Do you know victory in Jesus? 

Are you persevering by faith all the way to being victorious or are you among the lackluster quitters headed full speed to Quitter’s Field?  It’s not too late to regroup, dust yourself off, and get back in the race. Finish well!

Hebrews 3:7 So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did. 10 That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ 11 So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.'”

As we continue to look at New Year Resolutions from the Book of Hebrews, today’s passage is calling us to look at today and a third resolution: Don’t harden your heart. Today.

It’s a good reminder that any day of the week
we can intentionally push out the voice of God
and follow the ways of the world. 
God hates that.

An online acquaintance made the statement that the same sun that melts wax can harden clay.  I’ve been thinking about that as it relates to this passage regarding God’s voice.  God’s voice is the same going out to all of us, just as it was the same for our ancestors.  God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  What was the difference between the ancestors with hardened hearts and those who inherited the Promised Land? What is the difference between clay and wax?  Is it not the nature of the substance?

The substance of the ancestors who died in the wilderness was rebellion, going astray, not knowing or accepting the ways of God.  It’s who they were. The ones who died (instead of inheriting) lived with ingratitude, second guessing, doubt, selfishness, greed, complacency, willingness to submit under evil in exchange for pleasures and comforts, and in every case, forsaking their God.  Their nature was clay.  Faithless.  Rebellious.

If it happened to them
even after seeing the miraculous deliverance
God gave them from Egypt, it could happen to us. 

Hebrews 3 continues, “12 See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘Today,’ so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.”

Questions for today:

Why is Today important?

If the greatest deliverance miracle of all, Jesus’ payment for our sins and offering us eternal life, is displayed for all of us as a Promised Land, what does rejection of Him look like to God, His Father? 

What was God’s reaction to those with hardened hearts in the wilderness?

Are you one of those who believes the “New Testament God” doesn’t get angry?  What does Scripture say about Jesus’ return? 

Read Revelation 19: 11 I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice He judges and wages war. 12 His eyes are like blazing fire, and on His head are many crowns. He has a name written on Him that no one knows but He Himself. 13 He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and His name is the Word of God. 14 The armies of heaven were following Him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. 15 Coming out of His mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. 16 On His robe and on His thigh, He has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

Looking at the second New Year Resolution from the Book of Hebrews, “Fix Your Thoughts On Jesus”, it’s grounded in something important.  At the end of verse one, it says that we acknowledge Jesus as our apostle and high priest.

Hebrews 3:1 Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest.

An apostle is someone sent.  A high priest intercedes by offering sacrifice.

We acknowledge by faith that Jesus was the sent One among the 3 “Persons” of the Trinity.  The Father is the One who sent Him.  And He intercedes for us, just like Moses did in the days of old…only better.  Scripture continues saying,

2 He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house. 3 Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. 4 For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.

5 “Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house,” bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future. 6 But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.

Jesus served like Moses did, only better. He came as the Son.  Moses’ “house” was the people of Israel.  But Jesus’ faithfulness is over God’s house…and every human being ever created is potentially God’s house by virtue of being human. 

But not all will “be the house.” 
Sad to say, not all will even want to “be the house.“

Being the house is by faith, acknowledging Jesus.  It involves paying careful attention first and foremost. Why? Because Scripture reminds us that we’re paying attention to God in the Person of His Son Jesus Christ.  And God is better than angels, than people, than prophets, than news anchors, than the WHO and Fauci…

Being the house means by faith we plant our flag, and fix our thoughts, on Jesus. 

Questions for today:

Have you resolved to “be the house” by faith in Jesus?

Where are your thoughts fixed?

When you feel your thoughts are drifting, how can you fix them again on Jesus?

The Book of Hebrews offers us a second New Year Resolution:  Fix Your Thoughts on Jesus.

Hebrews 3:1 Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest.

I don’t know about you, but I think it really shouldn’t be as hard as it is.  Why is it so hard to do what ought to be automatic?  After all, He’s God.

Oh, but first thing in the morning, the newspaper headlines, the social media replies and likes, the blog subscriptions, the endless email promotions for products you once wanted or companies from whom you made purchases, all of them scream “Look at me!  Fix your thoughts on me!  Fix your thoughts on politics, on fixing this country!  Fix your thoughts on Covid and things still on that Christmas wish list!  Fix your thoughts on your credit card statement post-holiday.  Fix your thoughts on how popular your post was on Instagram versus Facebook…”

Fix your thoughts on anything but Jesus.  Ouch.

One of my New Year resolutions has been to shut off the noise.  To prioritize Jesus.  To prioritize prayer.  To prioritize worship. 

You’d think I’d have figured that out by now.  But just like weight loss goals and healthy lifestyles and exercise and better budgeting, discipline goes a long way.  The writer to the Hebrews (whose identity is a mystery and suggests to me that the author would not have been accepted had his/her identity been known) instead is obliged to remind all of us.  Again.  Fix your thoughts on Jesus.

Questions for today:

How is Jesus our sure hope, described in Hebrews 6:19 “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure”?

The Bible also tells us (in all 3 synoptic gospels BTW: Matthew, Mark, and Luke) “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away” (Luke 21:33).  Why is fixing our eyes on the immovable, unchangeable, immortal, and steadfast a far better guide for daily living than watching the winds of change rush by with transient importance?

It’s not too late to make “fixing your eyes on Jesus” your resolution too, or to reclaim it for today.

We should pay careful attention so that we don’t drift, that’s what the Book of Hebrews tells us is a good resolution.  The command has always been very simple: “Listen to Him” (that is, Jesus). 

It gets more imperative when we remember that all 3 “Persons” of the Trinity are at work here.  Jesus’ words come straight from the Father and arrive with consequences.  The third member of the Trinity, the Advocate (i.e. the Holy Spirit) has been commissioned with reminding us of everything Jesus taught which came from the Father. 

For the follower of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit dwells in us and we are without excuse.  It’s time we obey the teachings we read and hear.  Obedience is the natural outcome of paying careful attention.

“23Anyone who loves Me will obey My teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love Me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not My own; they belong to the Father who sent me. 25 “All this I have spoken while still with you.   26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. (John 14:23-26)

Questions for today:

What types of things stand in the way of your obedience?

In James 1:22-25, Scripture says, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it– not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it– they will be blessed in what they do.” 

In what way does obedience form the litmus test for paying careful attention?

It’s not always easy resolving to “Pay Careful Attention” as we saw with our first New Year Resolution from the Book of Hebrews.  Beyond the distractions of pleasure, curiosity, or fear, sometimes the instructions or the Word of guidance are just tough to swallow. Take this one for example.

Mark 8:34 Then Jesus called the crowd to Him along with His disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me.  35 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for Me and for the gospel will save it.

 36 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?  37 Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in His Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

9:1 And He said to them, “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.”

Yes, Jesus gives us all the good reasons to follow Him.  But sometimes the lessons are tough… like lose your life. And then to make matters worse, we can make our foolishness into a Do-it-Yourself project.  Such was the case with Peter.  He was brought along in the company of Jesus, paying close attention, but then it happened: Jesus was transfigured.

Mark 9:2 After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with Him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There He was transfigured before them.

3 His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them.

4 And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.

5 Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters– one for You, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 6 (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)

7 Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to Him!”

God’s answer to Peter’s blabbering on like a fool
was a simple 3-word command:
“Listen to Him!”

Questions for today:

When are you most likely to say foolish things?

Are you paying careful attention to listen for the voice of Christ in those moments?

The command is very simple. What are some ways you can listen to Him?

Hebrews 1:1 In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe… 2:1 We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.

The first New Year Resolution I offer from the Book of Hebrews is
To Pay Careful Attention.

When we’re not paying attention, Scripture indicates we tend to drift away.
Drift away from the truth.
Drift away from what we know to be right.
Drift away into satisfying ourselves.
Drift away into leisure or entertainment, pleasing ourselves.
Drift away in fear and panic instead of heeding what we’ve been told.

Questions for today:
If Jesus told us things in Scripture, doesn’t it make sense that since He is an expert on the ways of God, He has something really important to say?

Does it ever feel to you like modern culture specializes in distracting us with a million forms of entertainment or news so that we won’t pay attention to what truly ought to occupy our thoughts?

If you were the devil (which you’re not and I’m not, but if we were) and wanted to keep people from meeting, obeying, learning about, and loving God, what purposes do distractions and pleasures serve? Why are they effective tools of our adversary?

If pleasures don’t distract us enough, why is introducing fear equally effective?

What occupies your thoughts and time?

I am always unsure about the making of New Year’s resolutions. Just setting myself up for failure as the first post-Christmas chocolate shows up in the partially devoured box from the prior year…like, you know, from yesterday. And the frugal side of me thinks, “You don’t want to throw out perfectly good chocolate. What a waste!” The resolution side of me says “Get behind me Satan.”

So I decided that maybe the problem isn’t just my will power, but my resolutions. Maybe I should take God’s Word as Truth for living and recognize He has something to say. Maybe it’s time I got my resolutions from a more authoritative place than Self Magazine.

Hebrews 1:1 In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.

Maybe we could all use sourcing our resolutions
from Someone who is the Last Word on how to live.
It’s what I’m doing this year.
Anyone care to join me?

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year, 2022.  I pray it will be a year in which you find increasing light of understanding of the gift God has given us.  With every year that goes by, there is less time remaining before the Light of the World returns, this time not to bring peace but still in Truth when He comes again to judge justly. 

Revelation 22:5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever. 6 The angel said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God who inspires the prophets, sent his angel to show his servants the things that must soon take place.”

7 “Look, I am coming soon! Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy written in this scroll.”

8 I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing them to me. 9 But he said to me, “Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you and with your fellow prophets and with all who keep the words of this scroll. Worship God!”

10 Then he told me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this scroll, because the time is near. 11 Let the one who does wrong continue to do wrong; let the vile person continue to be vile; let the one who does right continue to do right; and let the holy person continue to be holy.”

12 “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

14 “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. 15 Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

16 “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”

17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.

18 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. 19 And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll.

20 He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen. (Revelation 22:5-21)