Just some things I've been thinking about

Hello!

 

I was reading in Hebrews chapter 12 the other day and really liked the following verses:

 

 

1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

 2 looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

4  Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.

5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: 6 for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? 10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.  

11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

 

 

 

What first caught my attention was the laying aside of every weight in verse 1. If I have no weight to drag me down, then I can run at peak performance like a runner who is in good shape. Daily time spent in God’s Word, will help to keep us in the condition we should be in.

 

Ok. Read verse 2 again. We are to look unto Jesus who “for the joy that was set before him endured the cross”. I thought about that line for awhile. In a different verse, we are commanded to faithfully carry our cross daily. Do I endure my cross like Jesus did? It’s a humbling thought. When I get angry, do I faithfully bear the load and ask Jesus for the strength that he has promised to give us? In 2 Corinthians 13:5 it says, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?”

 

 

 

Your Brother In Christ OUR Redeemer,

Kevin