Today’s Podcast
Today’s Scriptures
Today’s Bible reading plans include:
Ready – Hebrews 1
Set – Hosea 1; Hebrews 1
Go! – 2 Kings 15–16; Hosea 1; Hebrews 1
Hebrews 1
1 Long ago, at different times and in various ways, God’s voice came to our ancestors through the Hebrew prophets. 2 But in these last days, it has come to us through His Son, the One who has been given dominion over all things and through whom all worlds were made.
3 This is the One who—imprinted with God’s image, shimmering with His glory—sustains all that exists through the power of His word. He was seated at the right hand of God once He Himself had made the offering that purified us from all our sins. 4 This Son of God is elevated as far above the heavenly messengers as His holy name is elevated above theirs.5 For no heavenly messengers have ever heard God address them with these words of the psalms:
You are My Son.
Today I have become Your Father.
Or heard Him promise,
I will be to You a Father,
and You will be My Son.
6 Now, when the Son, the firstborn of God, was brought into the world, God said,
Let all My heavenly messengers worship Him.
7 Concerning them, God said,
I make My heavenly messengers like the winds,
and My servants like a flame.
8 But to the Son He said,
God, Your throne is eternal;
You will rule Your kingdom with the scepter of justice.
9 You have loved what is right
and hated what is evil;
That is why God, Your God, has anointed You
with the oil of gladness and lifted You above Your companions.
10 And God continues,
In the beginning, You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth
and set the skies above us with Your own hands.
11 But while they will someday pass away,
You remain forever;
when they wear out like old clothes,
12 You will roll them up
and change them into something new.
But You will never change;
Your years will never come to an end.
13 Did God ever say to any of the heavenly messengers,
Sit here, at My right hand, in the seat of honor;
and I’ll put all Your enemies under Your feet?
14 No, of course not. The heavenly messengers are only spirits and servants, sent out to minister to those who will certainly inherit salvation.
Today’s Devotional
From today’s background scripture God might say:
My Son, fully human, fully God. It’s something you cannot understand if I tried to explain it. There at the beginning of time, yet alive in human skin for a mere 33 years. Lived among, died a cruel death, rose from the grave, lives eternally. The human mind cannot comprehend how it happens except that My Son is God and is Man. I came to you to show you how to live. I came to show you how to love. I came to show you who I am.
Hebrews gives a discourse on the supremacy of My Son as worthy of worship because He is God incarnate. The Hebrews couldn’t understand it. Jesus in the flesh ran counter to much their religion evolved into over the course of time. Their religion became a list of rules and traditions. Rituals that adherants must perform at certain times in certain ways. Religion without heart or real devotion or worship.
I came to them as I come to you to remind them I am a God of love. I am alive. I care about you because I created you. I want a relationship with you. But I am still a holy God and abhor sin. It cannot dwell in My presence. So I had to make a way to bridge the gap between us. My Son, God incarnate, Me in the flesh as the perfect sacrifice for the redemption of sin was My plan from the very first act of disobedience in the garden.
There was never anything you could do to bridge the gap. Only I could do it. So I came to you and became one of you. I gave My life for you so you could have life. This book, these few chapters written centuries ago still hold the same solid arguments as they did when penned. As you read them, let them move you like they never have before. Let the author of Hebrews help you understand why I came and what I offer you as My followers.
The opening verses tell you Jesus, My Son, is worthy of worship. He is part of Me. He stands above all others. He participated in creation and will stand at the final judgment. He is eternal as I am eternal. He is God as I am God, part of the triune Godhead. All will bow at His feet and call Him Lord one day. It’s best to start now.
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