Today’s Podcast
Today’s Scriptures
Today’s Bible reading plans include:
Ready – Hebrews 4:1-13
Set – Philemon; Hebrews 4
Go! – Philemon; Hebrews 1-4
Hebrews 4:1-13
1That’s why, as long as that promise of entering God’s rest remains open to us, we should be careful that none of us seem to fall short ourselves. 2 Those people in the wilderness heard God’s good news, just as we have heard it, but the message they heard didn’t do them any good since it wasn’t combined with faith. 3 We who believe are entering into salvation’s rest, as He said,
That is why I swore in anger
they would never enter salvation’s rest,
even though God’s works were finished from the very creation of the world. 4 For didn’t God say that on the seventh day of creation He rested from all His works? 5 And doesn’t God say in the psalm that they would never enter into salvation’s rest?
6 So if God prepared a place of rest, and those who were given the good news didn’t enter because they chose disobedience over faith, then it remains open for us to enter. 7 Once again, God has fixed a day; and that day is “today,” as David said so much later when he wrote in the psalm quoted earlier:
Today, if you listen to His voice,
Don’t harden your hearts.
8 Now if Joshua had been able to lead those who followed him into God’s rest, would God then have spoken this way? 9 There still remains a place of rest, a true Sabbath, for the people of God 10 because those who enter into salvation’s rest lay down their labors in the same way that God entered into a Sabbath rest from His.
11 So let us move forward to enter this rest, so that none of us fall into the kind of faithless disobedience that prevented them from entering. 12 The word of God, you see, is alive and moving; sharper than a double-edged sword; piercing the divide between soul and spirit, joints and marrow; able to judge the thoughts and will of the heart. 13 No creature can hide from God: God sees all. Everyone and everything is exposed, opened for His inspection; and He’s the One we will have to explain ourselves to.
Today’s Devotional
From today’s background scripture God might say:
Many quote those last verses often, but what do they really mean to you? My word is alive and moving; sharper than a double-edged sword; piercing the divide between soul and spirit; joints and marrow; able to judge the thoughts and will of the heart. No creature can hide from Me: I see all. Everyone and everything is exposed, opened for My inspection; and I’m the One you will have to explain yourselves to.
It’s nice to memorize it, but do you meditate on it? Do you think about what that means to you? Do you take it to heart and realize what My word can do for you or what it will do to you if you don’t follow it’s precepts?
Just consider the first phrase, My word is alive and moving. Many translations say it is alive and active. It doesn’t stay still, it doesn’t let you remain the same. It changes you. It continues to transform you into My likeness if you let it. If you read it and let it become part of you, it will work in your life in amazing ways. But it also judges your thoughts against Mine. Perhaps that’s why so few read and study My word today, you’re afraid of what you will find. You’re afraid you’ll have to change your ways to conform to My will or find yourselves lacking.
Whether you read My word or not, I will still be your judge at the end of the age. You cannot hide from Me. I see everything you do. I know every thought you think. As My word tells you, everyone and everything is exposed, opened for My inspection. You will have to explain yourself to me one day. And I will examine you according to the precepts explained in My word. I left them with you long ago. They’ve been available to you long before you could read and study them. They were available before I created the world.
If you refuse to take advantage of the many avenues by which you can read and hear My word, should you blame Me for that? Am I at fault for your failure to heed what has been at your fingertips for all the time you’ve been alive? Is it My failure or yours when you let My word sit on your bookshelf while you engage in frivolous activity?
I will still judge you by those precepts in My word. Suppose you pick up that book on your shelf that so seldom gets used and read it. Then read it again. Then make a few notes in the margin about what you need to do about a few of those verses that speak to you. Then study some of those precepts one more time. Maybe memorize some of those passages. You have the rest of your life to make that book part of your life. Remember, that’s the test you must ultimately pass when I give you your final exam at the judgment. Don’t you think it’s about time to study your text-book if you know there’s going to be a test?
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