As a preacher and a teacher, one of the critical elements of what I do is to know my audience. Some preachers and teachers take this to speak a very generalized message to a large group of people. Others make specific mention of things across the spectrum. That is what the author of Hebrews is doing here. Many of the Messianic Jews are departing from the faith to rejoin the synagogue. But others o...

The last few verses of chapter 6 have been pretty bleak. The warning has been clear. Do not fall away. The depth of the warning is not lost as the author of Hebrews shifts gears into encouragement. While all of those things are true, there is a better testimony among the recipients.The writer of Hebrews acknowledges the weight that he speaks with, yet he highlights that there are works that accomp...

9 But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner. 10 For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. 11 And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the e...

Pray that the Lord would give you the eyes to see where He is leading you. He made it clear to Israel that He was taking them to the Promised Land. They even saw all that it held. Know that the Lord is faithful to carry you through what He has instructed. Draw near in faith. Ask Him for a clear vision for your life.......

62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”-Luke 9:62 This concept of drawing back to the old is something frequently condemned in Scripture.When the Israelites were in the wilderness, just after the amazing exodus, crossing the Red Sea, and seeing the Lord show up in amazing ways, they started complaining and wishing to go ...

I was sobbing... hysterically. Both of my parents enter into the room and find that I am being tormented by my older brother who has me pinned down. He lurches up the moment my parents step in. As they see that the situation was nowhere near the severity my crying had made it out to be, they gave an instruction to each of us. To me, I was told to stop crying. My brother was told not to touch me. T...

There is a clear warning undergirding the text here that is very clear to us. Most of us interpret it in such a way as to understand that we don't want to draw back. Even in having the clarity that we may concerning what the text is talking about, there is and should be a great fear in departing from the living God. Imagine the great insult in the Lord giving His Son to set His people free, and af...

As we examine this particular Scripture, it is important that we properly examine the context. For a passage such as this, there is a very broad scope that we need to consider, and this is where many can get lost on their attempt to exegete the passage. Most other Scriptures can be looked at in a more immediate context. This one requires a deeper study.Let's begin with considering the audience. Th...

What we have this week is one of the most complicated sections in Scripture to properly exegete. A surface level reading of the text will leave many believers trembling at the idea that they have gone too far and cannot be renewed to repentance. Otherwise, they worry about friends or family members who have walked away. Typically, these believers would hold fast to Scriptures like that of the prod...

4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.7 For the earth which drinks in the rain tha...

Pray that the Lord would highlight where and what He wants you to grow in. Understand that He is invested in your sanctification and wants to see your growth. He is not opposed to you on this journey. He is for you. Hold open everything in your life and ask for His direction.......

12 Not that I have already attained,  or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Chr...

The instruction that the writer of Hebrews gives here is to go on to perfection, moving beyond the elementary principles of Christ. Many of us may wince at such words. "But we will never be perfect! We cannot be perfect!" The objections are out of our mouth before we even consider what obedience might look like. As such, I have found so much stagnancy in the walks of many. There are many places we...

I remember a moment where I was pacing back and forth, fuming due to a conversation I had just had. One of my buddies that was with me paid me what I recall as a snide remark, "You just don't know how to quit." I was in a debate with someone who simply didn't know how to accept reason. The conversation was not supposed to be a complicated one. It was a very simple subject that should have been eas...

We are given a list of the elementary principles of Christ. For the sake of the progression of the week of devotions, I want to address each one of these in part.Repentance from dead works. This is something that I have actually found most churches struggle to teach on. We usually error on the side of repenting from bad works instead of dead works. The problem here is that we think that there is s...