Be Still And Know

Hebrews 11.7 NLT 'It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before.' The account of Noah building an ark and saving his family together with vast numbers of birds and animals is a wonderful story and I suspect that most of us were told it from our earliest years. It’s a story of enormous courage. The world had never seen a flood like this before so the idea of Noah building a vast boat would have seemed absurd to all those around him. And the idea of packing the boat with smelly wildlife would have appeared an even more incredible challenge. But Noah did these amazing things for one reason - he was a man of faith. In this chapter the writer to the Hebrews is seeking to unpack what it means to live by faith and Noah offers us an inspiring example. Most of us spend much of our lives conforming. We fit in with society and the people around us and just get on with life. I’m not criticising that approach bu

Hebrews 11.1 NLT 'Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.' Many people seem to think of faith as being a rather weak, sentimental way of thinking and are inclined to say that they would rather trust the facts. Some philosophers have compared faith with taking a leap in the dark. Personally, I would never encourage anyone to take a leap in the dark. That sounds extremely dangerous and is only likely to result in disaster. I firmly believe that God calls us all on a journey of faith and that amazing adventure is a leap in the light. First of all God reveals himself to us through creation. Just by opening our eyes to the amazing world around us we see constant evidence of how majestic and powerful God is. Looking at creation doesn’t force us to believe in God, but it is a powerful indicator of how great he is. God has also given us the 66 books of the Bible to show us how he has worked in the lives of men and women through thousands of years. We learn that

Hebrews 10.36 NLT 'Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.' There is a wonderful prayer which runs, “O God, grant me the courage to change what I can, the patience to endure what I cannot change and the wisdom to know the difference.” In all our lives there are many things which we are powerless to change, and God wants to give us the patience to live with them. That’s far more easily said than done because, as we all know, patience is extremely hard work. We would all like to see an instant removal of the problems and difficulties of life, and the news that we need to live with them is the last thing we want to hear. But the writer to the Hebrews knew that his readers needed to learn the language of patience. We cannot be sure exactly what challenges they were facing although we know that they had to face recurring waves of persecution and they were living in a society that was fundamentally opposed to their Chris

Hebrews 10.24-25 NLT 'Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.' The New Testament has no understanding of a lone Christian, who heroically keeps going by themselves. Time and again we are reminded that we have responsibilities for one another, and here the writer uses very striking language. The Greek literally means that we should try to provoke one another to do acts of love and good works. That is to say, we should look for imaginative ways of stimulating one another to live for God. It won’t just happen. We need to love one another so much that we will take responsibility for encouraging one another to live out the Christian life. And that encouragement will only take place if we meet together and so he stresses the importance of not neglecting the times of meeting. When the Christians had gone through a time of suffer

Hebrews 9.27-28 NLT 'And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, so also Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people.' The quotation, “Nothing is certain but death and taxes” is attributed to many different people but especially Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain. However, it is such an obvious observation that it actually dates back long before them. The simple truth is that death is a fact of life. Unless the Lord returns we will all die. But our death stands in marked contrast to Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross. When he died, he brought to an end the elaborate sacrificial system which was established in the Old Testament Law. The whole notion of sacrifices is very unfamiliar to us these days but God established it because of the desperate seriousness of sin and the need to find a way of making things right. The offering of sacrifices was a way of life for the Jews and every single day animals were slaughtered as an inte

Hebrews 6.18-19 NLT 'We who have fled to God for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls.' I suspect that if you spoke with most people about the future they would be full of fears and uncertainties. We live with the continual threat of international terrorism and the wildfires, floods and hurricanes that batter our world remind us of the appalling challenge of climate change. Wherever you look, there are monumental problems to face in our own society and throughout the world and I think that most people would assume that there is no hope, and that anyone who speaks the language of hope has chosen to ignore the facts. The writer to the Hebrews, however, was full of hope and speaks of it on a number of occasions. He was confident as he looked to the future because he knew his God so well. He knew that God was a place of refuge amidst the storms of life, and that he provided an anchor that could be entirely relied up

Hebrews 6.1 NLT 'So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding.' If you saw a group of learned professors of mathematics earnestly talking about the fact that two and two make four, you might think it rather strange. You would imagine that they would have moved on to more complicated matters. That is not to say that the fact that two and two make four is unimportant. Far from it. Every day of their working life depends on it. But there comes a day when you need to move on, and that’s precisely what the writer is saying in our verse today. He wasn’t saying that the basic teachings about Christ were in any way unimportant. Everything depends on those truths, but he was eager that they should grow up in their faith and become more mature, applying the key principles of the Christian faith to every aspect of their life and society. So the question we all need to ask is, “How can we go on to become mature in our understan

Hebrews 5.11 NLT 'There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don’t seem to listen.' Ouch! The writer of Hebrews doesn’t pull his punches. He is frustrated with the spiritual dullness of his readers and he let’s them know it. He had hoped that they would have developed much more in their faith so that they could, by this stage, have become teachers but clearly that isn’t the case. They are still needing to drink milk because they haven’t progressed on to solid food. It’s all very painful and disappointing. One of the big mistakes that people make is to think that when you have become a Christian that’s it. You have received the amazing gift of forgiveness and God’s promise of eternal salvation, and you can now sit back and enjoy them. There is nowhere in the New Testament that would support that view! New birth in Christ leads to a new life in which we need to be constantly growing and maturing. Sadly, all too often Chri

Hebrews 5.8-9 NLT 'Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. In this way, God qualified him as a perfect High Priest, and he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him.' The High Priest was the most important person in the Jewish faith. He traced his family line back to Aaron, the brother of Moses, and his life and ministry are described in huge detail in the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible). When he went into the Temple he had to wear specific clothing. In common with all priests, he had to wear priestly undergarments, tunic, sash and turban but in addition he wore a sleeveless blue robe, a richly embroidered apron, a breastplate with twelve gems representing the tribes and on his turban there was a golden plate inscribed with the words “Holiness unto Yahweh”. He would have nothing on his feet but had to have a ceremonial bath before going into the Temple. Just once a year, on the Day of Atonement, he was permitted to go into t

Hebrews 4.16 NLT 'Let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.' I have only spoken with the Queen on one occasion. I had attended a reception at Buckingham Palace to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee and afterwards there were refreshments. I was chatting with a couple of friends and suddenly saw the Queen approaching us. As I was facing her, it became clear that I was the person who needed to speak first and I anxiously tried to call to mind the correct way of addressing her. She then asked various kind questions and I felt frankly overwhelmed. I had never imagined that I would actually get to speak with her. However, as the Queen herself would gladly acknowledge, our God is of infinitely greater power and significance and yet in our verse today we are told that we can enter his presence with boldness. This is an almost incredible word to use. How can we as weak and unholy human beings possibly come boldly into the p

Hebrews 4.12 NLT 'For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.' If you thought that the Bible was just another piece of literature you have totally missed the point. The Bible is the way in which God speaks to us and he does it with devastating power. It can, and frequently does, turn people’s lives upside down. Through it, God is able to speak to the deepest places of our lives and can bring us forgiveness and renewal. It is the most exciting library of books imaginable. When I was a student one of my real fears was that through studying the Bible in depth and then ministering week by week, the Bible would lose its wonder and power for me. I would like to report that the exact opposite has happened. Through the decades the Bible has become more brilliant, exciting and powerful and I enjoy studying it more now than at any time in my life. Why? Because the Bib

Hebrews 3.13 NLT 'You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God.' I still vividly remember the warnings that my mother used to give me when I was a child. They had to do with what I ate, how I crossed the road, the people I spoke to, the way I cycled my bike and so on. I suspect that we all have similar memories. And the reason we were given all those warnings was because we were loved. If our parents or carers hadn’t been bothered about our safety and well-being they would have kept quiet. The warnings weren’t always welcome, but they were good for us and I am sure that we all look back with gratitude for them. In today’s verse, the writer is encouraging his readers to keep on warning one another. He is conscious of how easily they could slip away from the Christian faith, and he doesn’t want them to go the same way as the Israelites in their wilderness wanderings. Time and again they had refused to listen to God’s word

Hebrews 3.6 NLT 'Christ, as the Son, is in charge of God’s entire house. And we are God’s house, if we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ.' Confidence is important in every part of life isn’t it? I find it interesting that many people who are supremely confident in one area of life have no, or very little confidence, in another. We can probably all think of an area where we don’t feel confident, but here the writer speaks about an area in which we all need to be confident and that is our faith. The word he used here for confidence is sometimes translated by the word boldness. He knew that as we look to the future we all need to be strong in faith. Everything depends upon it. Here the writer talks about being confident in our hope in Christ. Hope is a very important concept in the New Testament and we need to make sure that we are understanding the word in a very different way from normal life. Donald Coggan, a former Archbishop of Canterbury, once described the word hope as we use

Hebrews 2.18 NLT 'Since Jesus himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested.' For many years I have suffered from back pain. That means that I have much in common with the majority of you because we are told that 60 to 70 percent of people have back pain at some point in their lives. I find that people are very caring and sympathetic but there is all the difference in the world between those who are kindly sympathising but have never had back pain, and those who have. I am, of course, grateful for anyone’s kindness but when it is clear that the person I am speaking to understands my experience it is such a blessing. Here in Hebrews the writer is keen to show that Jesus really understands the challenges that we face in life because he himself went through suffering and testing. Later in this letter the writer makes it clear that the church had suffered terribly for the faith. It must have been so difficult for this group of relatively new Christians to have suff

Hebrews 2:14 NLT Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. The fact that Jesus was fully human was of crucial importance to the writer of this  letter. Salvation depended upon it. In the first chapter, the writer spoke of the fact  that Jesus was the divine Son of God, and that he shared fully in the creation of the universe with God his Father. And now he wanted to explain that Jesus was also fully human which meant that, in common with every other human being, he experienced death and this enabled him to break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Through the centuries many people have struggled with the idea of Jesus’ humanity. This was a particular problem in the Greek world where gods were seen as being completely detached from this world. The idea of a god becoming human was nonsensical. All sorts of differe

Hebrews 2:1 NLT So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it. We can be sure that this letter was written to Christians from a Jewish background and that it was written to a particular church. Later in the letter we learn that the believers had suffered for their faith soon after they came to faith in Christ, but now they had become complacent and lazy. There was a real danger that they would drift away from the truth. The expression “drift away” is one that is well known in Greek literature and it is used to refer to a ring slipping off the finger, or some food slipping down the wrong way or a ship carelessly slipping past a harbour because the person at the wheel wasn’t paying attention. The writer wants the congregation to realise that in just the same way it is possible to drift away in  their faith.  In my experience when people stop attending church it is rarely because they have come to a conviction that Christianity is wrong. What has happened is that they

Hebrews 1:3 NLT The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honour at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven. As you probably know, we don’t have any of the original manuscripts of the New Testament. But we do have many very early copies and on a number of them this letter is titled “to the Hebrews”. There can be no doubt that this important letter was written specifically for Christians who had a Jewish background. The writer  wanted them to realise that Jesus was the perfect fulfilment of everything that they had heard about in their Old Testament Scriptures. Jesus revealed the very character of God and so, having been present with his Father in creation, he was able to sustain everything by his command. Then having made the perfect sacrifice of himself on the cross, he was able to return to the right hand of his Father in Heaven. In short, th

Hebrews 1:1-2 NLT Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe.   These opening verses of the letter to the Hebrews declare that God has always spoken to people. He did it in the Old Testament as he spoke through the prophets and then in the New Testament through his Son, Jesus. It is good for us  to stop for a moment and reflect that he didn’t have to speak. He could have  chosen to create humankind and leave us alone. He could well have looked at  what a mess people made of the world and decided to remain silent. But he  didn’t. His choice was to communicate and before launching into this wonderful  letter we should stop for a moment and praise God that his desire is to  communicate with us. In the Old Testament God spoke many times and in many ways through the  prophets. Often the communication was in th

Jonah 3.10 and 4.1 NLT 'When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened. This change of plans greatly upset Jonah, and he became very angry.' So far as Jonah was concerned it was bad enough to have to go to Nineveh at all, with its terrible reputation for sin. But at least he was given the responsibility for sharing a message of God’s judgement upon them. They certainly deserved it. But the result of his preaching was not what he had expected. To his great surprise the people repented and, in consequence, God changed his mind about destroying the people. This was all too much for Jonah who became extremely angry with God. These evil people needed, in Jonah’s view, to be blasted off the planet and not to be offered forgiveness. Jonah reflected that he ought to have remembered that God was “a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.” (Jonah 4.2) Jonah’s reactio

Jonah 3.1-3 NLT Then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time: “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message I have given you.” This time Jonah obeyed the Lord’s command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all. Jonah had learnt his lesson. He had tried running away from God and spectacularly failed in the attempt, and so when the Lord called him for a second time he obeyed and went. The task before him was colossal. Nineveh stood at the heart of the great Assyrian empire and had a population of more than 120,000 people, about twice the size of Babylon. It was one of the biggest cities in the world at the time, occupying a strategically important location on both north-south and east-west trade routes. Today it forms part of the large city of Mosul in Iraq. Nineveh was the last place on earth that Jonah would have chosen to be, but that’s where God wanted him. The Bible introduces us to many people who were led by God to places where they didn’t want t