A GREAT CLOUD OF WITNESSES
Friday – June 29, 2018, Tamuz 16, 5778
Praise the Lord you are back for another dose of the Anointed Word of God. If we will truly treasure the Word of God and make it our word not just our Sunday word, but our everyday word we will excel in the Kingdom showing forth the goodness (glory) of our God. The featured picture today is Patti and me at Lincolnville, Maine in September of 2016 for a lobster feed. As I recall this picture was taken after we had eaten so you can again see my belly bulging with that delicious lobster. I don’t know if they have lobster dripping with butter in Heaven or not, if they do, she is into it. Now let’s delve into our Bible Study for today by reading our primary text aloud.
Hebrews 12:1-2 (KJV)
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.
As you can plainly see we are moving into another chapter of this wonderful Book of Hebrews. We have come through the faith chapter, the Faith Hall of Fame, and now into the twelfth chapter which will be just as full of wonderful things (words). As we start off with this new chapter there is reference made to all the wonderful examples of faith that we studied in chapter eleven. As we noted in the midst of that study, many of these were imperfect at best (giving us great hope) but with God’s leadership, statements of faith that they undoubtedly repeated, they did mighty exploits. We are to do the same dear saints of God. With God all things are possible (for the Kingdom and for us). Without God nothing is possible (positive for the Kingdom of God). Let’s look at the Message Translation of verse one.
Hebrews 12:1 (MSG)
1 Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins.
Each of us are to be an example for others, this is a paramount reason for us to develop our faith very diligently, there are people looking on, we must excel and show the way for those coming up behind us. Let us not get stuck in our diapers drinking milk. If we get stuck it is by our own choice, our own freewill. We may have reasons for not progressing in the Kingdom of God, for not achieving, but we have no legitimate excuse. For a good many in the Church there are things that are weighing them down. These things may be good things in the eyes of the world or even the Church but they are not God directed. Everything that we do which is not God directed has diverted us from the will of God and therefore our accomplishments for the Kingdom and even our own lives. What is accomplished in our personal lives and the Kingdom of God must be indistinguishable. We do not have a personal life and a Kingdom life (Church life), they are one life. Think about the following verse from the parable of the sower in this context.
Mark 4:19 (KJV)
19 And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.
We are to cast the cares of this world over onto Him. Riches is our right and inheritance but not our focus, God is our focus and His purposes. Lusts of other things is anything that takes us away from the plan, the purposes, the will of God. It could be fishing, ballgames, even our kids, and so on. When the things of the world come first, the Word of God is choked for we have made it second place and we cease to bear fruit. I suspect that many of our lives are cluttered with things that we must identify and get out of our lives. If not out of our lives, way down the priority chain so that it has no influence on the call of God in our lives.
What about this “sin which doth so easily beset us”? Consider the following verse as we start to close out this week of wonderful study, learning, and victory.
Ephesians 4:21-23 (KJV)
21 If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:
22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
It looks to me like we are easily beset by old sins because we fail to clean up our mind with the Word of God, a renewing of the mind. Finally, as we look back at our primary text we come across that word “patience”. I don’t know about you but it is not my favorite word or process but it is necessary and so we all, me included, must embrace it and as it says in James the outcome will be that we are wanting for nothing. Lord willing, I will pick up right here on Monday.
Until our next publication, I speak this Scriptural prayer for your life right now, receive it in the name of Jesus, confess it, and walk it out with thanksgiving.
2 Peter 1:2-4 (KJV)
2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
By: Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
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