Hebrews 11 - 13 (23rd December) - Xiaowen

Heb 11

Verse 1: “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.”

Faith is to see in the spiritual realm what you hope for to happen and thereafter claim wad u see and pray with perseverance, believing what you see in the spiritual realm will come to pass in reality. One example is parents’ salvation. See in the spiritual realm what kind of spiritual climate you want in your family and pray and see it come to pass! =)

Seeing is possessing. See and possess the desires of your heart. Of course things of the Lord la=)

Verse 6: “And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.”

In the new King James Version it says ‘diligently’ instead of ‘sincerely’. As long as God knows your heart of desire for Him, He rewards. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists. This is like if you want to come and find me, you must first believe that I exist on this earth because if I don’t exist on this earth, then how do you find me right? This is the same with God.

Examples of various men and women of faith were given. It shows us that when we live a life walking in faith, the Lord will never fail in His promises for us. He fulfills His promises for us slowly, so long as we believe. Let’s hold on to the promises in the bible and walk in faith, believing the Lord will fulfill each and every one of these promises in time to come. He has His reasons and His best timing to fulfill those promises. =) Also, let’s not fail in any of our promises that we made to the Lord because He takes them seriously.

Heb 12

Verse 1: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.”

‘…ESPECIALLY the sin that so easily trips us up….endurance...’ Sin trips us very easily. So let us watch ourselves and be sensitive to the Holy Spirit so that we may not sin as sin slows us down in our walk with the Lord. The race is not an easy race. It is not just some 100m dash or a 2metres walk. It is an ongoing race which requires endurance, one that calls for God’s supernatural strength to run. We cannot run this race without God’s strength and help. And it is only with God that we can have the endurance to carry on.

God’s discipline is for our good. He loves us so He disciplines us. If you do not love somebody, then you will not bother to correct that person right? It would probably just be ‘let the person be. It is his/her problem if he/she stays this way.’ But because God loves us, He corrects us and also, because we love each other in this family that we correct one another in love.

God has His best for us. Our earthly fathers discipline us to the best that they can, sometimes uncertain whether they are right. But God is never wrong, He is always certain of what He is disciplining us about. He may also discipline you through your leaders, so obey your leaders when they discipline you.

It is always painful to be disciplined at that particular point in time, and we may either obey or rebel. However, later on, if we had obeyed, we would be thankful that we had obeyed, and if we had rebelled, we would then realized that we should have listened and would understand why we were disciplined at that point in time and would not commit that same mistake again.

Verse 14: “Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord.”

Be holy and see the Lord. Also, when we live in peace with everyone, the pre-believers will see Lord within us and among us. We have to WORK to live in peace and be holy. We have to work for it. It is not easy work, but we do it with God’s strength. =)

Heb 13

In verse 2, show hospitality to strangers and who knows you may just be entertaining the angels! I remember some pastor said that we should each and every person like Jesus. Love them like you would love Jesus. When you see them as Jesus, surely you will not judge them, or mistreat them, but you would treat them the way you would treat Jesus.

Jesus died that we may be made holy by His blood that cleanses us. Let’s be thankful.

In verse 17, obey your leaders and be accountable to them. Be accountable to God and to your leaders. Your leaders have to account to God too. Don’t make their work difficult, but make it a joy=) sometimes we account to our leaders but forgot to account to God, assuming that God already knows everything. True, God knows everything that happens in our lives, but He wants us to tell Him ourselves and account to Him. It is the same as how sometimes our parents know certain things about our lives without us telling them but they still want to hear from us personally.