Declare The Works Of The Lord: 11/11/24

Monday, November 11, 2024

From The Bible Recap: Hebrews 11-13 and what God has revealed to me this time

I realize it has been a little while since I last blogged about my reflections (or the reflections from The Bible Recap) on my daily Bible readings, through which I am almost finished. A significant part of my not blogging is due to the fact that I’ve been in a season of wrestling with some key faith points in an attempt to reconcile God’s Word (and what others in my life say about it) with my life story. I am grateful to God that in the last week I’ve had two significant breakthroughs, with more after-effects of these breakthroughs in progress.

As I begin, I’m not entirely sure what all will get shared (I want to share what is important for the reader to know, but not in such a way to exalt my own story; after all this about the Lord Jesus Christ, not about me). Today’s post will include reflections from Hebrews 11-13 as well as a few select highlight verses, and future posts may include one of the latest daily devotionals from my Bible app as well as a sermon that was preached at my church a little while ago that is now beginning to connect to me. And/or maybe some other stuff. As God allows, of course.

First, as I was going through the Bible reading, I felt God once again highlight Hebrews 11:6 but also break it down for me this time.

(Note: this was a verse and a chapter that my pastor preached on for a few months in a row about 2 to 3 years ago. What he shared (and what God revealed) spoke to me then, and now is speaking again to me, ministering in yet a different way. Then, what connected for me was that faith was a muscle, and that we need to intentionally build up our faith. Now, having undergone trials that have left me weaker than I once was, I believe God is bringing this verse back to me in a simpler form more congruent with my current state, but also in a way that may reach further into my heart than ever before. I pray that this is so.)

Hebrews 11:6, broken down into three parts:

Part 1: without faith it is impossible to please God

Part 2: whoever would draw near to Him must believe that He exists (my response: “which I do.”)

Part 3: whoever would draw near to Him must believe that He rewards those who seek Him (my response: “which He has.”)

God rewarded me with not only a wife but a wonderful one (even more evident in today’s post-2024 election reaction)
God rewarded me with the apartment in which she and I both live
God rewarded me with my job, a fully-remote management consulting job where I step into a procurement role, as well as the client which I currently serve
God rewarded me also with an upcoming regular (once-a-month) gig through a former employer to accompany a singer leading a sing-along session to a local memory-care unit
God rewarded my wife with her current job, especially considering that she was hired a week after she had left her previous job
God rewarded my wife with her previous job, despite it proving to be a toxic environment, with the way its existence in her life was timed perfectly allowed us to be able to afford to marry and get our own place without suffering too much financially
God rewarded me with my car
God rewarded my wife with her car
God rewarded us with our church (Good News Christian Center) and the church community as well
There was a tenth point but I’d forgotten it by the time I started writing all this down…

Hebrews 11:13 These all [Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, etc] died in faith, not have received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

Hebrews 11:14 (paraphrased) … people who speak in faith are seeking a homeland

Hebrews 11:16 (paraphrased) … they desire a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore … God has prepared a city for them.

[If you wish to see the above verses in context, click here to see the entirety of Hebrews 11.]

To close out this section of verses that I felt God highlight to me:

39 And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, 40 God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. 12:1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance 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 has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 11:39-12:2, NKJV

Hebrews 12 verses 1 and 2 are verses that I definitely highlighted a few years back when my pastor was exhorting us all in putting our focus on God, no matter what happens in life.

[I did lose that focus, which has tended to happen in the past not just when I’ve run into trials but specifically challenges that a.) I’ve never experienced before, or b.) I never expected to have had to face. Both my growth in my faith as well as my work in therapy prepared me for a lot of things, but not this. Specifically, dealing with people who don’t take correction and pushed it back in my face, and then not being able to just move on from them (these were the aforementioned housemates I’ve previously spoken of), all that put together was not something I had ever had to deal with (I’ve dealt with difficult people before, but in each case there either was an immediate way out, or an immediate timeline to then move on).]

The point is, what our pastor illustrated for us can be found in Hebrews 12:2, where what got Jesus through the flogging, the crucifixion, the rejection, the abandonment, and all forms of hatred, was looking ahead to all those whose names would get to be written in God’s Book of Life as a result of what He endured. That’s what got Him through his trials, and what our pastor was highlighting was that Jesus Himself is what can and will get us through our own sufferings, whatever they may be.

I still struggle with getting myself to that kind of place. But I’ve found that what helps is separating truth from lies.

[I may (or may not) detail this more in a future post, but I’ve been following up on (what I believe to be) reliable news sources illustrating the results of our election and why things turned out the way they did, and specifically exposing those who not only do not agree with the results but are struggling with it. I was around similar types of people back in 2016 when Donald Trump was elected the first time. I saw people who were genuinely upset at his impending presidency because of what they expected would happen once he was in power. I also saw people of a different opinion, reacting to the former group thinking it ridiculous that anyone should be so incredibly upset at someone being elected president who wasn’t their choice. My reaction to all the above was that I could understand why people were upset that Trump was elected, but that I couldn’t understand why others were upset that the first group was upset.

Since then, I’ve learned (and am continuing to learn even in my own experiences) that oftentimes what causes a person to get upset is they believe a lie to be true, so fervently to the point that if an event occurs that either challenges that lie or presents itself to be a perceived “worst-case scenario” within the constraints of that lie, the person will become not only emotional but emotional to the point that they cease to be able to function as an adult.]

Now, it is easy for me to speak of this as such in this scenario. That’s because, with God’s help, I have been able to separate truth from lies and rest in that resolution. However, if applied to a different scenario, I realize that I would struggle. Worldly events don’t affect me nearly as much as personal events. Four years ago, when the tides had turned in a different direction, I felt a certain way about that situation as well. But what it did was challenge me to press into my faith even more, and I believe I did that. A year later, God used yet a starker challenge to prompt me to begin a Bible study that ultimately ran ten months.

I will say that, in personal situations, when I evaluated different prominent friendships, acquaintanceships, working relationships, and classmate relationships, I often found that where I erred (especially in my younger years) was that I had believed something wrongly about what the other person said or did (and responded what I believed to be appropriate to that) only to find out that what I thought or heard or saw wasn’t true and that my response was in fact way out of line. I believed lies. I responded accordingly, which sometimes proved to be a horrible response. I regret it, but at the same time I’ve moved on in large part because by now so many years have passed that the amount that has been lost is far greater than any connection that was there at all. I have people from middle school, high school, and even college (nothing to say of my adult years!) where reconnecting with most if not all of them would feel like connecting with strangers because, well, they are in fact strangers! I can no longer lament this because firstly this is absolutely true, and secondly, what was there to lament anyway? Truth always wins over lies.

Where things can get more difficult is when it is not (only) I but the other person who believes lies. (I put “only” in parentheses because this refers to the other person believing lies, regardless of whether or not I did as well.) I do still believe that this happened in some of the challenging circumstances over the last few years that weakened me. One of these things I wish to address in clearer detail. I’ve alluded to it in past posts over the last several months, but I think this bears having a bit more of a microscopic focus:

From The Bible Recap:

Faith in God isn’t just a faith that believes He’ll bless us with all [that] we want. It’s also what empowers us to endure through trials and denials.

I’m going to stop right there for a second. I wish to speak well of my church even in the midst of highlighting something that I do believe is amiss. Everyone in my church is nice. I actually have more of a relationship with my current pastor than I ever did with any priest or pastor before. And by comparison, I have seen (and been part of) churches where they slipped far off their spiritual foundation, whether it occurred long before my arrival or during my time there. Good News still largely lives the truth, that the Bible is the Word of God, that Jesus Christ is the one and only way to heaven, and that salvation through faith in Him is available to anyone. Further, although this hasn’t really been talked about, I believe that they stand on Biblical values of marriage, of family, and even of work. They preach the importance of honoring God, which I’m not even sure any other church I’d ever been a regular at even mentions. And even recently with the election, they preach that no matter who is in the White House, no matter who our governor is, who our mayor is, who’s in Congress or our state legislature, etc., that we are commanded by God to pray for our leaders and submit to them. These are the main things that stand out that I want to mention, because while there are no perfect churches, this one does a lot of things right.

Back to from The Bible Recap:

[This bears repeating] Faith in God isn’t just a faith that believes He’ll bless us with all [that] we want. It’s also what empowers us to endure through trials and denials. Some of these people stopped the mouths of lions, but some of these people were sawn in two.

This is one of the reasons [we are] cautious about using phrases like “I’m believing God for [X]…”

I’m going to stop here again because this is something that my church does. Compared with what so many other churches are doing, this is nitpicking. But given my story, given my love’s story, and given how neither she nor I have seen resolution regarding most if not all of the trials we each have undergone to date (there are a few exceptions), building a relationship with God where He is King and we are not requires a bit of a different approach. As great as our church is in terms of building a solid foundation of faith both in Word and in practice, this is an area that in my opinion can and will create extra challenges, sometimes more challenges than the trouble is worth. I will let The Bible Recap explain:

[We are] cautious about using phrases like “I’m believing God for [X],” because that phrasing sounds like I’m demanding that God answer in the way I deem best, because I’ve already determined what the outcome should be, and if He chooses to do anything different, He’s letting me down.”

Having conflicted with one of my housemates regarding surface or tangential issues in part because this was what I was picking up from this person, their defense would often run along the lines of “I never said that! Did I say that? No, I didn’t say that!” Again, due to my own prior experiences of life, I had never really run into a person before that counterargued by diminishing their own actions or reactions and only counting their literal words as legitimate. If I had known then what I knew now, I would have responded by saying, “It doesn’t matter whether or not you said those literal words with your mouth; you said it loud and clear by reacting in [X] manner or by behaving in [Y] manner.” I bring this up, because I already can anticipate what some of my fellow church member’s reactions (including my ex-housemate) would be on the matter.

But personal experiences aside, receiving the type of defensive response from a fellow self-proclaimed believer after confronting them with this would give me grave concerns about their faith and salvation status. God is a good God who wants to give good gifts to His children, but He is not a vending machine. And the pitfall, as The Bible Recap was saying, was that if God didn’t “vend”, especially the way that people expect Him to, they would lose their faith and blame Him.

[Which, by the way, I’ve unfortunately been guilty of, even in my recent seasons of life.]

Bottom line, believing God for something specific, just by taking a Bible verse out of its original historic context (even if it appears appropriate to do), is false teaching. Believe God indeed for what He actually promises. But don’t demand something from Him because in His Word he promised that specifically to someone else.

The Bible Recap continues:

Wisdom in Scripture points us more in the direction of saying, “I’m asking God for [X], and I’m believing Him, period, regardless.” He is the object of our faith. He is what our faith terminates on.

A few of the promises He has said:

For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” Hebrews 13:5B-6, NKJV

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Hebrews 13:8, NKJV

I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. John 10:10B, NKJV

A brief point on that last one: Jesus has life abundant for us. But that doesn’t guarantee a house, a fancy car, free front-row season tickets to your favorite sports team, children, or even a spouse. One can have an abundant life even in the face of perceived lack.

Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. Philippians 4:11-12, NKJV

I am finding myself really wanting to highlight these above verses from Philippians because I’ve gotten so tired of the next verse, Philippians 4:13, being taken out of context.

Using Scripture to interpret Scripture, specifically the 11^th and 12^th verses from this chapter, I believe that what the 13^th verse is saying is, “I can endure all things through Christ who strengthens me.” As a man in which most of his life has felt like one trial after another, with only a few seasons sprinkled in of rest and refreshment, this is an interpretation that I can buy into. Instead of whether or not I am able to accomplish X, Y, and/or Z (usually related to something of ambition or another person’s expectation), it speaks as to my ability, through Jesus’s strength, to endure A, B, and/or C, as hard as they may be.

The point is, God has very specific promises, and His promises are within His will. I remember in 2012, eight full years before I was introduced to my wife for the very first time, He did promise me that He did want to give me a woman, but that I had to wait. His will was that the woman I married fit a very specific character profile, and that pairing me with “just anybody” wasn’t going to cut it. I of course embraced in that moment what He said, but also realized that that was going to still be very hard because I was still in that place of obsession.

But, to date, He hasn’t promised my wife or I a big house (He did give me a vision of one aspect of our apartment back when we were put between a rock and a hard place regarding how were going to afford married life now that the rug was being pulled out from under our feet), He hasn’t promised us children, and He hasn’t promised us, aside from the abundant life that Jesus talks about, that we will be super-wealthy and rolling in the dough, regardless of what my wife or I want, let alone what certain other people in our social circles expect out of us.

And the point is, that’s okay. God Himself – even Jesus Christ – He is the object of our faith, and He is what our faith terminates on. Nothing else, and no one else.

As for further interpretation of God’s promises, The Bible Recap continues:

In [Hebrews 11:39], the author tells us these great people of faith didn’t receive what was promised. [People have often taken this verse out of context and held it up to God saying, “look, see, You’re a liar, You didn’t come through for them…”]

[I must confess, I’ve been guilty of this too, even recently. I repent, because I don’t want to do this anymore.]