Category: Hebrews

Posted in Hebrews, Isaiah

Living in Grace

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“The Lord longs to be gracious to you, and therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you.” Isaiah 30:18

Have you ever heard one thing, when the person speaking meant to communicate something completely different? Oftentimes we jump to negative conclusions because we are suspicious of the motives of others, or because we feel so bad about ourselves that we assume the worst. It is easy to do this with God. If our filter is the law, and we feel God’s motive is judgment, we will take any communication from Him as negative. This puts a weight of guilt on us leading us to live without the joy, peace, and the sense of expectancy that He wants us to live in. We know we’re saved by grace; now He wants us to learn how to live in grace.

A few years ago I lost some tickets to a play Alice and I were excited about going to. I had been careful with them all week long and kept them in a place where I didn’t think they could get misplaced but on the day of the event, somehow they were gone. After looking everywhere I was feeling frustrated and embarrassed for losing them. We contacted the ticket office and left a message on a recorder but as we arrived, I was fully expecting to have to pay again to see the performance. Instead, I was greeted by an elderly couple at the ticket table who were filled with mercy. Yes, they had received the message, and no, we didn’t have to pay again. “We all lose something once in a while,” said the man who sensed my pain and wanted to make it easy for me to accept the tickets they had made for us.

This is what God is like. He’s not thinking about the stupid thing we did and the judgment He’s going to bring because of it. He longs to be gracious to us and is waiting for us to look up and receive His compassion. He wants us to let go of past regrets; He wants us to succeed; He wants us to go forward; and He wants us to grow in our confidence in Him.

“Let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16)

Posted in Hebrews, Isaiah

Letting Go of the Past

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Do not call to mind the former things, or ponder things of the past. Behold, I will do something new, Now it will spring forth; will you be aware of it? I will make a roadway in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:18-19

It is hard to go forward when you’re stuck in the past. When we allow old wounds to embitter our spirit, it’s hard to love new people. When we allow yesterday’s failures to weigh on our minds, it’s hard to face today’s challenges. God wants to free us from our past, so that we will recognize the new things He wants to do in and through us.

Have you been really hurt by someone? Forgive them. “Yeah, but they’re not even sorry.” Or, “They’ve said they’re sorry, but that doesn’t make everything alright.” No, only you can make everything alright again by forgiving them. If they don’t deserve forgiveness, then remember that you didn’t deserve forgiveness from Jesus either. He gave you a new beginning and expects you to do the same for others.

If you choose not to forgive, you are the one who will suffer. You will also hurt the ones you live and work with. Hebrews 12:15 says, “See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it, many be defiled.” When we let hatred get into our hearts toward one person it will come out toward others.

“Do not call to mind the former things…” Let go of it. Pray that God will have His way in them and do your part by forgiving them of every word, deed, and thought they’ve had against you. If you don’t, then you will miss the new thing that God wants to do.

He wants to make rivers flow in the desert. Impossible! Not with God. He can do anything in and through you, if you will only believe. Christians should be redemptive. We must deal in truth and therefore recognize things for what they are. Yet at the same time we must see that part of the whole truth includes our God’s ability to move mountains. No situation is too difficult. No disease is beyond healing. No relationship is beyond repairing. No soul is beyond saving.

Posted in 1Timothy, 2Peter, Genesis, Hebrews, John, Revelation

The Tree of Eternal Life

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God…” Genesis 3:5

After the enemy questioned the Word of God by asking Eve, “Did God really say that,” he questioned the character of God. In the text above it’s as if he’s saying, “God is holding out on you and doesn’t have your best interests in mind.” Once Eve took this bait, she could justify taking matters into her own hands to accomplish what was “best” for her. Instead of trusting God, she became suspicious of Him, and disaster followed. Is anything different today?

The irony of the attack quoted above is that God was offering Adam and Eve something only He possessed,  but it could only be found in the other tree; the tree of life. We find out in Genesis 3:22 that this tree would more appropriately be called the tree of eternal life because whoever ate its fruit would “live forever.” Adam and Eve were being offered, in the fruit of this tree, the very life of God who “alone possesses immortality.” (1Timothy 6:16)

Today God is offering eternal life again through another tree; the cross. His purpose is not to restore us to the state of Adam and Eve before they fell, but to give us the eternal life they never embraced. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

What will happen to those who don’t come to the cross and eat of the life only Jesus can give? They will outlive their bodies and face judgment (Hebrews 9:27), and then be cast into hell to pay for their sins against humanity. (Revelation 20:11-15)  After that they will be destroyed in hell (Matthew 10:28), be consumed by its fire (Hebrews 10:27), and perish like the beasts (2Peter 2:12) when they experience the second death of the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:15)

Let’s trust God’s heart for us and receive the eternal life He died for us to have!

Posted in 2Corinthians, Hebrews, James, Revelation, Romans

The Disabled List

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. Make straight paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled but healed.” Hebrews 12:12-13

The author of Hebrews is writing about how to respond to hardships in life. All hardship, he says, is part of God’s discipline or training, to grow us up. (Hebrews 12:7) Yet the very hardship that was designed by God for our healing can end up hurting us if we respond in the wrong way. We need to strengthen ourselves and stay on the straight path in these trying times, or we are in danger of ending up on the disabled list.

What makes us weak in hardship are the lies of the enemy. A few verses earlier we are warned to not be discouraged by discipline, or to take it as a sign of God’s rejection. God loves us and His discipline is actually a sign of His acceptance. (Hebrews 12:4-5)

A great danger in 21st century America  is the belief that God’s chief end for us is to be happy right now, so anything difficult must be prayed away or rebuked as being from the devil. God wants us to be healthy, not just happy, and sometimes that means He allows things in our lives that we wouldn’t choose for ourselves. Even if the devil initiated the difficulties because he hates us, God will use them for our good if we’ll trust Him. (2Corinthians 12:7-9; Revelation 2:10)

Because of this, James tells us we should rejoice when we face various trials because God’s end is that we would become complete in Him, lacking nothing. All we have to do is allow patience (our patience with God) to finish its work. (James 1:2-4)

Are you in a time of difficulty? It is easy to be offended and wander away from God. Strengthen yourself right now by embracing the truth. God loves you and this present difficulty is only going to make you better if you just hang in there. Choose to trust in God’s love and rejoice in His wisdom even when you can’t figure out how something so hard can work for your good. (Romans 8:28)

Posted in Hebrews, Psalms

Delighting in God

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Delight yourself in the Lord…” Psalm 37:4

A few years ago I had a life changing experience while preparing for church early one Sunday morning. The text on this particular morning was from Hebrews 12: “…let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus…” and I was praying through the message and planning the altar call.

I was going to tell a story about a father who was coaching his kindergarten son on how to win the “all class race” which was taking place that day. His son was very fast, but also easily distracted, and the dad knew it didn’t matter how fast he was.  If he didn’t run straight, he wouldn’t win. So he made a strategy: “Son, when the race starts I will be directly across from you at the finish line. Don’t worry about who is running next to you, or bother watching your own progress; just focus on me, and run straight into my arms.”

The question I was going to ask our people was: “What’s at the end of your race?” What are you really living for? Is it money? Pleasing people? Your retirement? etc… As I was thinking how powerful this was going to be, a question jumped into my mind which I knew was from the Lord. “What’s at the end of your race?” I knew instantly it wasn’t what I thought it was.

The answer came quickly as well as the consequences of my wrong priorities. “Jesus” was not at my finish line; it was something subtly different called, “Influence for Jesus.” It was plain to me that I had become a worker for God, before I was a lover of God, and equally clear what the costs were of my wrong priorities:

  1. I wasn’t delighting in God, because my reward was no longer Him, but in  how many people I was influencing for Him. 
  2. I had lost my delight in people. I could no longer enjoy people because I always needed them to do something. People were becoming projects that I had to work on instead of people that I could just enjoy. 

The final sentence I heard whispered in my spirit was this: “I’m calling you to be My bride, not My PR man.” 

A bride represents the Bridegroom in a different way than a promoter does. She knows Him intimately, and has even taken on some of His fragrance. Yes, she can answer all the basic questions, but that is not her joy. Her joy is to be with Him, and her influence is spontaneous, not forced. This is what Jesus wants from us.

Posted in Hebrews

The Point of Choice

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Today if you hear His voice do not harden your hearts.” Hebrews 3:15

It was 4:00 a.m. and I was wide awake.  We were in Houston, Texas for my son’s wedding, and our hotel room was filled with family, so I quietly got up and slipped down to the dining area in the hotel’s lobby.

Because of the hour, there was only one light on, so I got a cup of coffee and set up for my quiet time with the Lord in a place where I could read and write.  A few minutes later the night manager, Lawrence, came over to talk.  With very little prompting he told me he was trying for a new beginning.  He was 35 and felt he had made some mistakes so he was buckling down – he was going back to school, working two jobs, and trying to make things right with his girlfriend.

“Lawrence, you’ll never really get a new beginning without Jesus,” I stated directly.  This didn’t put him off, in fact, he pulled out the chair across from me and sat down.  Lawrence believed in the Bible.  He just didn’t know what it said or how to respond to God.

After I shared the plan of salvation, I asked him if he was ready to respond to God.

“I don’t think I’m ready. I’d have to clean my life up first,” was what he said.

“Do you wash up in the sink before taking a shower?” I asked him.

After thinking about this, he smiled and said, “No.”  The whole point of salvation is that we can’t clean ourselves up, only our Savior can wash us, inside and out.  But he still wasn’t sure he was ready.

“Lawrence, God woke me up at 4:00 a.m. just to talk with you, and you want a new beginning.  When will you be more ready than you are right now?”

He assured me that this was what he needed and asked me to write down the prayer he could pray to accept Christ.  I prayed for him, shook his hand, and then the lights went on because the woman who prepares the breakfast had arrived.

I don’t know if Lawrence went on to make a full response to Jesus but I know God was speaking to him.  Whenever God speaks, we must make a decision – not making a decision is a “no” to God, and results in a hardening of our hearts.  

When we respond quickly to God’s promptings we don’t only have the satisfaction of obeying Him, our hearts also become more tender to hear the next time He speaks.

Posted in 2Corinthians, Daniel, Genesis, Hebrews, John, Matthew, Psalms

The Gifts of the Magi

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Then they opened their treasures and presented Him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.” Matthew 2:11

As we think about Christmas let us reflect on the gifts given by the magi which speak to the Gift given by the Father to the human race. “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift.” (2Corinthians 9:15)

  1. Gold – The gift given to kings. The magi didn’t come to worship one who would become king; they came to worship Him who was born king. This caste of wise men from the east were likely in the order of Daniel with access to his prophecies. Daniel gave the time Messiah would appear (see Daniel 9:24-27) and alluded to His Divine nature as well as His universal rule. “One like a son of man…was given power; all the peoples, nations and men of every language worshipped Him.” (Daniel 7:13-14)
  2. Incense – The gift offered by priests. In the Old Covenant kings were from the tribe of Judah and the family of David; high priests came from the tribe of Levi and the family of Aaron. But God’s promised Messiah would be both king and priest as was an obscure person in the Old Testament named Melchizedek. (Genesis 14:18) David prophesied about this new order of priesthood that meant there would have to be a new covenant: “The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind, You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” (Psalm 110:4)
  3. Myrrh – The spice used for burial. Messiah would not only be the priest to offer sacrifice; He Himself would be the sacrifice. “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29) The shepherds who were called to witness the birth were rabbinic shepherds whose job it was to watch over the lambs that would be sacrificed in the temple. On Christmas, God called them to watch over the Lamb that would replace all other sacrifices. “Jesus sacrificed for our sins once for all when He offered Himself.” (Hebrews 7:27) Let’s remember the true wonder of Christmas is the One born for us.
Posted in Hebrews, Mark, Matthew, Revelation

Wake Up!

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“You have a reputation of being alive but you are dead.  Wake up!… Go back to what you heard and believed at first; hold to it firmly.  Repent and turn to Me again.  If you don’t wake up, I will come to you suddenly, as unexpected as a thief.” Revelation 3:1-3

 The Christian life is a long journey at night.  God has ordained that we would have to choose Him in a world of moral darkness that is opposed to the gospel, so that those who choose Him in the dark will never reject Him in eternity when we see Him in the light.  But we have to stay awake!

 Presumption put the church at Sardis asleep.  They had a reputation of being alive, probably gained by past experiences of life and reflected by a doctrine of life, yet in reality, they had become dead.  Like the foolish virgins (See Matthew 25) they presumed that the oil they received at the beginning would be enough, so they didn’t bother to keep their relationship with God fresh.

 America is one of the most dangerous places in the world spiritually.  I’ve had missionaries tell me that they are glad they don’t live here because life is so easy and busy in America that they find it difficult to stay spiritually awake.  On the mission field they sense their absolute dependence on God’s protection and provision so it’s easy to trust Him day by day, but here they find the urgency to seek Him is lacking.

 The enemy seeks to put the church to sleep by the cares, worries, and pleasures of this life. (Mark 4:19)  Do you have a strategy to stay awake?  When I drive at night I make sure there is a passenger to help keep me from dozing off.  I believe God has given the church to be that spiritual passenger for each of us. (Hebrews 10:24-25).  There’s something about gathering together and hearing the word of God that reminds us of who we are, who God is, and of what’s truly important.  Are you part of a group where someone regularly asks you if you’re still awake?

Posted in 2Corinthians, Hebrews

An Inconvenient Truth 

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.   Since then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others.” 2Corinthians 5:10-11

 In 2006 Al Gore released a documentary on global warming called, “An Inconvenient Truth,” urging us to do something to make changes in the environment before it’s too late.  It’s not just about us, he urged, it’s about the world we’re giving to our children.

While I’m all for stewardship of the earth and reducing carbon emissions, there’s another inconvenient truth that troubles me way more than global warming – it’s the final judgment.  It turns out that our lives on this planet will one day appear like a vapor in light of eternity, and that the choices we’re making now determine how our judgment will go then.  To live in light of that day is to know the fear of the Lord.  To live ignoring our accountability to God is reckless and dangerous.  As Hebrews 10:30-31 says, “For we know Him who said, ‘It is Mine to avenge; I will repay,’ and again, ‘The Lord will judge His people.’  It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”  That is, it’s terrifying to be completely unprepared for our judgment day.

Here’s the inconvenient truth that must be told:  Jesus came the first time as a Lamb to save the world, but He’s coming the second time as a Lion to judge it.  I want to be ready for that day and I want to persuade others to be ready as well.  Let’s change our lives now, let’s serve God now, and let’s seek His presence now before it’s too late.  Jesus took God’s judgment on sin when He died on the cross, so that we could be forgiven.  Let’s make our identity in Him and receive His love now instead of being exposed by His holiness then.

Posted in 1John, 1Timothy, 2Peter, Ephesians, Galatians, Hebrews, John, Psalms, Romans

The Value of Godliness

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Train yourself to be godly.  Physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” 1Timothy 4:7-8

 To train ourselves to be godly is to reorder our lives in a way that makes living close to God our highest priority.  Asaph said, “the nearness of God is my good.” (Psalm 73:28)  In what way is godliness good for us?

 First, Paul says it’s valuable in this present life.  Later in his letter he gives a qualifier: “Godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world, and we cannot take anything out.” (6:6-7)  The more we pursue godliness with contentment the more we live defined by God and the more all other definitions fade away.  We are not our financial net worth, or what other people think we are, or even how we define ourselves – we are God’s masterpiece! (Ephesians 2:10)  Only the godly grow away from the traps of this world into their true identity.  Letting the One who loved us and gave Himself up for us (Galatians 2:20) be the One who defines us is tremendously liberating.  His perfect love drives out fear and insecurity (1John 4:18), so that we can simply be ourselves filled with His Holy Spirit.

 Then Paul says godliness has value for the life to come.  Asaph says that those who live “far from You will perish; You put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to You.” (Psalm 73:27)  The ungodly will “perish like beasts” (2Peter 2:12) and “be consumed” eventually in the eternal fire (Hebrews 10:27), but the godly will share eternal life with God.  This is the simple gospel: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

 Godliness begins by forsaking our own works and by putting our trust in Jesus Christ because salvation is God’s gift to us.  “Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness (right standing with God!).” (Romans 4:4-5)