Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
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Do you remember, when you were a
kid, when your parents told you that if you were bad all you'd get for
Christmas is coal in your stocking?
Most of the time, we didn't get
coal. Our gifts were not dependent on
how we actually acted, unless we were very, very bad. Even if we were only good most of the time,
our parents still gave us gifts. If
we're honest, when we look back on our childhoods, we can probably say that we
might have deserved more coal. There
were probably years when we deserved nothing but coal—if the outcome was based
on our actions, we wouldn't have much reason for hope.
But we had hope for Christmas
because we knew the love of parents, love that was willing to overlook the
things we had done and give us gifts we didn't deserve.
When we talk about our spiritual
hope, the concept isn't that different.
If our spiritual hope depended on
how we lived our life and the extent to which we could have hope for the
future, we'd be in a lot of trouble.
We're pretty good, but pretty good isn't enough to earn the love of
God. We can't be good enough to earn the
endless love of God, and if having hope for the future, both on earth and
beyond death, we'd be a pretty miserable lot.
But our hope doesn't depend on
us. It depends only, as Hebrews tells
us, on the blood of Jesus, blood that was freely given for you & for
me. Our hope depends on God's love,
given freely, and because it's a gift, we can have hope for the future.
Now, I want to emphasize here
that it's not only hope for life beyond death.
It's also hope for this life, for today, for tomorrow, for next year and
the ones beyond that. We have hope that
God will continue to work in us, continue to pour his love upon us, continue to
help us see his love leading us forward.
We hope for the Spirit to guide us and build us up, growing us into
mature Christians who offer everything to God.
We have hope for abundant life this side of heaven, and we have hope for
eternal abundant life with God on the other side of death.
All of this hope is rooted in
Christ, in his life, death & resurrection.
Let us hold fast to this, and let it motivate us, driving us out,
provoking one another to love and good deeds, that our lives may always point
to Christ.
So let us lift up our prayer
requests, trusting in God, rooted in hope, knowing that Christ, our priest,
hears our prayers and ensures they are heard in the throneroom of God.
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