I have a few minutes, as my children greedily stuff their faces with fresh blueberries, to share some more of my heart. I am going backwards a little. To Hebrews 10: 26-31.
If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgement and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? 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 dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
I find this passage sobering. It makes me think about my approach, my security in my faith. If I have accepted such a great gift I should be ever longing to know my God more and more. If such a desire is missing what security can I claim? Can the Spirit really have taken root in me if I am not working to know God more? And if I ignore His word, if I choose to remain ignorant and then sin, is it the same as sinning knowingly? Growth, working towards heaven, is so much more important than I used to think. It goes deeper than being good and knowing the right answers. It is training my heart and head to constantly seek the truth. For the truth is good and glorious and holy and righteous. It is so easy for me, in my comfortable life, to choose to only see the loving, good, happy side of my Father. But He burns with a righteous anger. If I do not hold His sacrifices with the respect and awe and worship they deserve I am taking those same gifts and walking over them, placing the heart of the One who saved me beneath my feet. I wouldn’t do that to anyone. Ever. So why is it easy to take this gift of freedom lightly? It should be painful, grievous to me. I should shrink from my own wretchedness as I fall before the God of grace and ask forgiveness, my sins cast before me. The blood poured out of my Saviour will always cover them. Make me appear clean. It is such an incredible gift. I have a relationship with God, I have a direct line, because of a river of blood. I need to consider that seriously, to remind myself daily that I live for that God. He will always win. The victory will always be His. And so I have nothing to be concerned about. As long as I keep working towards heaven I have no fears. I need to remember to be confident in that. I also need to remember that my God is more than the lovely picture my comfortable world paints. It really is a dreadful thing to fall into His hands, outside of His grace. The old testament stories bear witness to that. Then Christ came. An equal opportunity grace. But woe to those who miss the point. The Lord will judge and avenge. I tremble at the thought. Whether I am living the end times, or if it is many years away, I need to remember what it is I live for, Who it is I live for. I have all I need forever. I hope and pray you do too.
faith from the stove 