"....how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation...?" (Hebrews 2)
I dated a girl for a couple of months while at SMU. One night I went to pick her up and waited in the lounge of her dorm. There was a piano there with a hymnal. I was playing "Moment By Moment" when she came down, and I told her, "This is one of my favorite hymns." Her response was, "O, Woody." It was not an admirable response. It was more, "You got to be serious." It was probably the first time in a one to one situation that I realized rejection because of Jesus.
What brought that response was the first few words of the first stanza of the hymn, "Dying with Jesus a death reckoned mine...." Even back then I could understand the response. If one has never encountered, "met," Jesus, very little of the relationship would make any sense. I got a similar response once when another unbeliever saw my Bible opened at Hebrews 10:19, "Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the Blood of Jesus...." Have you ever attempted to, "neglect," so as to, "escape"? I'm sure over the years that you have encountered similar "rejection responses" because of your identity in Jesus Christ. But I am also sure that you have found, as with me, that nothing or no one is worth abandoning Jesus. As another favorite hymn says, "O how could I this Friend deny, when He's so true to me?"!?!?
There is a very real sense in which all of us desire to "escape," i.e., get out of trouble, make life as convenient, trouble-free as possible, even the "workaholics," working to "get ahead," working for "a better life," maybe a fight against boredom, could we even say, "lay up for yourselves treasures on earth"? Regardless, please don't be offended; saving ourselves is a constant nemesis. Our text, however, warns us that no matter what the driving force of our lives, there is no, "escape," apart from Jesus. In Jesus, we find that we, "escape," condemnation, the coming judgment, hopelessness, despair, guilt, well, the list could go on and on. Our salvation in Jesus is, "....so great a salvation...." Nothing is worth it's, "neglect."
Father, in Jesus' Name, I confess that there have been times in my life when I did "neglect." I am so thankful that You did not neglect me in my neglect. I stand today not only in "awe," but in fear. Amen.
I dated a girl for a couple of months while at SMU. One night I went to pick her up and waited in the lounge of her dorm. There was a piano there with a hymnal. I was playing "Moment By Moment" when she came down, and I told her, "This is one of my favorite hymns." Her response was, "O, Woody." It was not an admirable response. It was more, "You got to be serious." It was probably the first time in a one to one situation that I realized rejection because of Jesus.
What brought that response was the first few words of the first stanza of the hymn, "Dying with Jesus a death reckoned mine...." Even back then I could understand the response. If one has never encountered, "met," Jesus, very little of the relationship would make any sense. I got a similar response once when another unbeliever saw my Bible opened at Hebrews 10:19, "Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the Blood of Jesus...." Have you ever attempted to, "neglect," so as to, "escape"? I'm sure over the years that you have encountered similar "rejection responses" because of your identity in Jesus Christ. But I am also sure that you have found, as with me, that nothing or no one is worth abandoning Jesus. As another favorite hymn says, "O how could I this Friend deny, when He's so true to me?"!?!?
There is a very real sense in which all of us desire to "escape," i.e., get out of trouble, make life as convenient, trouble-free as possible, even the "workaholics," working to "get ahead," working for "a better life," maybe a fight against boredom, could we even say, "lay up for yourselves treasures on earth"? Regardless, please don't be offended; saving ourselves is a constant nemesis. Our text, however, warns us that no matter what the driving force of our lives, there is no, "escape," apart from Jesus. In Jesus, we find that we, "escape," condemnation, the coming judgment, hopelessness, despair, guilt, well, the list could go on and on. Our salvation in Jesus is, "....so great a salvation...." Nothing is worth it's, "neglect."
Father, in Jesus' Name, I confess that there have been times in my life when I did "neglect." I am so thankful that You did not neglect me in my neglect. I stand today not only in "awe," but in fear. Amen.
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I am planning some sort of "prophetic act" for next Monday.
I am planning some sort of "prophetic act" for next Monday.
When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
Hebrews 12:2
Hebrews 12:2
