It is not easy to find the perfect circumstance for inserting ourselves into some Old Testament example we’ve heard about since childhood. Perhaps, as Carlyle Marney tells us in his sermon, “The Jews were always getting it in the teeth,” our present difficulty is an inability to create a real picture of martyrdom.
The Book of Hebrews, however, is not to prepare faith for death but to challenge faith for endurance. Every generation faces the day when it becomes hard to maintain a faith that struggles to endure all the challenges a person faces as a Christian.
In Hebrews 12:1, the faith finds the real challenge: “Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,” and we do that with the gospel of Jesus Christ, “looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him, endured the Cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the Throne of God.”
All of us have experienced the efforts of our parents: Why should we not allow our parents to prepare us for the strength needed through the struggles we encounter with faith?
This little Book of Hebrews insists that we are not alone in the journey of faith. There is the eternal presence of Christ who leads us. There is the great cloud of witnesses who travel with us to lend experienced power to our journey. And there is personal faith of those who speak the same power and are willing to share in the knowledge of God through personal experience not unlike our own.
Written by Joe Reeves
Written by Joe Reeves
(reprinted with permission from Betty Reeves)
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