Here in our final week of study through the book of Hebrews we see the power of love and hospitality in our care for one another. Learning to live in this way is how we connect ourselves to the miraculous power of God’s Kingdom.

Through our interactions, each of us become the hands of feet of the Kingdom to others — or perhaps, we find ourselves receiving this divine gift in surprising ways.

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Stories of hope are so important for us. They are not only wrapped up in our imaginations as inspiration, but they empower our actual living.

We look to those who lived lives marked with great faith as an inspiration in our challenges. We remind ourselves of the hope, of the faith, that carried them on. We acknowledge, lament, and confess their shortcomings, but ultimately we see the hope and faith they carried as fuel for us in our own lives.

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The post Hebrews: A Legacy of Faith appeared first on Emmaus Road Church.

The overall aim of the author of the Letter to the Hebrews is to convince Jewish Christians not to turn away from their new faith back to the Judaism they grew up in. He makes a case that Jesus is better in every way—greater than angels, prophets, Moses, priests who came before him.

This week, Hebrews makes its final argument of the supremacy of Jesus, the perfect sacrifice and savior for all humanity.

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Hebrews is trying to stir up the faltering 1st century Jewish Christians who were ready to give up the game for lost. It’s like they were in a match that was tied-up at the end of the period and they saw no way of pulling out the win. Many of them were packing it up and just going home. Leaving the covenant of Jesus behind in favor of the well worn and familiar covenant of the Torah.

But Hebrews provides us inspiring encouragement in finishing what we started.

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Theologian Fulton Sheen said that every priest is essentially a Jacob’s ladder—that is to say, someone who connects heaven and earth. Thomas Aquinas asserts simply that the priest is a mediator, a bridge, between human beings and God. 

This week we consider Jesus as the ultimate and final high priest.

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For us, the story of Jesus and all that he taught and demonstrated is familiar and well covered ground. But, for the 1st century Jews, this upstart Jesus and his radical reformation of the Mosaic law was brand new, and depending on how seriously you took him, he was either who he said he was; the Messiah of God, a harmless distracting, or a dangerous heretic.

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Hebrews was written from one devout Jewish follower of Christ to others struggling in their faith. A struggle that many of us are accustomed to today.

Throughout this series we will dwell on the incomparable glory of the person and work of Jesus Christ; showing his supremacy over angels and prophets, priests, and the old covenant and its temple and its sacrifices — and the new life and vocation Jesus brings to his followers. We will be reminded what real, lived and tested faith looks like, and conclude the week before Thanksgiving by reminding ourselves of the power of Love to change our world.

This is the Covenant of Christ and it is worth keeping.

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The book of James suggests that followers of Christ thrive through faithful devotion to God’s mercy and grace and a lived life of faith and works, reliance on wisdom to reorient the fickle motivations of our hearts, and to trust God with the providing, protecting, and ordering of our lives.

But, we recognize that there is a gap between our common experience and the promised reality of life in Christ. In Chapter 5, James suggests that there are very specific ways that we can faithfully engage in closing that gap in our lives.

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James chapter 4 feels like a set of three disconnected warnings to the early followers of the way of Jesus, but if we take a step back, we can see a common thread running through each. In verses 1-10 James warns against envy and material greed, in verses 11-12 he warns against judging others, and in verses 13-17 he concludes by warning against boastful self-reliance.

Each of these conditions are a direct byproduct from a lack of trust in God, and James warns that this lack of trust ruins our ability to live in the freedom and fullness of life that Jesus bought us through victory over sin and death.

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The post James 4: What is Trust? appeared first on Emmaus Road Church.

James argues that any pretense of being a follower of Christ that doesn’t result in a serious working-over of our speech habits is falling short. How we use language — what we say and how we say it — is a central and vital part of what it means to be truly human.

The real work of taming the tongue is not just about habit stacking or self control, it is heart work. Jesus, and now James, make it clear that what comes out of the mouth is a sign of what is really deep in the heart. 

So, we once again return to the familiar invitation. Ask and it will be given to you, but what should we be asking for? WISDOM that comes from God. This is the source of re-ordering our heart’s desires, then this powerful little tongue may be used for the good it was intended. 

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