Category Archives: Father / Yahweh

Faithful, Father / Yahweh, Loving / Kind, Protector / Deliverer, Repenting from Sin, Salvation, Seeking God, Thankfulness

We Are Not Interchangeable Parts in God’s Eyes

Reading the context of Matthew 18 preceding verses 12-14, we see emphasis put on humbling oneself like a child to come to the kingdom of God and caution against causing those who do to stumble and turn away from Yahweh.

Yeshua continues in this teaching by calling out a metaphor of a shepherd who looks for any of his lost sheep. He is not content to simply return with most of them or even almost all of them. He wants all of his sheep. So, too, our Father wants for all of us who have humbled ourselves like a child and put our trust in Him as Father to continue in relationship with Him. If one of us strays, He will seek after us. It makes an important point. Each of us as individuals matter to our Father. We are not just part of a big flock. We are not interchangeable.

Matthew 18:12-14

Ninety-nine Plus One

      12“What do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying? 13“If it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray. 14“So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish.

Perhaps another way to think of this is to think of the Father / child relationship that Yahweh gives us so many times in scripture. Would a father be content to leave one child behind if he had three? What if he had 10? He would surely leave the others  behind in safety and pursue the one that was missing. Yahweh loves each of us in this way who have humbled ourselves and submitted to Him as Father.

Note that there is not indication in this scripture that the lost sheep will always be recovered. It simply states that He will pursue them.

Pray and give thanks to our Father that He loves each of us as individuals and that we are not simply interchangeable parts of a flock or herd in His eyes. Reflect on that. The Creator and Master of all loves each of us as individuals. He cares for us. He does not want to lose any one of us. Really take time to let that set in. No matter what you face in your personal life, you can see that you have value and purpose when you submit to Yahweh.

For those whom the Holy Spirit may convict as being a lost sheep, do not lose heart. Turn back to Him and ask His help. He wants you to come back to Him. Turn from the ways of the world and seek after our Father in Heaven. He is looking for you!

Shalom

Devotion by John in service to Christ

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Do you know for sure if you will go to heaven or hell when you die? Are you experiencing in your life the peace and joy of a personal relationship with our Creator and Father? Learn more about salvation through The Message of the Cross.

 

All Powerful / King of All, Faith / Trusting God, Father / Yahweh, Jesus Christ / Yeshua, Loving / Kind, Miracles, Miracles, Peace / Rest, Teachable

“Come to Me” – Yeshua

The context of Matthew 11:25-27 is building off of prior verses in which Yeshua speaks about how some in certain cities have witnessed many miracles and yet they still have not chosen to repent and follow Yeshua. The punchline is that will be very bad for them (Matthew 11:22 “Nevertheless I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you.)

Matthew 11:25-27

Come to Me

      25At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. 26“Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight. 27“All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.

      28“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. 30“For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

There are several key concepts of which we should take note:

  • Some things are hidden from the wise that are revealed to those who are simpler. In this context it certainly points to knowing our LORD and dwelling in relationship with Him. One easy example to apply this is to imagine two people witnessing the same miracle, perhaps someone coming back to life in a hospital. One who is wise in his own eyes, perhaps a smart doctor, may declare there is a “scientific” or “medical” explanation that he just can’t identify. He sees the miracle, but dismisses it. The second person perhaps simply embraces the miracle that God has clearly delivered and gives God the glory. We must rely on God, not ourselves and our own wisdom.
  •  All things have been handed over to Yeshua by the Father. Yeshua is mediator and has authority over all.  This is consistent with Matthew 28:18“ And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” Let us remember this if we are tempted to fret and worry. Yeshua is over all. We can pursue Him and submit to Him and trust in Him!
  • No one can truly and fully know the Father but the Son, and vice versa. They are infinite and far above our ability to fully comprehend. Recognize this, but don’t let it deter you from pursuing an intimate relationship with them!
  • No one can know the Father, except those to which the Son reveals Him. Let us thank Yeshua for our opportunity to know the Father rather than get arrogant about how great we are because we know Him. Let us similarly pray for the lost rather than scorn them.
  • Life is hard. We often feel like we are carrying heavy burdens. Yeshua calls us to Him. He wants us to share a yoke with Him, not to help Him, but to help us! He is the strong “ox” in this metaphor and we are the weak. This is not a call for us to take on a heavy load He is pulling, but rather to let Him help us carry our load. In Yeshua, we find rest for our souls.

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Do you know for sure if you will go to heaven or hell when you die? Are you experiencing in your life the peace and joy of a personal relationship with our Creator and Father? Learn more about salvation through The Message of the Cross.

All Powerful / King of All, Father / Yahweh, Learning To Pray Effectively, Protector / Deliverer, Provider

Father Knows Best

The verses in Matthew 7 related to prayer, specifically answered prayer, are often misunderstood and taken out of context. Some are also even led away from the faith because they misunderstand this verse.

Matthew 7:7-12

      7“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8“For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 9“Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? 10“Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? 11“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!

Let me preface my comments by saying that I am sure there could be a deep study on this subject and these verses. I mean that. I am going to keep it high level and try to leverage the metaphor the LORD gives us to shed some light on the surface.

People sometimes take this scripture to mean that whatever they ask for will be granted, as if Yahweh is some vending machine where we place our order and pull the handle to get what we want. When they ask for something He does not provide, they declare He is not real or the Bible is not trustworthy.

Read it from the context given, that He is our loving Father. Loving fathers do not always give their children everything requested. Of course the verse says we will not give a snake if they ask for a fish. That is true. But so also we can conclude a good father will not give a poisonous snake to a son who asks for it either.

The point is that when we ask for and seek after righteous things that are pleasing to the LORD, that He wants for us to have, to experience… it is then that He will answer.

The next point is one of timing. Again let us use our context of a father and son. If my son asks to know me better and spend more time together, that is awesome. Every dad should want that. Of course we can’t give that to our son in one sitting, all at once as it were. There is time required to be invested by both father and son to come to know one another better. Even if I simply want to give my son a fish he asks for, I still may need time to prepare for it. I may not give him a fish at that moment. I may prepare to give it to him later.

Let us trust that our Father is a loving father. He knows best. We should seek after things that please Him and draw us near to Him. Then let us trust in His timing to deliver as we continue to pursue relationship with Him.

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Do you know for sure if you will go to heaven or hell when you die? Are you experiencing in your life the peace and joy of a personal relationship with our Creator and Father? Learn more about salvation through The Message of the Cross.

All Powerful / King of All, Consequences of Sin, Discipline / Guidance From God, Father / Yahweh, Fear / Reverence for God, Grace / Forgiveness, Jesus Christ / Yeshua, Justice / Judgment, Prophecy, Protector / Deliverer, Visions, Worthy of Fear / Reverence

There Will Be Judgment; Will You Stand With YHWH or Against Him?

Revelation foretells of some very dramatic and difficult times. It can seem overwhelming to try to fully understand the events and their significance. It can be similarly difficult to try to understand what is symbolic imagery and what is literal. I encourage all who are interested to study further.

If I step back and reflect, I can see some obvious themes.

  • The LORD our God is in control. Everything will come to pass according to His plan. He is not subject to being surprised by man or Satan.
  • Those who are submitted to YHWH will still be around during this tribulation. Else why would the locusts be told only to go after those without the seal of God?
  • Difficult and serious punishment can be handed out by YHWH. He has standards and we are all guilty. We are only forgiven through Yeshua. Let us take it seriously. YHWH is not some marshmallow god in the sky who is only going to give you good things. Sometimes He gives hard and difficult things as punishment for our actions. How we live and whom we serve matters!
  • We find protection and deliverance through Yeshua the Messiah. Let us be thankful and joyful, even when we face hard times.

Revelation 9:1-12

The Fifth Trumpet—the Bottomless Pit

      1Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth; and the key of the bottomless pit was given to him. 2He opened the bottomless pit, and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit. 3Then out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth, and power was given them, as the scorpions of the earth have power. 4They were told not to hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5And they were not permitted to kill anyone, but to torment for five months; and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings a man. 6And in those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, and death flees from them.

      7The appearance of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle; and on their heads appeared to be crowns like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men. 8They had hair like the hair of women, and their teeth were like the teeth of lions. 9They had breastplates like breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots, of many horses rushing to battle. 10They have tails like scorpions, and stings; and in their tails is their power to hurt men for five months. 11They have as king over them, the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek he has the name Apollyon.

      12The first woe is past; behold, two woes are still coming after these things.

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Do you know for sure if you will go to heaven or hell when you die? Are you experiencing in your life the peace and joy of a personal relationship with our Creator and Father? Learn more about salvation through The Message of the Cross.

Faith / Trusting God, Father / Yahweh, Guide, Learning To Pray Effectively, Obeying God, Protector / Deliverer, Seeking God

The LORD Is Approachable and Available To Those Who Walk With Him

Those who walk with the LORD can approach Him and ask for His council and guidance. He often answers in a very clear way. We can see that He is patient as David comes to Him multiple times because His men are afraid. David does not just ask once, but again when they hear of Saul coming as well. We can keep coming back to our Father. He is not tired of hearing from those who walk with Him. He is not too busy. He is a loving Father and councilor.

1 Samuel 23:1-14

David Delivers Keilah

     1Then they told David, saying, “Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah and are plundering the threshing floors.” 2So David inquired of the LORD, saying, “Shall I go and attack these Philistines?” And the LORD said to David, “Go and attack the Philistines and deliver Keilah.” 3But David’s men said to him, “Behold, we are afraid here in Judah. How much more then if we go to Keilah against the ranks of the Philistines?” 4Then David inquired of the LORD once more. And the LORD answered him and said, “Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will give the Philistines into your hand.” 5So David and his men went to Keilah and fought with the Philistines; and he led away their livestock and struck them with a great slaughter. Thus David delivered the inhabitants of Keilah.

      6Now it came about, when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David at Keilah, that he came down with an ephod in his hand. 7When it was told Saul that David had come to Keilah, Saul said, “God has delivered him into my hand, for he shut himself in by entering a city with double gates and bars.” 8So Saul summoned all the people for war, to go down to Keilah to besiege David and his men. 9Now David knew that Saul was plotting evil against him; so he said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring the ephod here.” 10Then David said, “O LORD God of Israel, Your servant has heard for certain that Saul is seeking to come to Keilah to destroy the city on my account. 11“Will the men of Keilah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down just as Your servant has heard? O LORD God of Israel, I pray, tell Your servant.” And the LORD said, “He will come down.” 12Then David said, “Will the men of Keilah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul?” And the LORD said, “They will surrender you.” 13Then David and his men, about six hundred, arose and departed from Keilah, and they went wherever they could go. When it was told Saul that David had escaped from Keilah, he gave up the pursuit. 14David stayed in the wilderness in the strongholds, and remained in the hill country in the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day, but God did not deliver him into his hand.

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Do you know for sure if you will go to heaven or hell when you die? Are you experiencing in your life the peace and joy of a personal relationship with our Creator and Father? Learn more about salvation through The Message of the Cross.

All Powerful / King of All, Eternal, Father / Yahweh, Forgive Others / Seek Forgiveness, Grace / Forgiveness, Holy Spirit / Ruach HaKodesh, Salvation

YHWH Is, Was, and Will Be. In Him We Find Grace and Peace

As we take our time digesting the introduction to Revelation, we are reminded of some fundamentals we should keep in our thoughts as we learn what the LORD has to say.

The grace of YHWH to give us what we do not deserve should be ever present in the minds of His followers. So, too, the peace that comes with knowing Christ as our Savior. These are things to be valued.

YHWH is eternal. He is. He was. He will be. He is the alpha and the omega, the first and the last… and everything in between. There is nothing that exists without Him. He is king of the universe.

Yeshua is the faithful witness and firstborn of the resurrection and ruler over the kings of earth. He released us from our sin through His blood on our behalf. He made us to be a kingdom and priests to the Father. We should give Him glory and expect His return, in dramatic fashion

Revelation 1:4-8

Message to the Seven Churches

      4John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, 5and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood— 6and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. 7BEHOLD, HE IS COMING WITH THE CLOUDS, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen.

      8“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

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Do you know for sure if you will go to heaven or hell when you die? Are you experiencing in your life the peace and joy of a personal relationship with our Creator and Father? Learn more about salvation through The Message of the Cross.

Father / Yahweh, Forgive Others / Seek Forgiveness, Holy Spirit / Ruach HaKodesh, Idols / False Gods, Interceding for Others, Jesus Christ / Yeshua, Prayer, Righteousness / Serving God, Salvation, Satan, Sin

Key Points From 1 John In His Own Words

John summarizes and emphasizes why he wrote the letter to his audience. It is a good summary from his own perspective.

1 John 5:13-21

This Is Written That You May Know

      13These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. 14This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.

      16If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this. 17All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death.

      18We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him. 19We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. 20And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

      21Little children, guard yourselves from idols.

Quick recap… We who submit to and follow Yeshua have eternal life. We know he hears us when we ask anything according to his will and that we will have what we request. Let us take care not to overlook the phrase “according to his will”. It is not about God being at our beck and call to deliver everything according to our will.

When we read the section about sin leading to death and not leading to death, we should remember that the penalty for all sin is death, but through Christ our sins can be forgiven and thus not lead to death… but only through Christ. John seems to be encouraging us to pray for others who we see sinning and the prayers will be answered, if it is according to God’s will. But we should take care also to remember the “unpardonable” sin Yeshua describes… this is the sin leading to death.

Matthew 12:30-32

The Unpardonable Sin

      30“He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters.

      31“Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. 32“Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.

It is another opportunity for prayer and study to try to understand this unpardonable sin. I think it is often understood to be the continuing rejection of the Holy Spirit. When we couple this with the use of the term “brother” it seems that this is a description of seeing a brother or sister in Christ sinning, but not rejecting the Spirit. We pray for them to be forgiven of this and they will be according to God’s will.

We are encouraged again as John approaches his closing to trust in God who will keep us and we are warned that this world lies in the power of the evil one. Let us not expect righteousness and godliness from the world.  We are reminded that Yeshua came so that we could better know the Father and there is one last warning about avoiding idols.

Please prayerfully reflect on this and ask YHWH to help you gain clarity and understanding of how to apply it in your life.

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Do you know for sure if you will go to heaven or hell when you die? Are you experiencing in your life the peace and joy of a personal relationship with our Creator and Father? Learn more about salvation through The Message of the Cross.

Children, Father / Yahweh, Hebrew Roots / Commands / Law, Obeying God, Parenting

We Love God By Keeping His Commandments, And They Are Not Burdensome

We show love and respect for our parents through obedience, especially as we are children growing up under their charge. The same is true for our relationship with our heavenly Father. He shows love to us through grace and forgiveness. We show love to him through our obedience to his instructions and commandments. If we take that comparison a bit farther… is a child showing love by picking which rules he or she obeys from her parents? Put simply, no. It is disobedience and rebellion if they choose not to obey some. It is the same for us with our Father. We do not show love by picking and choosing which commandments we will follow and leaving others behind. We show love and respect by obeying all the rules. Further, we seek to clearly understand the rules and how to properly apply them because we want to please him… if we truly love him.

We are also reminded clearly that “his commandments are not burdensome”. If we think they are, we have the wrong attitude. We obey all sorts of rules and guidelines based on man’s determining for a home or a city or a state or a country. We have rules at work and rules at school and rules at home and think nothing about it. It makes sense to make everything run smoothly and keep people safe. Why then is it so easy to complain about changing our lives to live according to God’s laws? Why do we try so hard to dismiss the parts of his rules that we don’t really want to follow? It is really an issue of the heart, as with the metaphor above comparing it to a family and their children in how they relate to their parents. Are you driven by love and respect for your Father and wanting to please him? or driven by self and desires to live your life your way?

1 John 5:1-12

Overcoming the World

      1Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. 2By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. 3For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. 4For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

      5Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? 6This is the One who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7For there are three that testify: 8the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. 9If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for the testimony of God is this, that He has testified concerning His Son. 10The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son. 11And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.

Too many Christians dismiss the entirety of the Old Testament as obsolete or no longer meaningful. As such, they often don’t study it to fully understand all that God has laid out in his instruction for us to do. The Torah is the heart of God’s instruction to us. Yeshua taught from the Torah and the writings of the prophets. We should pay attention and study it like he did. We should seek to understand what we should still be doing and what has been fulfilled through Christ. We should test this against scripture with effort on our part to study it rather than just accept what is taught by pastors in churches without testing it.

To learn more, read Understanding the Law, What Does It Mean Today? and Is God’s Law a Burden?

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Do you know for sure if you will go to heaven or hell when you die? Are you experiencing in your life the peace and joy of a personal relationship with our Creator and Father? Learn more about salvation through The Message of the Cross.

Eternal, Father / Yahweh, Is the Old Testament Relevant Today?, Jesus Christ / Yeshua, Joy / Happiness / Rejoicing, Share the Good News, Study the Word

The Word Come To Life

1 John contains an interesting introduction which is easy to skip over if we are not careful. John starts with eternity in mind. What they learned and experienced through their relationship with Messiah was entirely consistent and unchanged since the beginning. YHWH does not change (Malachi 3:6). Consistent with the opening in the gospel of John, he also here refers to Messiah as the Word, in this case the Word of Life. This reminds us that the Messiah is the Word become flesh to walk among us. When we have questions about how we should live, we can not only study what Yeshua taught, but also how he and his disciples lived. We can be assured that the Word has not changed since the beginning, and as such we are called to study and learn the Torah and the writings of the prophets, not just the “New Testament”. They do not contradict when understood properly. None is obsolete or irrelevant. In fact the New Testament builds upon the Old Testament like a house on a foundation. Without the foundation, it is not complete and will not function properly (will be misunderstood in this case).

I find it encouraging but also challenging that he states that this message is proclaimed and shared so that they may have fellowship together and with the Father. The disciples were not content to let others continue in wrong understanding and wrong teaching but reached out to teach and instruct others. Where people are living according to an incorrect or incomplete understanding of the Word, the fellowship with fellow man and with YHWH is not complete.  Perhaps the most challenging is that these things are written to their joy may be complete. I pray the LORD sustains me in this way that I would find joy in bringing the word at all times and not get distracted and weighed down with the daily toils of life.

One more point to focus on here is that we are to have fellowship with the Father, not with Yeshua alone. Some Christians put all the focus on Yeshua and neglect our relationship with the Father. In fact, Yeshua always pointed to and lived the example and taught his disciples to look to the Father rather than himself. He was there to help us connect with the Father.

1 John 1:1-4

Introduction, The Incarnate Word

      1What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life— 2and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us— 3what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. 4These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.

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Do you know for sure if you will go to heaven or hell when you die? Are you experiencing in your life the peace and joy of a personal relationship with our Creator and Father? Learn more about salvation through The Message of the Cross.

Faith / Trusting God, Father / Yahweh, Hope, Obeying God

Hope and Trust In The LORD

In the beginning of Hebrews 6, we read about those who have experienced and accepted YHWH, experiencing the Holy Spirit, and then have fallen away. It is a good reminder that we should not grow complacent in our faith and relationship in YHWH.

As we continue in Hebrews 6, we see the writer address his audience with a call and encouragement for hope in Yeshua as our high priest, for hope in the promises of YHWH. One can easily conclude that the reference is that they may have been facing difficult times and the writer is encouraging them not to fall away from their faith in YHWH, but rather to hope in Yeshua and remain faithful. They are also encouraged that their good works are pleasing to YHWH and they should continue. They are reminded in verse 9, that our relationship with YHWH is about so much more than just salvation.

These are good reminders for us still today.

Hebrews 6:9-20

Better Things for You

      9But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way. 10For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints. 11And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, 12so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

      13For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, 14saying, “I WILL SURELY BLESS YOU AND I WILL SURELY MULTIPLY YOU.” 15And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise. 16For men swear by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute. 17In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, 18so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. 19This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, 20where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

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Do you know for sure if you will go to heaven or hell when you die? Are you experiencing in your life the peace and joy of a personal relationship with our Creator and Father? Learn more about salvation through The Message of the Cross.