Hebrews 10:19-25 New American Standard Bible
A New and Living Way
19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, through His flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let’s approach God with a [a]sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let’s hold firmly to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; 24 and let’s consider how to [b]encourage one another in love and good deeds, 25 not abandoning our own meeting together, as is the habit of some people, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost; As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.
If We Are the Body of Christ and Seeking God’s Face?
For the Body of Christ, disciplining ourselves, learning to seek the face of God is the very foundation for our experiencing the amazing life Jesus died to give us.
As the Body of Christ, we have available to us through our Savior Jesus Christ all of the opportunities, the wonders, excellencies, and satisfaction we can fathom.
As the Body of Christ, God has granted us grace upon grace, mercy upon mercy, forgiveness after forgiveness, affection upon affection, and love upon all love.
As the Body of Christ, as we pursue him through all the avenues available to us, a door is opened in which we discover all our heavenly Father longs to give us.
Our Savior Jesus Christ did not die and we, the Body of Christ were not created to go about this life apart from a real relationship with fellow children of God.
Without the friendship, without the fellowship of our brothers and sisters, we will never authentically experience the true fullness of life God intends for us.
Together, in community, we inevitably discover our place in the body of Christ.
In community, we learn what it is to actually serve out of love, honor, respect.
And in the fullness of community, we receive the healing and love that can only come from those who gather together in friendship to share in the same Spirit.
And We Are Seeking God Through Our Community?
Acts 2:40-47 Amplified Bible
40 And Peter solemnly testified and continued to admonish and urge them with many more words, saying, “[a]Be saved from this crooked and unjust generation!” 41 So then, those who accepted his message were baptized; and on that day about [b]3,000 souls were added [to the body of believers]. 42 They were continually and faithfully devoting themselves to the instruction of the apostles, and to fellowship, to [c]eating meals together and to prayers.
43 A sense of awe was felt by [d]everyone, and many wonders and signs (attesting miracles) were taking place through the apostles. 44 And all those who had believed [in Jesus as Savior] [e]were together and had all things in common [considering their possessions to belong to the group as a whole]. 45 And they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing the proceeds with all [the other believers], as anyone had need. 46 Day after day they met in the temple [area] continuing with one mind, and breaking bread in various private homes. They were eating their meals together with joy and generous hearts, 47 praising God continually, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord kept adding to their number daily those who were being saved.
Acts 2 describes the Church community that my soul fully longs for.
We, who are the Church was created by God for honest, vulnerable fellowship.
We were created by God through the life blood of His own Son Jesus to help each other, eat together, celebrate and worship our God, also celebrate, love others.
Through engaging with fellow believers, we become an authentic witness to the world of what happens when our One true God works in the hearts of each of his children – we gather together to celebrate and declare through our love for each other, the life and joy that comes from a relationship with our heavenly Father.
Scripture is clear that true community requires sacrifice and vulnerability.
1 Corinthians 12:25-26 says, “That there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.”
God’s desire is for all his children to humble themselves and live as one body.
Division and Rancor among His Children is Satan’s idea right from the start. (Genesis 3:1-7 The Message)
3 The serpent was clever, more clever than any wild animal God had made. He spoke to the Woman: “Do I understand that God told you not to eat from any tree in the garden?”
2-3 The Woman said to the serpent, “Not at all. We can eat from the trees in the garden. It’s only about the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘Don’t eat from it; don’t even touch it or you’ll die.’”
4-5 The serpent told the Woman, “You won’t die. God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you’ll see what’s really going on. You’ll be just like God, knowing everything, ranging all the way from good to evil.”
6 When the Woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it—she’d know everything!—she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate.
7 Immediately the two of them did “see what’s really going on”—saw themselves naked! They sewed fig leaves together as makeshift clothes for themselves.
When one part of a physical body “sees what is really going on,” they “see themselves as being naked” the rest of the body sees what is going on, sees themselves as being “naked” and start “sewing their own makeshift clothes.”
When one part of a physical body hurts, the rest of the body feels the pain and is supposed to come together, one body, with the goal of working together to heal.
Instead of this ideal situation, in our rush to panic, to cover our hurt and our naked embarrassment we rush to become our own kind of specialized doctors.
We sew together our own fig leaves.
Then when God comes to His Garden for a standard “Wellness Check” we panic further, get embarrassed by our nakedness all the more – and rush to “hide.”
We forget what we know about God, that we are created in His Image, not ours.
For God so loved the world, which would soon include His Children, created by His own hand, that He spoke into the darkness of chaos, the mess of disorder and brought one order – His order, not ours – poured His love into that order.
God desires His order, to be the same One order, One community, as He is in Community with His Son and Holy Spirit, among the spiritual body of believers.
As we stand before the world, in the embarrassment of our nakedness being our mistakes, missteps, misjudgments – “trying to sew all our fig leaves together,”
He desires to fill us with his love and use us to provide healing for one another.
From our embarrassment at being naked, He longs to guide us to a lifestyle of humility and sacrifice in pursuit of being his hands and feet for each other.
To find consolation together, to find the “mind and humility of Christ Jesus” and to work together and together to make it our own, to model it to the world as Savior Christ did. (Philippians Chapter 2:1-16 The Message)
He Took on the Status of a Slave
2 1-4 If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care—then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.
5-8 Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.
9-11 Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.
Rejoicing Together
12-13 What I’m getting at, friends, is that you should simply keep on doing what you’ve done from the beginning. When I was living among you, you lived in responsive obedience. Now that I’m separated from you, keep it up. Better yet, redouble your efforts. Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God. That energy is God’s energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give him the most pleasure.
14-16 Do everything readily and cheerfully—no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night so I’ll have good cause to be proud of you on the day that Christ returns. You’ll be living proof that I didn’t go to all this work for nothing.
It takes receiving the love of God in the same spirit it was given to give love the God in the same spirit God first gave it. (1 John 4:7-21 The Message)
God Is Love
7-10 My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can’t know him if you don’t love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.
11-12 My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love!
13-16 This is how we know we’re living steadily and deeply in him, and he in us: He’s given us life from his life, from his very own Spirit. Also, we’ve seen for ourselves and continue to state openly that the Father sent his Son as Savior of the world. Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God’s Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. We know it so well, we’ve embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God.
To Love, to Be Loved
17-18 God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we’re free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ’s. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.
19 We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.
20-21 If anyone boasts, “I love God,” and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You’ve got to love both.
It requires a work of the Spirit to fill us with courage to be vulnerable with our community in order to receive and give the love we’ve been given in Christ.
So, will you be a child filled with the very first love of your Father God today?
Will you allow God to use you to help a brother or sister?
Will you choose the purpose and joy and humility, the “mind of Christ” that comes from carrying the cross of Jesus, living sacrificially and vulnerably?
If so, you will discover a satisfaction second to nothing else, only found in the mercy of God and the edification that comes from believers loving one another.
May you one day, find the fellowship your heart longs for as you courageously celebrate and love your brothers and sisters as God celebrates all His Children.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Guided Prayer:
1. Meditate on the importance of community. Allow Scripture to fill you with a desire to love and be loved by your community.
“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.” – Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
“Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.” – Proverbs 27:17
“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”- Acts 2:42-47
2. Reflect on your need for community. Where do you need the healing that comes from relationship with others? What people has God placed in your life? How can you in humility reach out to them for help?
3. Take time and pray for an increase in God-filled community in your life. How does he want to use you to help another person today? How can you lead out in being courageously vulnerable? If you lack such a thing, ask God to provide you with this type of community to share life with.
Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working . . . . My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins” – James 5:13-16, 19-20
God does not ask us to wait forever in our Upper Rooms for others to step out and live in accordance with his Spirit before He calls us too. (Acts 2:1-4)
His will for us doesn’t hinge upon others’ obedience.
God is calling you and me to come away from our “nakedness” to a lifestyle of joyful service, sacrifice, and love regardless of people’s initiatives or responses.
He longs to make garments of praise, fill us with the courage to love others well and help them through their brokenness to a place of honesty and vulnerability.
May you and I one day come together to be the loving hands and feet of Jesus to your brothers and sisters who so desperately need a forgiving touch from God.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost; As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 