Old Jerry

Abraham was not able to see the city or country that he was looking for but he still had faith that in the end God would provide. That helps me in that I don’t see the end but I know that the end is there and everything is going to be just great. The final city that we shall see is Heaven. And the final country will be Heaven.

I think that our faith is based on both the confidence in God and the power of God. We know that He if faithful and we can see that all around us. But not only that we can read about it in the Bible and other publications.

We believe that Jesus Christ was born to the Virgin Mary, walked this earth, was crucified on the cross, was in the tomb for three days and nights and was resurrected and is sitting at the right hand of God interceding for us. The basis of Noah’s faith is that he knew God and worshiped him and knew that the flood that had informed him was going to happen. Our faith is that Jesus Christ is going to return and that we are going to be with him. Our faith grows by hearing the message and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

The reason that the second element is just as essential to truth faith is that even the demons believed in the One God. But if we really want to be with God then we need to seek Him and want to know more about Him. We know that if we seek Him He will live eternally with Him in heaven when we transition into the next life. This makes all the difference in the world.

Faith is believing in the what the Bible is telling us. We didn’t see the accounts nor can we reproduce them in our laboratories. It is believing in the accounts of what is written. But we do have proof because of what we see around us.

Perseverance in faith is hard sometimes because there are all those temptations out there that get our attention. Then there are those who don’t like Christians because they are Christians and are always trying to shut them down. That is the reason that Christian fellowship is so important in perseverance. We can talk things over and see what the Bible has to say about such things. One of the ways that we can encourage other Christians in the sometimes difficult journey is to share your testimony with them.

I think that the phrase “deliberately keep on sinning” is talking about the sin when we turn our back on God and do not acknowledge him as the One and Only God. This is the apostasy sin that has come in the United States. The element in 10:29 that contributes to understanding that is indeed flagrant apostasy is it talks about trampling the Son of God under their feet.

The prime motive for meeting together with other Christians is to encourage them. Our usual motivation is to do what is the best for us. The reason that Christians so often get out of the habit of attending church or a small group is that they aren’t putting that group or church in the right priority. We are more interested in attending what we want rather then what the group needs. We can help these individuals by encouraging them to attend church or small groups. Contact them when they miss church.

The veil of the Tabernacle functioned in the Old Testament worship to separate the Holy from the Holy of Holies. No one was allowed to go in there except once a year and then it was only the High Priest. The significance of the veil being ripped in two at Jesus’ crucifixion was to show us that we all have access to God through Jesus. The reason that our access to God is called a “new and living way” was because everybody has access to God not just the High Priest. This was new because we have access to God. It is living because we have a living God.

The reason that the blood of bulls and goats can’t actually take away sins is because they are the lesser. They were not up to par with man and therefore could not take are sins away. This was just a ritual and something outward to think that their sins have been forgiven. I don’t know what happened to the sins the Old Testament saints thought were atoned for under the Old Covenant. I feel that is up to God to judge.

The purpose of Jesus’ first coming was to take away the sins of the people and the second coming will be to bring salvation to those who waited on him. The Jews expected Jesus to be the conqueror of the world. They thought that He was going to put the Romans under their control. In Isaiah 53 this is what Isaiah was saying what was going to happen when our Savior appeared that He would suffer for us.

The sense that Jesus serves as a mediator is that he stands between God and us. He provides a bridge for to cross-over into eternity. Jesus did that by dying for my sins. He took my sins and put them upon himself.

The way that Christ’s sacrifice of himself cleansed the conscience in the way that animal sacrifices didn’t is that the blood of the animals was visible. The blood of Christ is to us invisible. So in for Christ’s sacrifice to be the cleansing blood we have to intelligently see that in our minds and therefore cleansing the inter man.

Redemption means that we have been forgiven for our sins and that God has accepted us again. We were redeemed from sin. The price of redemption was Jesus Christ when he died on the cross and rose again. Our redemption lasts forever and ever.

External sacrificial regulations were unable to cleanse or perfect the conscience is because it wasn’t from the heart of the person. It did not come from within and therefore ineffective. A guilty conscience keeps us from intimacy with God because we are always thinking about our sins. So in order to come “boldly” before the Lord we need to turn our sins over to the Lord and never go back and pick them up again.

The Old Covenant provided forgiveness for intentional, active, maintained rebellion against God once a year by offering the blood of an animal which he did for himself and for the sins of the people. God provides us with this forgiveness by the blood of Jesus Christ in the New Covenant. All we have to do is except Jesus Christ as our savior.

The Old Covenant failed because of the people. The New Covenant promises that we will have the laws put on our minds and write them on our hearts. We will not be taught our neighbors because we will know the Lord.

Jesus is the “mediator” of the new covenant because he is between us and God and is convincing God that he took our sins. He did this when he was crucified on the cross and was resurrected.

Jesus is described in verse 26 as a priest that meets our needs, one that is holy blameless, pure, set apart from sinners and exalted above the heavens. Jesus is different from human high priest because he only had to sacrifice once and that was for us and He has been made perfect forever. I know that Jesus being my High Priest gives me a special confidence because I know he is there at the right hand of God and he is interceding for me.

The reason is able to save people is because Jesus lives to intercede for us. The function of the priest was to intercede for the people. He was to go into the Holy of Holy’s and ask for forgiveness for himself and for the people. The reason that the essence of being a priest is to intercede for us is because we are too wicked to enter into the presence of God.

A guarantee or surety is assurance that something is of specified quality or content. The sense that Jesus is the guarantor of the New Covenant is that he gave his blood for it. He was crucified on the cross and was raised again to guarantee the New Covenant.

I think that the sense that we have “fled to a place of refuge” is in the way we pray and can be comforted with that. There are a lot of bad things happening in this world and if we didn’t have a place to go to then we would probably change for the worst. That is the reason we should hold onto this hope actively. I have hoping for something that is true so that must be different then hoping for that might be true. The way that the anchor illustrates the idea is that the anchor holds the ship in one place and the ship pivots around the anchor. That is true with our hope. We are anchored to Jesus Christ but we wander all around our anchor.

I think the effect of exercising both faith and patience for the long haul is it puts us into a state of looking to forward to eternity and what it brings. We may have to live the here and now but this isn’t all that there is. The way that I see that the subtle temptation that our salvation depends upon my endurance rather than Christ’s atonement and the grace of God is that I am still a sinner and I know that there is no works that I can do that will atone for that.

Apostasy is the total departure from one’s religion. So it is impossible from a practical standpoint to restore apostates to Christian faith and practice. They have completely abandoned their beliefs and fully believe that there is no Christ. I think that the point that Jesus was making in his Parable of the Sower is that some of the seeds thrown will not mature and the evil one will snatch it up.

I don’t think that there is any difference between the verses 4-5 and the Spirit-filled Christian today. I think that the writer’s point in forming this description is to point out the most positive things about the Christian life. We have been given these fantastic gifts and why would we want to throw them away.