Therefore, we must pay much close attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. I am an example of this Hebrews. I have drifted in spirit, though I used to fight passionately to pay attention. Perhaps I fought in the wrong way, perhaps I was destined to fail, but regardless, I am now drifting. Whether nearer or further, it is a matter of perspective.
But I fear, and no longer rejoice, that what the angels declared to us has proved and will prove reliable, and that every transgression and disobediance will be punished with a just retribution. How shall I escape since if I continue to neglect so great a salvation? It was declared to us by the Lord, and attested to us by many people who lived so long ago, who we believe heard the lord speaking in the dusty courtyards of Jerusalem, and if that wasn't enough, God Himself also bore witness to us through signs and wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the spirit distributed according to His will. These gifts of the spirit might bear witness today as well, if we lived in the spirit. If I lived in the spirit of Christ, and not in the spirit of Drifting Away.
For it was not to the angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking, for which we long even as we drift. It has been testified somewhere, some time long ago,
What is man that you are mindful of him?
The son of man that you care for him?
You made him a little while lower than the angels.
You have crowned Him with honor and glory,
and have put everything in subjection under his feet.
In putting everything under subjection to him, he left nothing outside of his control. At present, we do not see everything in subjection to him. At present, we see everything drifting and breaking and dying, haunted with a living light that cannot be attained. At present.
At present? Lord we long for Your light to fill our limbs, so that by the power of grace through faith in the Spirit of Christ, we might become righteous men and women, holy men and women - men and women who are able to stand in a living world of flesh and spit and feathers and dirt, and smile and shout "Hallelujah! The Lord is good!"
But all we see, all we can see, is Him, the ancient picture of Him,
who for a little while was made lower than the angels, who was forsaken by his friends, kissed by his enemies, who touched the dead and diseased with tenderness and care and whose body was broken, whose side was rammed with a roman spear, who was crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death,
so that by the grace of God he might taste the thin, foul, dark flavor of death
for everyone.
Who is this King of Glory?
How shall I know Him?
1 comment:
justin:
a boy named nathan once thought that his backyard was some kind of wilderness that he could explore, and secrets were as many as dirt and angles of light. There was a plum tree that hung over this backyard fence, the fence his own father had built when he was young and would watch him build. Between the brick barbeque and the fence nathan constructed a fort with boards and imaginary voices from the sky, or maybe it was the wildness in the leaves, or maybe the smiling of God, his woven Word telling him that he, Nathan, was His son, but whichever it was nathan build a hideaway back there with it.
He spent his life playing G.I. Joes in the dirt and eating the tart clovers that grew in patches under the porch stairs, and he raked up the leaves across the street in the school yard (a giant brick high school, with oaks all in its outer grassy areas) but only because he loved to jump in them, feel the damp musty smell of decay, and only because he loved to see the uncovered winter grass, and only because he thought surely it must be a nice thing for him to rake leaves for people.
I think I believe that Jesus approves of us. I don't know why I think that, neccessarily. it's mostly silly to think. but I think that he absolutely smiles about us. I don't know why he should. I don't know why I should think we two are his brothers. but I can't think anything but that when he watches us at our play he is happy. I don't mean that about all the world, and I don't mean that about Christians in general. I don't know about all of that. I just mean that about you personally, and me personally. and it's the silliest thing, and its almost unbelievable.
that's what your post made me think of though.
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