Jesus, Founder and Perfecter of Our Faith

I woke up this morning at 3 something AM. My first thought when I wake up like this is that I need to pray. Luckily at this hour in the morning, it is dark and there are no outside influences like tv or radio or people talking so my mind can focus on who or what needs to be brought before our Father, to God. I love this time of day because there is no hurry. I can focus on the people that come into my mind so that I'm not rushed before God. I ask the Holy Spirit to bring to me the people that I should be praying for. If I start to worry over sin then my mind always comes back around to my sin. Well, not always but usually.

How do you handle that? The sin that you know you are forgiven for but it keeps coming back around? As I've gotten older I am beginning to realize that the reminder of those sins helps me to realize that there is redemption from sin. So I back off of thinking less of people who are still stuck in that same sin. I know there is hope for them because I was able to be forgiven and able to move past that behavior, that heartbreak. As I typed that I realized that another reason that sin keeps coming back is that it affected other people in my life. Hurt other people that I don't know anymore so I can't ask their forgiveness. So the pain of remembering that I have hurt others is still strong.

I'm reading my red Bible that is ESV. I can write in the margins. I had written that the demonstration of Faith is always obedience. Faith endures, triumphs is victorious. I am sure those are the words of a preacher that I was listening to at the time. This morning I am studying Hebrews 12.

1Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Jesus endured the cross, despising the shame. I hadn't noticed 'despising the shame' before. I have to go find a commentary and I'll choose Matthew Henry. I tend to go to John MacArthur or Dr. J. Vernon McGee except during times like these when I have time to delve deeper. Then I want to go to resources that are more varied. Matthew Henry is from another time, another way of thinking.

"He despised the shame. All the reproaches that were cast upon him, both in his life and at his death, he despised; he was infinitely above them; he knew his own innocency and excellency, and despised the ignorance and malice of his despisers"

. https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/matthew-henry-complete/hebrews/12.html 

Can you imagine . . . never mind, we can't imagine what Jesus was thinking. He knew He was innocent but He suffered all of that silently. If someone wrongs me I can't be silent to them, to anyone near me, or in my own head. I am screaming my innocence and how I was wronged. I can't think of anything else for the longest time.

In the link, I posted to Matthew Henry's commentary he speaks of how the writer of Hebrews in chapter 12 is applying what he had collected in chapter 11. There is so much in just one verse of the Bible. I was wanting to talk about chapter 12 but there is a volume just in the first verse.

For instance, before, when I read this verse, I was always awed by 'great cloud of witnesses'. Who are these witnesses the writer of Hebrews talks about? Matthew Henry calls them the faithful servants of God. I imagine he had people that sprang into his mind just like I have people who are faithful servants of God who pop into my mind. Along with all of the people the Bible tells us about who loved and served God.

The people I know were people who were busy living their lives. They weren't people you would know probably. But those people brought the Lord to me. Through them I discovered Him. I'll be forever grateful for their patience with me and their care for me.

So if you have a 'know it all' kid who keeps bothering you with questions and then laughs at your answers . . . don't give up on them and please don't take offense at them. They are just learning. They may seem rude or like they don't believe you but they are just processing. Please be patient with them.

What got me to typing here was sin. My past sins and my current ones. Take for example the craziness that we are all faced with right now. Abortion, people actually think that killing a human is a right. People actually think that they are doing no wrong by killing a child. They think that a mother killing her own child is okay. Don't even get me started on how the killers of that child then piece the child out and sell the parts. Whole industries are funded by the death of these children and the pain of the parents who donate their own children's bodies. Or the craziness of people thinking that sex is okay being subverted in any way possible.

The reason I mention these two categories of people thinking that what is evil is good and what is good is evil is that I have wondered how people who think that abortion is okay could be Christians. I've wondered how people who abuse sex can be Christian. Then my mind wanders to how I can be Christian and be fat. Because lust is a sin and lust for food is just as bad as sexual lust. My sin is so apparent I know that others wonder the same thing. How can she be a Christian?

Back to Hebrews 12:1 - 'sin which clings to us so closely'. This sin of mine is clinging to me in the most unattractive way possible. I am still in my sin. I still eat too much for the energy that I expend and the age that I am. As for the majority of this weight, I know it is just the consequence of my sin throughout my life. But if I am still participating in this sin am I a Christian? Am I any different than those who continue in their sexual sins, in their lust? Can they be Christian?

I love Jesus. I love learning about Him and worshipping Him and praying to Him. Yet I stay in my sins. Here in Hebrews 12 I am told to lay aside my sin and run with endurance the race that is set before us. It gets even stronger further down in the chapter: Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. 14Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 15See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no "root of bitterness" springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

With my body, I have had to get new knees. With this body, I tire out easily and therefore can't be out and about like I should be. I'm pretty sure that I am doing no one any good by staying inside my house, on my couch watching television.

Everyone thinks that all they have to do is just believe that Jesus is the Son of God but so many places in the Bible we are told so much more. Here we are told to run the race - to endure until the end. We are told to be holy in verse 14, "'Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord."

My sin is holding me back from being able to do as much or be a better example because my sin shows so clearly. I can't hide my sin from anyone. I know that I am a Christ follower. I love Jesus. Isn't that the definition of a Christian?

Make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. And then the mention of Esau who sold his birthright for a single meal . . . food is my kryptonite.

Now I know that this scripture was not written to me but for me (us). I don't want to read into the scripture anything that I shouldn't be. I know that with this blog entry I am making this all about my battle with food . . . but how I treat food is a sin. It has to be. And the deeper problem is that how can I be a Christian and still stuck in sin? I've had so many all-encompassing sins and the Holy Spirit or Jesus has taken me out of each of those sins. Taken the desire for that away from me. I need Jesus help with this remaining lust, this weakness that is hobbling me and how others see me.

I want to run the race of this life with endurance until the end. As I was typing that sentence I remembered that I need to see what is written in the Bible. In just this one verse there is so much. Towards the end of Hebrews 12 the writer starts talking about the new covenant. How we aren't coming to the mountain of God afraid like the people in the Old Testament who were under Law. We are coming to Jesus and a Kingdom that can't be shaken:

 'Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. '
Hebrews 12:14,22-24 https://my.bible.com/bible/59/HEB.12.14,22-24
I know that it is through Jesus that I am able to approach God. It is Jesus and His righteousness and His sacrifice. There is nothing that I can do to save myself. As long as I live here on earth I will struggle with sin. Like I mentioned earlier I have been delivered from other sins - those chains. As an example gambling, or sex. Those chains wore me down! Just like this fat is wearing me down. But this fat is not keeping me from loving God. Or from worshipping God.

The fat makes me weary but it does not separate me from His love. It does cause me sorrow because I want to be better. But I am going to continue this race (life of loving God and loving others). Because on my own, fixing things as I notice them, that doesn't save me. Jesus covering me in His righteousness is the only thing that saves me. So please have patience with me and please don't let my sin cause you to stumble. Hopefully, my body will be healed and I will become less of a hindrance to anyone.

Sometimes I can't help but wonder if the thorn in Pauls' side was a sin he struggled with because sins certainly are a thorn in my life. Sin tries to separate me from God. Sin keeps telling me that I have no right to worship God or to pray to Him. How dare I go to church? How dare I share a verse! Luckily God has loved me through all of my sins and still calls to me and still gives me courage. I really believe that because I have searched through His word that scripture comes into my mind at times like that and the scripture helps me to know better. As an example, when sin says you can't - a verse like 'Nothing can separate you from the love of God' Romans 8:38 pops into my mind. So I have the courage to keep on loving God.

https://www.biblehub.com/romans/8-38.htm

Eventually, the desire for sin fades away. That has been my experience. My love for Christ overwhelms and the desire for the other just melts. Another scripture just popped into my mind: I will give you a new heart.

As you can probably tell I don't have any answers . . . but God does.



end