PLUMBLINE DEVOTIONAL: HEBREWS 4:14-16

TEXT:

HEBREWS 4:14-16

14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let’s hold firmly to our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things just as we are, yet without sin. 

16 Therefore let’s approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace for help at the time of our need.

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.

PRAYERS OF THE BIBLE SERIES: BOOK OF PHILIPPIANS #1

....WITH ALL JOY....

3 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, 5 for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; 7 just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace. (Philippians 1:3-7)

Keep in mind, as we read this prayer, that this man - the Apostle Paul - is in prison for preaching the Gospel of Christ! Still, note how he is praying for the saints:
- With all of His Heart (vs 7)
- With all Joy (vs 4)
- With Confidence (vs 7)

However the Confidence which he exudes is not for him but for encouragement of the church at Philippi. Thus, as Paul has written so many times, direct from the Oracles of Heaven - everything written in Scriptures are given as instructions for us NOW. That includes ALL Scripture, "Old and New" Testament.

It is my humble theory that this prayer can therefore be appropriated by us, in these last days, to pray for the encouragement for the hurting and hope for the hopeless. We should do this, even when we do not feel like it! What can be more challenging for a man than to be so confident of this positional salvation in the Kingdom so much so that he exhorts many to do the same. He proposes they also engage in Apologetics. 

The greatest impact we can have on the life of another is to love them to Jesus, when we are in the valley ourselves. By taking ourselves from under the circumstances and lifting another up to Him, in prayer, we exhibit a form of grace upon grace, which testifies to the Love He embedded in us at the point of conversion.

Many Christians have a problems in the recent past few decades with defending even what they claim they believe. We are specifically instructed, in the passage above, to engage in not just the "defense" (Apologetics) of the Christian Faith but to confirm the Good News of the Gospel. That is, we are to testify by a consistent daily lifestyle and by words, the truth of what Christ has done for us.....the Grace He has given us and the new life included, therein.

By this, we affirm, confirm and make firm the prescient precious words of the Great Apostle Peter "but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence (1 Peter 3:15).

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THIRTY ONE DAYS OF BIBLE TRUTHS - DAY 12 (VICTORIOUS)

BIBLE VERSE:  For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace (Romans 6:14)

TRUTH:  Can a Christian live in victory in these times of evil and destruction? Of course we can. So why are so many Christians cowering and hoping Jesus would come tomorrow and take them away? This is so because of little understanding of the meaning of this verse and the authority the Believer now has over sin.  This also argues for true conversion from the dominion of darkness into the kingdom of His Marvelous Light! Because most of us have difficulty memorizing or remembering endless chapters of the Bible, let us then resolve to remember this Truth: the Grace of God which saved us when we trusted in the finished work of the Cross and repented/renounced/rebuked our sin and our past, has activated the NEW nature within us  which has the Power of God embedded, via His Holy Spirit. This Power is what  has now enabled us, through daily vigilance and diligence,  to say NO to the sin that destroyed us in the past and threaten to do so until we are called home. The use of this sin-busting Power is what gives us confidence to win the victory daily. This is a Truth that leads to True Peace and one worth celebrating - YOU CAN OUTRUN SIN!

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TODAY ON THE RIGHT ANGLE - FEAR NOT!

THINK ON THESE THINGS - WEDNESDAY

HEBREWS 11:10 - THE NEW JERUSALEM

PART 2

Yesterday we saw in our verse (10) that Abraham was looking CONFIDENTLY forward to the Eternal City of God, whose very Foundations were designed, constructed and appointed by the Lord.  In the verse, the Bible uses the word CONFIDENTLY for a reason. Confidence is derived from two words: con (with) and fide (faith). Therefore, it is WITH FAITH that Abraham anticipated.


When Old Testament (or pre-Calvary) saints died, they went directly to Paradise. Christ called it "Abraham's bosom" which is a place of Comfort and Rest for those who died in Faith. They obviously did not have a chance to believe in and accept Jesus as Lord of their lives, because He was not crucified on the Cross yet. Jesus' death on the Cross made atonement for every believer from Adam until the end of time.


Several passages in the Bible describe what Heaven is like. The goal of this message is not to look into every passage on heaven but to give the flavor of the Eternal City. But I must tease with this verse from Isaiah 35:5 NASB "A highway will be there, a roadway, and it will be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean will not travel on it, but it will be for him who walks that way, and fools will not wander on it". 


Wow! This is an important verse because it prophesied over 700 years before Christ, just who is going to be a resident of the eternal city of God. From here on out, the Bible describes the City, which both Abraham and John the Apostle were allowed to see, according to the Word of God. I present it without comment for your meditation, illumination and instruction. May it comfort and bless you this day, as we see ourselves surrounded by such a troubled world, which is perishing in sin and evil. 
Glory to His Name:

Revelation 21 (PHILLIPS)

All things made new

 ^1-4 Then I saw a new Heaven and a new earth, for the first Heaven and the first earth had disappeared and the sea was no more. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, descending from God out of Heaven, prepared as a bride dressed in beauty for her husband. Then I heard a great voice from the throne crying, “See! The home of God is with men, and he will live among them. They shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death shall be no more, and never again shall there be sorrow or crying or pain. For all those former things are past and gone.” ⁵ Then he who is seated upon the throne said, “See, I am making all thing new!” And he added, “Write this down for my words are true and to be trusted!”
 ^6-8 Then he said to me, “It is done! I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the thirsty water without price from the fountain of life. The victorious shall inherit these things, and I will be God to him and he will be son to me. But as for the cowards, the faithless and the corrupt, the murderers, the traffickers in sex and sorcery, the worshippers of idols and all liars—their inheritance is in the lake which burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death.”

The vision of the new Jerusalem

 ⁹ Then one of the seven angels who hold the seven bowls which were filled with the seven last plagues, came to me and said, “Come, and I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” ^10-14 Then he carried me away in spirit to the top of a vast mountain, and pointed out to me the city, the holy Jerusalem, descending from God out of Heaven, radiant with the glory of God. Her brilliance sparkled like a very precious jewel with the clear light of crystal. Around her she had a vast and lofty wall in which were twelve gateways with twelve angels at the gates. There were twelve names inscribed over the twelve gateways, and they are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. On the east there were three gateways, on the north three gateways, on the south three gateways and on the west three gateways. The wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on these were engraved the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

The measurement of the city

 ^15-17 The one who was talking to me had a golden rod in his hand with which to measure the city, its gateways and its wall. The city lies foursquare, its length equal to its breadth. He measured the city with his rod and it was twelve thousand furlongs in each direction, for its length, breadth and height are all equal. Then he measured its wall, and found that to be one hundred and forty-four half-yards high by human measurement, (which the angel was using).

The splendor of the city’s building

 ¹⁸ The wall itself was built of translucent stone, while the city was of purest gold, with the brilliance of glass. ^19-20 The foundation stones of the wall of the city were fashioned out of every kind of precious stone. The first foundation-stone was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth cornelian, the seventh goldstone, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth green goldstone, the eleventh zircon, and the twelfth amethyst.
 ²¹ The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The street of the city was purest gold gleaming like glass.

The splendor within the city

 ^22-26 I could see no Temple in the city, for the Lord, the Almighty God, and the Lamb are themselves its Temple. The city has no need for the light of sun or moon, for the splendour of God fills it with light and its radiance is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. The city’s gates shall stand open day after day—and there will be no night there. Into the city they will bring the splendours and honours of the nations. ²⁷ But nothing unclean, no one who deals in filthiness and lies, shall ever at any time enter it—only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.


(CREDITS: IMAGES by Bing
Bible passages by www.biblegateway.com
J.B. Phillips New Testament (PHILLIPS)J. B. Phillips, "The New Testament in Modern English", 1962 edition by HarperCollins)