Rande Greene

“Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”

– John 13:1

We must continue to “look to Jesus”. He is our salvation. He is the salvation air we breathe. He is our salvation oxygen. We die without Jesus. He is also an example of commitment. He committed to the Heavenly Father. He committed to the plan and purpose and did not fail. Jesus made the decision to do His Heavenly Father’s will. At the hour of greatest conflict and testing, our Lord loved. He loved to the “end”. It is good to start well. It is great to finish well.

Now that you’ve started, how will you finish? To start out with Jesus with passion is so beautiful. To finish with passion glorifies God like nothing else. Commitment waxes and wanes. It is never static and unchanging. From time to time we all need to reevaluate where we stand in our relationship with God. We need to assess our level of commitment to God; take a good look at ourselves, prayerfully. Where are you in your walk with God? Are you smitten with Jesus? Are you committed to knowing Him? Do you love the Lord and want others to love Him too? Sin diminishes our passion for Jesus.

Rande Greene

“Rejoice always,pray without ceasing,give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

– 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Rejoicing, praying and giving thanks were not part of the Gentile cultural mindset as they were among Jews, especially prayer and giving thanks. You remember the Law included a “Thank Offering”. Giving thanks was part of the social fabric in the O.T. culture. God desired the Gentile believers to reorient their cultural way of thinking and living; Coming to Christ meant an entirely new way of living. They were oriented around a new set of values and priorities. Why would Paul stress rejoicing and giving thanks as life practices to the Gentiles? It is not because God is a thin-skinned, insecure egomaniac who gets His feelings hurt if He goes unnoticed or unappreciated. There is a very important idea here. It is one of identity. Who they are now and how they live is crucial. It is a continuing theme through the entire Bible.

Rande Greene

“In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.”

– 2 Samuel 11:1

Responsibility and love. These are the two pillars of godly masculinity. A man is a man of God because of these two pillars. God is deeply interested in the small and seemingly

insignificant decisions of our daily lives. David’s first wrong step was one of failed responsibility. He did not go to war when “kings go to war”. When we fail our responsibilities, we start a process that can lead to further and more and worse failure. He went up to the rooftop and saw her. Because of irresponsibility he was put in a spot of temptation. He made the wrong decision. David had before this led Israel into its greatest history. They had become like the New England Patriots under Belichick and Brady. They were the New England Patriots of the Ancient Near East. They won far more than they were defeated. The gained far more than they lost. Evidently he felt he could coast. His desire for comfort and ease led to a hunger for pleasure. This is why we avoid responsibility. We desire the easy way. The path of comfort, of least resistance. We shirk responsibility.Self-centeredness become a way of life. Pleasurable feelings becomes the main goal. This is how failing in responsibility leads to failing in love.

Rande Greene

“and every day you shall offer a bull as a sin offering for atonement. Also, you shall purify the altar, when you make atonement for it, and shall anoint it to consecrate it.”

– Exodus 29:36

Sin is a corruption of what God has made. Sin distorts the creation. Atonement is needed to cleanse or purify that which has been corrupted. The chief aim of atonement is clearly for the sake of bringing people into right standing with God. It is practiced in the O.T. for the cleansing of inanimate objects also. The tabernacle and later the temple after its construction needed atonement or cleansing. God provided for the atonement of the altar where sacrifices were made.

Rande Greene

“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. “

– Hebrews 10:19-25

Today we will talk about how we are encouraged to have confidence to enter the holy places (the presence of God). We will also look at what prescriptions God’s word gives us to encourage that confidence so needed to enter the holy places. Hebrews 10 is a call to Christians who are living in the “outer courts” to enter into the “holiest place”.

Rande Greene

“While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 19  And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

– Matthew 4:18-19

They owned boats and lived the toiling life of a fisherman. Jesus doesn’t sit down to dialogue with them. He doesn’t beg or plead with them. He says, “follow me”. It meant more than get in line behind me and go with me to my next location. What did they do? He called them to repentance and identity transformation. Matthew 4:20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him. By his call upon their lives he created new people. He gave them a purpose. He gave them a future. He gave them a new identity.The forming of new men was the creation of a new identity. Repentance is the starting place of an identity change. It is the beginning of a new identity.Genuine repentance is so important and powerful that it the foundation for a new person with a new identity. Jesus acknowledged the fact that they were fishermen. That was the old life and identification for who they had been. He gave them a new identity. He took the old and gave them a new definition for who and what they were.

Tyler Greene

“Vanity of vanities,says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.”

– Ecclesiastes 1:2

“The whole idea of me being the master of my own destiny runs counter, in many ways, to the wisdom of scripture. So in response to the idea set forth in the poem Invictus, by William Ernest Henley, we hear God speak through the pen of Solomon, the author of the book of Ecclesiastes. He is the son of David, he is the king in Jerusalem, he is the preacher, as he calls himself in chapter 1:1 of Ecclesiastes. So far from claiming to be the master of his own fate, Solomon said something far different from what our culture typically espouses to people who swim in the water of self empowerment on a daily basis. Solomon serves as a voice of prophetic wisdom crying out in the wilderness.”

Rande Greene

But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.”

– John 4:32

Food is a good thing. Jesus often ate with people. The early church believers ate together on a daily basis. Food is good. It is God’s provision and blessing to us. Pray, “Give us this day our daily bread…”

Food is necessary also.Jesus was making a profound and telling statement about himself and his values. Even though food is good and necessary, to Jesus it there were more important things. “Food is good but bringing people into the kingdom is of greater value”, Jesus says.

Rande Greene

“Fathers (parents), do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”

Ephesians 6:4 (ESV)

This states our parental purpose. I know it is addressed to “fathers”. Fathers are ultimately responsible for their children but that does not change the purpose of the mother of those children. Plus, the Greek word broadens the verse’s meaning. “Pater”

(pat-ayr’) Father, forefather or parents. It is possible the verse could be read this way.

Fathers (parents), do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.Good parenting is when we make a commitment to our God-given purpose which is, not provoking them to anger, but teaching them. Some parents think good parenting is bullying their children. That backfires. What is godly parenting? Teaching them to live disciplined lives. Teaching them to fear the Lord. Teaching them that God is good but a righteous judge. A good parent doesn’t just say it, they model that kind of life.

Pete Spardella

“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”

– Matthew 4:1

… the Spirit of the Lord actually led Jesus into the wilderness. Everyone goes through seasons of wilderness from time to time. Sometimes we begin to believe we have done something to upset God. Going through the wilderness does not necessarily mean you are in a bad place with God, but its part of life in general