Mark 10:46-52

The healing of blind Bartimaeus is a miraculous story of an "Altared" life, but I think Jesus is also calling his followers deeper in this story. Too often we miss opportunities to be the invitation to Christ because of our distractions.

Hebrews 13:1-18In the closing remarks from the preacher of Hebrews we get a flurry of instruction about how to live. It is amazing how these words jump into our context and encourage us to love one another as we join with Christ.

It's difficult not to feel like our lives are shaken at times. Circumstances can make us feel as if our world and faith are shaken. But God and God’s kingdom are unshaken, not because of what we do but because of who God is!

Hebrews 12:12-17

This is a final warning geared towards the community and the ways that they can encourage each other from drifting away from Jesus. The preacher of Hebrews lifts some specific examples to his audience, amazingly they apply to our communal participation as well!

Hebrews 12:4-11

The preacher of Hebrews now speaks into the middle of hardship with the comparison of a father's discipline to the way that God loves his children. Discipline is a word that carries a lot of baggage, here we learn that it is more than consequences for mistakes--it involves teaching and formation.

Now, the preacher of Hebrews turns to another warning in response to the sacrifice of Jesus. Apostasy is the heart of the message to people possibly considering the high cost of faith in their context. Listen to find out what apostasy might look like in our context.

Hebrews 10: 26-31

In today’s scripture, we heard the preacher in Hebrews introduce some more challenging material to the listeners.  The hearts and minds of the hearers (and now readers) were prepared by telling them that it was time to receive meat and not just milk reflecting the need for their faith to be more mature for the challenges they faced.  Those deeper lessons of faith included the knowledge that Jesus is the greatest high priest that has ever been and ever will be.  In this priestly role, Jesus ability to lift the requests and offerings of the people to God and Jesus ability to speak for God to the people has no equal.  Jesus Christ serves as a trustworthy anchor of hope for all of life.  Becoming connected with Christ will keep us from drifting away from the promises of God for all eternity.