Verse of the Day 7/6

Verse of the Day 7/6

Hebrews 3:14-15   For we have become companions of the Messiah if we hold firmly until the end the reality that we had at the start. ¹⁵ As it is said:

Today, if you hear His voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.  Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

Most often we may think of the voice of God in positive terms, calling us to do something for Him.  Oftentimes, as we see here in Hebrews, God speaks words of warning, of caution, calling us to stay the course, to follow in His steps.

In today's verses He tells us "do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion".  The rebellions speaks of the testing in the desert when the people who had been delivered from the bondage of Pharaoah, turned from God and ended up wandering for 40 years.  The old hymn "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" has the line, prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.  It is easy to stray, to drift off course, not realizing how far we've drifted.  It can come from a hardened heart, that hears, that knows  what God calls you to do, but you don't do it.  Three times in chapters 3 and 4 in Hebrews, the writer goes back to the Old Testament to quote "do not harden your hearts".

I've heard it said that the same sun that melts the butter hardens the clay.  The words from the same Son softens some hearts and hardens others.  The hardened heart fails to do what God calls and fails to heed the warnings as well.  John MacArthur points out these warnings that we have in the book of Hebrews, exhortations designed to stir the readers into action found throughout the book.

1. Warning against drifting from "the things we have heard" (2:1–4)

2. Warning against disbelieving the "voice" of God (3:7–14)

3. Warning against degenerating from "the elementary principles of Christ" (5:11–6:20)

4. Warning against despising "the knowledge of the truth" (10:26–39)

5. Warning against devaluing "the grace of God" (12:15–17)

6. Warning against departing from Him "who speaks" (12:25–29)

Reading through that list, are there any that speak to you as something you need to hear, to listen to, to heed today?

^" So watch your step, friends. Make sure there's no evil unbelief lying around that will trip you up and throw you off course, diverting you from the living God."  Hebrews 3:12 The Message

O to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee
Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above

--   In Christ,  Mike    Folllow the Verse of the Day blog at http://mikesvotd.blogspot.com  Ephesians 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins,  in accordance with the riches of God's grace.  NIV    

Hebrews 3:14-19The Message (MSG)

^12-14 So watch your step, friends. Make sure there's no evil unbelief lying around that will trip you up and throw you off course, diverting you from the living God. For as long as it's still God's Today, keep each other on your toes so sin doesn't slow down your reflexes. If we can only keep our grip on the sure thing we started out with, we're in this with Christ for the long haul.

These words keep ringing in our ears:

Today, please listen;
    don't turn a deaf ear as in the bitter uprising.

^15-19 For who were the people who turned a deaf ear? Weren't they the very ones Moses led out of Egypt? And who was God provoked with for forty years? Wasn't it those who turned a deaf ear and ended up corpses in the wilderness? And when he swore that they'd never get where they were going, wasn't he talking to the ones who turned a deaf ear? They never got there because they never listened, never believed.