Join us in this insightful episode as we delve into Hebrews Chapter 12, exploring the themes of endurance and divine discipline. Listen to the compelling reading by Roy Hanske and discover how these timeless messages apply to our daily lives. Alan J. Huth shares his personal reflections from decades of Bible reading, encouraging us to fix our eyes on Jesus amidst life’s challenges and to embrace discipline as a pathway to righteousness.
Welcome to Add Bible, an audio daily devotion from the Ezra Project. Allen J. Huth shares a Bible passage with comments from over 35 years of his personal Bible reading journals and applies the Word of God to our daily lives.
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Today we are in Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12 is about running with endurance, about not growing weary, and about not being shaken. Let’s listen to our guest reader, Roy Hanske, Denver Radio personality, as he reads Hebrews chapter 12.
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Hebrews chapter 12. Therefore, 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, looking 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. consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted in your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood and have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons my son do not regard lightly the discipline of the lord nor be weary when reproved by him for the lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives it is for discipline that you have to endure god is treating you as sons for what son is there whom his father does not discipline If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them. But He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness.” For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See 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, that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For 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. for you have not come to what may be touched a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them for they could not endure the order that was given if even a beast touches the mountain it shall be stoned indeed so terrifying was the sight that moses said i tremble with fear 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. see that you do not refuse him who is speaking for if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven at that time his voice shook the earth but now he has promised yet once more i will shake not only the earth but also the heavens This phrase, yet once more, indicates the removal of things that are shaken, that is, things that have been made, in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.
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In 1993, after reading Hebrews chapter 12, I wrote, Hear him who is speaking. Don’t go back to a God of wrath when you are under a God of grace. I continued to write, Everything will be shaken except God’s word, God’s love, God’s plan, God’s kingdom. Praise God. I am on the right side. In 2005, after reading Hebrews 12, I wrote Fix Our Eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith. Accept and receive the discipline of God as a son. Yield peaceful fruit of righteousness. No roots of bitterness. Offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe. In 2013, after reading Hebrews chapter 12… I wrote, sin clings closely. We need to proactively fight against it. We need to run with endurance. Life is not a sprint. Christianity needs to be a lifestyle for the long haul. To stay the course, we need to look to Jesus. The cross resulted in joy for Jesus and for us. Without the cross, no forgiveness of sin. With it, forgiveness and an open door to eternal life. Life against sin is a struggle, but don’t give up. God disciplines us like a father does a child for our good that we may share in his holiness. Discipline may be painful, but yields righteousness. Don’t give up or get mad at God. Stay the course. Be peaceful. God is at work. God not only disciplines individuals, he shakes the whole earth. He disciplines everything. Remain unmovable. Worship God with reverence and awe. Thus ends my journal entries concerning chapter 12. So let’s take a look at Hebrews 12. You remember the chapter before Hebrews 11 was a chapter all about faith and great examples of those who had an exercised faith. Chapter 12 opens with a therefore. Therefore, 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, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. So after reading about faith, after understanding the definition of faith, it’s now our chance to run a race of endurance. I mentioned in my journal, Christianity is not a sprint. You need to be in it for the long haul. And in the long haul, God, like a father, will discipline us. We understand discipline either as children or as parents. We understand when we discipline our children that we say something like, this hurts me more than it hurts you. As a child, we laugh at that. But as a parent, we understand it. That’s what God is saying to us in verse 5. My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. Verse 11 says, For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Yes, this Christian journey is filled with discipline from the Lord. We are not to grow weary or faint-hearted in this journey. We are not to harbor a root of bitterness. Verse 25 reminds us not to reject or refuse the discipline of the Lord. See that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. And God not only disciplines us personally, He disciplines the whole world. He shakes the foundation of the earth. Verse 26 says, At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens. As things shake around you, are you grounded in faith? Has your faith been tried by the trials of life and the discipline of the Lord? I hope so, because shaking is still going to occur. But what God is looking for is that when the shaking goes on, we will remain grounded and firm in our faith. The chapter closes with these two verses. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. The application from chapter 12 is to run this race of Christianity with endurance. Do not grow weary and do not be shaken. Accept the discipline of the Lord along the way. It builds and deepens our faith so that when future shaking comes, we can remain. In that promise, may we offer worship with reverence and awe to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Lord Jesus, we thank you for faith. We thank you for running a race of endurance with us. We thank you for your hand of discipline in our lives. We thank you that you strengthen us so that we don’t grow weary. And we pray that as you continue to shake the foundations around us, we, because we’ve been disciplined by you, might remain faithful. We worship you with reverence and awe. Amen. Thanks for listening to AdBible today. You might wonder how I became a daily Bible reader. When I was 15 years old, a buddy and me stole his father’s car. We could steal his father’s car because his father was in Vietnam, serving in the war. So he was never home. So we took the car that day. Neither one of us with a driver’s license, and we took off out east of Colorado Springs on a dirt road. We were flying down this dirt road at 60 miles an hour, and he lost control of the car. We began to spin and we were going down the road, fishtailing, and he spun the wheel of the car, 60 miles an hour. The car tumbled, crushed the top, tucked the wheels under, totaled the car. I was on a dirt road. I don’t know if I was thrown out of the car or crawled out of the car, but I looked at that car and I thought, am I even alive? Am I broken? Am I bleeding everywhere? And I began to pat myself down, and I felt like I was okay. So I stood up, and I was uninjured, amazingly. The sheriff came to draw up the accident. He said, it’s a miracle you guys are alive. I got home that night, went down into my bedroom. My mother came to me and said, you ought to thank God you’re alive. I was laying on my bed, and I was thinking about the day’s activities. And I just thought, wow, I could have been dead today. I wasn’t the driver. I was the passenger. I wasn’t in control. But God was. At that moment, I figured out at 15 years old, God could take my life any time. He could have that day. So as I laid there, I thought, okay, you could take my life any day. So you saved my life today for a reason. For whatever reason that is, I’m going to live for you and that reason. As I said that, I heard a voice say to me, there’s a Bible on your bookshelf. Get it down and read it. I must have heard something, because I got up, I went over to the bookshelf, and I pulled down a Bible. I opened it to the first page, just like I would any other book, and I began to read God’s Word. I read Genesis chapter 1. The next day I read Genesis chapter 2. The next day I read Genesis chapter 3. And a chapter a day, I began to read God’s Word at 15 years old. If you do that, by the way, it’ll take you about three and a half years to finish reading the Bible a chapter a day. And that’s a good plan. So that’s how I became a daily Bible reader. And when I finished going through the Bible the first time, at 18 years or so, I just started over because I thought that’s what Christians did was read their Bibles every day. So that’s how I became a daily Bible reader. To support AddBible, visit EzraProject.net, the donate button. For a one-time gift of $39 or more, we will send you a free copy of one of our Day by Day Through the Bible books. And for a gift of $100 a month, we will send you the entire 11-volume series covering all 66 books of the Bible, chapter by chapter. You will get a book a month for the first 11 months of your $100 a month contribution. 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