Hebrews 12
12
Follow Jesus’ Example
1We are surrounded by a great cloud of people whose lives tell us what faith means. So let us run the race that is before us and never give up. We should remove from our lives anything that would get in the way and the sin that so easily holds us back. 2Let us look only to Jesus, the One who began our faith and who makes it perfect. He suffered death on the cross. But he accepted the shame as if it were nothing because of the joy that God put before him. And now he is sitting at the right side of God’s throne. 3Think about Jesus’ example. He held on while wicked people were doing evil things to him. So do not get tired and stop trying.
God Is like a Father
4You are struggling against sin, but your struggles have not yet caused you to be killed. 5You have forgotten the encouraging words that call you his children:
“My child, don’t think the Lord’s discipline is worth nothing,
and don’t stop trying when he corrects you.
6The Lord disciplines those he loves,
and he punishes everyone he accepts as his child.”#Proverbs 3:11–12
7So hold on through your sufferings, because they are like a father’s discipline. God is treating you as children. All children are disciplined by their fathers. 8If you are never disciplined (and every child must be disciplined), you are not true children. 9We have all had fathers here on earth who disciplined us, and we respected them. So it is even more important that we accept discipline from the Father of our spirits so we will have life. 10Our fathers on earth disciplined us for a short time in the way they thought was best. But God disciplines us to help us, so we can become holy as he is. 11We do not enjoy being disciplined. It is painful at the time, but later, after we have learned from it, we have peace, because we start living in the right way.
Be Careful How You Live
12You have become weak, so make yourselves strong again. 13Keep on the right path, so the weak will not stumble but rather be strengthened.
14Try to live in peace with all people, and try to live free from sin. Anyone whose life is not holy will never see the Lord. 15Be careful that no one fails to receive God’s grace and begins to cause trouble among you. A person like that can ruin many of you. 16Be careful that no one takes part in sexual sin or is like Esau and never thinks about God. As the oldest son, Esau would have received everything from his father, but he sold all that for a single meal. 17You remember that after Esau did this, he wanted to get his father’s blessing, but his father refused. Esau could find no way to change what he had done, even though he wanted the blessing so much that he cried.
18You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire. You have not come to darkness, sadness, and storms. 19You have not come to the noise of a trumpet or to the sound of a voice like the one the people of Israel heard and begged not to hear another word. 20They did not want to hear the command: “If anything, even an animal, touches the mountain, it must be put to death with stones.” 21What they saw was so terrible that Moses said, “I am shaking with fear.”
22But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands of angels gathered together with joy. 23You have come to the meeting of God’s firstborn children whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all people, and to the spirits of good people who have been made perfect. 24You have come to Jesus, the One who brought the new agreement from God to his people, and you have come to the sprinkled blood that has a better message than the blood of Abel.
25So be careful and do not refuse to listen when God speaks. Others refused to listen to him when he warned them on earth, and they did not escape. So it will be worse for us if we refuse to listen to God who warns us from heaven. 26When he spoke before, his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once again I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27The words “once again” clearly show us that everything that was made—things that can be shaken—will be destroyed. Only the things that cannot be shaken will remain.
28So let us be thankful, because we have a kingdom that cannot be shaken. We should worship God in a way that pleases him with respect and fear, 29because our God is like a fire that burns things up.
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Hebrews 12: NCV
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The Holy Bible, New Century Version, Copyright © 2005 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
Hebrews 12
12
Running the Race with Discipline
1Therefore, since we have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also get rid of every weight and entangling sin. Let us run with endurance the race set before us,
2focusing on Yeshua, the initiator and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, disregarding its shame; and He has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of God.
3Consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary in your souls and lose heart.
4In struggling against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of bloodshed.
5Have you forgotten the warning addressed to you as sons? “My son, do not take lightly the discipline of Adonai or lose heart when you are corrected by Him,
6because Adonai disciplines the one He loves and punishes every son He accepts.”
7It is for discipline that you endure. God is treating you as sons—for what son does a father not discipline?
8But if you are without discipline—something all have come to share—then you are illegitimate and not sons.
9Besides, we are used to having human fathers as instructors—and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?
10Indeed, for a short time they disciplined us as seemed best to them; but He does so for our benefit, so that we may share in His holiness.
11Now all discipline seems painful at the moment—not joyful. But later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
12Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble!
13And make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame will not be pulled out of joint but rather be healed.
14Pursue shalom with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
15See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God; and see to it that no bitter root springs up and causes trouble, and by it many be defiled.
16Also see to it that there is no immoral or godless person—like Esau, who sold his birthright for one meal.
17For you know that later, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected. He found no chance for repentance, though he begged for it with tears.
Entering the Unshakeable Kingdom
18For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched, and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and storm,
19and to the blast of a shofar and a voice whose words made those who heard it beg that not another word be spoken to them.
20For they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.”
21So terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am quaking with fear.”
22But you have come to Mount Zion— to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, a joyous gathering,
23and to the assembly of the firstborn who are written in a scroll in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous ones made perfect,
24and to Yeshua, the Mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks of something better than the blood of Abel.
25See to it that you do not refuse the One who is speaking! For if they did not escape when they refused the One who was warning them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject the One who warns us from heaven.
26His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.”
27Now this phrase, “Yet once more,” shows the removal of those things that are shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.
28Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude—through this we may offer worship in a manner pleasing to God, with reverence and awe.
29For our God is a consuming fire.
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