Burn Your White Flags (Hebrews)Sample

Every year there seems to be a new diet, a new superfood, or some new ‘green food’ that promises to deliver the health breakthrough we’re waiting for. We know the clear benefits of a healthy diet on our physical health. But for 1st Century Jews, they believed that the foods they ate had a spiritual impact. To some extent there’s truth to this. However, strict Pharisaic rules about food never delivered the spiritual blessings to those who looked for them. These Christians were being pressured by a new spin on old regulations surrounding food. The real issue is that external solutions never fix internal problems. Jesus, on the other hand, transforms us from the inside out. The heart is strengthened by grace (Hebrews 13:9). We experience two types of grace that strengthen the heart. The first is positional grace ; a heart that has been sprinkled and cleansed from a guilty conscience (Hebrews 10:22). Second, there is situational grace which strengthens the heart in an on-going fashion. Both flow from God’s grace demonstrated in Jesus. To be "led away" (13:9) is it to drift on the tide or flow of a river. It’s what happens to a boat that is not properly moored. Jesus, is the grace that strengthens our faith and anchors us to prevent us from being led away. “We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain” (Hebrews 6:19). In a culture obsessed with external self-improvement, we need to be a people soaked in grace. For the good news of the gospel will truly transform us, keep us and strengthen us. Meditate on grace today!