December 28, 2018 PAYING CLOSE ATTENTION
Hebrews 1:2: “in these last days He has spoken in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.
Hebrews 2:1-3: “For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For if the word spoken through angles proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?
The greatest event in the life of any person is that of being born again, whereby they are adopted into the family of God. A great sacrifice, a great price was paid when God sent His Son to make our salvation possible-a price beyond our imagination and comprehension. In our day we live in a culture replete with distractions: iPhones, information over-load, financial pressures, careers ,broken relationships, the pursuit of entertainment-and the list goes on- that could easily cause us to drift away from the truth of the gospel. Even though the early believers lived in “simpler” times (so it seems), they too had to be on guard against drifting from the truth of the gospel that had been delivered to them. The verses above are a reminder to us; reminding us that the Creator God has spoken through His Son, and what God has said and demonstrated through His Son is the most critical, and the greatest thing ever spoken to human beings. John the Baptist was the forerunner of Jesus, and the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist was the beginning of Jesus’ ministry on earth. Hour by hour, day by day, Jesus taught and demonstrated the kingdom of God, and He did so with great authority and power. Jesus ministry on earth was the cataclysmic moment in all of world history and what He taught and demonstrated is to serve as a catalyst of our lives. As Jesus made so clear, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world are in sharp contrast, and the two kingdoms do not overlap and there is no gray area-every person belongs to one of the two kingdoms. As believers, we must not only understand the message of the gospel, we must “pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” Seeking, learning, experiencing, and expressing the gospel as a way of life is to be our mode of operation, and the desire of our heart. Let us remember just how great our salvation is, and let us be a people who live according to the kingdom of God even in a world that does not know Him. It is a healthy fear for us to understand that if we neglect this great salvation that God made possible to us by the sacrifice of His Son, we will bear the consequences of such neglect. You and I have every reason to pay close attention to what God has said and what God has done.
Luke 11:28: “He replied, ‘Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.’”
Blessings,
Buddy
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