Lots on my list. I’d better get out there and stir up dust—much of which needs to be sawdust. But first I need to run to Estacada to pick up an order of metal roofing for a project with a customer. However I manage the day, I need to be ready to lead music for the AWANA CLUB that meets this evening at our local church.
Jesus is presented here as being on a much higher plane than was Moses. But in comparison, we run the risk of being no higher in our following of Jesus than most of the Israelites were in their following of Moses. Be reminded and warned that nearly all the people of Israel who left Egypt never made it into the Promised Land. That is a fact worth pondering—a warning worth heeding.
I think you will agree that following through with my personal responsibilities before God is far more important than keeping on my shelf a nice book of ideas about God—and maybe reading from it once in a while—and maybe joining with a group of people who talk about it occasionally. In this regard, let me compose two declarations that stand out to me loud and clear in this passage relative to my personal responsibilities:
Firstly, I AM PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE TO MAINTAIN A CLOSE RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS— THE ESSENTIAL FOCUS OF MY ENTIRE FAITH AND PURPOSE FOR BEING. “Therefore, holy brothers, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess” (3:1). I can’t seem to avoid the repetition of equating this basic responsibility as one and the same with maintaining a HEART AFTER GOD.
Secondly, I AM PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE TO LOOK AFTER AND CONTRIBUTE TO THE FAITH HEALTH OF THOSE IN MY COMPANY. “See to it that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ IF we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first” (3:12-14).
Listen to this same passage in The Passion Translation: “So search your hearts every day, my brothers and sisters, and make sure that none of you has evil or unbelief hiding within you. For it will lead you astray, and make you unresponsive to the living God. This is the time to encourage each other to never be stubborn or hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. For we are mingled with the Messiah, if we will continue unshaken in this confident assurance from the beginning until the end.”