Be Sure That You Are a Believer (Heb. 6:4-6)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 02-27-03

 

                                                                                               

 

My Worship Time                                          Focus:  Be sure that you are a believer

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Hebrews 6:4-6

 

            Message of the verse:  “4 For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God, and put Him to open shame.”  (NASB)

            This is a very difficult passage to understand as evidenced by the many different opinions of the people that I have read who have their own ideas about the meaning of it.  My own Pastor Jacobs seemed to put thing in the proper prospective for me to understand what the writer is speaking about.  Pastor Jacobs believes that this was a very poor place to have a chapter break as the things that were written about in chapter five seem to flow with these things written in the first part of chapter six.  The writer has been warning these people that he is writing to about the fact that they are not growing in the Lord as they should be and that they are wasting time in their walk with the Lord because of this lack of growth.  He could have given them deeper spiritual truths if they we not stuck in immaturity needing again predigested milk as if they were babes in the Lord.

            I believe that the writer is trying to get the attention of these people and thus the strong warning he gives here to them.  It seems clear to me that if they would not have been in the “mess” that the writer would not have had to write to them about this and so others in the Church age would have missed out on this warning that God has for them.  God makes no mistakes and uses all of these problems to help those along the way who need to read warnings like this one.

            I believe that the writer is saying to this group of people that they need to stop and take inventory of their spiritual life and make sure that they indeed are true believers, and it could be that some of them were not believers; however I do not believe that he was writing to that group in particular.  The part in verse six that speaks of if they fall away they cannot be renewed again could mean that while they are in that condition that they could not be renewed, but once they repent then they can be renewed.  There are far to many other passages that say different.  I think of 1John 1:9 which is speaking to believers confessing their sins and that God is faithful and just to forgive those sins.  However if a person is just “playing Christian” and continues to sin there will come a time like in the life of Pharaoh that God will eventually harden his heart.  If a believer continues to sin and does not repent God may take him home “early.”  Paul speaks of this in 1Corinthians eleven on the passage about the Lords Table.

           

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I believe that the thing that I need to take out of this passage is that from time to time I need to take spiritual inventory one, to make sure that I am a believer and two make sure that my life is pleasing to my Lord as I go on this journey here on earth.  The one thing that I will miss least when I get to heaven is summed up in Revelations 22:3, “and there shall no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His bond-servants shall serve Him.”  This verse says to me that the effects of sin will be no more and that I will be with the Lord and will be able to serve Him in a perfect environment not having to contend with the effects of sin. 

 

The Word of God was refreshing to me, it was convicting to me and it was a challenge to me.

 

My Steps of Faith Today:  I say that I need to remember to take this “spiritual inventory” from time to time.  I also want to trust the Lord as I pick up Jim and go to Wades house today that He will see me through this without expecting problems with IBS.

 

Memory verses for the week:  Psalm 40:1-2

 

I waited patiently for the LORD and He inclined to me and heard my cry.

He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay; and set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.