Hebrew 1 & 2

I'll share more of what God's teaching me through The Discipline of Grace and tell you about the other book as we go along. But today I'm reading in Hebrews 1 & 2 and the message of the Good News of Jesus as stated in these chapters is amazing!

The author says this about Jesus in 1:3-4, "He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, ..." !

In Chapter 2, the author refers to Christ as our brother. I love that through my faith in His death and resurrection, I am adopted into God's family and Christ is truly my brother! :) And what a brother he is! "Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation [or to turn aside God's wrath] for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted" (2:17-18). This is the good news of the gospel that I mentioned in my last post. Without Christ, I would be hopeless in my sin but because He saw fit in his perfection to accept God's wrath for my sin, I can accept his righteousness (or his right standing before God) as my own. I am so thankful that I can stand in humble gratitude before God because of what Jesus did for me. I often must remind myself of this truth and let go of my tendency to want to dwell on my failures or punish myself for my shortcomings. I am forgiven and I have a wonderful hope in Jesus. I also have to let go of my efforts to be Superwoman (Christian, wife, mom). Sometimes I seem to think I can just buck up and do "it" all on my own. This might seem semi-successful for a while but I inevitably fail miserably. Like I said before, my hope is in Jesus and it is only in seeking His glory (He is, after all, the one who "upholds the universe by the power of His word") that I will find true success and fulfillment.