Hebrews on Mystery

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The Embodiment of their Hopes

Author

Keywords

Scripture

Joshua 1:9, Isaiah 40:29-31, Romans 8:37, Hebrews 12:1-2, Philippians 4:13, Psalm 31:24, 1 Timothy 6:12

I have been reading Julian Jackson’s biography of Charles de Gaulle — it’s exceptional, so far — and I find myself meditating on a story Jackson tells near the beginning of the book. In June of 1940, ...

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Author

Corrie Ten Boom

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 46:10, Hebrews 13:8, Philippians 4:6-7, Romans 8:28, Psalm 37:5

Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.

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Let us Trust Our Own Moments of Vision

Author

Prince

Keywords

Scripture

1 Peter 1:8-9, Romans 8:24-25, John 20:29, Proverbs 3:5-6, Isaiah 40:31, Hebrews 11:1, 2 Corinthians 5:7

I remember once near Interlaken waiting for days to see the Jungfrau which was hidden in mists. People told me it was there, and I should have been a fool to doubt their word, for those who told me li...

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A Remote Village

Author

Timothy Jennings

Keywords

Scripture

1 John 4:9-10, Romans 8:3, Colossians 1:19-20, 2 Corinthians 8:9, Isaiah 53:4-5, Hebrews 2:14

Imagine a remote village in Africa. No modern Westerner has ever set foot there. The natives live off the land, using the same ancient methods and tools as their forefathers used for the last thousand...

liturgy

Prayer of Adoration Good and Gracious

Author

Richard Herman

Keywords

Scripture

Hebrews 4:16, 2 Samuel 12:1-14, Isaiah 43:25, 1 John 1:8-9, Romans 8:28, Psalm 139:1-4

Prayer of Adoration Good and Gracious Lord, You hold us in the palm of Your strong hand, working all things for our good and to Your glory. There is no place we can go that escapes your notice and i...

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Author

Michael Gerson

Keywords

Faith

Scripture

John 20:29, Romans 8:24-25, Proverbs 3:5-6, 2 Corinthians 5:7, Hebrews 11:1

Faith, thankfully, does not preclude doubt. It consists of staking your life on the rumor of grace.

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Author

Oswald Chambers

Keywords

Scripture

Hebrews 11:8, Proverbs 3:5-6, Psalm 32:8, Jeremiah 29:11, Isaiah 42:16, John 10:28-28, Romans 8:28

Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One who is leading.

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Prayer for Holy Saturday

Author

Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 46:10, 2 Corinthians 4:17-18, Romans 8:24-25, Hebrews 11:1, Psalm 27:14, Isaiah 40:31

There are so many things we do not understand⁠ So many ways we long for change and closure⁠ Help us to trust you⁠ even when the situation is desperate and out of control⁠ Help us to follow you⁠ even...

liturgy

In this dark time of year, God, we long for your coming.

Author

Steve Garnaas Holmes

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 60:1-3, Psalm 34:5, Matthew 28:20, John 14:16-18, Romans 8:23-25, Romans 15:13, 2 Corinthians 4:8-9, Hebrews 10:23, Psalm 23:4, 1 Peter 5:9-10

In this dark time of year, God, we long for your coming. When darkness falls upon the world, we long for your peace. For healing, we wait. For justice, we hope. Strengthen our hearts, that we may be s...

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Author

Helen Keller

Keywords

Scripture

Joshua 1:9, Jeremiah 29:11, Isaiah 41:10, Psalm 27:13-14, Romans 8:18, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Hebrews 12:1-2

Discouraged not by difficulties without, or the anguish of ages within, the heart listens to a secret voice that whispers: "Be not dismayed; in the future lies the Promised Land.

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Author

Vaclav Havel

Keywords

Hope

Scripture

Romans 8:28, Hebrews 11:1, Jeremiah 29:11, Proverbs 3:5-6, Isaiah 55:8-9, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.

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A Saint Like Us

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Acts 16:30-33, Romans 8:38-39, Hebrews 7:25, John 5:24, John 15:6-8, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, Ephesians 6:18, Jeremiah 33:3, Psalm 86:3, John 15:1-10

For the most part, when we think of saints or heroes of the faith, we think of people who are altogether different than we are. They seem to embody a quality of communion with God that is impossible f...

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Author

Tertullian

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 5:14-16, Romans 8:24-25, Hebrews 10:23, Psalm 27:13-14, Lamentations 3:25-26

Hope is patience with the lamp lit.

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Author

C. S. Lewis

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 8:1, Isaiah 61:7, Hebrews 12:2, Psalm 34:5, Romans 10:11, 1 John 1:9, 2 Timothy 1:7

I sometimes think that shame, mere awkward, senseless shame, does as much towards preventing good acts and straightforward happiness as any of our vices can do.

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Author

John F. Walvoord

Keywords

The Incarnation

Scripture

Hebrews 12:2, John 17:5, Romans 8:3, Isaiah 53:5, Hebrews 2:14-15

To achieve the divine purpose of becoming the Savior, the divine glory needed to be veiled. Christ voluntarily, moment by moment, submitted to human limitations apart from sin. The humiliation was tem...

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Author

Source Unknown

Keywords

Scripture

Hebrews 11:1, Psalm 46:10, Isaiah 40:31, Romans 8:24-25, Psalm 27:13-14, 2 Corinthians 5:7

I believe in the sun though it is late in rising. I believe in love though it is absent. I believe in God though He is silent.

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A Wild Naked Man Running Towards Me Is A Very Scary Thing

Author

Brian Hardin

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 3:10, Mark 5:1-20, Luke 8:26-39, Romans 8:1, John 8:10-11, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Hebrews 4:13

The Summer Before Junior High School was filled with anticipation. I was excited to leave elementary school behind me. Junior high sounded so robust and adult. And I felt ready—with one caveat. Physic...

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Author

C. S. Lewis

Keywords

Scripture

1 Corinthians 13:13, Titus 2:11-13, Hebrews 11:1, Philippians 3:20, 1 Peter 1:3-4, 2 Corinthians 4:17-18, Romans 8:24-25

Hope is one of the Theological virtues. A continual looking forward to the eternal world is not as some modern people think, a form of escapism or wishful thinking. But it's one of the great thing...

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Someone With Skin

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 8:3, John 14:9, Colossians 2:9, 1 John 4:9, Philippians 2:6-8, Hebrews 2:14

Ronald Rohlheiser begins his excellent book, Our One Great Act of Fidelity , with a story of a young girl. She had awoken from a nightmare, convinced that monsters had invaded her room and were comin...

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Author

Richard Lovelace

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 5:1, Romans 8:1, Galatians 2:16, Titus 3:5, 1 John 4:15, Isaiah 61:10, Hebrews 10:14

Much that we have interpreted as a defect of sanctification in church people is really an outgrowth of their loss of bearing with respect to justification. Christians who are no longer sure that God l...

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Doubt is in Everyone

Author

John Ortberg

Keywords

Scripture

Jeremiah 29:13, Proverbs 3:5-6, Romans 8:24-25, Hebrews 11:1, John 20:27

Writer Michael Novak says that doubt is not so much a dividing line that separates people into different camps, as it is a razor’s edge that runs through every soul. Many believers tend to think doubt...

lectionary

Sixth Sunday of Easter

Author

Gabe Fung

Keywords

Scripture

Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5, Revelation 21:2, 10, 22-27, Revelation 22:1-5, 1 Kings 6:20, Genesis 12:1-3, Genesis 2:9, Genesis 3:23-24, Genesis 1:28, Genesis 2:15, Genesis 3:17-19, 1 Corinthians 15:58, Ephesians 6:5-9, Colossians 3:23, Genesis 1:26-27, Exodus 33:20-23, John 14:9, Colossians 1:15, Hebrews 1:3, Mark 15:34, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Exodus 28:15-21, 29-30, John 4:13-14, John 7:37-38, Matthew 27:46, John 3:2, Romans 8:29

Preaching Commentary Pulling Back the Curtain The Revelation of Jesus Christ is a “pulling back of the curtain” to reveal both the unseen realities of the present (what is really going on in the wo...

scripture guide

Scripture Guide, Revelation 21:10, 22:1-5

Author

Gabe Fung

Keywords

Scripture

Revelation 21:10, Revelation 21:2, 10, 22-27, Revelation 22:1-5, 1 Kings 6:20, Genesis 12:1-3, Genesis 2:9, Genesis 3:23-24, Genesis 1:28, Genesis 2:15, Genesis 3:17-19, 1 Corinthians 15:58, Ephesians 6:5-9, Colossians 3:23, Genesis 1:26-27, Exodus 33:20-23, John 14:9, Colossians 1:15, Hebrews 1:3, Mark 15:34, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Exodus 28:15-21, 29-30, John 4:13-14, John 7:37-38, Matthew 27:46, John 3:2, Romans 8:29

Pulling Back the Curtain The Revelation of Jesus Christ is a “pulling back of the curtain” to reveal both the unseen realities of the present (what is really going on in the world from God’s perspect...

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COVID and Learning to Wait Well

Author

Ashley Hales

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 13:1-2, Isaiah 26:3, Philippians 4:6-7, Hebrews 12:11, Romans 8:24-25

With the global coronavirus pandemic in spring 2020, life stopped. Overwhelmed by the threat of a disease we couldn’t stop and for which we didn’t have the hospital capacity, everyone moved work and s...

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God’s Inexhaustible Mercies

Author

Paul David Tripp

Keywords

Mercy

Scripture

Lamentations 3:22-23, Psalm 103:17-18, 2 Corinthians 4:16, Isaiah 40:31, Psalm 23:3, Romans 8:38-39, Hebrews 4:16

One of the stunning realities of the Christian life is that in a world where everything is in some state of decay, God’s mercies never grow old. They never run out. They never are ill timed. They neve...

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Hope In God

Author

Eugene Peterson

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 40:31, Romans 8:24-25, Psalm 27:14, Hebrews 11:1, Lamentations 3:25-26

Hoping does not mean doing nothing. It is not fatalistic resignation. It means going about our assigned tasks, confident that God will provide the meaning and the conclusions. It is not compelled to w...

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The Forgotten French Soldier

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 142:4-5, Isaiah 49:15-16, Psalm 34:18, Hebrews 4:15, Matthew 28:20, John 14:18, Romans 8:38-39, Lamentations 3:21-23, Psalm 40:1-12

This story is probably apocryphal, but conveys a truth nonetheless. During the early 19th century, following the Napoleonic Wars, a French soldier was captured and imprisoned. He was thrown into a...

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Author

Annie Dillard

Keywords

Scripture

Philippians 2:6-8, 1 John 4:9-10, Hebrews 2:14-15, Romans 8:38-39, Matthew 1:23, Isaiah 41:10

I am sorry I ran from you. I am still running, running from that knowledge, that eye, that love from which there is no refuge. For you meant only love, and love, and I felt only fear, and pain. So onc...

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To Become a Fish

Author

Keywords

The Incarnation

Scripture

1 John 4:9-10, Romans 8:3, Colossians 1:19-20, 2 Corinthians 8:9, Isaiah 53:4-5, Hebrews 2:14, Philippians 2:6-8

I learned about incarnation when I kept a salt-water aquarium. Management of a marine aquarium, I discovered, is no easy task. I had to run a portable chemical laboratory to monitor the nitrate levels...

liturgy

Loving God: Abba—our Father; Jesus—our

Author

Richard Herman

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 8:15, Galatians 4:6, Hebrews 10:24-25, John 14:27, James 1:5

Loving God: Abba—our Father; Jesus—our Savior; Spirit—our Comforter. As Advent begins ... we take a deep breath, we grit our teeth and steel our nerves anticipating the fast pace of the next few week...

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