From: "Phil Rembleski" <PHIl@rescuechurchofchrist.org>

To: "1111RESCUEMEMBERS"

Cc:

Sent: Wed, Aug 30, 2023 at 6:09 AM

Subject: 8-30-23 THOUGHTS

8-30-23   THOUGHTS

A cautionary reading this morning.  The writer draws from the example of the Exodus Israelites who did not get to enter the promised land due to their murmurings.  They died wandering in the wilderness.  We are told to “take care”!  The theme of fellowship is introduced as needful to keep us from “being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”  We are called to “encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called "Today,"   What thinking patterns will I go through to keep me from putting this into practice in my life?  Church, we are not doing well on “day by day” things!  Hardening comes from not heeding!  Verse 14 says “For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end,”!  Maybe I need a little more of the FEAR mentioned in the first two verses of Hebrews 4?  May the WORD OF GOD PROFIT IN US!

Heb 3:12-19   Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.  13  But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called "Today," so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.   14  For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end, 15  while it is said, "TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS, AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME."  16  For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? 17  And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?  18  And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19  So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.
Heb 4:1-2    Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. 2  For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.

My Prayer:
O Lord, keep us from living fantasy lives.  Help us to use the tools You have provided to keep us close to You.  May we share Your Word daily in encouragement to keep us from being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.  Unite Your Word with faith in our hearts that we might profit to eternity.  Help us, O Lord, to be most careful with the words we have read this morning.  Give us a healthy fear.     In the name of Jesus,    Amen.