WHILE IT IS CALLED TODAY
TUESDAY, JANUARY 5
Hebrews 3:1-16
1 Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest.
2 He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house.
3 Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself.
4 For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.
5“Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house,” bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future.
6 But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.
7 So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did.
10 That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’
11 So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”
12 See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.
13But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
14 We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.
15 As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.”
16 Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt?
At the beginning of this chapter, the writer addressed his recipients in a unique manner, as "Holy brethren". This shows that one is qualified to be addressed as "Holy brother /sister" if he /she takes part in the heavenly calling and upholds Jesus as the Apostle and High Priests of our confession. Without this confession which ought to be backed up by a life that shows it to be true, a person cannot enter heaven.
Thus, anyone having this heavenly call shall empty himself of an evil heart of unbelief and the deceitfulness of sin. He should serve with the help of the Holy Spirit, to live out the call of God on his /her life to the end.
Beloved of God, the Holy Spirit is available to lead us while it is still "Called Today. God is not yet through with you, as long as you don't harden your heart. Open up to God and you will have a steady witness of "the Holy Spirit that you are a Child of God".
Thought: How open are you to the call of God?