Here is a study I taught during our Pastorship at Big Ridge, it covers five distinct warnings found in Hebrews, that would help us to hang on to our Faith. I will do each warning sign for the next five devotionals. Enjoy and hopefully learn something...pappy
In Hebrews, the first chapter, we learn that God had spoken to the fathers through the prophets, but seeing how that turned out God sent His Son Jesus to speak on His behalf, with the intent on the emphasis of His Son's rightful place beside Him and in hopes that the people would listen to Him with more fiber in their faith then they did when the prophets spoke. thus we are given the first of the five warnings in the first verse of chapter 2....
Hebrews 2:1...Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.
It may not seem like much, but this is indeed a very important warning, that must not be over looked, for if we allow ourselves the listen to the word and then shrug it off without care, then we would indeed fall prey to whatever Satan would whisper into our ears...."lest at any time we should let them slip" ... and once we begin slipping down that slippery slope of "nonchalant" it would not take long for us to hit the bottom, or stuck in a rut.
John 10:27-28 - My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: If we were to listen without the intent to follow Christ before long we would find our hearts becoming hardened to what the word is saying to us, and how could a hardened heart find the compassion of Christ residing in it? How could it follow Christ? So you see, the very first of these warnings, though seemingly very small, is so very important, we see what happened to the fore fathers, who heard God's word through the prophets, turning their backs on Him, ending up wandering in the desert for 40 years, dying off one by one, until only the New Generation was allowed to survive, a generation whose lives would bare witness to the upcoming believers of the world. Who, would find opportunity to hear God's word first hand, through His Only Begotten Son, but sadly we see the same thing happening as with the fore fathers...in John 8:47 - He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear [them] not, because ye are not of God. it is sad that History repeats itself over time, and as Christ is on a mission to share His Father's word, the world is on a mission to kill Christ!
And now here we are, all those thousands of years later, still able to listen to God's word, not through the direct voice of Him, nor through the soft spoken words of Christ, but empowered through the Holy Ghost, John 14:26 - But the Comforter, [which is] the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. who is trying His honest best to carry the torch to mankind.
Failure to listen with the intent to follow, is not an option, failure to listen without faith, is not an option, we have to take heed to this first warning, take it to heart, live our lives by it, otherwise we fall and or slip away from it, which could only result in a loss of appetite for Christ, and God's word, and try to sustain our lives by the things of this world.
