The  Centrality of Christ
A study in the book of Hebrews

Regarding Encouragement
Mountain of Fear/Joy
Hebrews 12:14 – Ch 13

Sunday Service will be Outside this Sunday!

Can discipline be encouraging?  Can suffering be encouraging?  These are squirrely questions that can make us squirm a bit.  But they don’t cause the writer of Hebrews to squirm!  Nor does the writer shy away from answering with an emphatic “YES!”  

After chapter 11 comes 12 and 13.  No duh.  My point is this: After the crescendo of the parade on faith (chapter 11), the writer brings us down with a ‘reality check’ of encouragement – encouragement from places we wouldn’t normally go looking for it.  Preparing for the last message of this series on Hebrews has been rewarding.  Calming.  Enlightening.

It’s like the feeling of calm when in the eye of a hurricane.  Surreal.  A calm assurance that even though you know you are in the middle of a storm, and that the winds are going to blow hard again very soon, you take a deep breath and your eyes focus on what lies ahead.  There is resolve.  You say to yourself, “We’ve made it this far, God won’t let us down.”  It’s the feeling of peace in the midst of challenge – knowing there is a finish line.  Even though limping, all is well.  Especially as you look around you and see that others are limping too.  

This may seem cryptic – not making much sense.  Just come on Sunday.  To make it more cryptic, take a look at these two short video links… notice the imagery of sunflower seeds breaking ground, casting off their seed shells and dancing against gravity to grow toward the sun (time lapse of a sunflower seeds growing) – notice what God designed to grow out of the devastation of a forest fire… (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ0zqo1opv8&t=10s) I’ll try and make more sense of this Sunday. 

 “See” you then,

Pastor Mark