Hebrews 12 - Summer of Scripture

Black Friday Savings are here at the Home Depot, which means it's time to add new cordless power to your collection. Right now, when you buy a select battery kit from one of our top brands like Ryobi or Milwaukee, you'll get a select tool from that same brand for free. Click into one of our best deals of the season and stock up on tools for all your upcoming projects. Get Black Friday Savings happening now at the Home Depot. Limit one per transaction exclusion supply full eligible tool list in store and online.

Welcome to Summer of Scripture on the Naked marriage podcast. For 66 days in a row, we're releasing a short daily devotional for your marriage. Over these 66 days, we'll be sharing one scripture from each of the 66 books of the Bible and talking about how it applies to your life and marriage. Listen to all 66 episodes of these and you'll have a better understanding of God's word and his perfect plan for your marriage. Let's dive in to today's scripture.

Hey, guys. Welcome to day 58. We're in the Book of Hebrews. This letter was written by an unknown author. There's kind of some controversy over who wrote it, but we do know it was written to a Jewish audience of Jewish Christians, helping them kind of bridge the gap between the Old Testament and now Christ the Messiah, the coming Messiah, of course, fulfillment of prophecy and all of that. And so it's a really great book of the Bible. I Love Hebrews chapter 12, which is called the hall of Faith, where it lists out so many great heroes of the faith and what we can learn from their examples. And it starts out, or actually, that's Hebrews 11 right after that, Hebrews chapter 12, verse one is what we're reading today. It says, therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up, and let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. Paul often uses this athletic image of run your race, win your race, because even back then, sports were a big deal. But I love this picture of this crowd of witnesses that we're being cheered on, in essence, from heaven by all these who've gone before us, who are passing the baton. You know, they've run their race. You know, Joseph and Mary and Esther and David and Moses and the disciples and all these guys who, they finished their part of the race and they've already crossed that finish line, and now they're home with Jesus and. But now it's our part of the story that you and I have a part to play in that story that God's been writing from the beginning of time. And we're connected. Our role is just as important as it was for these people we read about in the Bible. We're part of the same story God is writing. And so we need to do our part to live in our time, to proclaim Jesus in our family with faithfulness, knowing we're being cheered on by those who've gone before us.

Elevento de abrios de Burlington. Ya esta qui compra una brigo des de ahoras. Tal ventinuembre. Yo obtain cinco dollares de descuento en tu compra de venticinco mas del seis al venti cuatro de deciembre a de mas Burlington. Donara cinquenta mila brigos nuevos para yudara los ne todo el pais por medio de nuestra collaboracion con delivering Good tie. Vamos mas de cincuenta anos abrigando. Te nos vemos en o estro revento de abrigos. Burlington Marcas rebajas. Wow. Visita Burlington Punto com diagonal cotes para maz de tayes.

It's such beautiful imagery. And I think it is important to remember that. And I think it also gives us kind of that courage to endure, you know? Cause all these people that came before us didn't have it easy. I mean, gosh, they went through. I mean, Paul, you know, even went to prison, you know, multiple times. We have people who lost their lives because they followed Christ. We have all these different people that went through trial after trial after trial. And I think it's such a good reminder to know where we came from, but to also know where we're going and say, like, keep going, you know, keep on enduring, Keep on moving, moving forward. Run your race. And also to remember, too, that we're all called to kind of some unique races, so to speak. Like, it's gonna look a little different for all of us, just as unique as the people who wrote the books of the Bible. It's gonna look very unique. And I think just reminding us that we all, like you said, have a role to play individually, but also as married people. You know, I know we referred to this before, but I think it's important to remember that God put the two of us together and the two of you together, listening just for a particular purpose. You know, you have Your individual calling on your life, but you also have a joint calling on your life.

Yes. And so pray about what that could be, because God wants you to fulfill it together. He brought you together. You're a team. And you might think, I've blown it. I've done too much. God can't do anything with me. That chapter before Hebrews 11, that's listing out all these heroes of the faith. One of the people it lists is a guy named Samson.

Oh, yeah.

And Samson made so many bad choices. I mean, he. He had all kinds of sexual sin. He completely fumbled his assignment over and over again. He lived selfishly, but he finished strong.

Right.

He finished humbly and in humility. The last day of his life. He lived it strong for God, selflessly, ultimately crossed the finish line strong, and now is listed among those heroes of the faith. And that gives great hope to all of us who've blown it, and we all have, that we can still finish strong. And you haven't disqualified yourself because of sin in your past or because of mistakes you've made or because you think, well, maybe I felt like God was calling me to do this when I was young, but I went in a different direction, and now I have regret. Listen, don't live your life beating yourself up. Start right where you are today and say, what does it look like from this day forward for me to live my life in a way that I could say, I finished strong, I did the best that I could do with the time that I had left, starting right then, and God will bless it. One day in the life of your life, fully surrendered to God's hands is enough to completely change the world. And so, hey, recommit your life to God's hands today, and you'll be amazed. Amazed at what he can do in the process.

That's right. We hope you join us tomorrow for day 59, and we are going to be in the Book of James.

And let me just say this about the Book of James is.

Oh, yes.

When we were dating, I was at camp one summer, and we decided to read through the Book of James together as a way, from a distance.

You were at camp Counselor.

I was a camp counselor, yeah. Not like prison camp or, you know, like kids. Camp made me sound like I was 12. I was, like, writing you letters. They gave me Oreos in the canteen tonight. It was great. No, I was a camp counselor.

You were, like, two hours from me. And then at one point, you were in Boston, so you were pretty far from me. Yeah, but we just. We were like, what can we do to stay connected? This is way before, like, all the FaceTime and all that. And we said, let's read the book of James together and talk about it over the phone.

And so we'd call each other at night, talk about what we read that day, and then we would. It was a great way to stay connected. And so, just as a little side note, if you and your spouse, you know, do a devotional together, especially if you're at a distance, if traveling for work or deployed or anything like that, it's a simple way that you guys can stay connected. So James has a special place in our heart because of that. We'll be talking about that book tomorrow. We'll see you then.

Sam.