In Hebrews 13:7 it says “Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith”.
Dear brothers and sisters, here it says to imitate the faith of those who lead us. We have many brothers to look up to and imitate their faith. We remember our brother CM Mathew who is with the Lord now. It is almost a year now. He had given his life for the church working tirelessly for each one of our brothers bringing them up in the belief which he had in Lord Jesus Christ. He led us in the forefront and sacrificed many things in his life. His priority was to build the Body of Christ in Doha. I hope we will have that faith and take up the burden of our brother and move forward. Let us imitate his faith and the supremacy of Lord he had in his life.
We can also see in Hebrews 1:9 it says “You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions with the oil of rejoicing.” We all know the contents of the book of Hebrews, which is definitely inspired by the Holy Spirit, though we don’t know who the author of this book is. It stresses on the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ that he came to this world. It also shows us that Jesus hated lawlessness and loved righteousness when he lived here on earth. There was something he loved in His life and hated also. When we go through this part there can be doubts like “whether Jesus Christ needed an anointing when He lived here on earth”. The scripture says He had the same life like us in flesh and He had the same struggles of life. He had to be anointed by God. God was well pleased with the hidden life of Jesus because He hated sin and He knew that it is an abomination to God and He loved righteousness. Are there areas in our life where we love sin and hate righteousness? If you don’t hate sin you will not be filled with Holy Spirit.
In Hebrews 1 :1-3 it says “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When he made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” He was crowned because of his Sacrifice . We can see in the scripture that God spoke to Israelites through the prophets and now in the last days God appointed Jesus as the heir of all things. So we need to follow Lord Jesus Christ’s footsteps as He is the exact representation of the nature of God. We need to uphold that life and conform to the image of Lord Jesus Christ day by day. This is only possible when we hate sin and love righteousness. Jesus was not created. He was the begotten son sent to this world. All glory and honor is to our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the preference God has given to Lord Jesus Christ above His companions. When He was here in the world He was tempted just like you and me, but He hated sin and loved righteousness.
In Proverbs 6:17 we see something which is abomination to God, “There are six things which the LORD hates, Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood, A heart that devices wicked plans, Feet that run rapidly to evil, A false witness who utters lies, And one who spreads strife among brothers.” Dear brothers and sisters, we need to take heed from this. Suppose if you are saying something against a brother, we should understand that it is an abomination to God and we should hate that. We should know that it a scheme of devil to take us away from the presence of God. Let us be conformed in the image of Christ in every way and have victory in all these areas.
In Psalms 34:15 it says that the eyes of the Lord are towards the righteous and His ears are open to their cry. So if you call out and cry to the Lord with a righteous heart, He is eager to help us. God is near to the broken hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Are we broken? Do we have that cry in our heart and do we ask God to help us to hate lawlessness and love righteousness? He will be more than happy to fill us with His spirit if we have that cry. It says many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers them. This is the protection from God. In this world we will have tribulations but we have a great God who has promised us the deliverance. If we look at the life of Noah, that He found favor in the sight of God. God created Adam and Eve to have fellowship with them. But they sinned and broke the will of God. In the midst of that wicked people Noah found favor in the sight of God because he was righteous and he had a close walk with God that preserved him from destruction. God told Noah to enter the ark. We also will be able to enter the ark if we are righteous. If we love righteousness and hate sin, like Noah, we can also be safe inside the ark. There is a need to protect ourselves from lawlessness that is in this world. In 1 Timothy 6:11 Paul encourages Timothy also to go away from all lawlessness and to flee from the love of money. This is a strong warning for us also. Let us fight this good fight with faith and take hold of eternal life. When the Holy Spirit convicts us let us strive to keep a clear conscience. Let us set all things right with repentance. In Acts we read in chapter 23 that Paul says that he had a good conscience at all times. That is a challenging testimony. In Chapter 24 also Paul says he always does his best to maintain a blameless conscience. Let us follow his example. If we repent immediately whenever the Holy Spirit prompts us, that is how we can love righteousness.
In Heb 3:1 we read to consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. He was faithful in his life as Moses was also in his house. He was more counted worthy of more glory than Moses. He was superior to Moses. In Heb 5:7 “In the days of His Flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death and He was heard because of His piety.” We need to cry out to the Lord to save us from the spiritual death and ask him to help us to hate sin and to love righteousness so that we can be filled with the Holy Spirit 24/7.
May God bless us all.
