Hebrews 2
We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. For if the message spoken by angels was binding and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation. This salvation which was first announced by the Lord was confirmed to us by those who heard him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will.
Making it real ……
We must listen intently and take in everything of what we have heard so that the truth can make its home in our hearts. When the people were given the 10 commandments – which was the laws of their time, spoken to Moses by an angel – every waywardness received its just punishment. The message of the gospel, brought by Jesus, was so much greater and more real than those original commandments. If we do not listen to this message, what will the justice be? The truth is that disregarding the law, brought certain punishment, but disregarding the gospel will bring even greater sadness. Salvation was first announced by the Lord! And the joy of the message was confirmed by those who heard it and lived it! God also makes all of this real to us by giving us signs, displaying brilliant wonders, showing incredible miracles and giving us gifts of the Holy Spirit so that we can show God to man on earth.
My story …
We will all hear this ‘gospel’ message at different times in our lives, and it is at that time of hearing it, that we choose to either grab hold of it or release it back to the great out there and go on living our lives as if we never heard it at all.
We will probably actually hear the message a great deal of times, and each time, we have that same choice to make. But when we choose to receive it, our whole world will change and we will see this life in a totally different light. I had heard the message over and over again, from church, from school, from home – but this message became alive for me when I saw it being lived out. When the love that it speaks about, become a thing that I could actually see and experience. That is when I chose to grab hold of the it and when the message began to change my life. Salvation was no longer just a word, a scary choice that I had made to avoid going to hell. Salvation was ‘knowing God’. It was feeling in my heart that I was a part of the family. An amazing all-consuming feeling of love and acceptance. A feeling of coming ‘home’. For me, this happened at the age of 8, so there was no great theology involved. It wasn’t a head thing, it was a heart thing. That is what it should be for all of us. We can argue about the facts until we face the grave, but we can’t argue about how the God has changed peoples lives!