Hebrews 12:18-29, Jeremiah 1: 4-10 The writer of Hebrews contrasts the old covenant of Moses with the new covenant we have now. Jesus is the mediator of this new covenant – his blood spoke more highly – brought the forgiveness than any sacrifices under the old covenant. He tells of the different attitude under the old covenant of folks fearing God which Moses experienced with the burning bush. Our Jeremiah passage tells us about the call of Jeremiah to be a prophet. God told him God would put God’s words in his mouth. In Hebrews we are warned to not refuse our new Covenant mouthpiece. Through Christ’s work on the cross, God can speak directly to us. The author brings up the Jeremiah’s and other prophets from the past saying how those who didn’t listen to the warnings of the prophets didn’t escape. How less than will we who are under the New Covenant escape if we reject the one who warns from heaven. God has now promised to shake up not only the earth but also the heaven. This i

  Psalms 80: 1-2, 8-19; Hebrews 11:29 - 12:2   Asaph the seer has written another Psalm. In Psalms 80 he uses the metaphor of the Jewish people being a vine brought out of Egypt that prospered in the land God had cleared for them. Why Asaph asks have you not taken care of it - allowing people to break down its walls, allowing others to pick its fruit, animals to feed on it, allowing it to be burnt and cut down? This is a parable of the Jewish people turning from God. Asaph pleads for God to return and give this vine of the Jewish people life. “Restore us, O Lord, let your face shine, that we may be saved.” Hebrews 11 accounts the faithful people of the Old Testament, those who did great things due to their faith in God. Using Asaph’s metaphor – they bore much fruit. They are not only our examples, but they are also our “cloud of witnesses.” They endured even when they didn’t see the promise fulfilled, but still they had faith and witnessed the love and power of the Lord. They are

Luke 12:13-21, Colossians 3:1-11 In Luke 12 Jesus tells the man, wanting to get his equal share of inheritance, that life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. He then goes on to tell a story of a man who accumulates great physical wealth and thinks he has it made. He has put his trust in material things and not in God. So, God gets the last laugh since the man dies and leaves it all behind. So, what is it we can take with us? How do we become rich toward God? Colossians 3 tells us to seek the things above, not possessions on earth. To do so we need to strip off the old sinful self and its practices and cloth ourselves with the new self which is being renewed in the image of our creator. We have been made in the image of God, but sin – many that are listed in our passage, has marred out image. But by seeking the things above we can be renewed to the image of God. Paul tells us of the earthly things we need to get rid of. (I’m sure envy and jealousy are included.) On