Morning’ Juice (rest)

Rest…an interesting word, or is it a place? hmmm, yes a word and yes a place we can enter as we see the following

Heb 4:3 NLT 3 For only we who believe can enter his rest. As for the others, God said, “In my anger I took an oath: ‘They will never enter my place of rest,'”even though this rest has been ready since he made the world.

Wowzie whoa…let’s recall the narrative. The writers of Hebrews are chatting it up with folks who are learning the truth of how to beLIeVE. Their old way (the law) was constructed of many do’s and don’ts. The do’s and don’ts were set in such a way that was designed to show the only WAY would be through faith. Faith and trust in Jesus. Yet the ol’ boys and girls the writers are referring to in the verse above are not familiar with Jesus, as this was hundreds upon hundreds of years before Christ. But they are familiar with God as they follow him by day and night with Moses. God is leading them to the promise land, a place f rest….not necessarily sitting on a couch eating bon bon rest, but one of security, in that God is for em’, a rest assured that God desires the very best for em’ . But as we know their travels were filled with tons of adversity, some obstacles, yet didn’t God deliver them through the turmoil? YES….but as we read last week the potential conflict with the giants was just too much for the majority and as we just read.

‘they will never enter my rest”

Did they just get tired?….what was the source of their unbelief? hmmm…

Depending on the translation in your hand, the word as we are using today for this discussion shows up over 300 times. The place that has the most sightings of this word in the new side of the beLIeVING book (new testatment/bible) is, yep you guessed it, Hebrews. No other letter is even close. And catch this gang, 15 total times when you read through the letter you will see the reference to rest and 10, yes 10 are in the chapter we are reviewing today (chpt 4).

Rest, a place God has for all of us who beLIeVE….

Tuesday (feb 6) folks gathered to discuss and man on man did we ever! What does rest look like for us? here are just a few:

• vegging on the couch
• no more striving
• mental rest
• peace

but to get there (place of rest) don’t we have to scrape away the “things”…the giants in our lives that look just too dog gone big for God.

what are the giants in our lives that “appear” to be in the way of the rest only God can provide? Think of your day to day in your home, at work in school and universities. Where or who are the relationships in our lives that feel a bit off, thus bringing in the giant of unbelief which can result in mental unrest? Do we feel like we are striving to keep everything together, and boy o boy peace well that is long gone in the moment?

The clarity of how to enter God’s rest sometimes seems vague or “pie in the sky” doesn’t it?…..yet it is a place we can experience today. How? Trust and walk through the don’t want to’s of your day. Believe and Walk through the I can’t and replace with HE will. and gang on the other side is the inner peace of Gods rest. He is in jesUS. This doesn’t necessarily mean that everything will have this nice ribbon and box package that is all peaches and cream. The rest comes in releasing the results, releasing our demands, releasing unspoken expectations and accepting that all things are for HIS good. Don’t know about you, but that takes all of the HIMwithin (holy spirit) power to achieve. exactly why HE emptied the tomb…he left that hole to fill our hole….

Do you desire to have a safe place to rest? need to hear yourself chat through your “giants”? Let us know and we will be glad to help slay some giants with ya in the name of Jesus the one who paid it ALL.

We will gather February 12 6:30 pm at 1723 claire ct to open up chapter 5. first few minutes is spent catching up with each other, then 7:00 pm we dive in.

love em up!