God reads the heart. Outward actions and expressions can fool the average observer, but God knows the underlying motivation for everything you do. This week the author of Hebrews encourages the reader, picturing a bright future, even though the reader has just been told they are not were they should be in the knowledge of God. Even though our author admonishes for drifting and being dull of hearing, the heart is still producing outward evidence of a born again life of sanctification.

Even though we don’t feel we desire the things of God, which includes His Word, Prayer, Worship, and community with the Body of Christ, the new heart that God placed in us when we placed our faith in Christ alone by His Grace is still beating strong. You feel dry as toast, but the heart in your chest is dripping with anticipation of a closer walk with Jesus.

This heart, a Grace Gift of God, is the key to our standing before Him. Though unseen, it is branded with the fingerprints of the Creator. It longs for God. It longs for righteousness. Even though it must battle daily our sin nature, our corrupt understanding, our lack of knowledge, and our bent forward selfishness, in the end our heart, autographed by God and sealed by the Spirit, WILL have its way.

The Apostle Paul describes a heart like this as “In Christ”.  In Christ you are a new creation and a child of God. (2 Corinthians 5:17, Galatians 3:26) In Christ we become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21) We can rejoice because our God knows who we are even when we doubt.

In Christ Alone Our Hope is Found…hey, someone should write a song…

HOMEWORK:

Read Matthew 25:31-46

 

How does the description of Jesus match that of chapter one of Hebrews? (Verse 31)

 

 

The final judgment takes place in verses 32 to 46. Jesus, the Great Shepherd, separates the “sheep’ (the children of God) and the “goats” (the children of wrath).

 

How did Jesus say he knew that the sheep where really the children of God?  (Verses 35-36)

 

 

Did the children of God (the sheep) totally understand the type of life they lived? (Verses 37-39)

 

 

What were the ‘eyes of the heart’ of the sheep able to see that the heart of the goats couldn’t? (Verse 44)

 

 

In this account of the final judgment, did Jesus judge according to a single moment in time or over the entire lifetime of the sheep and goats?