Chapter 10

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=hebrews%2010&version=ESV

STUDY

• What is impossible to take away sins?

• What did Christ offer?

• What parallel is mentioned in verse 20?

• What does verse 24 mean?

• What happens for the one who keeps sinning deliberately?

APPLICATION

• Jesus said, "Behold, I have come to do your will, O God."  Do you have the same attitude?  Are you so willing to do whatever the Father asks?

• In verse 25, it says, "not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another..."  Why is this so important?  Do you practice meeting together with other believers?

• Verse 26-31 speak about people who go on sinning deliberately after deciding to follow Jesus.  Is that you?  Do you know someone who is living this life?  What did you learn in reading this passage about yourself or the someone you know?  What thoughts press into your mind about this?  

PRUNING ME

    I stopped at verse 7 and absorbed the meaning of the response, "Behold, I have come to do your will, O God."  We think life is about us.  Well, it's not.  We dream up our future, we plan our life to reach our goals, we make decisions to have babies or to not have them right now, we move to a different state to 'start over'.  But what is all this?  It is OUR plan.  Jesus came to do God's will, and we were created to His will also.  We weren't created to glorify ourselves, or live life the way we dream- although sometimes, God grants us our dreams- we were created to glorify God.  That also means, we were created to do His will.  Although we were created to do His will, we have to want to do it in order to.  We are not robots that God pulls this way and that- He allows us to make choices.  Whether you follow Jesus or not, you have a choice to follow Him everyday.  If you don't believe in Jesus, the first step is make a decision to follow Him.  If you already follow Him, then aligning yourself with HIS will rather than yours is your next step.  When you submit to His will rather than your own, you are choosing to glorify Him rather than yourself.  Jesus was so willing to do the Father's will.  Are we?  Will you be willing to do whatever He asks?  One example of how I submitted to His will rather than my own, is with birth control.  Joey and I did not want children- at least not for a couple years.  We had plans to travel, get financially stable, and enjoy life for a few more years before we wanted children, in fact, we weren't even sure we wanted any.   That was our plan. Well, God had a different one.  God made it clear to Joey and I through a few circumstances that He wanted us to get off birth control, and to trust in Him completely.  It was hard, I had been on birth control since I was 15, and the thought of not having that security was frightening.  We decided that trusting in God was better than trusting in our own plan, and although our plan was to not have children yet, we submitted to His plan- even if that meant children righ away.  We were off birth control for a year and then we got pregnant with Oskar.  Honestly, I cried for the first 3 months of the pregnancy.  My flesh was still fighting the surrendering of my desires and dreams for God's.  It's not always easy.  But let me tell you that God's plan was better than mine.  He's not lying when He says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:8-9) Are you willing to do whatever He asks?  Take your faith to the next step and tell God you are willing.  You will be pleasantly surprised at the things He will do if you're willing. 

• Leanne