David Bahn – Reflections

Hebrews 12:12-13

Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, ¹³ and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.

In the Biggest Loser workout video Bob urges one of the former (and successful) contestants to hold his weights in front of him for an extra-long period of time. He urges him, “Strength man! Strength!” This is the cry of Hebrews 12. Strengthen the weak knees! Walk the straight line! Clench the limp hands. “Strength!” is the call.

God’s people are not to sit idly by while evil runs rampant. Disciples of Jesus are not to acquiesce to the ploys of deceitful scheming. The enemy of our souls is not to gain the upper hand. We are to remain steadfast and strong, faithful and committed to the ways of Christ.

Sometimes that is needed in the face of obvious temptation to sin. Sometimes the challenge is much more subtle. But if we are to be strong it cannot be a matter of accident; it must be a practice of intentionality. This is not a call to a passive faith, or a thoughtless ease. This is a call to endurance, purposeful faithfulness, action, and intentional discipleship.

God’s grace is his perfect and loving gift. His forgiveness is the essential foundation of our relationship with him. His salvation has been won and promised to us who call on Jesus. We who have this gift must now live it out in strength and purpose. It is precisely because of Jesus’ mercy and redemption that we are called to this urgency. The God who shook the earth and sent terror and fear into the hearts of the people of Israel is the God who invites us into his very presence through the mediator of a new covenant. Our true strength is in the fellowship of those who embrace, sustain, celebrate, live, and share God’s grace.

Hebrews 12:12-24

Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, ¹³ and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. ¹⁴  Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. ¹⁵ See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; ¹⁶ that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. ¹⁷ For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

¹⁸ For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest ¹⁹ and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. ²⁰ For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.”²¹ Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” ²² But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, ²³ and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, ²⁴ and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.