BH Bulletin - Monday 18 January 2021

Thought for the Day by Phil Washington (BH Member)

Pressing on – upwards
 
‘You need to persevere’ Hebrews 10:36
 
I did a pretty foolish thing in my early 20’s, and that was to hike a high Lake District mountain on my own. It was February and the weather was glorious – not a cloud in the sky over the whole of England. I took the ‘difficult’ path up one of the famous peaks. As I got higher, the terrain got more precipitous, it also got icy – really icy! At one stage I was crawling along a ‘ridge’ on my hands and knees. It was scary. At the end of the ridge was frozen snow, and the way ahead almost vertical. I wanted to go back, but couldn’t face that icy ridge again. So, forward, or rather upward, it had to be. I carved footholds in the hard snow and after much puffing, panting and sweating (with fear), I made the summit – alive!! Needless to say I took the ‘easy’ way back to the Youth Hostel.
 
Sometimes in our Christian life, the ‘pathway’ seems pretty treacherous doesn’t it? Did we sign up for this? And, we want – really want, to go back. But forwards is the only way to go – even if the path seems pretty much vertical.
 
The Hebrew Christians in our verse today were in that position. Life had been a real struggle – almost too much to bear. They wanted to go back, to the ease and comfort of their ‘pre-Christian’ days, but the writer of the letter urges them to persevere – to keep on going in the faith. Have a look at v19-39 of Hebrews chapter 10, and hear the words of encouragement. Yes, they were written for those first century believers, but they were also written for us.
 
‘We do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved’ (v39).