Bible Chapter: Hebrews 5

Because the Bible is practical, here are some statements to get you thinking.

1.  Write one or two key thoughts that come from today’s reading.
    Jesus is our High Priest.  He fulfilled the qualifications perfectly.  There is no end to His priesthood.  He is a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.  Melchizedek is a mysterious Old Testament man who is found in Genesis 14.  There is no one else like him.  This can also be said about Jesus.
    Jesus prayed with intensity.  The most intense time was when He was in the Garden of Gethsemane, just before His crucifixion.  This extreme testing showed God’s power to carry a person through difficult situations.  God won’t always change the situation in response to our prayers, but He will carry us through.

2.  What can I apply in my life from the reading?
    Jesus learned through His experiences as a man what it means to obey His heavenly Father when He faced intense sufferings and temptations.  His obedience brought Him to a place of suffering, yet He never sinned.  We, too, can learn faithful obedience to God in this corrupt world.  It will frequently lead to suffering and hardship, but we can be faithful and not compromise or enter into sin.
    The author talked about the fact that his readers should have been spiritually mature, but they were weak.  They should have been eating spiritual meat and teaching God’s truths, but they were still on the milk. They didn’t understand teachings on righteousness and couldn’t distinguish good from evil. That is an important challenge for all believers - study the Word so you will be mature.  As I am writing this my thoughts go to so many people in churches who have not really studied the Bible and can’t use it to understand right and wrong.  Millions need to put down the remote and get to Sunday School and Bible Study.

3.  How can I help someone?
    I can help people see the need of really studying the Bible.  So many think that once they get saved, and go to church, that is good enough.  We really need to become students of God’s revealed word so we can apply it to life.  Many things that are happening in churches and in the world would not be happening if people really studied the Bible.