As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
For the Christian Protestant, the moment before salvation comes the true moment of denial, the moment when we discipline ourselves, and choose not a world we were born into, but a Heaven we will be regenerated into.
The Christian's life is filled with discipline, and I do not expound about that mystery, as those who do not belong have already shirked the first word that being a Christian had a standard, a collection of attributes which are an effort, for the Christian yearns for God the way those sentencing themselves to hell lust for sex, indulgence, narcotics, gold, pleasures, profits, power and all the things they trust in which are going to be shattered and removed.
As St, Paul, Inspired by the Holy Ghost writes, God will shake all things in the heavens and the earth, so that only the unshakable will remain.
As I type this, it is November 22nd of the last year, and you will be reading this on March 20th, so these Bible lessons in the Hebrews have spanned immense Biblical upheaval and continuing upheaval as the End Times world is changing.
We have learned in Hebrews from the start that Christ is our High Priest, the Advocate we have with the Fahter Who has completed all for us, and our step is Faith. That Faith though brings the necessity of growth in the discipline of not failing in returning to death and our destruction by rebelling and choosing our human nature, instead of our Spiritual nature.
God has filled the world with examples of the small waxing great in small acorns into might trees, the raindrop into a deluge, the practice at an instrument becoming the professional, the very typing on keyboard which was so slow is now something we do without thinking as it is our nature.
It is to be our nature once we discpline ourselves that we do not return to our profane patterns of foul language, assocating with sinners, making excuses for abomination as sodomy, because they are good people who go to Church. No, an abomination is an abomination to God, and sitting in a pew saying things, does not end the open rebellion of a sinner not removing themselves from sin, but it is desecrating the blood of Christ in trying to get the very things into Heaven which satan was cast out for, in trying to make God do things according to it's will.
We are to discipline ourselves that we are not God, and engage in the blasphemy of "Well I have friends who are in deliberate sins, but they say they are Christian", but that excuses absolutely nothing. Sin is sin. The unrepentent sinner is not disciplined and they will never be in Heaven as the face the White Throne Judgment in Christ stating that, "I never knew you".
So do not delude yourselves. God established the Law to guide us to the pefection of Redemption in the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. We are commanded to hear and obey. We are mandated to care about others. There are not any gray areas in this. Sin is sin and the Salvation of Christ is negated by those who lie to themselves in deceiving themselves that they think they can keep on sinning.
Our God is a Righteous and Holy God, and He accepts only people who are made Right by believing Him and set apart as Holy, because they repented and stopped deliberate sin.
The Chastening of the Lord
12 1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, 6 because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son."[1] 7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? 8 If you are not disciplined-and everyone undergoes discipline-then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. 9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! 10 They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
Warning against Rejecting God's Grace
12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13 "Make level paths for your feet,"[2] so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed. 14 Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. 16 See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. 17 Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done.
18 You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; 19 to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, 20 because they could not bear what was commanded: "If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death."[3] 21 The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, "I am trembling with fear."[4] 22 But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, 23 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. 25 See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? 26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, "Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens."[5] 27 The words "once more" indicate the removing of what can be shaken-that is, created things-so that what cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our "God is a consuming fire.
The Christian is an occupation, a Way of Life. It is not a religion or something which is tried on like clothes and hung up for only holidays.
Ours is a mandate to grow in the Perfection of the Lord, to be Perfect as our Father in Heaven is Perfect. That is discipline. That is what this life is, for either you are putting in your effort to be not what God commands which most people are willing expending themselves as, or they are the Protestant Christian disciplined as the few chosen of the many, in being saved in the Promise of the Lord Christ, growing ever more Spiritual in disciplining ourselves.
Nuff Said
