Today’s passage is Hebrews 2:1-9. Apollo says we must attend to the word and lessons we have heard so we do not drift away because we will not escape punishment if we ignore the salvation offered by Jesus. Although God made the world to come subject to us, we don’t see it, but we do see Jesus.
How far do you drift from the Lord? Do you fear punishment for your sins?
Today is my daughter Tess’s birthday. Her mother gave her a phone so I could wish her happy birthday without having to go through her mother.
She was a little shy talking, especially to my wife, who she grew to love when she was here. In the few short months that she’s been back in her home in America, she has drifted far from me.
This has surprised me because of how close she was to me and my wife while she was here. It made me reflect on our relationship and mine with God.
When my daughter was here, I was hopeful of her meeting Jesus and being baptized. It didn’t happen.
My efforts for her culminated in my second baptism (my first was as a baby).
In preaching the gospel to my daughter, I realized how much I needed the official confirmation of my faith in the salvation of Jesus.
Without that baptism, I was drifting near the dock of salvation but not tied to it.
Now I am.
My baptism gave me a new confidence in the Lord and the faith he grew in me.
I have security of salvation.
I live in the confidence of Jesus’ death payment and his resurrection that leads the way to the new world God has made subject to me (5).
But always lurking in the back of my mind is my awareness of myself as a total sinner, perpetually undermined by original sin, that inclination to go the wrong way, choose the wrong thing and embrace the wrong moment.
Although I am tied to Christ--praise God!--always I feel the tug to drift.
And I worry about my daughter’s drifting, praying daily for her to meet Jesus and pull away from her drift towards Hell.
Application: continue with QT, review Pastor Kim’s sermons throughout the week, and pray for my daughter’s salvation.
Lord, keep me tethered to you, never let me go, remind me daily of your love.
