Saturday, July 4, 2026

Opening Scripture

Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.

Today, if only you would hear his voice, “Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested me; they tried me, though they had seen what I did. For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.’ So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’” Psalm 95

Opening Prayer

Gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for rest and the promise of a new day. I praise You for Your loving kindness, Your thoughtful provision, and Your comforting presence. Help my hope and security be in You today, not in what I do, or what I have, or what others think. May Your Spirit guide me in the way I should go. Help me to appreciate Your blessings and see You at work around me. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Daily Bible Reading

Hebrews 3:7-19

So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did. That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’”

See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.”

Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.

Reflection  

In today’s passage, the writer offers his second stern warning about the danger of “drifting away” from God. This one is more detailed and extensive than the first. The basic text for his admonition is our Opening Scripture in Psalm 95.

To drive home the call for continued faithfulness by his Jewish listeners, the writer invokes the epic failure of the Israelites in Numbers 14, which resulted in their forty-year wandering in the wilderness. That whole generation, who fled from Egypt and then rebelled against God, died in the desert.

Recall that, after the Exodus, the LORD told Moses to send twelve spies into the “Promised Land” of Canaan – one man from each tribe – to study the produce and the people there. After forty days of exploring, the spies returned to give their report. They showed off the beautiful fruit they collected and confirmed that the land “flowed with milk and honey.”

But ten of spies said, “The people are powerful and the cities are fortified. We looked like grasshoppers compared to them. We can’t defeat and take the land from them.” They spread a “bad report” among the Israelites.

Only Joshua and Caleb trusted God and told the people to remain faithful and take possession of the land. “The LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them!” But the Israelites had lost faith. They wanted to stone them, choose a new leader, and go back to Egypt. That’s when God’s judgment fell on them.

The writer of Hebrews was concerned that some of his listeners – like the Israelites in Numbers 14 – might have lost faith and developed “a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.” He warned them sternly to resist being “hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.”

In yesterday’s passage, he said, “Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.” Today, he says, “We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.”

It is not how you start, but how you finish that matters.

Flourishing Habit

Flourishing Christians

Followers of Jesus have received a “heavenly calling” to be “holy partners” with Jesus, “our apostle and high priest.” We are “God’s house” over which Jesus is the faithful Son. Our call to be disciples of Jesus is both a privilege and a responsibility.

That’s why Paul repeatedly emphasizes the importance of a Christian’s “walk” (peripateó). He urges his listeners to “live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” Paul’s life mission is summed up in his statement, “One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

Paul told the Christians in Thessalonica, “He has chosen you.” He later urges them to “live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.”  That divine “calling” produces the conviction, confidence, courage, and boldness that the New Testament writers talk so much about.

We are called by the Lord Jesus Himself to be His disciples. “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness” (1 Peter 1:3).

Our participation in the Body of Christ as loyal subjects to King Jesus supersedes and contextualizes everything else in life. Jesus is worthy of our utmost loyalty and devotion. He has won the victory over sin and death. He has secured our salvation. He offers us full citizenship and abundant life in His kingdom. He alone is the focus of our worship and praise.

Jesus is our Pioneer. He is our Champion. He is our Captain. He is the Hero of our story. And He has chosen you!

How can we ignore so great a salvation?

Remember: Nothing changes until something changes!