New beginning

Since I finished my Philippians study, I had to start to plan what book of the Bible I would go through next. As I trucked it across campus (aka a 30 second walk) to the new student center, I was pretty excited to get out of the office and spend some time with the Lord OUTSIDE. I started flipping through the pages and realized that I hadn't read through Hebrews since my mission trip to Macedonia about- gosh 5 years ago now?! So I started reading. The little summary that the wonderful editors of my ESV Bible included said that Hebrews was written "to encourage people during a trial. The author did this by focusing on the supremacy and sufficiency of Christ." So basically focusing on who Jesus is and what He did for us on the cross should be an encouragement- enough so to get me through some tough times. After reading through Chapter 1 Jesus had a pretty impressive resume about being the

• heir of all things
• creating the world
• upholding the universe by the power of His word
• making purification of our sins
• never changing
• creating the heavens out of His hands
• and many other things.

Obviously the author of Hebrews was trying to show the people of his time that Jesus was not just ANY other person- He was the Son of God. This morning I was listening to a "Truth for Life" podcast by Allistair Begg and he mentioned how when Jesus was on trial, Pontius Pilate asked Jesus "Do you know who I am? I have the authority to release you and authority to crucify you." I almost stopped my car. Did Pontius Pilate seriously give Jesus attitude by asking if "He knew who HE was?" Hello! Did he know who he was talking to?! That list above- that's who Jesus was!

As a side note, I always tell people that I struggle with relating to the "wicked people" in the Bible. I always look at people like the Pharisees and pretend I'm next to Jesus saying " you tell 'em!" When in reality Jesus is looking over at me wondering who's side I'm actually on. Wellll God's been great in showing me I'm actually much more like the Pharisees than I think I am. Definitely a humbling feeling. This is how I was with Pilate this morning- thinking I would never ask Jesus "do you know who I am?" Well, the more I thought about it... the more I realized I have. Even just recently with our car situation. Most of you know that we have this plan to pay off our debt, and now getting a new car is definitely going to set us back a couple months. And, I have to admit that when I realized how much it would set us back, I prayed to God saying "Don't you know the plan? Haven't you seen how close we are and what Dan and I have been doing?"

So, in conclusion, during this "debt trial" I need to remember who Jesus is. If He's holding the universe by His power, I think He's got our "debt timeline" under control. I'm encouraged already :)