GRINDIT podcast

How can this be? There were two people asking that same question seperating by three months. An angel comes to Mary, a virgin, a tells her she was going to have a baby and he would be the Savior of the world. She takes off to visit her relative, Elizabeth, for threee months and during that time, she begins to show. She comes home to see her soon-to-be-husband, Joseph, and he notices some changes i...

Most people skip right over the first part of Matthew 1 because it’s a boring genealogy, however, if one would take a closer look, they would discover that it isn’t boring at all. In fact, it is packed with a lot of great information that can be encouraging to us. For example, look at all the people God used to usher Jesus, the Messiah, into the world. They aren’t perfect at all, in fact, every on...

We come to the end of this study on the book of Hebrews. I hope and pray you have been encouraged from it and as we dig into the author’s last words of this letter, I hope they ring loud and clear, “Look to Jesus, stick with Jesus, and continue to follow Jesus no matter what comes your way!” We must remember, whether we realize it or not, we are leaders! Someone is watching our every move to see h...

The author encourages his readers by telling them we are receiving an unshakable kingdom and since we are receiving this unshakable kingdom, there are some things we need to do. In this episode we cover some of those things he says to do such as: 1) love one another as brothers and sisters in Christ, 2) show hospitality to strangers, 3) remember those in prison, 4) remember those who are being mis...

As the author is wrapping up chapter 12, he tells them there are some things they need to do on their journey to heaven as they endure to cross that finish line and it involves a four-letter word we do not like: WORK! He tells them to work on two things: 1) work at living in peace with everyone, 2) and work at living holy. Then he gives them, and us, a recipe on how to live a faithful life: Be tha...

This part of Hebrews is tough for many people including myself. The author is going to discuss something no one likes to talk about and that is God disciplining us. People think of God as someone who is going to strike us down with lightning because we have done something wrong but that is a wrong impression of God. The author tells us God disciplines us because He loves us and if He doesn’t disci...

The author of Hebrews has given a bunch of examples of people who walked by faith, who had promises from God and they trusted that God would be faithful and come through on His promises. By faith they knew His promises were a reality and they had evidence, even though they couldn’t see it with their eyes. He starts off chapter 12 with a sports analogy when he compares our walk with God to a race a...

The author of Hebrews is trying to encourage his Jewish readers to stick with Jesus because they are discouraged from being persecuted and some have already chosen to go back to Judaism, an obsolete religion, because Jesus established a new and better covenant by laying down his life as a once and for all sacrifice. He started chapter 11 off by talking about what faith is and, being a Jewish audie...

Hebrews 11 is known as the “Faith” chapter because of all the people who did things by faith but it is way deeper than that. The author has a reason for bringing up all these people who did things by “faith.” They had a hope, they had a promise, they were looking forward to something far greater. They were looking for heaven, to be with God, to have an intimate relationship with Him and to spend e...

When God made Adam, He said, “It is not good for man to be alone,” and then He created Eve. Why? Because God knew man needed community. Too many people try to isolate themselves and it is not healthy at all, which I believe is a reason why so many people give up on life. The author of Hebrews encourages his readers to continue to be a part of community. Why? Because when we are with other people o...

When you were a kid and your parents were teaching you how to fly a kite, did they say, “Hold on tight and don’t let go!”?!? Why did they say that? Because if we let go of the string, the kite will either come crashing to the ground, get caught in a tree, or even worse, fly away and we risk losing the kite! The author is going to lay the hammer down on his readers in chapter 10. It starts off repe...

Millions of animals were sacrificed under the old covenant and yet not even all the blood from those sacrifices pooled together could forgive one sin! It was all a ceremony cleansing but the blood of Jesus is so powerful that it cleanses our sins, purifies our conscience so we can worship God, and it sets us free! That is why the author of Hebrews is saying to his audience, “Jesus is better!” He i...

In Hebrews 9 the author starts talking about how the new covenant is better than the old covenant. He begins by describing the tabernacle, how the Holy Place was separated from the Holiest of Holies and the furniture that was included in each room. There was a thick curtain that separated man from God, but also, the people were separated from God and had to have a priest intercede on their behalf!...

The author gets down to the nitty gritty and says, “This is my main point” and he goes on to say not only is Jesus better than angels, Moses, the law, a better High Priest, but this new covenant he established by his blood that was shed, is better than the old covenant. In fact, the author is so bold to say, “The old covenant is now obsolete!” When he is writing this letter, the Temple is still st...

Jesus is better...that is what the author of Hebrews is explaining to the Jewish Christians who are going back to Judaism after suffering some persecution. Jesus is better than angels, he is better than Moses, he is better than the law or any earthly priest, which is his point in Chapter 7. The earthly priests had weaknesses, they were sinners, therefore they had to make sacrifices for themselves...

To show the Jewish Christians whose faith is fading because of persecution that they can trust God, the author uses somebody they would be very familiar with and would respect greatly—Abraham. He tells his readers that God gave many promises to Abraham and He made an oath to Himself to keep those promises. Abraham, by faith, was obedient and God kept His promises to Abraham, therefore, they can tr...

The author has laid the foundation that Jesus is better and that he is our High Priest and he tells his readers it is time to get off the milk and move on to the meat, the solid foods. Then he gives them a stern warning about turning away from God. These Jewish Christians were being persecuted to some degree and their faith was fading, they were going back to Judaism and the author warns them if t...

In chapter 5 the author continues with the theme of Jesus being our High Priest. After saying Jesus was chosen by God to be our High Priest, he goes on to tell his audience that God knows what they are dealing with and what they are experiencing in life, therefore they should not lose confidence in Jesus and keep the faith! He goes into detail how Jesus was human and was tempted and suffered perse...

What has happened in your life that was so bad that you lost your confidence in God? We see this every day in a believer's life. Something bad happens and they get mad at God, blame God for what they are going through, they eventually withdraw from God until they completely shut Him out of their lives! Where does one go when they leave God? What's a better alternative? There's not one and that is...

The book of Hebrews is written to a Jewish audience who has chosen Jesus and have been following him, but persecution is and has taken its toll on some of the believers. They have been in jail, beaten, and have lost all their stuff because they chose to follow Jesus but some of them are struggling with their faith and are giving up. This book is written to encourage them to stay the course and hol...

Moses was chosen by God to lead the Hebrew people out of Egyptian bondage and into a land God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Even though Moses was faithful and did lead the people out, Moses had some flaws. He doubted God and tried to persuade God out of choosing him at first. Then his biggest flaw was not speaking to the rock to get water but instead, out of anger, he struck the rock...

We finish up chapter 2 discussing again that Jesus is better and far greater than the angels because of what he has done for us such as dying for us and making us holy by his blood. Because of his death we can now call God Father and He has adopted us into His family and we are called the children of God and we inherit God’s blessings. And because of Jesus conquering death when he came out of the...

A big thing in our culture is “You have your truth and I have mine,” and what has happened is we have decided what is truth for ourselves. We have decided to do what we want and lie the way we want and to justify it, we make up our own rules and call them “truth.” Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?” when he was questioning him before crucifying him. The truth of the matter is, there is a standard...

Could you imagine seeing an angel? What happens when someone comes into the presence of an angel? They fall on their face! Hebrews 13:2 actually tells us there is a good chance we have seen an angel and didn’t know it! But as cool as that is, Jesus is better. Whatever is going on with the audience, the author of Hebrews wants their readers to know Jesus is better than the angels and he makes his c...

In the Old Testament, we see God speaking to people in many ways. He spoke to them audibly, He used angels to send messages, He spoke through prophets, but in the New Testament, God spoke to people himself clothed in flesh—Jesus. Moses wanted to see God’s glory but God told him he couldn’t see His face or he would die because he was so holy. When Moses had been in the presence of God, he came down...