Coffee Break

Romans 15:5
Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus...

About

A few years ago I started a bible study blog called, "Coffee Break". It was sort of my plan to merge all the different groups of people that I had experienced deep and meaningful conversations with over a cup of coffee in all of the different places. Then when we moved to Calgary, I attended a ladies' bible study there that met every Thursday morning called, "Coffee Break." This group of ladies was so encouraging to me and so full of joy! Especially to a random American who did not even attend the church where the study was hosted.  The old website is still there if you google me, it lies dormant and has not been touched my me in years. But I decided to leave it up because the news feed that I had at the bottom of it still continues to get hits. I thought this would be a good page to post some encouraging things or maybe some verses that have spoke to me recently or some things that have challenged me spiritually. I would LOVE comments and discussion on this page! So please, don't be shy. God is good, life is weird, we are blessed and we are stressed, so lets talk about it!
~CB

March 1, 2011

I felt so honored yesterday when a friend of mine (MA) called me up from another state to ask me to look up a particular passage, and read it and then call her back to discuss it. It was something that she had been thinking about and wanted to know what I thought. So she invited me to ponder it as well. She told me that she did not want to make the scripture mean what she wanted it to mean but that she wanted to try to see it through God's eyes and what he was telling her. Such a good lady!

The passage of scripture is Hebrews 6. Her question and thoughts mainly circled around verses 4-8.  Here is the first part of Hebrews 6:

1 Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,

2 of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
3 And this we will do if God permits.
4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit,
5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,
6 if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.
7 For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God;
8 but if it bears thorns and briars, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned.

You can read the rest of Hebrews 6 here.

This is a hard concept for a book that is written about faith. My first thought was, well,  it seems like if you are trying to live a fruitful life, and you have been saved and you have the Holy Spirit, then it would be hard to fall away if you are still trying to right your wrongs and ask for forgiveness for your weaknesses. But I think if you read down further in Hebrews 6, it talks about the fact that we don't want to become lazy being unfruitful. Which looking into my own life it feels as if I am constantly having to readdress and reevaluate my study and prayer life. And for Earle and I, I think we have to constantly try to reevaluate if we are not doing our part of sharing God's word with our kids and studying on our own. We do go in and out of being lazy with this. The world and life has become a fast paced place. Usually when I come circling into this place I have to pause and create space, and take time to study and pray. Sometimes the routine of study does not come naturally to me. Then there is the whole issue of trying to bring it up to Earle about that we all need to work at this without making him feel like I am accusing him of doing something to hurt our family's faith and leading us on to the path that this scripture is talking about. We have realized more recently that if we need to talk to each other about something like this, rather than blast the other one with it, if we start praying together, it usually sort of fixes the whole thing and point our hearts in the right direction. To me prayer is a really good place to start and commit to on a daily basis if you can. If you are not married, then choose a close friend or relative that is a good accountability partner. We are here to build each other up.
 Can we lose our salvation? I think that God is telling us that we can, not always just by doing something terrible but by letting the numbness and mundanes of life's distractions can take away our desire to be who He wants us to be. But it is not what I think the scripture is saying but what the scripture actually is saying that is the important thing.  I also think that the Holy Spirit plays as our conscience and gives us many jabs and pokes and slaps in the face.  The book of Hebrews is so much about faith. That is why I think that rechecking and pausing is a cycle that we are always going to battle with. This world is not our home. Of course Satan is going to try to trick us into apathy. Obviously I have not gone too deep here. Which is why I am going to give you this link. If you really want to listen to this and pick apart this chapter, here is a class that my father has taught on it. He's a pretty good resource. ;)Wait a minute or two before you play it so the link downloads all the way. Scroll down and click on Hebrews 4A and Hebrews 5A, Dr. Dan Owen. They are each about an hour long but it might be something you could watch 30 minutes or so here and there over the week. He will break it down from a scholarly and biblical viewpoint.

http://globalpreachertraining.com/Preacher_Training_Courses/Middleware_Search.asp?Language=All%20Languages&Keyword=Hebrews&Keyword2=MBS

Thanks MA for giving me something to chew on this week!
~CB