By Faith

A series on the book of Hebrews:
Heroes of faith
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Hebrews 11:1-12:3 

[When you first start to follow Christ, often it’s done with great excitement. It’s like falling in love when all you can think about is the other person, and you want to tell everyone you know. But then the day-to-day pressures of living can push out those feelings and dull your enthusiasm. In this series, we will look at how the author of Hebrews tried to counteract falling out of love with Jesus.]

  

In 2010, Michigan State had a really good football team. Their regular season record was 11-1, and they were the Big Ten Champions. As a result, the Spartans were invited to the Capital One Bowl game in Orlando on New Years Day.

 

My wife and I decided to go to the bowl game, along with my brother, his wife, their son (all big Spartan fans) and one of my sisters. 

By faith, we bought tickets for the game, tickets for our flight and reserved a hotel room. We hoped and believed that the Spartans would be victorious.

 

Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians who were struggling. They had been severely persecuted. As a result, they were beginning to lose hope that Jesus would return. It was so bad that they were losing their faith. 

They needed encouragement. They needed to see the big picture. They needed to see God’s faithfulness at work.

 

The author of Hebrews begins chapter 11 by defining faith in terms of hope for an unseen reward.

 

¹ To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see. ² It was by their faith that people of ancient times won God's approval.            GNT

 

In this chapter, the writer mentions a number of Old Testament people who had acted “by faith” under difficult circumstances and gained God’s approval. Noah had built a boat in the middle of dry land. Abraham had left his home for a land unseen. Moses led the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt.

 

And yet, we read that they never saw what they had hoped for. They never received God’s promise. They were living with delayed gratification… by faith.

 

¹³ All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.  NIV

 

With the bowl game, like these Old Testament Jews, even though we had acted by faith, we didn’t receive what we had hoped for – a Spartan victory. But we still had hope because there was always next season. The Israelites had an even better hope!

 

¹⁶ But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.                   NLT

 

Following chapter 11, the writer begins his conclusion using the word “therefore”. This means that what was to follow was the whole reason why he had written about all those Old Testament people. Here’s what he wrote.

 

¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, ^2a fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.    NIV

 

Like the writer did in chapter 10, he gave them a “to do” list beginning with the two-letter phrase “let us”. He encouraged them to “throw off everything that hinders”; to “run with perseverance”; and to “fix your eyes on Jesus”.

 

This was good advice for Christians struggling in the first century. It’s also good advice for Christians struggling in the twenty-first century! 

We don’t always get what we hope for. But if we live by faith, God will be pleased with us and one day say, “Well done my good and faithful servant”.

 

Copyright 2025 Joseph B Williams

Feel free to share this blog with others.

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

 

Whatever it Takes

A series on the book of Hebrews:
A call to faith and perseverance
 (Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Hebrews 10:19-39 

[When you first start to follow Christ, often it’s done with great excitement. It’s like falling in love when all you can think about is the other person, and you want to tell everyone you know. But then the day-to-day pressures of living can push out those feelings and dull your enthusiasm. In this series, we will look at how the author of Hebrews tried to counteract falling out of love with Jesus.]

  

There are lots of ways to motivate people. When I was in high school, we had an assistant football coach who was 6 foot 8 inches and probably weighed about 300 pounds. During one of our half-times, he was yelling at us as he pounded on his clipboard until it shattered in two. After that, we were motivated!

 

There were many times during the history of Israel that nothing seemed to motivate them to follow God. One such occasion was when Moses was handing over the leadership to Joshua just before Israel was to enter the Promised Land.

 

The Lord told Moses that once Israel entered Canaan, they would reject him by turning to other gods. Following this, the Lord spoke these words of judgement to Israel through Moses.

 

³⁵ I will take revenge; I will pay them back.
    In due time their feet will slip.
Their day of disaster will arrive,
    and their destiny will overtake them.’          NLT

 

Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians who were considering rejecting their faith. The writer quoted the above verse from Deuteronomy to motivate them. He also reminded them how faithful they had been in the past. Even in the face of terrible suffering, they had willingly followed Christ while helping other believers.

 

With such pain and persecution in their life, it’s not surprising that they had doubts. They had lost patience in the promise that Jesus would return. Their hope in him had waned. In response, the author quoted from Habakkuk to encourage them to not give up hope, but to persevere and wait patiently.

 

³ This vision is for a future time. It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled.
If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed.         NLT

 

The writer also reminded the Hebrews about the benefits of keeping the faith.

 

¹⁹ And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. ²⁰ By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place.            NLT’

 

The promise of being able to enter into the presence of the Living God, was to motivate them to faith in action. With that in mind, the writer gave them a “to do” list starting with “let us”.

 

^22a let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. ²³ Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. ²⁴ Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. ²⁵ And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.  NLT

 

My high school coach motivated us by intimidation, fear and the desire to take it out on the other team. The writer of Hebrews used many different methods to motivate the believers, including to remind them about the promises of God, his faithfulness and encouraging them to persevere in their faith.

 

What motivates you to keep following Christ? Is it the promise of his return; the threat of consequences; the encouragement of fellow believers; the faithfulness and love of God; the presence of God through prayer?

 

Whatever it is… do whatever it takes to stay motivated.

 

Copyright 2025 Joseph B Williams

Feel free to share this blog with others.

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

 

 

An Anchor for the Soul

A series on the book of Hebrews:
A call to maturity and hope
 (Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Hebrews 5:11-6:20 

[When you first start to follow Christ, often it’s done with great excitement. It’s like falling in love when all you can think about is the other person, and you want to tell everyone you know. But then the day-to-day pressures of living can push out those feelings and dull your enthusiasm. In this series, we will look at how the author of Hebrews tried to counteract falling out of love with Jesus.]

  

In 2016, I went deep sea fishing off the coast of North Carolina with some family members. We left the dock at sunrise. It was a calm, beautiful start to the day. Leaving the harbor, we headed out to sea – twenty-five miles out to sea!

 

The ocean became a series of nonstop rolling waves… one after the other. Riding the crest of one wave, our boat would go airborne and slam into the next one. The pounding of wave after wave was endless. My stomach began to churn. By the time we stopped, I was in no condition to go fishing.

 

So far, in our study of Hebrews, the writer has shown how Jesus is greater than the prophets, the angels and Moses. In chapter four he introduced the topic of Jesus as the perfect high priest, “in the order of Melchizedek”.

 

He wanted to write more in depth about this, but couldn’t. He couldn’t because he concluded that his readers wouldn’t understand. And they wouldn’t understand because they were spiritually immature. In fact, he compared them to a baby who drinks milk when they should be eating solid food.

 

At this point, he gave them a severe warning.

 

⁴ For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, ⁵ who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come— ⁶ and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame.     NLT

 

These were harsh, judgmental words. But there was hope! Not only for those Jewish Christians who were considering rejecting their faith, but also for us today. Maybe we don’t explicitly reject Christ; but implicitly, by our actions, we do. However, God is steadfast and faithful. And because of this, there is hope!

 

¹⁸ So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us.  NLT

 

Those who have taken hold of his hope “may be greatly encouraged”. In fact, Jesus offers us a new hope because he’s entered the very presence of the Living God; he’s entered the Holy of Holies. And he’s done this so that we also might follow him into the presence of our Heavenly Father.

¹⁹ We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, ²⁰ where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.          NIV

 

I’m not sure that an anchor would have helped me to deal with those rolling waves off the coast of North Carolina. However, like an anchor, the hope we find in Jesus gives us stability during the turbulent waters of life.

 

Copyright 2025 Joseph B Williams

Feel free to share this blog with others.

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

Endlessly Rolling Waves

Series on “I am Joe’s Favorite Verses”
James 1:2-4
 (Click on the link below to read the verses.)
James 1:1-18 

[Many years ago, there used to be articles in the Reader’s Digest titled “I am Joe’s ___” with the blank being filled with a body part or organ. Over the years, I’ve written down verses that are meaningful to me on 3x5 cards. In this series we’ll be looking at some of my favorite verses. In other words, “I am Joe’s Favorite Verses”.]

 

 

In 2016, my family met in Wrightsville Beach, NC to celebrate my oldest sister’s 50^th wedding anniversary. One morning, some of us got up early to go deep sea fishing. As we left the docking area the sun began to rise. It was a beautiful day; so calm and peaceful. But that would soon change.

 

The captain picked up speed as we headed into the open sea. He kept going and going until we couldn’t see any land. Then he maintained a high speed in the open sea even when we kept crashing into the endlessly rolling waves. After about thirty minutes of that, I lost my breakfast and anything else that was in my stomach.

 

Life can be like those endlessly rolling waves. You feel like things are out of control. You’re tossed from one wave to another. And with no land in sight, there’s nothing firm for you to hold onto. So, you just hang on for dear life.

 

Following the stoning of Stephen, “a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem”. People were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. No doubt, they may have felt like they were being tossed around by endlessly rolling waves.

Many years later, James wrote his letter to those Jewish Christians.

 

² Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, ³ for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. ⁴ And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.   ESV

 

In other words, instead of avoiding trials and testing of your faith, James said to embrace them. For him, it was a matter of perspective. That is, taking a vertical perspective on life, not a horizontal one. Try to look up to see what God is doing.

 

Paul, who originally was a primary cause of the persecution against the church in Jerusalem, after his conversion, put it like this in his letter to the church in Rome.

 

³ We can rejoice, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. ⁴ And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. ⁵ And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.    NLT

 

The ESV translates the last phrase of verse 5 as “God's love has been poured into our hearts”. I like the visual of that. The picture of God opening my heart to pour his love into it, is beyond my comprehension.

 

During those times when the Jewish Christians felt like they were being tossed about by the endlessly rolling waves, James advised them to simply pray. That they ask God, not just for knowledge, but for wisdom. Wisdom that would be proven “by living an honorable life, doing good works with humility”.

 

Faith works! It works when we’re tested. It works when we pray. It works when our lives reflect His hope, love and wisdom.

 

Copyright 2025 Joseph B Williams

Feel free to share this blog with others.

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

Keep Going and Going and Going

A series on Isaiah 9:6 – The Child of Prophecy
 – Everlasting Father
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Isaiah 40:1-11; 28-31 

[Jesus was a child of prophecy. The Christmas story in the Bible was predicted in many Old Testament prophecies but the centerpiece of these is Isaiah 9:6. It was written nearly six hundred years before Jesus’ birth. In this series we’re going to look at the meaning and implications of this amazing prophecy.]

 

The Energizer Bunny has been around since 1989. You know the commercials! The ones with the toy bunny that runs on an Energizer battery and is beating a drum. Then the narrator says: “Nothing outlasts the Energizer battery. It keeps going and going and going.”

 

In a world where nothing seems to last – marriages and jobs for instance – it would be nice to have something that you could count on. Something that would last forever.

 

Isaiah lived in a time when the world was unstable. Nothing lasted! The people that God had called as His own, had divided into two nations – Israel and Judah. Unable to reconcile, there was bad blood between the two.

 

In addition, Assyria was aggressively invading the nations of the known world. They were a very real threat to Judah and Jerusalem. Many Jews would be captured and others forcibly exiled to a foreign land. Nothing seemed to last forever.

 

However, during this time of uncertainty, Isaiah spoke these words about an Everlasting Father.

 

⁶ For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given,
    and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
    Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.             NIV    Isaiah 9

 

Later, in Isaiah 40, he spoke about the comfort that God would bring to his people. He painted a picture of “preparing the way” for a king who would return to Jerusalem! He described how people are like grass which will wither, but that “the word of our God endures forever”! Finally, he declared how the people of Jerusalem would shout, “Your God is coming!”

 

The Energizer bunny keeps going and going and going. If only life were so simple. But life can be hectic, if not chaotic. Life can be out of control, despite our best efforts to control it. Life can be painful, even though we try to avoid pain.

 

Thankfully, our God, is a God who comforts us in those chaotic, out of control and painful times. To make this point, Isaiah used a shepherd as an example.

 

¹¹ He will feed his flock like a shepherd.
    He will carry the lambs in his arms,
holding them close to his heart.
    He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young.  NLT

 

Jesus embraced the imagery of being a shepherd. But for him, it wasn’t just imagery, it was who he was and what he came to accomplish. Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep”. 

 

When we experience the comfort of the “good shepherd”, he gives us hope and strength to keep going and going and going.

³¹ but those who hope in the Lord
    will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
    they will run and not grow weary,
    they will walk and not be faint. NIV

 

Copyright 2025 Joseph B Williams

Feel free to share this blog with others.

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

A Cloud of Dust

A Series on Living in the Wilderness
The sinful woman
 (Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Luke 7:36-50 

[In this series we’ll be looking at people who lived in the wilderness of life. In fact, there are times when we all feel like we are living in the wilderness. During those times, it’s important to remember that the Lord is faithful, that He loves you and is always with you.]

  

One of the most popular characters in the cartoon strip Peanuts is Pig-Pen. A cloud of dust surrounds him everywhere he goes and he’s always dirty. Referred to as a “human dustbowl”, he could turn a white snowman into a dirty snowman.

 

Pig-Pen accepted the fact that he was dirty. Even when he tried, he couldn’t stay clean. Once, after bathing and dressing in clean clothes, he stepped outside and instantaneously became dirty. He then declared to Charlie Brown, "You know what I am? I'm a dust magnet!" 

 

In the story today, there are three main characters. A Pharisee who, following synagogue, invited the rising star rabbi for a banquet at his home. Jesus, who is the up and coming rabbi. And an uninvited guest… the sinful woman.

 

In this culture, women were expected to be married. And if you were married, it was expected that you wore a head covering to show not only that you weren’t available, but also that you were virtuous. If you didn’t wear a head covering, you were subject to speculation, gossip and likely considered promiscuous.

 

In the case of the sinful woman, who didn’t wear a head covering, she already had a well-known reputation for being immoral. When she knelt at Jesus’ feet, weeping and then drying his feet with her hair and anointing them with expensive perfume, the Pharisee judged them both.

 

³⁹ When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. She’s a sinner!”           NLT

 

Like Pig-Pen, she was an outcast whose dirty reputation both preceded and followed her. Both of them lived in a wilderness of dust.

 

But the sinful woman had heard Jesus speak. She had heard his words of love and healing. His words of forgiveness and cleansing. His words of defiance against the religious establishment.

 

Because of this, she found the courage to break social norms. To not only walk into a banquet that she wasn’t invited to, nor wanted, but also to kneel at Jesus’ feet with unbridled emotion and touch him.

 

She looked in the mirror and saw her dust and wanted to change. She probably had wanted to change before, but now she believed it was possible because of the rabbi. By faith, she acted on her newfound hope in Jesus. The result was life changing.

 

⁴⁸ Then Jesus said to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.”  ^50b “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” NLT

 

Notice that Jesus never referred to her as the sinful woman. With his words of freedom, you can visualize the cloud of dust falling to her feet and disappearing. He has taken her out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land.

 

Copyright 2024 Joseph B Williams

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

Hand Me Down World

A Series on Advent
The five women in Matthew’s genealogy: Tamar
 (Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Genesis 38 

[In Matthew’s genealogy of “Jesus the Messiah, the son of David”, five women are named. All of them were in some sense outsiders. This was true not only because they were women, but for other reasons also. This Advent series we will be looking at these five women to gain a better understanding of our loving Heavenly Father who sent his son as a baby to live on earth. He was God incarnate.]

  

In 1970, the musical group The Guess Who released a hit song by the title of “Hand Me Down World”. It was written to raise social awareness during a time of turbulence. Here’s the chorus.

 

Don't give me no hand me down shoes
Don't give me no hand me down love
Don't give me no hand me down world
I got one already

 

Tamar knew what it was like to live in a hand me down world. In fact, you could say that she was the personification of a hand me down world. Her story is quite bizarre by today’s standards, but that wasn’t totally true at the time.

 

In antiquity, they had a custom known as “Levirate marriage”. This is where if a husband dies, then his brother is to marry his wife. By doing so, it keeps the family line intact and preserves the inheritance. It also protects the widow from having to sell herself to pay off any debt.

Tamar was married to the oldest son of Judah. When he died, Judah had his second oldest son marry her. But then he also died. Judah had a third son, but he sent Tamar to live with her father as a widow until that son grew up. Privately though, Judah feared that his son would die just like his brothers if he married Tamar.

 

According to the Jewish Women’s Archive, a national non-profit organization, there was a custom at the time where if a man had no son over ten years old, he could fulfill the Levirate marriage obligation instead of his son. This means that if Judah had wanted to do so, he could have married Tamar. But he didn’t.

 

Whatever Tamar’s motivation was, she laid a trap for Judah pretending to be a prostitute. As a result, she became pregnant. When Judah was confronted with the truth that he was the father, he responded in humility.

 

^26a Judah said, “She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.”                   NIV

 

From this pregnancy, Tamar had twin sons, and along with Judah, all four are mentioned in the genealogy of “Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham”.

 

Does it seem strange to you that such a story would be included in Jesus’ genealogy? How could people like this be a part of God’s glorious plan? The same question could be asked of all of us.

 

It certainly was a hand me down world for Tamar. In fact, we still live in a hand me down world today. Thankfully though Jesus, the Son of God, entered our world changing things forever.

 

Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us’, brought hope for Tamar… and brings hope for us today.

 

Copyright 2023 Joseph B Williams

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com