In the world of mining, it’s often the deepest mines in the most challenging places that yield the richest treasure.  And sometimes it’s like that with the Word of God.  Sometimes the places where we have to do the most digging and work the hardest give us some of the greatest spiritual reward.  The Book of Hebrews is one such place.  It is full of treasure, but one needs to rolls up one’s sleeves and do some hard work digging to understand its message. 

Prayer can be a challenging undertaking. It’s hard to set aside the time, focus our minds, and still our hearts. It’s hard to know how to pray. We can always pray for urgent needs related to health or finances. But apart from those, what should be our regular priorities in prayer – for ourselves and for one another? It’s so easy to descend into bland generalities when we pray (e.g. “bless” so and so). On one level, this is perfectly fine. It’s not wrong. But this can feel shallow. Where can we learn about prayer as God intended it?

James addresses his letter to “the twelve tribes in the Dispersion”. It could be that he is writing to a group of Jewish believers who have been scattered beyond their homeland of Palestine. Or he could be speaking more broadly of a mixed group of believers – Jew and Gentile – scattered in the world. In either case, he emphasizes a key truth about their situation: they are away from home, scattered, isolated, and probably feeling vulnerable. These believers are under pressure and facing trials. The situation for Christians today is not too different—they too are scattered in the world, conscious of being away from their spiritual homeland, and facing pressure or opposition.

The connection between gospel and godliness – truth and transformation – is one of the central themes of the book of Titus. Paul opens his letter with it in verse 1: “…the knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness”. Then, Paul comes back to this theme to reinforce it in Titus 3:8: “The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.” Paul wants his readers in Crete to understand that the truth of the gospel always leads to life change. The Christians in Crete needed to hear about life transformation because they were living in a pretty toxic culture.

Paul makes this urgent plea: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (Gal. 5:1) This plea is relevant today because, despite the passage of time and the changes of culture, the human heart remains susceptible to the subtle lie that our salvation depends upon our own moral and religious record (and not upon Jesus alone).