August 01, 2025 | Be God's Family
An Insider to the Outsiders
Scripture: Hebrews 13:11-14(NIV)
11 The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. 12 And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. 13 Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. 14 For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.
Devotional
Almost everybody has experienced being an outsider at some point in life. You moved into a new neighborhood. You started attending a new school. You took a different job. You relocated to a new city. You walked into a new church. Every one of those is filled with insiders who say, “We’re a welcoming neighborhood, a fun school, a collegial workplace, an attractive city, a friendly church.” True. Except to the outsiders.
Today’s passage tells us to go outside the camp, outside our comfort zone, away from our safety net, beyond our inner circle. Why? Because that’s where Jesus went in life and in death. Jesus went to the least, that last, and the lost. Jesus went to women alone at a well, isolated by their life choices, and abandoned by society. Jesus went to men who were alienated by their job choices, forgotten by their families, and detached because of their diseases. And Jesus was crucified outside the city of Jerusalem for our sins.
There, among the outsiders, is where we will see the kingdom of God. We’ll find faith on the fringes. We’ll discover wealth among the poor. We’ll experience the city of God outside the city of man.
Take a piece of paper and draw a small circle in the middle with the word “ME” inside it. Then draw several more concentric circles, each larger than the last. Label each one, with those closest to the center being those closest to you. Family. Friends. Church. Draw more circles. Neighbors. Classmates. Coworkers. Draw some more circles. Acquaintances. Waitresses. Strangers. Draw a few more.
How will you label those outside the last circle? What would Jesus do? What would Jesus have you do?
Poem
There Are No Words
Psalm 68
There are no words to speak of God
Who’s power’s beyond all knowing
Who’s genius we cannot afford
Who’s grace to us all showing
There are no words to speak God’s force
Who fights and shields me always
Who all provides, who all creates
Who breathes new life displaying
There are no word to speak God’s love
Who not only created
But sacrificed Himself for me
And in me lives, inhabits
There are no words—for when we speak
Our words are small and limit
The majesty, humility
The breadth, the width, the summit
And yet, my God calls forth my words
To offer praise and blessing
Which shatters mountains, heals the earth
His love by me expressing
