May 21, 2025 | Be God's Family
Walk Away, and Keep Walking
Scripture: Hebrews 6:4-6(NIV)
4 It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age 6 and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.
Devotional
I have a sweet tooth. I love dessert. Cookies and ice cream are my kryptonite. I have never met a cookie I didn’t like or that I have said no to. I would even describe ice cream and cookies as a heavenly gift.
God’s word is also like that cookie. Have we heard that once you have experienced it, you can’t stay away. It’s like the words to one of my favorite hymns from childhood Pass It On. “That’s how it is with God’s love, once you’ve experienced it, you spread God’s love to everyone.”
But if you do stray, you can never return. You can never be brought back to repentance.
What?!? Haven’t we been taught that once we receive God’s salvation we are good to go? We all had “low points” where we are closer to God and also times we are further from God? Life is tough and we stray, sometimes we are not as close to God as other times. When we have a low point, can we really never return?
No, true Christians do not lose their salvation. True Christians have accepted salvation. God does not abandon them. When I have my “low points”, I remind myself that I may be a little “lost” but God has not lost me.
These verses are meant for, lack of a better term, “observational” Christians. Christians who are shallow in their faith. These “Christians” have talked the talk but never really walked the walk. They appear to be Christian – at church every week, observed other’s Christianity but never internally accepted Christ. They have listened to the Word but they have not really heard it.
As 2 Peter 2:21 states “It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.”
Accepting God’s word and his salvation is eating that heavenly cookie. Sharing in the Holy Spirit helps solidify our faith. Our salvation is eternally secure.
What are you? True Christian or an “observational” Christian?
Poem
Don't Look Back!
Psalm 119:129-136
Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me. Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed.
Psalm 119: 133, 136
Once you’ve been rescued
From Sodom and Gomorrah’s
Fire and brimstone
Once you are freed
From prison’s
Dungeon of abuse
Once you are running
From terror’s
Threat and annihilation
No tears for the old rags!
Don’t look back!
Don’t return to the vomit!
