Day 49 Rest

Monday September 10

 See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.  But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.  We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.  As has just been said:

"Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion."

Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt?  And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed?  So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.

Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.  For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.   Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said,

"So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.'"

And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: "And on the seventh day God rested from all his work."  And again in the passage above he says, "They shall never enter my rest."

It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience. Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before:

"Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts." 

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day.  There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God;  for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his.  Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.  Hebrews 3:12-4:11

Today, like the children of Israel long ago, we are being positioned by the Lord to enter into the Promised Land.  Entering into rest is key to us being able to obtain our inheritances and possess our promises. 

 

Entering into rest doesn’t mean we no longer do anything; it means we no longer do anything driven by human strength or agenda.  We are completely free to walk in simple obedience to the Lord – doing only what He asks us to do – nothing more, nothing less. 

There is a simple secret to entering into deeper levels of rest: entering into a deeper revelation of the finished work of the Cross of Jesus Christ.  The more we know at the depths of our being that compared to the Cross, all our righteous deeds are like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6) the more easily our hearts will resonate with the heart of Paul: “may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”  (Galatians 6:14)   

Todd Agnew has written an updated version of Amazing Grace, called Grace Like Rain.  A young man has added footage from The Passion of the Christ and posted it on YouTube.  Our whole team was hit to the core watching the video.  We encourage you to watch it and as you do ask yourself:  what more can you possibly do than He has already done?

With much love,

The Consecration Call Team

Grace Like Rain – Todd Agnew

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now I'm found
Was blind but now I see so clearly

Chorus:
Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah, all my stains are washed away, washed away

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed

Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah, all my stains are washed away, washed away

When we've been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun
We've no less days to sing Your praise
Than when we first begun

Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah, all my stains are washed away, washed away