Hebrews: 12:6~13

Hebrews: 12:6~13

6 because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."
 7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?
 8 If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.
 9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live!
 10 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.
 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
 12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees.
 13 "Make level paths for your feet," so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.
After finishing her international study in a school in Tokyo in Japan, a sister planned to attend to a law school in order to become an international lawyer. And she gave a call to a pastor because of economic problem.

 
The sister said she met the pastor in the law school before and she thought the pastor could help her.  The pastor found she was very smart but her life was very difficult. She has a daughter and a son, and his husband took care of their daughter at home since she had a brain disease. Thus their life was very difficult and the sister had to take the economic burden on her arm.

The sister said all their difficulty was because of her sins. Generally, people think it was because of their or their parents’ sins, when they meet difficulties.

Not only Korean people have this kind of mind, but also people mentioned in the bible. According to the Gospel John, chapter 9, the blind asked Jesus what the reason of their blind, whether it was because of their sins or their parents’ sins.
This kind of mind was from the perspective of Deuteronomy in the Old Testament. People who are obedient would be blessed, otherwise would be punished. However, the Jews misunderstood this perspective.

 

The coming of Jesus is to correct the misunderstanding of people to the bible. He said his coming was to make prophets perfect.
The bible is perfectly correct, but some people misunderstood and misinterpreted it.

Thus, it is important for us to find the real meaning of the bible. Correct faith is from correct understanding of the bible. The correct interpret of the difficulties that general people meet in the correct perspective of the bible is also important.

 

When reading the bible, people should understand the true meaning of the bible with revelation promise perspective.

 

The case of the sister that mentioned in the beginning is also misunderstanding of the bible.
Today’s topic is that people should change the perspective to the difficulties. Halleluiah!


The person mentioned in the Hebrews was a Christian who met great difficulties in that period. In that period the Christian Jews got great persecution not only from Judaism but also from the King of Rome.

The difficulties that we meet when living faith life are separated two kinds: one is from inner and the other is from the outside. Today according to the scripture, I would like to talk about and explain the difficulties in the perspective of the bible, so that we could understand God’s plan and the true profit from difficulties.
Hopefully, saints from all over the world here would understand difficulties are the road towards God’s plan and revelation, and give us profits for our faith. And pray that we would become the blessed saints in Jesus name.

Read scripture 10.
Difficulties are not difficulties, but are the path for the saints towards the kingdom of God.

  10 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.
 

Disciplines are to make us share in the God’s holiness. So what’s the holiness?
Ultimately, it is the kingdom of God, and living by the faith as God’s people in accordance with God’s plan, which is also our desire.

We can find a special word from the scripture that “disciplinary”.
 6 because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son
Read the scripture 6. One of the meanings of discipline is training. Inside of discipline there is training. In 2012, there will be Olympic in England and many athletes are training very hard.


For the athletes, it is very tension period for training. And they are fighting with their limitation for the gold medal in the Olympic. At the moment they get gold medal, they would forget the difficulties when they do training.


The noun of discipline is disciple. Disciple means people who get disciplined. There are big difference between people who get disciplined and who do not.

There is a pastor named Kim Taezong in Cheonan, who was eight degree in taekwondo when he was young and at that moment he did not believe God. To get the degree, he got lots of training.
After getting the degree, he perhaps felt he could do anything. After that he got married.

His wife is a faithful Christian and she prayed for his husband to become a Christian, but it was not easy. Their first baby was dead and he was very sad, and became to understand there were a lot of things he could not manage. However, their second daughter got brain disease.
At that time, he became to go to church to meet God. The problems of his daughters made him to be a Christian.


However, the second daughter got better from the brain disease when she was 3 year old. The pastor got moved and understood it was the grace from God and made a promise to live for God.
Then he collected some young guy who did not attend high school and preach the gospel to them. Also, he established a church and serve for God very hard. And his second daughter got full recovery from brain disease and got married.

 

However, his daughter had a baby after marriage and there were four holes in the heart of the baby. So the pastor prayed to God and hoped God to work miracles for the baby like what God had done for his daughter. Surprisingly, three of the holes were disappeared after a period, which even the doctor could not give explanation. The pastor thanked and praised God for God training him constantly.

And he believes one day the other one left hole in the babies heart will be disappear. The pastor’s life was totally changed. In the beginning he just believed his ability, but now he understood he could do nothing without God. Halleluiah~
He got difficulties and disciplinary, but in accordance with the bible, it was not only difficulties, but it is training and also the road towards becoming God’s people.

People could not forget God just like fish could not live without water. The existence of God likes oasis in a desert. When we feel thirsty, we should come to God.

8 If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.
 9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live!
The training is to let us become perfect God’s people and we should praise God when we meet disciplinary since it is the love from God to make us be perfect.


If people understand the selective salvation of God, they would be deeply moved. We should notice selection and abandon here.
It is mentioned that “everyone undergoes discipline”, and “if you are not disciplined”, in other words, if you does not undergo difficulties or training.

Everyone undergoes disciplines, but what does it mean by no disciplinary? It means even the disciplinary comes the people do not understand the true meaning of bless and discipline.
If you do not understand disciplinary is the bless from God, or the road to become God’s people, then it is equivalent to be abandoned.

Everyone undergoes discipline means God love everyone and give the same chance to become God’s people. We should accept it as training and blessed selection.

Read scripture 9. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live!
We should live by respecting and obeying God as God’s people, and also praise for the perfect God.

 
Could you live by obeying God? If yes, you are God’s people, and selected by God in his holy providence.
Jesus came to this world to make us holy. The disciplinary that Jesus got on the Cross was for making us become God’s people.

It is to prove we are God’s son and daughter. As Jesus sacrificed for us, as God’s people we undergoes disciplines in our life is sign to become God’s people. And be sure it is training to become holy saints.