Going through the letter to the Hebrews is like sitting at the feet of a master teacher. It contains a series of lessons on the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith and shows how they follow directly from the revelation of the Old Testament. If the writer’s Jewish brethren – thoroughly versed in the Law – needed to be reminded of that connection, chances are we also need to be reminded.

The apostle Peter told us in one of his letters to be always prepared to give an answer to anyone that asks us about the hope that is within us. In other words, be ready to explain what we believe and why. Because Faith is not blind; it is not unreasonable. What we believe as followers of Jesus, we believe because it makes perfect sense. And it makes perfect sense because it was all planned and laid out by God from the beginning.

“Tell them what you’re gonna tell them. Tell them. Tell them what you told them.” I was taught in Industry that that was the way to do a presentation. In all my technical reports I always include an Executive Summary, up-front, for the same reason: The executives in the room want to know what the bottom-line is. And then based on that they can decide whether to stay for the rest of it (or not).

When I prepared sermons for Jail Ministry, my main goal was to bring to the men the message that God’s heart had for them (and me) that week. And most of the time I felt that that was best done by letting whoever the story was about speak in their own words. If the story was about Jesus, then what did Jesus say in that passage? If it was Elijah, or King David, or the Samaritan woman at the well, then, what did they say?

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I am sure you have seen posts on social media that lambast believers as illogical or claim the Bible is full of contradictions. What is the motivation? Did those people posting just discover that we believers have been scandalously misled over hundreds of years? And, therefore, out of their own sense of civic duty, they are telling us for our own good? Yeah… right.