December 22

Hebrews 1-6
I don’t know how many times I have heard someone say, “We need more lessons like that, on the basics!”  A number of years ago, an older preacher levied the accusation against me that I never preached baptism.  In my defense, I told him that I had a whole series of lessons on baptism, but that I felt no need to preach baptism to a room full of baptized believers!  The writer of Hebrews supports this position in the first two verses of chapter six: “Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.”  As Christians, we should be seeking the deep truths about our Lord, striving to draw closer through learning and adding the characteristics of Christ to our own character.  If we spend all our time on the basics, we will never get around to the work God has in mind for us to do.  We will be like the one talent man who hid his talent, and gave no increase when his master returned.  I, for one, do not want to share that man’s fate!