one step: Hebrews 12.3

Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

What in your life can be shaken? What is being shaken now? This world is shakable, and as a living part of this world, are you shakable?

The author of Hebrews reminds us that the Kingdom of Heaven cannot be shaken, and we who believe in Jesus are a part of it!* This reality ought to instill in us a settling gratitude that is inextricably attached to faith.* Because we believe who God is and the words that He speaks, we know that His Kingdom cannot be shaken, so ultimately neither can we. That is something to be grateful for indeed!

So why do we feel so shakable? If you are anything like me, I feel very stable until I don’t. I think that I have grown enough in my trust in the Lord that I can “handle” whatever storm comes. Then, something comes that shakes me.

The author of Hebrews uses the word “receiving” in describing our relationship to the Kingdom of Heaven.* It is a present participle… not a past tense verb, and not a future tense either.* Why is this? The author of Hebrews reflects the truth that Jesus shares about the Kingdom of Heaven that it is both present (Luke 11:20; 17:21) and future (Mark 14:25; Matt 6:10).* We are in the process of “receiving” it.

The shakable nature of our natural realm and natural selves must be anchored in the unshakable reality of the Kingdom. It’s interesting that what is shakable is seen (this world), and what is unshakable is invisible (the Kingdom of God).* One might think that the more substantial reality is the one that we can touch and see. This is not the case.

When we hold our perspective on the unshakable reality of the Kingdom of Heaven, we will find gratitude toward the Lord even in the most shaking of seasons in this life. This unshakable gratitude that does not depend upon circumstances should then result in a worship that recognizes the almighty wonder of God.

This worship us the fruit of valuing God and HIs reality above all else, never looking away no matter the shaking around us.

What is shakable in your life? You might want to pray that God’s Kingdom comes and will is done… doing so will bring about stability. Doing so will remind you that you have a profound reason to worship Him.

Don’t know what to do about the shakable things? Look to God… He is a consuming fire that will destroy all that we need not waste our time on, and everything thing important, He will turn to gold.*

In the words of the martyred missionary Jim Elliot:

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

Today, take a step.

Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to recognize those things that are shakable in your life. Perhaps God wants you to trade them for what is unshakable. Maybe today God wants you to worship Him from a place of gratitude and faith. Perhaps today God wants you remember that He is a consuming fire.

Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.

Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus.

Feel free to comment at the bottom of this page! We would love to hear from you!

*Stedman, R. C. (1992). Hebrews (Heb 12:25–29). IVP Academic.
Grindheim, S. (2023). The Letter to the Hebrews (D. A. Carson, Ed.; pp. 660–662). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
France, R. T. (2006). Hebrews. In T. Longman III & D. E. Garland (Eds.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Hebrews–Revelation (Revised Edition) (Vol. 13, pp. 181). Zondervan.
Guthrie, G. (1998). Hebrews (pp. 423, 432). Zondervan Publishing House.
Elliot, Shadow of the Almighty (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1958), 15, 18–19.

one step: Hebrews 12.2

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
    nor be weary when reproved by him.
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
    and chastises every son whom he receives.”

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

There is a problem with pain: we don’t like it because the eternity placed inside of our hearts that longs to return to Eden cries out, “fowl!” Why do bad things happen to good people? Why must sin remain in the world though Christ came and took care of sin through His sacrifice?

The author of Hebrews does not answer these questions in totality.* To answer these questions with only the words of Hebrews 12:3-8 would paint an incomplete and insensitive picture of the problem and purpose of pain.* The author of Hebrews is addressing the pain that the original audience of Hebrews was enduring, namely, persecution from those outside of the church.*

In their story, and often in ours, God, as the best Father ever, uses the pain of this life to teach us. Sometimes that pain comes from the consequences of our own sin. Other times this pain comes from the consequences of the sins of others. Other times we experience the brokenness of this world and the pain of our inability to reconcile the gap between the paradise we lost (Eden) and the reality we live in (a fallen world). Regardless, God uses them to teach us.

The discipline that the author of Hebrews refers involves using pain to course-correct us (not to be confused with punishment, which was poured out on Christ for those who receive Him).* Further drawing from the coaching metaphor used earlier in Hebrews 12, the imagery is that of a coach steering athletes toward correct practice.*

Coach Tom Landry of the Dallas Cowboys reportedly once said,

“The job of a coach is to make men do what they don’t want to do, in order to be what they’ve always wanted to be!”*

It takes great effort to move humans from where they are to where they need to be. Even so, God isn’t just our coach… He’s our Father.

Hebrews goes on explain that the proof that we are God’s children is that He disciplines us.* We do not merely run a race for a coach; we walk through life with our Father.

Life is hard, and God knows. He uses all of that to discipline us toward Christ. The temptation to respond wrongly to God’s discipline is twofold: 1) to minimize it by refusing to learn from it, or 2) to lose heart from the weight of it.* The original readers of Hebrews were facing these two temptations.

I have often fought a nagging sense of abandonment. I find it difficult to receive the truth that God loves me regardless of my performance, that He is delighted with me, and that I am His child. The author of Hebrews tells me that if I want proof of my sonship, I need only look to God’s discipline. Now that, I can see! I can see God using the pain of my life to teach me and shape me to be more like Jesus! I see that, so I see that I am a child of God!

God’s discipline is intended to help us to change into the image of Christ. Letting people believe that they don’t need to change is a disservice. To allow people to believe that they don’t need to change is to rob them of the perspective that would give their pain a purpose. Allowing people to think that God does not discipline them leaves them feeling like orphans without a Father.

The discipline of God is a gift to me. It’s a gift to all of us.

Today, take a step.

Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to see your pain as something that God can use to change you further into the image of Jesus. Perhaps today God wants you to know that He loves you deeply as a good and perfect Father who loves His child. Maybe God wants you to know that the difficulty of your life isn’t neglect, it’s life, and He wants to use it for your good. Perhaps today God wants you to challenge someone you love to be more like Christ.

Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.

Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus.

Feel free to comment at the bottom of this page! We would love to hear from you!

*Stedman, R. C. (1992). Hebrews (Heb 12:4–13). IVP Academic.
Grindheim, S. (2023). The Letter to the Hebrews (D. A. Carson, Ed.; pp. 621–624). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
France, R. T. (2006). Hebrews. In T. Longman III & D. E. Garland (Eds.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Hebrews–Revelation (Revised Edition) (Vol. 13, pp. 169–172). Zondervan.
Guthrie, G. (1998). Hebrews (pp. 400–401). Zondervan Publishing House.

one step: water break

Observe the month of Abib and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night. And you shall offer the Passover sacrifice to the Lord your God, from the flock or the herd, at the place that the Lord will choose, to make his name dwell there. You shall eat no leavened bread with it. Seven days you shall eat it with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction—for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste—that all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt. No leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory for seven days, nor shall any of the flesh that you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain all night until morning.

Deuteronomy 16:1-4

The One Step Daily Devotional is intended to provide just one step each day for your journey with God. Every journey requires water breaks. Here is a water break for you.

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The Jewish holiday of Passover commemorates the Lord’s mighty act of freeing the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt. A staple of the holiday is matzah bread. Matzah bread is a flat bread made without yeast. When the people of Israel were set free from the slavery of Egypt, their long-awaited freedom (they waited 400 years) came suddenly. The haste with which they had to leave Egypt did not allow their bread to rise.* To celebrate this, for centuries Jewish homes are not to use leaven during Passover week. There’s more to it than this, however.

Preparations for this week-long holiday actually begin weeks before the official holiday.* Jewish families across the world spend weeks removing all leaven from their homes.* Not only do they cease eating leaven during Passover, but they eradicate it from their lives, pursuing its removal from every nook and cranny.*

Yeast is fascinating as a small amount affects the entire dough, eventually taking it over.* Working unseen, much like a cancer, it insidiously does its work.* This metaphor was used as a common symbol for evil during the time that the New Testament was written.* Jesus refers to leaven in regard to the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees (Matthew 16:6).* His metaphor suggests that the false teaching (leaven) of the Pharisees and Sadducees against Him, if received, would pollute you completely against Him.*

During the time of Jesus, a leaven was a small piece of dough saved from the last batch that contained yeast and would be added to the new dough.* The new dough would then be completely impacted by the yeast of the previous dough.

How much do the things that we learned from the hurts and misunderstandings of our past completely pollute our present thinking? How many of us see ourselves, others, and God wrongly because of false lessons that we learned in the past? How easily do we take a moment of hurt from a previous season and add it like leaven to our understanding of our current season, allowing it to completely take over?

When was the last time we spent any amount of time (much less weeks) intentionally removing the false teachings (lies) that we have learned from our lives?

When the people of Israel left Egypt, they left their leaven behind. God required them to leave it as a part of the process of stepping into the freedom that He had for them. I wonder, what life-polluting false teachings is God asking us to leave behind in order to step into freedom?

Search me, O God, and know my heart!
    Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting.
Psalm 139:23-24

Today, take a step.

Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to give Him a chance to examine your heart. Perhaps today God is asking you to allow Him to remove false teachings about Him, yourself, and others by replacing them with His Truth. Maybe today God wants you to allow Him to search every nook and cranny of your soul to help you to step into freedom. Perhaps today God wants you to leave the past behind.

Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.

Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a water break… we all get thirsty.

Feel free to comment at the bottom of this page! We would love to hear from you!

Carson, D. A. (2010). Matthew. In T. Longman III & D. E. Garland (Eds.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew–Mark (Revised Edition) (Vol. 9, p. 413). Zondervan.
Osborne, G. R. (2010). Matthew (Vol. 1, pp. 617–618). Zondervan.
Morris, L. (1992). The Gospel according to Matthew (pp. 415–416). W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press.
Keener, C. S. (1997). Matthew (Vol. 1, Mt 16:5–12). InterVarsity Press.
Turner, D. L. (2008). Matthew (p. 400). Baker Academic.
https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1753/jewish/Operation-Zero-Chametz.htm#utm_medium=email&utm_source=91_holiday_alert_en&utm_campaign=en&utm_content=content

one step: Hebrews 12.1

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

I’m super excited to start a new season of life that includes training for some races. To get ready, I am needing to change some habits that prevent me from training, and I need to shed some weight that slows me down. Just getting prepared to train for the race is a project! Running the race is a whole other challenge!

Have you ever run a race? Have you ever been in a competition? Every competition from professional sports to boardgames can bring the best and the worst out of people. Whether you are participating or spectating, tempers can flare, purpose can fade, and difficulty can cause some to quit.

The race that the author of Hebrews refers to is life.* The word that the author of Hebrews uses that we interpret into “race” actually came to refer to any athletic competition observed by a crowd.* The word usage even extended to reference all sorts of struggles including legal battles and military conflicts.* Boy does that sound like life!

How many times have you found yourself in conflict, battles, and struggles? Life is so hard. It can be easy to get angry, lose sight of purpose, and to feel like quitting.

The author of Hebrews encourages us that those believers who are looking on are cheering us on! They are cheering us on as those who have successfully completed the race themselves.* While this may provide some encouragement and accountability, it hardly gives us what we need to finish the race.*

The author of Hebrews goes on to say that the author (pioneer and originator) and finisher of our faith stands before us.* What is He doing? He is giving us what we need to make it!* He knows the difficulties of this race of life, and He made it!* Not only that, He starts it and finishes it for us!*

How is it so hard then? How can something that we did not start and do not finish take so much out of us?

The author of Hebrews tells us that there are things that slow us down and threaten to trip us up: sin and anything else that slows us down.* The athletic metaphor that he uses implies that certain things have to be removed just as bulky clothing may need to be removed before a race.* In fact, athletes of the time often competed naked so as not to be slowed down (spandex had not yet been invented). How extreme is that commitment to the race?!

What slows you down? What weighs you down? Some of those things may be sin. Others just might be things that need to be shed. Perhaps you have taken your eyes off of Jesus. Watching tv, eating pizza everyday, and late nights on the phone may not be a sin, but they definitely will impede an athlete. Other things are sin and must be stopped in order to finish the race well.

You are an athlete in the race of life. Cast off what slows you down. Jesus is here to help. Look to Him.

Today, take a step.

Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to shed those things that are slowing you down. Perhaps there is a sin that He wants you to cease or freedom from a weight that He wants to provide you. Maybe today God wants you to look to Him and continue on. Perhaps today God wants you to walk out extreme obedience and commitment.

Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.

Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus.

Feel free to comment at the bottom of this page! We would love to hear from you!

*Stedman, R. C. (1992). Hebrews (Heb 12:1–3). IVP Academic.
Grindheim, S. (2023). The Letter to the Hebrews (D. A. Carson, Ed.; pp. 611–618). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
France, R. T. (2006). Hebrews. In T. Longman III & D. E. Garland (Eds.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Hebrews–Revelation (Revised Edition) (Vol. 13, pp. 167-169). Zondervan.
Guthrie, G. (1998). Hebrews (pp. 397–399). Zondervan Publishing House.

one step: Hebrews 11.5

By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.

Growing up, I would day-dream of what it would be like to have a super power. I would imagine what it might be like to fly, have super strength, be able to jump high and far, to be able to see through walls, or to be invisible.

Each of these super powers appealed to me for different reasons, but as a little guy, the idea of being invisible possessed a special appeal. You see, I enjoyed sneaking around. Sneaking around was fun for two reasons: 1) it helped me surprise-attack my older sister (a favorite past time of mine) and 2) little boys in general think sneakiness is fun! The idea that being invisible provided the opportunity for me to move and operate without being seen captured my imagination!

The writer of Hebrews tells us that God is invisible, and in the same breath tells us that Moses could see Him. How do you see what is invisible? Isn’t that a contradiction?

In a way, seeing what is invisible is a super power. In fact, there is nothing natural about it… it’s supernatural. Moses saw the invisible God with eyes of faith.* These eyes of faith allowed Him to look upon the invisible reality in a way that allowed him to endure through great difficulty.* These eyes allowed him to move forward into his calling unimpeded by a fear of Pharaoh.*

Furthermore, Moses’ ability to look at the invisible God with eyes of faith allowed him an intimacy with God that other prophets could only imagine.* God said, “Mouth to mouth I will speak to him, in visible form and not through riddles. And he has seen the glory of the Lord” (Num 12:8; cf. Exod 33:11; Deut 34:10).* This intimacy was hugely important as the fate of an entire people depended upon the ability of Moses to see the invisible.*

Not to change the subject, but have you ever thought about inviting God to make you like Him? He is love (1 John 4:16)… wouldn’t it be nice to be love to those around you? He is patient (2 Peter 3:8–10a)… wouldn’t it be nice to be patient? The author of Hebrews tell us that God is invisible… would you like to be invisible?

In a culture that screams for attention, places value on fame, and fears a life of “no impact,” invisibility can feel unattractive.

John the Baptist said this in John 3:30:

He must increase, but I must decrease

God is invisible… maybe we should give it a try too… for His glory (so He can increase).

What eyes are you looking at life with? Are you using your super-power to see the invisible? Are you following God and being invisible yourself?

Today, take a step.

Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to see the invisible. Perhaps today God wants you to see with the eyes of faith so that you can endure. Maybe today God wants you to open your heart to the beauty of obscurity. Perhaps today God wants you to love, have patience, and practice being invisible.

Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.

Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus.

Feel free to comment at the bottom of this page! We would love to hear from you!

*Stedman, R. C. (1992). Hebrews (Heb 11:23–29). IVP Academic.
Grindheim, S. (2023). The Letter to the Hebrews (D. A. Carson, Ed.; pp. 587–589). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
France, R. T. (2006). Hebrews. In T. Longman III & D. E. Garland (Eds.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Hebrews–Revelation (Revised Edition) (Vol. 13, pp. 160). Zondervan.
Guthrie, G. (1998). Hebrews (pp. 381). Zondervan Publishing House.