Hebrews:1-4

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* Long ago , God talked to our fathers through the prophets . He talked many times and in many ways . * In these last days , he talked to us through his Son . God chose him to be the one to whom he would give all things . God also made the world by this Son . * He shines as bright as God . He is just like God himself . He holds up the world by the power of his word . He made people clean from their wrong ways . Then he sat down beside God in heaven . * He is much greater than the angels because God has given him a much better name than theirs . * Did God ever say to any of the angels , You are my Son , and I am your Father today ? Did God ever say to an angel , I will be your Father and you will be my Son ? * When God brings his first-born Son into the world , he says , All of Gods angels must worship him . * Here is what he says about the angels : God makes his angels to be like the winds . He makes his helpers to be like flames of fire . * But here is what God says about his Son : O God , you will sit and rule for ever . You will rule in the right way . * You have loved what is good and you have hated what is wrong . That is why God has poured out happiness on you , more than on those who are with you . * He also said , Lord , you made the world in the beginning . The sky was made by your hands . * These things will come to an end , but you will live on . They will all wear out like clothes . * You will fold up the world and the sky as if they were a blanket . They will not stay as they are now . But you will always be as you are now . The years of your life will never end . * But did God ever say to any of the angels , Sit down beside me until I put your enemies under you ? * Are not all the angels spirits that help ? They are sent out to help the people who will be saved . * That is why we must listen very carefully to the things we have heard . We must never forget them . * What the angels said proved to be true . Every one who broke the law , and who did not obey it , was punished as he should be punished . * If that is so , then we will not get away without being punished . We will be punished if we forget or throw away this wonderful way to be saved . It was the Lord who first told people how to be saved . Then those who heard him told us the true way . * God also proved that it was the true way . He gave signs . He did things that surprised people . He did many things by his power . He gave the gifts of the Holy Spirit to people just as he wanted to . * God did not put the next world under angels for them to rule over . That is the world we are talking about . * In one place the holy writings say , What is man and why do you think about him ? What is the Son of a Man and why do you care about him ? * You made him lower than angels for a little while . But then you made him very great and high . * You put everything under him for him to rule over . When God gave him the right to rule over everything , nothing was left out which he did not have the right to rule . But we do not yet see him ruling over everything . * But we do see Jesus ! For a short time he was lower than the angels . Because he died , we see him made great and high . He did this so that he could die for every person . God is so good ! * Everything was made for God and by God . It seemed good to him that Jesus life should be made complete , by going through the hard things that happened to him . This was because Jesus leads many people to heaven as Gods children . And he is the one who saves them . * Jesus , who makes people holy , and those who are made holy , all have one Father in heaven . That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them his brothers . * He said , I will tell my brothers about you . I will sing praise about you among those who gather together for worship . * He also said , I will trust God . And again , Here am I and the children God has given to me . * Gods children all have a body . That is why Jesus himself had the same . But because Jesus also had a body , he was able to die and stop the devil . The devil has power to make people die . But Jesus , by his own death , was able to stop the power of death . * People were afraid to die . All their lives they were like slaves . When Jesus died , he was able to set them free from their fear . * Jesus did not come to help angels . He came to help people who were born in Abrahams family . * So he had to be made like his brothers in every way . Then he could be a high priest to make a way to God for them , a priest who was kind and true . He could make it possible for God to forgive people for the wrong things they had done . * He had a very hard time when he was tested . But because he was tested , he is able to help people who are tested . * My brothers , you are holy . You are also called to go to heaven . Take time to think carefully about Jesus . God sent him . He is the high priest we believe in . * He did what God sent him to do , just as Moses did in Gods house . * But Jesus is much greater than Moses-as the one who builds a house is greater than the house itself . * Every house is built by someone , but God is the one who builds all things . * Moses did what he was told to do as a servant in all of Gods house . He showed things that God would say later . * But Jesus Christ was true as a Son over Gods house . We are Gods house if we keep on believing and telling others what we hope to have . * So as the Holy Spirit says , Today , when you hear me speak , do not make your hearts hard . * That is what happened when the people tested me in the desert and I became angry . * There your fathers tested me and tried me . And they saw what I did for forty years . * So I was very angry with the people of that time . I said , "Their minds are always dark . They have not known my ways ." * I said when I was angry , "They will never go into my resting place ." * My brothers , take care that not one of you has a heart that does not believe . Such a heart will take you away from the living God . * But talk to each other every day while Today lasts , so that wrong ways will not fool any one of you and your hearts become hard . * We have our part with Christ if we go on to the end and believe in him as we did at first . * God is still saying now , Today , when you hear me speak , do not make your hearts hard . That is what happened when the people turned against me . * Who were the people who heard him and yet made him very angry ? It was all the people whom Moses led out of the country of Egypt . * With whom was God angry for forty years ? He was angry with the people who had done wrong . And they died in the desert . * Who were the people God said would never go into his resting place ? They were the people who would not listen to him . * So then , we see that they could not go in because they did not believe him . * We still have Gods promise that people will go into his resting place . So let us take care that not one of you will be kept out . * The good news has been told to us just as it was told to the people in the desert . But the message which they heard did not do them any good . Even though they heard it , they did not believe it . * But we who believe , will go into that resting place of God . It is as God said , When I was angry , I said , "They will never go into my resting place ." He said this even though his work had been finished ever since he had made the world . * Here is what he said , somewhere in the holy writings , about the seventh day : And God rested on the seventh day after doing all his work . * And now here he says again , They will never go into my resting place . * So that means some people will go in . But the people who first heard the good news about it did not go in . They did not believe it . * So he chose another day called Today . He spoke through David many years later , who said , Today , when you hear his voice , do not make your hearts hard . * If Joshua had led those people to rest , God would not have talked later about another day . * So there is still a rest for Gods people , like a Sabbath day . * The person who goes into Gods resting place will rest after doing his work , just as God rested after doing his work . * So let us do our best to go into that resting place . Those people died in the wilderness because they did not believe . So let us take care that the same thing does not happen to one of us . * Gods word is living and full of power . It is more sharp than any sword that cuts on both sides . What God says cuts through and divides the mind and spirit . It cuts through and divides the place where the bones are joined , and the part inside the bone . What God says is able to judge the things people think and plan in their hearts . * God is the one we must meet . Nothing can be hidden from him . Everything is open and he can see it . * We have a great high priest who has gone into heaven . He is Jesus , the Son of God . Because we have such a great high priest , let us hold on to the things we believe . * We have a high priest who can feel with us when we are weak . He has been tested in every way , just as we are . But he did not do anything wrong . * So let us trust him when we come to worship God . He is so good . He will be kind to us and help us when we need it . * Every high priest is chosen from among men . His work is to stand before God for people . He brings gifts and makes sacrifices to God for the wrong things people have done .

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