bwe - Hebrews:1-4

bwe@Hebrews:1:1 @ Long ago, God talked to our fathers through the prophets. He talked many times and in many ways.

bwe@Hebrews:1:2 @ 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.

bwe@Hebrews:1:3 @ 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.

bwe@Hebrews:1:4 @ He is much greater than the angels because God has given him a much better name than theirs.

bwe@Hebrews:1:5 @ 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?

bwe@Hebrews:1:6 @ When God brings his first-born Son into the world, he says, All of Gods angels must worship him.

bwe@Hebrews:1:7 @ 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.

bwe@Hebrews:1:8 @ 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.

bwe@Hebrews:1:9 @ 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.

bwe@Hebrews:1:10 @ He also said, Lord, you made the world in the beginning. The sky was made by your hands.

bwe@Hebrews:1:11 @ These things will come to an end, but you will live on. They will all wear out like clothes.

bwe@Hebrews:1:12 @ 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.

bwe@Hebrews:1:13 @ But did God ever say to any of the angels, Sit down beside me until I put your enemies under you?

bwe@Hebrews:1:14 @ Are not all the angels spirits that help? They are sent out to help the people who will be saved.

bwe@Hebrews:2:1 @ That is why we must listen very carefully to the things we have heard. We must never forget them.

bwe@Hebrews:2:2 @ 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.

bwe@Hebrews:2:3 @ 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.

bwe@Hebrews:2:4 @ 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.

bwe@Hebrews:2:5 @ God did not put the next world under angels for them to rule over. That is the world we are talking about.

bwe@Hebrews:2:6 @ 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?

bwe@Hebrews:2:7 @ You made him lower than angels for a little while. But then you made him very great and high.

bwe@Hebrews:2:8 @ 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.

bwe@Hebrews:2:9 @ 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!

bwe@Hebrews:2:10 @ 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.

bwe@Hebrews:2:11 @ 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.

bwe@Hebrews:2:12 @ He said, I will tell my brothers about you. I will sing praise about you among those who gather together for worship.

bwe@Hebrews:2:13 @ He also said, I will trust God. And again, Here am I and the children God has given to me.

bwe@Hebrews:2:14 @ 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.

bwe@Hebrews:2:15 @ 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.

bwe@Hebrews:2:16 @ Jesus did not come to help angels. He came to help people who were born in Abrahams family.

bwe@Hebrews:2:17 @ 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.

bwe@Hebrews:2:18 @ He had a very hard time when he was tested. But because he was tested, he is able to help people who are tested.

bwe@Hebrews:3:1 @ 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.

bwe@Hebrews:3:2 @ He did what God sent him to do, just as Moses did in Gods house.

bwe@Hebrews:3:3 @ But Jesus is much greater than Moses-as the one who builds a house is greater than the house itself.

bwe@Hebrews:3:4 @ Every house is built by someone, but God is the one who builds all things.

bwe@Hebrews:3:5 @ Moses did what he was told to do as a servant in all of Gods house. He showed things that God would say later.

bwe@Hebrews:3:6 @ 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.

bwe@Hebrews:3:7 @ So as the Holy Spirit says, Today, when you hear me speak, do not make your hearts hard.

bwe@Hebrews:3:8 @ That is what happened when the people tested me in the desert and I became angry.

bwe@Hebrews:3:9 @ There your fathers tested me and tried me. And they saw what I did for forty years.

bwe@Hebrews:3:10 @ So I was very angry with the people of that time. I said, "Their minds are always dark. They have not known my ways."

bwe@Hebrews:3:11 @ I said when I was angry, "They will never go into my resting place."

bwe@Hebrews:3:12 @ 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.

bwe@Hebrews:3:13 @ 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.

bwe@Hebrews:3:14 @ We have our part with Christ if we go on to the end and believe in him as we did at first.

bwe@Hebrews:3:15 @ 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.

bwe@Hebrews:3:16 @ 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.

bwe@Hebrews:3:17 @ With whom was God angry for forty years? He was angry with the people who had done wrong. And they died in the desert.

bwe@Hebrews:3:18 @ Who were the people God said would never go into his resting place? They were the people who would not listen to him.

bwe@Hebrews:3:19 @ So then, we see that they could not go in because they did not believe him.

bwe@Hebrews:4:1 @ 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.

bwe@Hebrews:4:2 @ 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.

bwe@Hebrews:4:3 @ 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.

bwe@Hebrews:4:4 @ 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.

bwe@Hebrews:4:5 @ And now here he says again, They will never go into my resting place.

bwe@Hebrews:4:6 @ 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.

bwe@Hebrews:4:7 @ 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.

bwe@Hebrews:4:8 @ If Joshua had led those people to rest, God would not have talked later about another day.

bwe@Hebrews:4:9 @ So there is still a rest for Gods people, like a Sabbath day.

bwe@Hebrews:4:10 @ The person who goes into Gods resting place will rest after doing his work, just as God rested after doing his work.

bwe@Hebrews:4:11 @ 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.

bwe@Hebrews:4:12 @ 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.

bwe@Hebrews:4:13 @ God is the one we must meet. Nothing can be hidden from him. Everything is open and he can see it.

bwe@Hebrews:4:14 @ 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.

bwe@Hebrews:4:15 @ 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.

bwe@Hebrews:4:16 @ 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.

bwe@Hebrews:5:1 @ 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.