Hebrews:12

---

Seeker Overlay ON

* Therefore we also , since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses , let us lay aside every weight , and the sin which so easily ensnares us , and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us , * looking unto Jesus , the author and finisher of our faith , who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross , despising the shame , and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God . * For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself , lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls . * You have not yet resisted to bloodshed , striving against sin . * And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons : "My son , do not despise the chastening of the LORD , Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him ; * For whom the LORD loves He chastens , And scourges every son whom He receives ." * If you endure chastening , God deals with you as with sons ; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten ? * But if you are without chastening , of which all have become partakers , then you are illegitimate and not sons . * Furthermore , we have had human fathers who corrected us , and we paid them respect . Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live ? * For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them , but He for our profit , that we may be partakers of His holiness . * Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present , but painful ; nevertheless , afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it . * Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down , and the feeble knees , * and make straight paths for your feet , so that what is lame may not be dislocated , but rather be healed . * Pursue peace with all people , and holiness , without which no one will see the Lord : * looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God ; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble , and by this many become defiled ; * lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau , who for one morsel of food sold his birthright . * For you know that afterward , when he wanted to inherit the blessing , he was rejected , for he found no place for repentance , though he sought it diligently with tears . * For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire , and to blackness and darkness and tempest , * and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words , so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore . * (For they could not endure what was commanded : "And if so much as a beast touches the mountain , it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow ." * And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said , "I am exceedingly afraid and trembling ." ) * But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God , the heavenly Jerusalem , to an innumerable company of angels , * to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven , to God the Judge of all , to the spirits of just men made perfect , * to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant , and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel . * See that you do not refuse Him who speaks . For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth , much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven , * whose voice then shook the earth ; but now He has promised , saying , "Yet once more I shake not only the earth , but also heaven ." * Now this , "Yet once more ," indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken , as of things that are made , that the things which cannot be shaken may remain . * Therefore , since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken , let us have grace , by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear . * For our God is a consuming fire .

---