Mark Hunnicutt

Hebrews 10:11-16 Give me a heart of holiness that points others to Your worth and work…

Scripture

11 Under the old covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins. 12 But our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God's right hand. 13 There he waits until his enemies are humbled and made a footstool under his feet. 14 For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy.

15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so. For he says,

16      "This is the new covenant I will make

with my people on that day,  says the Lord:

I will put my laws in their hearts,

and I will write them on their minds."

Observations

• Old law = repetition and routine with no relational or redemptive result
• Jesus = High Priest that offered a real, relational redemption
• It is good for all time!
• Jesus is at the right hand of God
• He is waiting, mediating and ministering

Applications

• Help people out of a religious routine
• Complement Jesus work of sanctification
• One time! BOOM

Prayers

Paul is hammering home the point that there is no need to be under the old law of routine and religious ritual.  God, I ask that You give me eyes to see the ruts and routines that I'm in that make me see myself and You through the wrong perspective.  Give me a heart of holiness that points others to You. 

 

Hebrews 10:11-16 Give me a heart of holiness that points others to Your worth and work…

Scripture

11 Under the old covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins. 12 But our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God's right hand. 13 There he waits until his enemies are humbled and made a footstool under his feet. 14 For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy.

15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so. For he says,

16      "This is the new covenant I will make

with my people on that day, says the Lord:

I will put my laws in their hearts,

and I will write them on their minds."

Observations

• Old law = repetition and routine with no relational or redemptive result
• Jesus = High Priest that offered a real, relational redemption
• It is good for all time!
• Jesus is at the right hand of God
• He is waiting, mediating and ministering

Applications

• Help people out of a religious routine
• Complement Jesus work of sanctification
• One time! BOOM

Prayers

Paul is hammering home the point that there is no need to be under the old law of routine and religious ritual. God, I ask that You give me eyes to see the ruts and routines that I'm in that make me see myself and You through the wrong perspective. Give me a heart of holiness that points others to You.

Hebrews 10:4-10 Don’t waste the reconnected relationship Jesus made possible…

Scripture

4 For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. 5 That is why, when Christ came into the world, he said to God,

"You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings.

But you have given me a body to offer.

6      You were not pleased with burnt offerings

or other offerings for sin.

7      Then I said, 'Look, I have come to do your will, O God—

as is written about me in the Scriptures.' "

8 First, Christ said, "You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings or burnt offerings or other offerings for sin, nor were you pleased with them" (though they are required by the law of Moses). 9 Then he said, "Look, I have come to do your will." He cancels the first covenant in order to put the second into effect. 10 For God's will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time.

Observations

• Religious rituals will not take away sin
• Taking away sin is the reason Jesus came
• Offering outside of Jesus do not please God
• A reconnected relationship changed the requirements
• God's will is our holiness through Jesus

Applications

• Conversion and confession took and take away my sin
• Don't offer God anything outside of Jesus
• Live in my holiness made possible through Jesus
• = God's will

Prayer

Thank you Jesus! God, I ask that your continue to pour Your perspective into my life. I don't want to waste the relationship made possible through Jesus (Your will). I ask that You convict me of leaning on anything for holiness beside Your finished work.

Hebrews 9:13-18 I can worship Jesus freely as the final sacrifice…

Scripture

13 Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow could cleanse people's bodies from ceremonial impurity. 14 Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. 15 That is why he is the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are called can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant.

16 Now when someone leaves a will, it is necessary to prove that the person who made it is dead. 17 The will goes into effect only after the person's death. While the person who made it is still alive, the will cannot be put into effect.

18 That is why even the first covenant was put into effect with the blood of an animal.

Observations

• People carried a weight of shame/guilt that the old system took away
• Now, the blood of Jesus completely takes away shame/guilt
• This frees us to worship God in freedom
• No more shed blood because perfect blood was shed
• Old system = continual sacrifice / New system = finished sacrifice
• When Jesus said it is finished the new covenant started!

Applications

• Worship in freedom knowing that my sins have been atoned for
• Don't bear guilt and shame
• Worship Jesus as mediator, high priest and perfect sacrifice

Prayer

I praise You for Your perfect plan! Your glory story involves Your attempt to redeem man from their sinfulness. God, You have been pursuing me since the beginning of time! Thank You that I can look back at Jesus perfect sacrifice. I worship You freely because of what Jesus did for me!

Hebrews 9:6-12 God DESIRES a relationship with me not my religion and rituals…

Scripture

6 When these things were all in place, the priests regularly entered the first room as they performed their religious duties. 7 But only the high priest ever entered the Most Holy Place, and only once a year. And he always offered blood for his own sins and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance. 8 By these regulations the Holy Spirit revealed that the entrance to the Most Holy Place was not freely open as long as the Tabernacle and the system it represented were still in use.

9 This is an illustration pointing to the present time. For the gifts and sacrifices that the priests offer are not able to cleanse the consciences of the people who bring them. 10 For that old system deals only with food and drink and various cleansing ceremonies—physical regulations that were in effect only until a better system could be established.

11 So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. 12 With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever.

Observations

• The Holy Place (God's relational presence) could only be accessed one time a year by one man
• He would offer a blood sacrifice for the sins of people
• Pre Jesus sin still had to be paid for
• It was very ritualistic and not relational
• Jesus was the final sacrifice that opened an opportunity for me to have a relationship with God
• He secured my redemption with a relational God

Applications

• I don't have to go through a routine to get to God
• I don't have to have one man represent me before God
• God takes sin serious so I need to
• Amp up my relationship with God
• Praise Jesus as the perfect final lamb
• I can do nothing to sever the relational God drew me to

Prayer

Wow! God, You are a loving creator that deeply desires to have a relationship with me. Because of my sin there had to be routine and ritual until Jesus! Jesus is my High Priest and final sacrifice. Empower me today to love You and let Your love be shown and shared through my life.

Hebrews 8:12-9:5 Just Jesus plus or minus nothing…

Scripture

12      And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins."

13 When God speaks of a "new" covenant, it means he has made the first one obsolete. It is now out of date and will soon disappear.

1 That first covenant between God and Israel had regulations for worship and a place of worship here on earth. 2 There were two rooms in that Tabernacle. In the first room were a lampstand, a table, and sacred loaves of bread on the table. This room was called the Holy Place. 3 Then there was a curtain, and behind the curtain was the second room called the Most Holy Place. 4 In that room were a gold incense altar and a wooden chest called the Ark of the Covenant, which was covered with gold on all sides. Inside the Ark were a gold jar containing manna, Aaron's staff that sprouted leaves, and the stone tablets of the covenant. 5 Above the Ark were the cherubim of divine glory, whose wings stretched out over the Ark's cover, the place of atonement. But we cannot explain these things in detail now.

Observations

• God is a promise giver and a promise keeper
• Because of the finished work of Jesus we can relate to God different
• The system has changed

Applications

• Understand and claim God's promises
• Just Jesus is the "new" system

Prayer

God, You are a promise maker and keeper. I pause to praise You for Your relational promise to me. I pray that my day would proceeded leaning on Your promises.

Hebrews 5:4-10 Jesus’ sacrifice made Him the source of eternal salvation…

Scripture

7 While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could rescue him from death. And God heard his prayers because of his deep reverence for God. 8 Even though Jesus was God's Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. 9 In this way, God qualified him as a perfect High Priest, and he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him. 10 And God designated him to be a High Priest in the order of Melchizedek.

Observation

• Jesus was on earth
• Tears is reference to garden
• God hears prayers of reverence
• Suffering taught obedience
• High Priest would go on behalf of the people to atone for sins
• Jesus did that ultimately

Applications

• Pray specific prayers
• Pray for others
• Suffering is one of God's teaching tools, embrace it
• I can pray with anticipation that my High Priest offered the final sacrifice

Prayer

Jesus, I thank You for Your prayers for me and my sin as my ultimate and final high priest. Your heart was tore up when You previewed my life and knew I needed a Savior! Lord, I ask that you allow me to look at suffering in the right perspective. I ask that I cry out to You for what is needed this day. You are my eternal High Priest and I come through You to God!

Haiti – Packing pictures and list…

I'm not an organized person by nature. My wife, who is very organized and has a touch of OCD says I have a touch of PIG. On my first trip to Haiti I knew that I had to value some things in my packing.

• Small & light: the smaller and lighter the more resources we could take to support the effort
• Self sufficient: didn't want to drain what little natural resources were in country
• Speed: needed to get to my "stuff" quickly and efficiently. I used packing bags and plastic bags so stuff could be moved around quickly.

 

Items listed are pictured from top to bottom & left to right

• Boots & Birkenstocks in plastic bags
• Small duffle type bag
• Camping type shower wipes
• 2 towels
• Hat
• Packing bag 1 - Underwear, PJs & socks
• Trail bag (fanny pack)
• Packing bag 2 – Pants & shirts
• Toiletry bag

 

 

 

 

  

Bags in toiletry bag

• Qtips
• Contact stuff
• Meds & lotion
• Deodorant, Chap Stick, body glide for blisters, athletes foot cream
• Sunscreen
• Soap
• Baby & sanitizer wipes  
• Mouthwash, tooth brush & paste
• Face wipes

  

  

 

Food & water

• Camelbak
• I energy snacks and meal bars
• Propel drink mix

 

 

 

 

 

Travel pack

• Sani wipes
• Sunglass holder
• Bag – mouth freshener, first aid, insect repellant & sani lotion
• Utility knife
• Work gloves

Packing gets you in a mindset for what you are trying to accomplish. As minimal as the above items are it is far more than most people you are going to be ministering to have. Pack smart.

 

Hebrews 4:13-5:3 Talk to an empathetic Jesus not a sympathetic Jesus…

Scripture

14 So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. 15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. 16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

Observations

 

• So then = since Jesus is the Messiah
• Since we haven't missed it
• Hold firmly to what we believe
• Jesus faced ALL the same testing we do YET without sin
• Because of Jesus I can come BOLDLY
• Mercy = not getting what I deserve / Grace = getting what I don't deserve

Applications

• When things are on my pace I still need to pursue trust
• It is going to be rough so hold on firmly, not loosely
• Talk to an empathetic Jesus not just a sympathetic Jesus
• Mercy & grace are redeemable so cash them in

Prayer

Jesus, You are my great high priest. Because of Your sinless life, suffering and resurrection power You are empathetic, my Lord and alive interceding on my behalf. I love the fact that I can come to You boldly and plead through mercy and grace. I deserve hell but you gave me heaven. I praise YOU!!!