Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, “Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.” Matthew 25:24-25 NRSV.

You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. Isaiah 26:3.

“Don’t let your hearts be troubled,” He told them. “Trust in God, and trust also in Me. There is more than enough room in My Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with Me where I am.” John 14:1-3.

Each of the above Scripture verses spoke to me this morning because I let fear take over my peace of mind as everything became too big for me to understand. Heaven and Hell. I’m grappling with that now and I don’t understand how or why or what. And that’s okay because He reminded me to remember His love and our relationship begun when I was a child filled with curiosity and wonder and joy in Him. And that simple curiosity, wonder and joy is displaced as sin produces fear as it always will. With fear comes doubt of God’s love and we think Him harsh. So I turn to Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit. And in our chapter, Hebrews 6, he talks about turning away from the elementary things, but they are so needed as well! Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of instruction of washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. And this we will do, if God permits. For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned. But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way. For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, “I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply you.” And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise. For men swear by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute. In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

The way the author writes reminds me so much of Paul, who was himself a Pharisee schooled by the wisest of the Pharisees; and in writing to his fellow Hebrews who knew the history, was taking them from a deep place of prior understanding to new deeper understanding of the Christ…who is Jesus, the Son. Why is this important for them and for you and me and all of us? The writer of Hebrews keeps referencing Melchizedek and the order of Melchizedek, and the next chapter dives deep into who Melchizedek is. Hebrews is where we meet Jesus, the Son, Creator God, who was and is and will always be. Abraham, Moses, Aaron the first human high priest, Paul, David, Peter, mother Mary…cannot save us. Only Jesus the Son, Creator God, the Christ, High Priest forever, can and does save us. And everything that matters about us and about heaven and hell is bound in Jesus and what He accomplished on the Cross for us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast…so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us…where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us…having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Can we trust God and begin to take this in? I know it’s not easy! Scripture goes deeper than we can begin to understand. Why do you think Jesus came? He came to show us the way to the Father and give us the Holy Spirit as a counselor – so that we can understand who our Savior is and why we need Him. How else could we trust in God and His promises? As God helps me to see as I am able to understand, how can I help but trust in Him for all of us? Jesus came to save us and show us the way to life eternal with Creator God with us. Beloved…we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation! Remember…You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You…because he trusts in You! He has given us the way and we can hold fast to Him. But, and this is an important but – our journey begins now and with Him, Jesus the Christ, and continues into our eternal life with Him, the path He Himself paved from the beginning.