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December 14 Daily Reading- Read the Bible in 1 Year
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Happy Hanukkah! If you would like to watch the 2025 Hanukkah service from the Messianic Jewish congregation I attend, you can find that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQ5AT87INFU&t=5385s
If you would like to download my FREE calendar for keeping track of your commitment to read the Bible every day, you can find that on my site, here: https://www.inthefamilywaycoaching.com/pages/read-the-bible-in-1-year
Monthly memberships to support this event can be purchased on my site, here: https://www.inthefamilywaycoaching.com/offering_packages
Today we will continue reading the Book of Hebrews, Chapter 9:1-20, 22-26, 28 and Chapter 10:19-39.
In today's reading we will read and discuss why it matters that Jesus became our high priest. It's so we can have direct access to God and have a relationship with Him! God wants to have a relationship with YOU!! We can now come close to God, whereas before Jesus' atonement for our sins NO ONE could go into God's presence except the high priest, and even then, it was ONE DAY A YEAR for the purpose of making atonement for himself and the Jewish people. But now we have access to God 24/7 with His Holy Spirit, SO LET'S COME CLOSE TO GOD TODAY AND EVERY DAY!
If you enjoyed today's reading and feel like God has lit YOUR light please click the LIGHT button (it looks like a thumbs up or a heart) and consider subscribing to or following my channel, if you have not done so already done so.
If you know someone who might be interested in reading the Bible with me this year please SHARE today's reading with them! It's never too late to join in! Let's help this event grow and together we can spread the word about reading God's Word!
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Transcript
Introduction and Hanukkah Celebration
00:00:03
Speaker
Shalom, everybody. Welcome to December 14th's daily reading out of the Day by Day Kids Bible, written by Karen Henley. My name is Robin. I'm within the Family Way Coaching, and it is my pleasure and privilege to bring you this year's reading through the Bible.
00:00:21
Speaker
I also want to welcome you to the very first official night of Hanukkah here in 2025. If you are watching or listening on another year, then it it won't be Hanukkah for you on that day, but it is Hanukkah today in 2025.
00:00:38
Speaker
So as you see, i have my menorah on the stand and you can see it's a little, this is my kitty cat's ah scratching post. ah ah but I thought it would function well as as a menorah stand.
00:00:55
Speaker
Well, I'm so glad that you are joining me today, whether you are following along on your podcast or whether you are watching the video somewhere. And if you are using the bookmarking commitment calendar, it's also time to get that out. It's time to get your sticker ready or your crayon or your marker or your pen or your pencil, whatever you're using.
00:01:18
Speaker
whatever you want to use to cross off today's date, because we're going to hear the Bible today.
Rabbi Joel's Teachings and Congregational Outreach
00:01:26
Speaker
I forgot to, I was going to link in the description below and a link to the Hanukkah service for the Messianic Jewish congregation where I attend.
00:01:39
Speaker
So I'm going to be doing that in case anybody is interested in hearing our Hanukkah celebration service. it's It's absolutely lovely.
00:01:53
Speaker
We have ah our Rabbi Joel, and he was awesome. I've i've never, i I really didn't know a lot about Hanukkah. So everything that I mentioned yesterday, i pulled from ah what he told us in our service yesterday.
00:02:09
Speaker
And so I want to encourage you that if you are hungry for more of learning about celebrating Hanukkah, to head up the the link that will be down below for the Tree of Life messianic jewish congregation where i attend they post their services every saturday and they they use live stream it and then they also keep it on the website so it's awesome i'm so glad that they do that And when I spoke to Joel about that, our rabbi, in the very beginning, when I first started attending, he said that they like to do that. He says because that you know their goal is to bring more Jewish people into the ah family of believers, not just to leave them out in in the separated place.
00:03:02
Speaker
ah part where they they don't believe in Jesus as the Messiah. Their goal is to help save as many Jewish brothers and sisters as they
Local Messianic Jewish Community
00:03:13
Speaker
can. So he says that sometimes Jewish people will sort of be like Nicodemus where they are watching or listening, and they're they're just not ready to come out yet. And so they they will kind of lurk a little bit. ah And so he likes to put that out there for those Jewish brethren who are curious and and God is calling to them.
00:03:38
Speaker
And I just really love that. ah It brings me a lot of joy. So I laugh out of joy. It makes me so happy that ah I have a Messianic Jewish congregation near me. We actually have two here in San Diego.
00:03:52
Speaker
And that happens to be the one that is closer to me and the one that I ended up attending. So thank you for being here with me on the first night of Hanukkah.
Lighting the Menorah and Its Significance
00:04:04
Speaker
There is actually a certain order to how the lights are lit and they are supposed to go from right to left. So they are on my right and I hope that they are showing for you on your right as well.
00:04:20
Speaker
um It has a tendency to reverse images when we video. And so like, for instance, when I hold up the Bible, it's backwards to me, but I know that it is accurate when you read it, when you see it there. So I am hoping that that that is on the right side of the screen. I may have to go back and review that.
00:04:45
Speaker
and see so we will be lighting the candles one after another and all for eight nights and this center light in case you missed it from yesterday this is called the hamash the servant light and if this were a flaming menorah this would be the pilot light the one that you use to light each of the eight days of candles.
00:05:15
Speaker
So on the first night, we would have the shamash and the first light as well. And then tomorrow we will have the second light lit and so on. And in addition to one, two and and the hamash.
00:05:31
Speaker
They will all three be lit tomorrow. So I really love this little menorah. And i'm I'm so glad that we have them locally in our stores, just in LED form so that I can put that up and have it during our daily readings for the next eight days.
Hebrews 9-10: Jesus, the High Priest
00:05:51
Speaker
Well, today we are going to be picking up in Hebrews and continuing on with chapters 9 and 10. We have been learning about how Jesus has become our high priest. And we are not Jewish, so it may seem like, why do we need to know this? Why does this matter?
00:06:12
Speaker
And our author of Hebrews is going to explain why it matters today and what benefit this gives us by him being our high priest. and We know that we learned yesterday that the sacrifices had to be made year after year through the high priest for the atonement of sins. So we know one benefit, and that's that our sins are forgiven.
00:06:40
Speaker
And we don't have to worry about that anymore. We just have to receive God's free gift of Jesus's atonement for us so that we can receive salvation.
00:06:51
Speaker
We cannot earn it. We cannot ah buy it. we We can't do anything for it other than accept the gift. And talk about ah giving better to give than to receive. Jesus gives us the very best gift. And so this is the greatest gift we could ever receive.
00:07:14
Speaker
And we are going to be learning what we can do with this gift. It may seem like, okay, we already know this. We are saved. We just are going over and over and over it through the whole new covenant ah in all of these letters.
00:07:29
Speaker
But, you know, this author was writing to a Jewish a messianic set of believers. And so they understood that they had a high priest who was making the atoning sacrifices on their behalf and that they were had previously relied upon that.
00:07:49
Speaker
And so our author is going to remind us today of the biggest benefit that we have And I'm not going to tell you, we're going to have to read it.
00:08:00
Speaker
but So let's pick up in chapter nine. I want to ah first review a little bit of what we read yesterday, since this is a continuous letter, it makes sense.
00:08:14
Speaker
It says Jesus's job is greater than the priest's job. God has made a new special promise. And Jesus makes this promise come true between God and us.
00:08:28
Speaker
And the new promise is better than the old one. God said, i will put my laws in people's minds.
00:08:39
Speaker
I will write my rules in their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
00:08:52
Speaker
I will forgive their sins. I won't remember their sins anymore.
00:08:59
Speaker
I love that God has given us the rules on our hearts and in our mind, and he did this through the Holy Spirit. Isn't that wonderful?
00:09:12
Speaker
We have God's Spirit with us.
00:09:18
Speaker
Chapter 9 tells us the first promise between God and people had rules for worship. There was a worship house here on earth and a worship tent was put up.
00:09:31
Speaker
There was a lampstand and a table. They were in the first room. And this room was called the holy place. There was a long cloth that hung between this room and the next room.
00:09:48
Speaker
Remember we spoke about the cloth? The next room behind that cloth was the most holy place.
00:10:00
Speaker
A gold altar was in there and God's gold ark box was there too. There were figures with wings and they were over the arc box.
00:10:12
Speaker
They were the cherubim. And everything was put in its right place in the most holy place. And then the priests did their work in just the holy place.
00:10:27
Speaker
Only the high priest went into the most holy place. And he went in only one time a year. He always took a gift with him, and it was animal's blood.
00:10:43
Speaker
He gave this gift to first pay for his sins, and then the gift also paid for the sins of other people.
00:10:55
Speaker
Now, people could not get into the most holy place. No one, not even the other priests, were allowed into the most holy place. And as long as the worship tent was around, this was true.
00:11:11
Speaker
But the high priest's gift could not take away sins for long.
00:11:18
Speaker
Then Jesus came and he became our high priest. And he went into a different worship tent. It was not made by people.
00:11:31
Speaker
And he did not go in with animal blood. Nope. Jesus went into the real most holy place that is in heaven. And he went in there just one time.
00:11:46
Speaker
He went in for all people. And he went with his own blood. And he got people's sins taken away forever.
00:11:59
Speaker
Animal blood made people sinless for a while. But then Jesus died for us. And remember, Jesus never sinned. So his blood makes us sinless forever.
00:12:15
Speaker
And now we can be servants of the living God.
00:12:21
Speaker
That's why Jesus is between us and God. He makes the new special promise come true. Now we are part of God's family forever.
00:12:36
Speaker
And Jesus
Living by Faith and Encouragement
00:12:37
Speaker
died to pay for our sin. So God's people are free from all the sins they did before.
00:12:47
Speaker
Think about something called a will. A will is a legal document. And it's a paper that someone leaves behind when they die. And the the will tells what he leaves for other people.
00:13:03
Speaker
But you have to show that the person really died. And because a will is only good if the person died. It's never used when the person is still alive.
00:13:15
Speaker
And that's why blood was given when the first promise was made. That promise was the law. And Moses told the law to everybody. And then he tossed animal blood over the written word.
00:13:33
Speaker
Then he tossed it out to the people. And he said to them, this blood shows that we are making a promise. God has told you to keep his law.
00:13:46
Speaker
So keep this promise. And the law said that things had to be made clean by a gift of blood. Nobody was forgiven without blood.
00:13:59
Speaker
These things from earth are like the things that are in heaven. But the things in heaven are better. So there had to be better gifts.
00:14:11
Speaker
And Jesus did not go into a worship tent made by people. No, Jesus went right into heaven. And he went face to face with God for us.
00:14:25
Speaker
Priests on earth had to give gifts over and over again. But Jesus did not have to give himself over and over again. because that would have meant that Jesus would have had to die again and again.
00:14:42
Speaker
But Jesus came one time. He came for everybody in that one time. And he got rid of sin once and for all in that one time.
00:14:54
Speaker
And he did it by giving himself.
00:15:00
Speaker
Jesus will come back again. And now, now the who wait for him
00:15:16
Speaker
and now now is the best news this is what we get because of this this is the answer we were waiting for that i didn't want to tell you Now we can go into the most holy place where God is.
00:15:35
Speaker
And it's all because of Jesus's blood. He opened a new way and he did it by giving his body. And now he is a great priest for all of God's people.
00:15:51
Speaker
You see, the high priest previously was just for Jewish people. Even Gentiles were not allowed into certain areas of the temple.
00:16:02
Speaker
They had to stay in certain areas. But now, now God is for everybody. And so this is the best part.
00:16:14
Speaker
So let's come close to God. Let's be sure of what we believe. Let's have hearts that are clear of doing wrong. Let's have clean bodies.
00:16:27
Speaker
Let's hang on to the hope that we have. God promised and he keeps his promises. So let's think about how to help each other love.
00:16:40
Speaker
Let's think about how to help each other do good. Let's see how we can help each other want to do what is right. We know the truth.
00:16:51
Speaker
But what if we keep sinning because we want to? then no gift is able to make us clean. We can only look forward to being judged.
00:17:02
Speaker
And we can only look forward to burning fire. Because that's what happens to God's enemies. People who turned away from Moses' law died.
00:17:14
Speaker
So think how bad it is to turn away from Jesus. He is God's son. The people who turn away from him show what they think.
00:17:26
Speaker
They think that Jesus's blood is not important. And they say bad things about God's kind spirit.
Building a Personal Relationship with God
00:17:35
Speaker
God says, it is my job to pay people back for their sins.
00:17:42
Speaker
It is terrible to be an enemy of the living God.
00:17:49
Speaker
Remember the first days after you believed? You kept following God even in hard times. And people said bad things about you are right in front of others.
00:18:01
Speaker
And they hurt you. And sometimes you stood beside other people who were being hurt. You were sad with people who were in jail for Jesus. And people took things away from you.
00:18:14
Speaker
But you still showed your joy because you knew that God had better things ready for you. So keep trusting God and be sure of what you believe.
00:18:27
Speaker
Don't toss that away. God has wonderful things ready for you. So keep following him no matter what and do what God wants.
00:18:39
Speaker
And then you will get what he promised. It won't be long. The prophet Habakkuk says it this way. He is coming.
00:18:51
Speaker
He won't stay away. My people who do what's right will live by what they believe. Our big Bible calls this living by faith.
00:19:03
Speaker
If they turn away, I will not be happy with them.
00:19:08
Speaker
We are not people who turn away. We believe and we are saved. Amen.
00:19:20
Speaker
So our best news as to what Jesus did for us, what he got for us, besides salvation, is that now we are free to come to God and have a relationship with him.
00:19:36
Speaker
This was not something that was previously known to the Jewish people. They were separated from God. There was one person who was allowed to go into God's presence one time a year for the sole purpose of atoning for sins.
00:19:56
Speaker
But now, now God has put his spirit in us and we can approach God, approach his throne boldly. We can have a relationship with him.
00:20:10
Speaker
And it's not a long distance relationship. We can have a close relationship with God. We can talk with him anytime. He is always with us.
00:20:23
Speaker
He never leaves us or forsakes us. And this is closer than when God said that. When God said, i will never leave you or forsake you. And when Jesus said, i am with you always, even to the end of the age.
00:20:39
Speaker
This was before we had been given the Holy Spirit. But we have the Holy Spirit. So as Jesus ascended, we now have even though he is gone up there, he is with us. And not just as we would say as a distance in spirit, but his spirit, God's Holy Spirit is in us. And since Jesus is one with God, we are also one with God and Jesus because of the Holy Spirit that is within us.
00:21:17
Speaker
We are one with God. And so because we are one, We can come to him anytime and have a relationship. This is amazing.
00:21:31
Speaker
There is no other, quote, religion that teaches that you can have a relationship with God. We say that this is not just a religion.
00:21:44
Speaker
It's a relationship. God wants a relationship with you. He wants a relationship with me. He calls us.
00:21:55
Speaker
He calls us by name. Our good shepherd says that he knows his sheep and his sheep know him. And he calls us by name.
00:22:07
Speaker
And we know his voice. We know it. And we follow him. It's amazing. So we need to come to God because we have access to.
00:22:21
Speaker
Don't just let it be something that you know in your head. Do it. God says if you draw near to him, he will draw near to you. It's amazing.
00:22:33
Speaker
The closer we go to God, the closer he comes to us.
00:22:39
Speaker
He brings us so much joy in our spirit because he is with us. He wants us to be a part of him. And so because of that, we need to encourage other people.
00:22:53
Speaker
A writer today tells us.
00:22:58
Speaker
And we need to think about how to help each other. Help each other do what? To help each other to love. Encourage one another.
00:23:09
Speaker
Let's think about how to help each other do good. Our God is love. He is the very existence of love. And so we too need to encourage one another to love, love one another.
00:23:25
Speaker
We've said over and over that Jesus told us that people will know that we are his followers by how we love each other. Let's not stop meeting together.
00:23:38
Speaker
The people in this letter who were being addressed, they had given up meeting together. And it's not good. I've heard people say even just this past week when I was talking with them, well, I don't like organized religion.
00:23:52
Speaker
And that's often an excuse because that's what when we are meeting with one another, they are calling that organized religion. And it's not a religion, it's a relationship.
00:24:04
Speaker
And we can't really, it doesn't do us any good to argue semantics with people. We can explain to people that there is more to it.
00:24:16
Speaker
But what we really need to do is show them. We need to live by faith. God says today, my people who do what's right will live by what they believe.
00:24:30
Speaker
They will live by faith. And we have learned this year that without faith, it is impossible for God to be pleased with us.
00:24:41
Speaker
It's impossible to please God without faith. That's huge. And it's not enough just to say it. We have to believe it and then live like we believe it, which means that we have to show that we believe it, not just talk about it.
00:24:59
Speaker
Talk is cheap. And that's what the people had done previously that God was so upset with is he said, people say that they love me with their mouths, but their actions are not showing this.
00:25:13
Speaker
So what is what God really wants us to do? To love one another. To care for people who are children and don't have parents. To care for wives who no longer have their husbands and they don't have any other way to take care of themselves.
00:25:30
Speaker
To care for people who need food. To care for people who need clothing. to give what we have to others, because nothing we have has been attained by our own power.
00:25:44
Speaker
But everything is from God. So we need to share what we have so that nobody goes without. We learned of a few weeks ago that if we say to somebody that we know is is homeless or hungry, be well with you, have plenty of food and in clothes, and we don't do anything about that, then we have not done anything at all.
00:26:10
Speaker
It doesn't do us any good just to wish for it. We need to be a part of the solution. We need to help other people. All over the place, everywhere, I see signs that say, don't support panhandling.
00:26:23
Speaker
Don't support this. God knows the heart. And if there are
Daily Engagement with God's Word and Concluding Prayer
00:26:29
Speaker
people who don't need help and are asking for help, then that sin is on them.
00:26:36
Speaker
But there are resources available, and we need to help those resources to provide for people. And if we have food to share, then we need to share our food. If somebody is cold, we need to share clothing with them.
00:26:51
Speaker
Blankets, sweaters, scarves, socks, gloves, things to help our brothers and sisters of this world to be warm. We need to be the light in the world.
00:27:04
Speaker
Just like we have our Hanukkah menorah here tonight. We need to be the light of the world in a world full of darkness. We are meant to be the light of the world.
00:27:18
Speaker
So I hope that you are encouraged. I hope that you are really glad that we are that we have the ability to come to God. We didn't used to have that before Jesus.
00:27:33
Speaker
And nowadays, because that's all we know, we can take it for granted. We don't want to take that for granted. We don't want to just choose to keep on sinning, the reader to the author tells us today, just to keep sinning because we want to.
00:27:49
Speaker
The author says that no gift of salvation can help us if we just continue to deliberately sin. That is dishonoring to the gift that Jesus gave us. So we need to live by faith and live the way God wants us to live and to come to him.
00:28:08
Speaker
One of the best ways we can come to him is by talking with him in prayer. And I've mentioned recently, but you may have missed that that reading or you may not have been here during that time. And i want to repeat this, that we have a voice in our head that we use to talk to ourselves.
00:28:28
Speaker
And I am convinced that that voice in our head is meant to talk to God, not to ourselves. We can think about things, but when we are just talking to ourselves and just pondering different things, those are opportunities where we should be using that voice to talk to God, to talk to Jesus, to acknowledge the Holy Spirit within us.
00:28:54
Speaker
Those things will help us draw close to God because God wants us. God is zealous for us. He is jealous for us as well. Those are two different words, one with a Z, zealous, and one with a J, jealous.
00:29:09
Speaker
He doesn't want us to go to other things. He wants us to go to him. He doesn't want us to worship false things.
00:29:20
Speaker
He wants us to worship him. We belong to him. We are God's children. He created us. He has a right to have a relationship with us.
00:29:32
Speaker
And it is right for us to come to him, especially since we are reconciled to him through Jesus's blood. So I hope that you are encouraged and excited about that and that you will make a commitment to spend more time talking to God and spending more time with him because a relationship cannot flourish.
00:29:55
Speaker
It cannot grow if we don't spend time with the person we are trying to have a relationship with. I want us to think about that. We cannot grow a relationship.
00:30:08
Speaker
if we don't spend time with the person we are trying to have a relationship with. It's just not going to happen. So we need to spend time with God. How do we do that?
00:30:21
Speaker
Learning about him and then also talking to him. it's It's different. It's not the same. There's a difference between talking about someone and talking to them.
00:30:34
Speaker
Talking about God is not having a relationship with him. talking to God is having a relationship with him. So I hope that that is heavy on your heart, that you will feel very drawn to having a relationship with God, not just today, but every day, every single day. We have been reading the Bible every day this year and learning more and more about God. And God delights in us knowing him.
00:31:04
Speaker
He wants us to know him. We love to talk about ourselves, but God knows us. We need to know him too. That way it's a relationship, not just a religion.
00:31:21
Speaker
Well, thank you so much for joining me today on this December 14th. for our daily reading and for our first night of Hanukkah. I hope that you have been encouraged tonight and that you will be hungry again for more of God's word to- tomorrow and that you will be joining us again tomorrow and every day for the rest of this year as we finish out reading the Bible.
00:31:44
Speaker
I hope that you are enjoying this event as much as I am enjoying reading it with you. And it is with A lot of joy that I wish you a a blessing that you may experience a very full and satisfying relationship with our Lord and Savior, with Jesus, with God, through the Holy Spirit. That is my prayer, that you will seek a deep relationship with him, no matter where you are in life, whether you are young or whether you are old. It is my prayer that you will always continue to seek a relationship to spend time with him because we can't know enough about him. We can't spend too much time with him.
00:32:32
Speaker
And I pray that you will seek that relationship with God every day and that your relationship will never waver or grow cold.
00:32:45
Speaker
I hope you have a very blessed day and and I will see you all again next time for our daily reading out of the Day by Day Kids Bible. Have a great day.