The Fruit of Lips

“Through Him, therefore, let us constantly and at all times offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, which is the fruit of lips that thankfully acknowledge and confess and glorify His name.” Hebrews 13:15

So it was a Wednesday morning when I got me another one of text-votionals from my boy in Brooklyn again. When I looked at the banner that went across the top of the screen on my not-so-smartphone it was a simple message. Read Hebrews 13:11-21…so I did, in the Amplified. Sometimes the Amplified does the Book of Hebrews justice when it comes to seeking out those O.T. verses that makes this Book such a powerhouse to ALL who need their faith defined. My buddy from Brooklyn focused in on verse 15 of the 13^th chapter. So I sniffed it out…

Through Him, Jesus Christ has sanctified us by the shedding of His blood. We are privileged to receive temporal and spiritual mercies through His reasonable service as demanded by The Father. For those of us who claim Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior we are call to imitate this by the sacrifice of our self through the death of our self.(Romans 12:1) In the Levitical sense (Lev. 7:12) a sacrifice of thanksgiving went right along with the peace offerings. So as the unleavened cakes and wafers with the finest oil spread on them were offered up to YHVH they went up with a sacrifice of praise from the lips of priest. Both of these ideas are to be done on a regular basis, that’s why the word “constantly” is used in the Amplified.

But then we are to do this with mouths. Hmm…now in a very legal sense a sacrifice of praise comes from the fruit of our lips. It goes right along with the offering of the first-fruits. However, I wonder if we, at times, are able to admit that we are people with unclean lips. In Hosea 14:2 we read, ^“Take with you words and return to the Lord; say to Him, “Take away all iniquity; accept what is good, and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips.” Would you want to say this if what comes out of your mouth only gives the sacrifice of praise when you are in the House? A vow made carelessly has it’s repercussions, so be careful, obedience is better than sacrifice.

To quote my friend Brooklyn, “The book of Hebrews was written to Christians struggling to hold on to faith. The audience seems to have had a deep knowledge of the Old Testament so they were probably Jews and Gentile converts to Judaism who had come to believe that Jesus was the Messiah. It seems that persecution had demoralized many in the group and they were considering a return to the seeming safety of their previous convictions. We don’t know who wrote Hebrews, but “the preacher” had a consistent and insistent sermon: Jesus is God’s final word. One cannot dismiss or exclude Christ and have a right relationship with God.”

Throughout the Book of Hebrews “The Preacher” would go between giving us words of warning and giving us words of assurance. He would make sure we understood we need a healthy fear of God and understood and not to take the grace of God for granted. They are important spiritual realities that both need to be acknowledged. In today’s passage of Scripture the preacher makes a clear connection between what we say and what we do. If we say we love God and confess that with our lips, let us in the same confession show it with random acts of kindness. After all, A.R.K’s go a long way on the open living waters of Jesus Christ. Amen? – Chris Hughes is a weekly blogger for Freedom Fighter and a graduate of the Colony of Mercy

Daily Bible Reading: 1 Kings 21-22; Matthew 11

Quote of the day: “I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed.”— C. S. Lewis

Bible Memory: “I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts. I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word.” Psalm 119:100-101