Hi Mike,
Ray has done extensive work in this area.Here below, is guidance straight from GOD'S Word to you eyes, these Scriptures speak to your questions also.Heb 3: 1-19 (GNB)1 My Christian friends, who also have been called by God! Think of Jesus, whom God sent to be the High Priest of the faith we profess.
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He was faithful to God, who chose him to do this work, just as Moses was faithful in his work in God's house. 3 A man who builds a house receives more honor than the house itself. In the same way Jesus is worthy of much greater honor than Moses.
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Every house, of course, is built by someone---and God is the one who has built all things. 5 Moses was faithful in God's house as a servant, and he spoke of the things that God would say in the future.
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But Christ is faithful as the Son in charge of God's house. We are his house if we keep up our courage and our confidence in what we hope for. 7 So then, as the Holy Spirit says,
"If you hear God's voice today, 8
do not be stubborn, as your ancestors were when they rebelled against God, as they were that day in the desert when they put him to the test. 9 There they put me to the test and tried me, says God, although they had seen what I did for forty years.
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And so I was angry with those people and said, 'They are always disloyal and refuse to obey my commands.' 11 I was angry and made a solemn promise: 'They will never enter the land where I would have given them rest!' "
12 My friends, be careful that none of you have a heart so evil and unbelieving that you will turn away from the living God.
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Instead, in order that none of you be deceived by sin and become stubborn, you must help one another every day, as long as the word "Today" in the scripture applies to us. 14
For we are all partners with Christ if we hold firmly to the end the confidence we had at the beginning. 15 This is what the scripture says: "
If you hear God's voice today, do not be stubborn, as your ancestors were when they rebelled against God."
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Who were the people who heard God's voice and rebelled against him? All those who were led out of Egypt by Moses. 17 With whom was God angry for forty years? With the people who sinned, who fell down dead in the desert.
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When God made his solemn promise, "They will never enter the land where I would have given them rest"---of whom was he speaking? Of those who rebelled. 19
We see, then, that they were not able to enter the land, because they did not believe.Heb 4: 1-11 (GNB)1
Now, God has offered us the promise that we may receive that rest he spoke about. Let us take care, then, that none of you will be found to have failed to receive that promised rest. 2
For we have heard the Good News, just as they did. They heard the message, but it did them no good, because when they heard it, they did not accept it with faith. 3 We who believe, then, do receive that rest which God promised. It is just as he said,
"I was angry and made a solemn promise: 'They will never enter the land where I would have given them rest!' " He said this even though his work had been finished from the time he created the world. 4 For somewhere in the Scriptures this is said about the seventh day: "God rested on the seventh day from all his work."
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This same matter is spoken of again: "They will never enter that land where I would have given them rest." 6
Those who first heard the Good News did not receive that rest, because they did not believe. There are, then, others who are allowed to receive it. 7 This is shown by the fact that God sets another day, which is called "Today." Many years later he spoke of it through David in the scripture already quoted: "If you hear God's voice today, do not be stubborn."
8 If Joshua had given the people the rest that God had promised, God would not have spoken later about another day.
9 As it is, however, there still remains for God's people a rest like God's resting on the seventh day.
10 For those who receive that rest which God promised will rest from their own work, just as God rested from his.
11 Let us, then, do our best to receive that rest, so that no one of us will fail as they did because of their lack of faith.
george
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Topic: Carnal or Spiritual? (Read 4360 times)