Let the Light of God’s Word Bless Over You This Thanksgiving Season: An Artistic Approach to the Book of Hebrews

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Supplemental reading:
Hebrews 10: Finding Confidence From God;
He Always Keeps His Promises

The Thanksgiving holiday season is a time to feast with God’s word. Let the abundance of his love grow your faith. This is a wonderful time of year to reflect upon and understand our shared deep roots.

Through times of uncertainty, God is the light that outshines all darkness. In the New Covenant, Jesus brought light to the world.  And, there is always more of it, if we chose to allow the spirit of God to reside within. When we are deeply rooted in the word of God, our faith grows.

About midway through my study of the book of Hebrews, I sat in wonderment, asking quietly of God, “What are you showing me with Your word? What do you want me to know from the Book of Hebrews?”  

Now faith brings our hopes into reality and becomes the foundation needed to acquire the things we long for. It is all the evidence required to prove what is still unseen. This testimony of faith is what previous generations were commended for. Faith empowers us to see that the universe was created and beautifully coordinated by the power of God’s words! He spoke and the invisible realm gave birth to all that is seen.  Hebrews 11: 1-3 (TPT) 

I opened my journal and began to draw a tree with the limbs extending from side to side with words, bible verse notes, and thoughts. On another sheet of paper, I drew a map with flag points of some of the same thoughts and words from the Bible. Still again, asking God, “What do you want me to know…?”

I put down my notes and commentary on the book of Hebrews to read the introduction in The Passion Translation, authored by Dr. Brian Simmons. I was reminded that this book presents the magnificent Jesus on every page!

How the light of the Messiah brings truth out from the shadows, and shining brightly for all to see.

As I read these words, I could imagine people joining together in unity and lighting candles in prayer, for they know that our God outshines all darkness.

I continued to read Dr. Simmons writing:

Hebrews is written for every believer today, for we have crossed over from darkness to light and from doubt to faith. The name Hebrews means, “those who crossed over.” We have passed from shadows to substance and from doubt to the reality of faith. What once was a symbol has now become substance, for all the pictures of the Old Testament have found their fulfillment in Jesus.

Hebrews takes us into the holy of holies as we come to him as priests, lovers, and worshipers. You will never be the same again when you absorb the light of God that shines from every chapter.

I began to pray with wonder.  As if I was being told what to do, I began to write Bible verses over the sketched drawing of the tree. I found myself “scribbling” notes in my journal like:

He guides us and protects us with His light that outshines all darkness if we are willing to believe to have faith. 

In the Beginning; When God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was completely formless and empty, with nothing but darkness draped over the deep. God’s Spirit hovered over the face of the waters. And then God announced,  “Let there be light,” and light burst forth! 

Genesis 1: 1-3 (TPT)

This is the life-giving message we heard him share and it’s still ringing in our ears. We now repeat his words to you: God is pure light. You will never find even a trace of darkness in him.

If we claim that we share life with him, but keep walking in the realm of darkness, we’re fooling ourselves and not living the truth. But if we keep living in the pure light that surrounds him, we share unbroken fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, continually cleanses us from all sin.

1 John 1:5 -7 (TPT)

He loves us so much that He gave us His only begotten son as a gift so that we could have everlasting life if we were willing to believe and have faith.

“And just as Moses in the desert lifted up the brass replica of a venomous snake on a pole for all the people to see and be healed, so the Son of Man is ready to be lifted up, so that those who truly believe in him will not perish but be given eternal life. For here is the way God loved the world—he gave his only, unique Son as a gift.  So now everyone who believes in him will never perish but experience everlasting life. “God did not send his Son into the world to judge and condemn the world, but to be its Savior and rescue it!

 John 3:14-17 (TPT)

Jesus is our good shepherd who protects us and gives our lives true freedom -- if we choose to believe and have faith:

So Jesus went over it again, “I speak to you eternal truth: I am the Gate for the flock.    All those who broke in before me are thieves who came to steal, but the sheep never listened to them.  I am the Gateway.    To enter through me is to experience life, freedom, and satisfaction.    1 A thief has only one thing in mind—he wants to steal, slaughter, and destroy. But I have come to give you everything in abundance, more than you expect—life in its fullness until you overflow!

John: 10:7-10 TPT

The bread of God feeds us every day we will never go hungry.   Jesus is the Living Bread.

“The bread of God is the One who came out of heaven to give his life to feed the world.” “Then please, sir, give us this bread every day,” they replied. Jesus said to them, “I am the Bread of Life.  Come every day to me and you will never be hungry. Believe in me and you will never be thirsty.”

John 6:33-35 (TPT)

Nourishment of God’s Love through His Word: Jesus is our vine and we are his vranches.

“I am a true sprouting vine, and the farmer who tends the vine is my Father.  He cares for the branches connected to me by lifting and propping up the fruitless branches and pruning every fruitful branch to yield a greater harvest.  The words I have spoken over you have already cleansed you.  So you must remain in life-union with me, for I remain in life-union with you. For as a branch severed from the vine will not bear fruit, so your life will be fruitless unless you live your life intimately joined to mine.

“I am the sprouting vine and you are my branches.  As you live in union with me as your source, fruitfulness will stream from within you—but when you live separated from me you are powerless.  If a person is separated from me, he is discarded; such branches

are gathered up and thrown into the fire to be burned. But if you live in life-union with me and if my words live powerfully within you—then you can ask whatever you desire and it will be done.  When your lives bear abundant fruit, you demonstrate that you are my mature disciples who glorify my Father!

I love each of you with the same love that the Father loves me. You must continually let my love  and nourish your hearts.  If you keep my commands, you will live in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands, for I continually live nourished and empowered by his love.  My purpose for telling you these things is so that the joy that I experience will fill your hearts with overflowing gladness!

I put my pencil down, took a deep breath and looked outside my window to see a wonderful autumn sunset with brushstrokes of soft oranges, reds and golds across the sky.  I quietly had an “awe-hah” moment and whispered, “Thank you God for painting this wonderful masterpiece once again so that I understand your word and the deep roots of lives grafted into the richness of the stories of the Old Testament.  These roots give us the strength to have faith and embrace the greatest love gift bestowed upon us of all: Jesus the Messiah dying on the cross to take away the sins of the world (our sins), and set us free to live a life of Joy in Him.

Faith is being sure of what we hope for. It is being sure of what we do not see. That is what the people of long ago were praised for.

We have faith. So we understand that everything was made when God commanded it. That’s why we believe that what we see was not made out of what could be seen.

Hebrews 11:1-3 (TPT)

As I put my things away, I came upon this movement in the book of Ephesians:

So, I kneel humbly in awe before the Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah, the perfect Father of every father and child in heaven and on the earth. And I pray that he would unveil within you the unlimited riches of his glory and favor until supernatural strength floods your innermost being with his divine might and explosive power.

Then, by constantly using your faith, the life of Christ will be released deep inside you, and the resting place of his love will become the very source and root of your life.

Then you will be empowered to discover what every holy one experiences—the great magnitude of the astonishing love of Christ in all its dimensions. How deeply intimate and far-reaching is his love! How enduring and inclusive it is! Endless love beyond measurement that transcends our understanding—this extravagant love pours into you until you are filled to overflowing with the fullness of God!

Never doubt God’s mighty power to work in you and accomplish all this. He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest request, your most unbelievable dream, and exceed your wildest imagination!  He will outdo them all, for his miraculous power constantly energizes you.

Now we offer up to God all the glorious praise that rises from every church in every generation through Jesus Christ—and all that will yet be manifest through time and eternity.

Ephesians 3:14-21 (TPT)

Let’s walk together in faith, knowing our God is always with us. His light outshines all darkness, challenges and doubt to bless us with His overflowing love and kindness.

Keep the Faith! Be sure for what we hope for, for God keeps His promises for those who believe!