For this week’s installment in our Hebrews series, Troy considers the idea that our struggle with faith is not always based on God showing (or not showing) Himself. After all, the very people who witnessed the ten plagues on Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea, and the awesome year of events at Mt. Sinai, actually turned away from God with sinful, unbelieving, hard hearts. In addition, a few of Jesus’ original disciples, who had just spent three years watching Him perform miracles and even rise from the dead, are the ones referred to in a verse that says, “some doubted.” Perhaps it’s not an issue of evidence or lack of evidence. Maybe we see what we want to see.

Troy kicks off our new series through the book of Hebrews, a letter written to inspire perseverance in weary Christians who were thinking about abandoning Jesus for their old lives. Specifically, Troy covers the first few verses of Hebrews chapter 1, where we find a comparison between the partial and the complete. In the past, God shared tiny bits of His message with various people in a wide variety of ways, that were all partial. By contrast, the message that Jesus brought was full and final. Jesus showed us fully what God is like. He stood before us.

For our New Year’s message, Bud shares about some situations in life when we do (and don’t) get a second chance. One of these circumstances involves our forgiveness of other people who hurt us. Bud encourages us not only to forgive others, but also to consider what additional “second chance” opportunities we might have in the coming year.