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When you get in a storm, you need a real anchor.
When you get in a storm, you need a real anchor.
October 21, 2016
Hebrews 6:19-20
We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.
New International Version (NIV)
               “Be very sure.  Be very sure, your anchor holds and grips the solid Rock.”  Remember that song?  I sang it standing next to my mom and brothers as we worshiped.  I came to understand the value of an anchor, though, on a fishing trip with my grandfather, uncle, dad and brothers.  My grandfather, dad and eldest brother fished in one boat with a bona fide anchor.  My next older brother and I fished with our Uncle Bill in the other boat.  He told us to get a big rock, tied a rope around it and used it as our anchor.  We were catching golden perch on a beautiful day until the storm blew in.  The winds started blowing us into the shore as our meager, makeshift anchor bumped along the bottom.  Meanwhile my grandfather’s boat stood strong in the storm and they continued to catch fish.
                Afterward, my grandfather joked with me that when you get in a storm, you need a real anchor.  If you have ever been in a storm, you know he was right.  The believers who received this letter were in a storm.  Persecution had not yet brought blood, but dark clouds of an uncertain future lined their horizon.  What was their anchor?  Hope in Jesus!  Paul wanted their hope to become reality (6:11).  Hope in the New Testament is not a nebulous wish.  Hope is not a possibility or a probability but a certainty.  Hope is confident expectation that God will do what he says he will do.  Some pretended faith in the early church.  The writer believes better of the Hebrews.  They will hold on to their hope because it is an anchor for their souls.
                Some years later Grandpa called dad and asked for me to visit.  I was in Waco.  He was in Yakima, Washington.  As he faced the storm of kidney dialysis and the grind of dialysis treatments, he thought about the Lord for the first time in a long time.  He knew I was a pastor.  Once I had found a Billy Graham devotional book in his furniture store.  He gave it to me.  Now he called me to explain salvation.  Beneath a tree where we used to eat watermelon, I planted the seed of faith.  Grandpa believed and became a Christ follower.  He found an anchor for his soul.  Have you?  “This Rock is Jesus.  Yes, he’s the One.  This Rock is Jesus.  The only One!  Be very sure.  Be very sure.  Your anchor holds and grips the solid Rock.”
Pray with me: 
Father, we thank you for the hope which anchors our soul.  When we next find ourselves in a storm, help us hold on to the hope we have in Christ.  In his name we pray.  Amen.
Scripture reading for today: 
Hebrews 6

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