Percolating (he)Brews

Last week, my friend asked me where I could find the only reference to coffee in the Bible. After informing him that I didn’t know, he replied, “He-Brews.”

My biblical interpretation professor spoke about how when we meditate on Scripture it is like we are percolating on truth. Bible verses should be in our minds and we should be thinking and mulling over them all day long. Through this rumination, we are then more readily reminded of the precepts of God. Colossians 3:16 speaks of this when it says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

Combining those two ideas together would sum up my last month of study in the Word. I have been working my way through the letter to the Hebrew Christians and it has been blowing my mind in many circumstances. One of the main things that I like about that book is that constantly points to Jesus. The author plows the reader through some of the deepest theological issues regarding Jesus sacrifice and then points the focus to the reader, telling him what he must do in light of the doctrine just presented. These great sections are usually prefaced with a “therefore” or a “so then,” indicating that there should be a response. These passages have been extremely encouraging and challenging as I seek to endure in the race. Here are a some examples:

**Hebrews 2:1** - Therefore we must pay attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.
**Hebrews 3:3** - Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus.
**Hebrews 3:12** - Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.
**Hebrews 4:16** - Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
**Hebrews 6:19** - We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf.
**Hebrews 10:19** - Therefore, brothers . . . let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.
**Hebrews 12:1** - Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.