Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.

Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed.(circled, surrounded).about with so great a cloud of witnesses.(Paul who wrote the Book of Hebrews, refers here to what he wrote in the previous chapter, Chapter 11. This can also apply to all those in the invisible family of God), let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us.(so, how does one keep the evil out?).and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.

Hebrews 12:2 Looking unto Emmanuel the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12:2 Looking unto Emmanuel.(what good does it do for you to 'look to Christ'?).the.author and finisher.of our.(word 'our' not in original; Emmanuel the Christ is both the author and finisher of faith and how does this work? and just how is he the author?.2Corinthians 3:16).faith, who for the joy.(the joy of what the crucifixion was all about:.Nehemiah 8:10; 1Corinthians 2:9; what joy did Emmanuel have in that?.Isaiah 52:14 and notes there show the joy he had at his crucifixion) that was set before him.(John 17:5).endured the cross.(and how bad was it that Emmanuel endured? again,.Isaiah 52:14), despising the shame.(original, 'comprehended why the shame', felt it was a bad thing that evil ones would treat human beings this way; word 'despise' in the original also connotes 'disregard', that is, Emmanuel disregarded what He had to go through {Isaiah 52:14}, because He knew why {Matthew 26:38,39; 26:53,54}.and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

John 17:5 "And now, O Father, glorify me with your own self and the glory which I had with you before the world was."
John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God."
John 1:2 "The same was in the beginning with God."
John 6:62 "What and if you shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?"
John 3:13 "And no man has ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven."
John 16:28 "I came forth from the Father and am come into the world; again, I leave the world,and go to the Father."

See gene Decode on how Christ felt as he dragged the cross to  where it would be set for his crucifixion. Christ was smiling! Why?.Isaiah 52:14.

The early Christian martyrs felt the same as Christ did. They too had the joy of the meaning of what they went through. 

Emmanuel knew that physical things on Earth were temporal.and that the real life lies elsewhere. Where? His work with us is making us perfect (Deuteronomy 32:4; Hebrews 13:21; 1Peter 5:10) and sharing joy of being in the family of the one and only true God:.Nehemiah 8:10. The early Christians endured what they did, even unto their death, because they were sure in their mind about if they were killed, they would be right back again.

These are the lovers of humanity as Christ also was:.John 3:16,17; Matthew 26:66-68; 27:22-31, 38-44; Mark 9:12; Luke 23:11, 35-39; 1Peter 2:23. Christ didn't despise that He had to go through this cruelty because He saw the other side to it. What enabled Christ to go through what he did? He didn't want to go through it, who would?.Matthew 26:39.

gene Decode not only was.'looking unto Emmanuel the Christ', he was there when Christ was crucified; what he saw.

Hebrews 12:3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds.

Emmanuel was going through the crucifixion because he loved those, yes, even those who were shouting 'Crucify him, Crucify him!':.Luke 23:21; John 15:13.

Hebrews 12:4 You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.(the evils out there).

Hebrews 12:5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto you as unto children, My son, despise not the chastening.('chastening' here means 'teaching', 'instruction', 'training').of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked of him.

There's a promise from God for you about trials:.1Corinthians 10:13.

Job 5:17 "Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects, therefore despise not you the chastening of the Almighty."
Proverbs 3:12 "For whom God loves he corrects, even as a father the son in whom he delights."

Hebrews 12:6 For whom God loves he chastens.('chastens' here means 'teaches', 'instructs', 'trains' or training situations).and scourges.(a whip, scourge, a calamity, a misfortune sent by God in that laws are set up that automatically work to discipline, so really you are ensuring your own correction:.Proverbs 3:11,12;.Jeremiah 10:24).every son whom he receives.

But don't be harsh with yourself because the dark side ones are always awaiting opportunity (1Peter 5:8) to take you down, as happened to this man.

Hebrews 12:7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons, for what son is he whom the father chastens not?

Hebrews 12:8 But if you be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are you bastards and not sons.

Hebrews 12:9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits.(Numbers 16:22).and live?

Hebrews 12:10 For they verily for a few days chastened us following what was believed to be best for us and he for our profit toward being partakers of his holiness.

Hebrews 12:11 Now no chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

Hebrews 12:12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees;

In other words the verse is saying, get rid of ways which limit you. How? See the groundbreaking movie.The Grand Self.and, if you're serious about improving your life, take notes on what comes to your mind when viewing it.

Hebrews 12:13 And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed.

That is, have an eye to the positive things in life; straighten up yourselves in those things (*) you may be spiritually weak in. How, get knowledge:.Hosea 4:6 "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you shall be no priest to me, seeing you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children."

Hebrews 12:14 Follow peace with all and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.

What's 'the Lord' and do you see Him as cruel and angry or peaceful and kind?

Hebrews 12:15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled.

And from where does it spring up from?

Hebrews 12:16 Lest there be any fornicator or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat.(what food was this?.Genesis 25:27-34).sold his birthright.

Hebrews 12:17 For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected. For he found no place of repentance.(no way to change his mind, that is, get his dad Isaac to change his mind; read the story in Genesis chapter 27), though he sought it carefully with tears.

Those doing evil, when it begins to come back on them, are often very sorry, not that they have done evil, but that the result of what they did is now affecting them:.2Corinthians 7:10 "For godly sorrow works repentance to salvation not to be changed from.(as compared to a change so that self could return to the way it was), but the sorrow of the world works death."

Hebrews 12:20 For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart.

Hebrews 12:21 And so terrible.(original 'awesome in power causing fear').was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake.

Hebrews 12:22.But you are come.(original is 'but come', no 'you are'; in other words 'become part of the plan of God through Christ within you; how and when?; comprehend what Christ is).unto mount Sion and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of angels,

How innumerable?

Hebrews 12:23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect,

Hebrews 12:23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn.(a spiritual in heart invisible church comprised of those firstborn), which are written in heaven.(these are those who want to be of the same qualities as God is).and to God the Judge of all.(how is the Creator the judge of all?).and to the spirits.(your spirit goes on after death).of just men.("just men" in the original is "righteous"; those who have been declared righteous because of their belief in Emmanuel the Christ; comprehend.what 'Christ' is).made perfect.(like Moses and Elijah:.Matthew 17:2,3),

Genesis 18:25.

Hebrews 12:24 And to Emmanuel the mediator of the new covenant and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things than that of Abel.

The blood of Emmanuel is the reality of which the offering of Abel.(the offering of Abel, one of the first two male children of Adam and Eve, the other being the obdurate Cain, was a type; also Hebrews 9:18-28.

Hebrews 12:25 See that you refuse not him that speaks. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on Earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaks from heaven.

Hebrews 12:26 Whose voice then shook the Earth. But now he has promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the Earth only, but also heaven.

From Haggai 2:6.

Hebrews 12:27 And this word, Yet once more, signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made.(things we've made our life out of, Laura Aboli explains), that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.(*).

Hebrews 12:28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom.(Matthew 16:28; Luke 12:32; 2Peter 1:11).which cannot be moved.(what does this mean?), let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence.(reverence is the feeling of innate.moral.repugnance to doing a dishonorable act and these would be acts not of love).and Godly fear.

If one lives his life in love, kindness, service and helpfulness to others, he or she is in alignment with what God is.

Note that it's grace in New Testament times which enables us to be acceptable with God, not adherence to a rigmarole of do's and don'ts as it was in Old Testament times.

Hebrews 12:29 For our God is a consuming fire..(?)
 

 ...continues to Chapter 13

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