When I married Ken, I couldn't cook.  Anything.  Remember, I told you that in my family, when I was growing up, if you were reading a book you didn't have to do any housework.  Reading was considered the most important work that a child could do.  I read constantly.  A no-brainer.

The first thing I attempted to cook was Jello.  But the instructions seemed stupid to me.  Boil water, add Jello powder, put it in the refrigerator.   Why boil the water if you were going to put it in the refrigerator?  It made no sense.  So, I mixed the Jello powder with water and stuck it in the refrigerator.

It sat in the refrigerator until it molded.   I learned something.  Instructions may be important.  Boil the water, you get Jello.  Don't, you get mold.  I learned to make Jello by following the instructions.

It's the same thing with directions in the Bible.  Follow the instructions, you get peace.  Don't, and you get mold of the soul.  God knows how things are going to turn out.  But there are steps involved that you can't skip or get out of order.  Step one, step two, step three…

l.   Recognize that you sin and you can't fix the past.  It's done.  You did it.
2.  Repent.  And I'm not talking about being sorry.  Repent means you aren't  going to do those things        any more--or anything else that isn't in the instructions for making Jello.  God's plan.  Not yours.
3.  Ask for forgiveness.  Recognize that your sins were paid for by God's sacrificial Lamb.  Jesus.
4.  Give the rest of you life, all of it, to Him.  Of course this means that you may not know what happens next in God's recipe for your life.  But it will be alright.  "Thy will be done" means just that.

Now you know how to cook.  Don't skip steps.

I was probably in the second grade.  All of us kids walked home back then.  It was safe. No one hurt anyone, much less a  child.  If they did, they would probably be dead by morning.  Vigilante law had been in effect as recently as 50 years earlier, and in Oklahoma, in the 40's,  justice was still pretty much swift.  Maybe not always legal, but swift.

There was a field of clover on the way home.  I always stopped and watched the bees darting around in the blossoms while I hunted for four leaf clovers.  And I always found one.  I got pretty good at it.

I would take them home, press them in a book until their leaves were dry and brittle.  I didn't know if there was such a thing as luck, but I wanted to be on the safe side.  I had a lot of four leaf clovers.  There was even a song about them that was popular at the time:

"I'm Looking Over A Four Leaf Clover"

I'm looking over a four leaf clover 
I overlooked before
  One leaf is sunshine, the second is rain
Third is the roses that grow in the lane

No need explaining
The one remaining is somebody I adore
I'm looking over a four leaf clover
I overlooked before.

Now that I'm older, I no longer believe in luck.   But I definitely believe in prayer.  God answers prayer.   Ken has had two much easier days.  Yesterday and today.  Some of you out there must be praying for him!!    James 5: 16b "The… effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much."  

And that isn't luck.

I've been reading the 10th chapter of Hebrews and I don't know which verses to pick!!  The entire chapter explains that sacrifices by priests are utterly useless - that we have one and only one way to cover sin.

Hebrews 10:12 "But this man,  (Jesus) after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever,  sat down on the right hand of God:"   Done.  No more sacrifices.  No more routes to God.

Jesus said, "...I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father but by me."  John 14: 6

So if you are looking for something more you can do to seal your salvation, give it up.  He is it.  The only IT.  All these other religions and methods won't get you where you want to go.  The Bible is our guide.

Heb. 10: l7, God speaks in the first person again.  But this time, the first person is speaking to the first person!!!  "Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book, it is written of me,) to do your will O God."  Jesus was God.  Speaking to the Father.

And he is saying that all the Old Testament was written about Him.  "The volume of the book."

We probably ought to read it.

My daughter asked me why I never write about what is happening in my life "In The Now."  She said, "You always write about what happened years ago and never what is going on now.  There are people who would be encouraged by what you are going through."

My answer was that while I'm going through something hard, painful or discouraging, that I am just trying to get through it.  Knowing that God is with me.  Also knowing that nothing will ever come my way that I cannot bear because He says so in His word.  But most of the time, I have no idea what the point of the experience is until later.  When I can look back and say, "Oh.  That was what that was all about.  And then maybe I can comfort someone else.

Both of my daughters are concerned that I am exhausted by the enormous  difficulty of caring for their father, my husband of 57 years.  But God has blessed me with enough physical and spiritual strength to manage.

Ken is not well.  This "Bigger than life" Marine is fighting a battle with kidney failure that he is slowly losing.  The loss of the ability to handle the things in our lives that he has always been able to do is of great concern to him.  He doesn't want to be a burden.   I tell him every day that it is my great privilege to care for him.  He is such an awesome person.

There is nothing I would rather be doing with my life than caring for him.   Which is a God thing, because I am not normally a very compassionate person.  I always thought that everyone should just keep on keeping on and deal with what comes their way.  But God  has turned me into a new and different person through this experience.  My compassion overflows.

I started blogging because I quit doing a lot of things that took me away from Ken.   I have no idea who all is reading this.  But be encouraged.  Our God is sufficient for all our needs.

Hebrews is a book rich with historical reviews of stories in the Old Testament.  At every turn, the writer uses these stories to show us the relationship that God had with his people back then,  and to explain clearly the new, better, eternal relationship that Jesus has brought to us.

Heb. 9:14  "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?"

The term "dead works" is referring to keeping the law in hopes of salvation instead of serving the living God.  Nothing wrong with the law, we should keep the law.  But it doesn't save us.  Only the law God has written on our hearts will prompt us to service of the living God.  We give our lives to Him, and He prompts our conscience.

I have always been a truthful person, sometimes to my detriment.  I have only told a lie two times that I remember.  The first was as a senior in high school when the principal asked me if I had had lunch with some of my friends--who were standing behind him nodding their heads up and down.  They didn't want to get in trouble.  I never did find out what they had done.

I said, "Yes."  A lie.  Which haunted me from within my Spirit filled conscience for twenty years, until we had our first high school reunion.  My old high school principal was there.   I found him and told him what I had done.  And how sorry I was.   Confession is good for the soul.

He said, "I should never have put you in that position. I knew they were guilty."

But he did put me in that position.  And I lied.  And God wouldn't let me forget it.  When He lives in our bodies, His temple, He decides what is right and what is wrong.  You can't escape Him.


  

Bought with a price.  The death of Jesus on the cross was horrible.  But that alone was not what saved us.  Many people died on crosses.  Two men died on either side of Jesus and they couldn't save us.

You might say that Jesus was different because he was perfect.  True, but that only allowed him to be the perfect sacrificial lamb.  It allowed a sacrifice that was acceptable to God.

The thing that saves us is that Jesus became sin--for us.  Every wrong thing that the people of the world have done was laid on him.   And God, who cannot look upon sin, turned away from the cross.  And Jesus died.  Alone.  Because of you.  Because of me.

In Matthew 27: 46, Jesus cries "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me."

And in Isaiah 59:1-2 : "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear; But your sins have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear."  Our sin, laid on Jesus, caused God to turn away and close His ears.

And in Isaiah 53: 6 "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the sins of us all."   We killed an innocent man.

Now that is what is meant by, "Bought with a price."

Occasionally in the Bible, God speaks in the first person.  The writer of Hebrews gives us the voice of God himself in  Heb. 8: 8-12.  I'll give you the short version:

"…I will make a new covenant with Israel…",  "Not according to the covenant I made with Israel…",  "I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt…"   "I regarded them…"  This is the covenant  I will make …with Israel…",

And then God (personally, using the word " I" ) adds an important new concept for the reader of the book of Hebrews.  He tells us a remarkably wonderful thing.  A thing that neither the Jews, nor the Gentiles would never have thought  up by themselves.

In  Heb. 8: 10b,  God says:  "I will put my laws into their mind, and write them (the laws) in their hearts:  and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:" 

God had always connected with people in the temple.  Through a priest, in a pillar of fire, a burning bush, to name a few ways he spoke to them.  He gave them laws to follow--which they (and we) broke.

But now, after the perfect sacrifice for sin had been made through the death of Christ on the cross,  God is saying that we will have a new way of knowing right from wrong.   He will take up residence within us and lead us in the paths of righteousness.  We become the temple of God.  He will write law on our hearts.

1Corintthians 6: 19-20 "What?  don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own?  For you ares bought with a price;:  therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."

Bought with a price.

In the 7th and 8th chapters of Hebrews, our writer is speaking specifically to Jews.  He covers the Old Covenant that God made with Abraham and explains why earthly priests were not able to cover their sin, (nor ours).  He then explains the New Covenant that God made through Jesus Christ

If you are interested in Melchisedec,  these are the chapters where you find references to the Old Testament priesthood.  The writer makes a rock solid case for us that we have only one priest.  Jesus.

Heb. 7: 19  "For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did;  by the which (whom) we draw near unto God."  The writer is talking of Jesus.  The better Hope.

Heb. 7: 24-25   "But this man, (Jesus) because he continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood.  Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them."

The law didn't do anything but show us we couldn't keep it.  It made nothing perfect.

The sacrifices had to be made over and over again--and even then they didn't really cover sin.

So God sent hope.  Hope for our condition.  Jesus is our hope and is able to save us--to the uttermost.

We draw near to God through our priest Jesus, who intercedes for us.  Forever.

What a deal.  You and I can talk to God.  And all because Jesus was our sacrifice for sin.

The only thing that I don't ever seem to get is "Why,"  Why would a perfect God want you, or me?

In Heb. 6:15 we read that after he had patiently endured, he,  (Abraham) obtained the promise.   God is telling us something we need to know about patience.  It requires endurance.

I said I'd tell you a story.

In 1959, Ken was overseas (again), I had two babies, no money and was living with Ken's parents for a few months in California North of the Golden Gate Bridge.  Ken's mother was a saint.  One of the kindest, most understanding people I have ever known.  Mother Theresa is the only person who might be in the same category.

One day, I was frazzled with my oldest daughter Pat's behavior.  I think she was in the terrible twos before her time.  So I shared with Ken's mom that I had tried everything I knew to deal with her.  I said, "I even have prayed and prayed that God would give me patience."

Ken's mom (Matry) audibly drew breath in and put her hand over her heart and said, "Oh, No."  Don't ever pray for patience!!!" ( Her husband, Ken's dad was a Baptist preacher extraordinaire, so I figured that Mary must know something that I didn't.)  So I asked her why I shouldn't pray for patience.

"Well," she said, "The Bible tells us in Romans 5: 6 that tribulation worketh  patience.  So when you pray for patience, you are praying for tribulation--and you already have that.  Patience comes from tribulation."  The next verse (7) gives the progression:  "…tribulation works patience, and patience, experience; and experience, hope;"

So I haven't ever prayed for patience again.  I pray for wisdom.  And endurance.  I don't need any more tribulation.

Sometimes it  seems like nothing we do is appreciated.    Many times people don't even say "Thank you." If you never get a "Thank you";  if you never are appreciated;  just keep on keeping on.  It is the behaviors of kindness that mark us as the children of God.

The writer gives an example of patience in doing God's will.  He tells the story of Abraham's desire for a son.

Heb. 6: 13-14  "For when God made (a) promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no greater, he swore by Himself.  Saying, Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you."

Blessing I will bless.  Multiplying I will multiply.  God's promises are always fulfilled.

And even though Abraham and Sarah gave up on having a son, and even though they doubted God, God did what He said He would do.  Sarah  bore Isaac when she was in her nineties.  The son that God had promised.

Which brings me to a couple of verses that I have memorized.  I try to memorize things that I need.

Heb. 6:15  "And so, after he (Abraham) had patiently endured, he obtained the promise."
Heb. 10:36  "For you have need of patience, that, after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise."

Patience is not one of my virtues.  I'll tell you a story about that on Monday.

Heb. 6: 9a-10  "But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation…  For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which you have showed toward his name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister."

The writer wants to point that even though he has said their works are "dead"  (as far as obtaining salvation)  that God expects them to do good works.  Better things.  Things that are a direct result of salvation.  "Salvation" is the word the Bible uses for receiving Christ.  So today when someone receives Christ, we say they are saved.  And they are.  From the "wrath to come" to quote the Bible.

He explains that God is not about to forget the good and kind and helpful things that we have done in His name.  There will be a reward.  Both here on earth, and in His Kingdom.  Even if there were no  heavenly reward, it just makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside to help someone.  You get the blessing when you help someone.

I have been encouraging my Sunday class to make a new habit when they go through McDonalds, or check out at the grocery store, etc.   Try to say, "God bless you," when you are leaving.  Of course, I have been working on it, too.  I have been amazed at how many people look startled, then reply "You, too." Now when I travel my regular weekly routes the checkout personal smile.  I have never had a bad result from blessing someone in God's name.

Try it.  It is a very small good work in a world that is so disconnected from each other.

A series of very controversial verses are attached to this idea of " proceeding forward"

Heb. 6: 4-6  "For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame."

 It sounds like if you were redeemed and then sinned that all hope is gone.  If so we are all doomed.  I don't think that's what it says at all.  I believe the verses are pretty clear.  He says that if:

1.  You have given your life to God, and you have been enlightened (you understand the purpose of Christ's coming and have accepted the conditions that He preached and God commanded)
2.  You have "tasted" the gift of God's Spirit--the Holy Ghost.
3.  Have "tasted" the good Word of God and His power concerning life in his coming kingdom.

Then, it is impossible to "fall away".  You are always under the conviction of the Holy Spirit concerning sin.  You can't go back there any more.  And the concept of "repentance" is that once you have repented you are changed.  You don't want to rebel.  Your heart just isn't in it.  When you do a wrong thing, God's Spirit convicts you, you confess your remorse, and as a loving Father, he forgives you.  You may have broken your fellowship with Him, but there is no way you can break the relationship.  You are His.  He owns you.  The Bible says you have been bought with a price.

If you had to do all of the steps leading to your salvation again and again every time you do something wrong, then Christ would have to be crucified again and again.  What would be the point of His death in the first place?  That's the religion the Jews already had.  The Messiah came to be the sacrificial Lamb.  Once.  Not over and over again.

The writer of Hebrews, having chastised us for being spiritually anemic and immature, begins the next chapter by saying we need to "Get on with it."  The word "therefore" says that he is concluding what he has just finished saying.

Heb. 6: 1-2  "Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, Of the doctrine of baptisms and of laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.  And this will we do, if God permits."

All of the important beliefs that got you to where you are in Christ are laid out.

1.  Repentance.  You can't ever get started on a connection with God until you first are truly repentant. Not sorry.  Sorry doesn't change anything.  Repentance means you are guilty, and, not only ready to change, but ready to accept God's rules and authority.  Only Christ's perfect blood can cover our sin.

2.  Quit trying to get there on all the good things you have done.  God calls your good works, "Dead."  You can't ever do anything to undo the wrongs you have committed.  Our only hope is for Christ to step up at the judgement and stand between us and a death sentence.  He alone is worthy.  We aren't.

3.  Faith in God.  He is saying that faith is an obvious necessity for salvation.  You don't need to keep going back there.  You have it, or you don't.  Faith in God is a critical component of salvation.   No faith, no salvation.

4. Doctrines.  Of baptism, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.  Arguments on the exact method of these subjects distracts.  Decide what God says on these subjects, but don't get stuck there.  Get moving forward to the meat of God's word.  Chew.  

In the fifth chapter of Hebrews, the writer expresses dismay at the people's lack of growth in light of the the message they have heard about Jesus.

He tells them that he has many things to say about Christ, but that they are aren't able to comprehend because they are like babies.  They are not growing as they should.

Heb. 5:12-14  "For when for the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again what are the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.  For every one that uses milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.  But strong meat belongs to those that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."

Babies, children, youth, then adults.  This is the progression that should occur.  The writer convicts us of running the race of life while standing in the same place.  Making no progress at all if we don't use what we have learned and then--learn more.  Quit turning in circles.

God saves us to begin a journey of faith.  To Grow. And to teach others.  To exercise our senses by using our mind.  To grow some spiritual teeth so we can eat meat.  You can't have a real adult relationship with God when you remain a mutant.

And finally, he says you don't have enough sense to discern good and evil.   Spiritually stupid.  Doomed to make all the wrong choices and miss God's plan for your life.

What a shame if you spend your entire life as a spiritual baby.  God has so much more for you.  Grow some teeth.

Heb. 3: 14  "Seeing then that we have a great high priest, (the only One we need to communicate with God), who is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God,  let us hold fast the profession of our faith."  Jesus is our priest.   Our job is hold on tight to our faith, which we have professed.

Heb. 3:15b  "…but (He) was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."  This is the third time the writer has reminded us that Jesus was just as human as we are.

And then comes the verse I want to talk about.

 Heb. 3 15 "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."

Because of what Jesus did, because he is our priest, we have access to a Holy God.  We can walk right into the throne room and say, "Hello Father."

And God will see us as sinless, covered by Christ's blood--the sacrifice for sin.

And we get mercy.  And grace.  And help in times of need.

Mercy, grace and help.  What a comfort.  What a savior.  He died so we could live and have access to God.

Restoration to the place God wanted for us in the first place.

In Heb. 3:7,  the writer again says: "Today….today."  Do not harden your heart.  He is telling us that ignoring the voice of God places scar tissue over our sensitivity.  As we refuse to do His will, the scar tissue builds up until we can no longer hear his voice.

Then the writer gives us one of the greatest verses in the Bible.  A verse of instruction to the faithful who believe in the words of Jesus and the words written by those who knew Him.  We hear God's voice in many ways, but through His Words we find His will.

Heb. 3:12, "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."

Quick, Powerful, Sharp, Piercing, discerning.  That is the work of God's word in our hearts.

It goes deep into our inner soul, and spirit, and bones, and marrow, and thoughts, and intents.

God speaks through his word.  It is critical that we read it or we will be untouched by His Spirit.  His words are the words of life.  Reading His words fills a person with joy.

Don't get spiritual scar tissue.  Answer him.  Today, today, today...

Today.   Today.   Today.   That is the message of Hebrews chapter 3.  

Paul (probably)  is calling on the people to remember Moses, and all of the Israelites who followed Moses into the desert..  Warning them that if they don't do what God asks them to do, they can't enter into the promised land.  The allegory is about our promised land--heaven.

In verse 7b-8a, he says, "…Today if you will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts…" 

In verse 13 he says, "But exhort one another daily, while it is call Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin."

In verse 15a, "While it is said, Today if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts…" 

Notice that in all three verses, God equates refusal to respond today with a hardened heart.  A hardened heart says, "Tomorrow," "Later,"  or "Not now."  The Bible says that God will not always call you. That is scary. 

You have probably heard that still small voice of God calling you.  The  response is critical.  You must respond today. 

The most horrible passage in the Bible to me is the passage in Romans 1: 28a  "And even as they did not like to retain God (God's voice) in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind…"

He has a plan for you.  It involves a response.  Today.  You don't have any Biblical assurance that God will always strive with you.  "God gave them over…"  The most horrible passage in the Bible.

The writer ends his thoughts on angels by saying in Hebrews 2: 17-18  "Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren (us), that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.  For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to succor (assist and support)  them that are tempted."

The high priest is Jesus.  In all things pertaining to God.  To make reconciliation with God for us.  Now where in that passage is there any room for praying to anyone but Jesus--who now is in our hearts and is His Spirit?   What other way can we "get" to God?  You have to have someone to intercede and Jesus is it.  He alone makes reconciliation for sin.

"Neither is there salvation in any other (name); for there is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."  Acts 4:12

He made a decision, knowing what all it entailed, to come to earth and be like us.  For the purpose of bringing man and God back together.  We were alienated from God because of our sin.

He was tempted.  There are some who would say that He was God so he wasn't really tempted like we are.  The writer of Hebrews says in Heb. 4: 15 "For we don't have a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."

What a man.  What a high priest.  What a God.

It is hard to read the book of Hebrews and not comment on every verse.  So, since I am going to be here for a while, it might be helpful if you would read along in your Bible.

In Heb. 1:4-2:1,  the writer gives us the comparison of Jesus and angels, and declares the supremacy of Jesus is without question.

In 2:2-3,  He says, "For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense (punishment) of reward;   How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation…spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by them that heard him."

God punished angels.  Lucifer is a prime example.  He was cast out of heaven.  And if God would do that…how do we think we can escape his punishment?

But the big word in all that is "Neglect."  Guilty, guilty, guilty.  We spend our days doing a thousand things other than tending to our salvation.  We are prone to wander.  To get distracted. We neglect God.

I am amazed as I watch the Discovery channel at the "could be's" and the "might be's' that are present in the documentaries.  We have a book full of confirmations "...spoken by the Lord…"  by multitudes that heard him.  The Bible itself is a documentary of eye witness testimonies.

Heb. 2. 9   "But we see Jesus, (through the eyes of those who heard him and touched him) who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man."

I really don't want to taste the kind of death that Christ did.   I'm so glad he was made lower than angels for a period of time.  Lowly, like  us.   "He tasted death for us, by the grace of God."   Grace,  Grace,  God's grace.  Grace that is greater than all our sin.

"…in these last days has spoken to us by his Son…" God is through speaking to us in terms of what is, what was, and what is to come.  Done.  The Word of God.  Jesus.  The Bible.   Anything more than that is false prophecy.

Hebrews 2:2b-3 "…whom he has appointed heir of all things, by whom he also made the worlds;  Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;"

John 1:1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God with God, and the word was God.  The same was in the beginning with God."

Everyone who wrote about Jesus in what we now call the Bible is in agreement.  Jesus is it.

He made the worlds.
He is gloriously bright
He is the express image of God
His words are full of power
He purged our sins………………….and then………………….

He sat down and waited for us at the right hand of God.

We are all waiting.  Some of us don't have that long to wait.

And then there is the book of Hebrews.  I think I will stay here for awhile.  I love this book.  They say Paul wrote it, but no one is sure.  It doesn't sound like Paul.  When Paul  is writing something,  right in the middle of it he gets caught up in something else.  He always returns to his subject, but I think that his head was so full of knowledge that he literally burst with desire to cover it all in one breath.

Hebrews isn't quite like that.  I love the way it starts.

Heb. 1: 1-2a  "God, who at sundry (many, several) times and if divers (various) manners spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his Son…"

If someone comes to you with a "new word" or a "new prophecy"  you can automatically know that they are a false teacher.  All prophecy ended with Jesus Christ.  Only the second coming is unfulfilled.  The Old Testament predicts the coming of Jesus.  That was fulfilled.  Perfectly, in every prophetic detail.  And there were many, many prophecies--all of them exactly fulfilled in Jesus.

But nowhere does our Bible say that new prophets will come, or new words will come.  John the Beloved wrote the last book of prophecy.  Revelation.  The heart of the Bible is the first and second coming of Christ.

You don't need any more prophecy.  You have it all.  God spoke in the olden days through prophets.  But in these last days He has spoken through His Son.  In these last days.  Jesus spoke.  Those who knew and wrote of him 2000 years ago are the final word from God.  The Word of God.  

That's it.  Listen to the Son.  But people have itching ears--they want ghosts, aliens, and vampires.