HEBREWS.
12.
We  know about many people like that  who showed they trusted in God. They are like a crowd of spectators  who are cheering for us inside a stadium MET. Knowing that, we must put away all the things that hinder us,  as a runner puts aside everything that would hinder him because they are heavy MET. Especially we must put away sinful actions that  hinder us, as a runner sets aside clothes he does not need, clothes that would entangle him MET. Let us  wholeheartedly strive to achieve what God has planned for us, as someone in a race wholeheartedly runs the course that is before him MET. 
And let us  keep our minds on Jesus,  as a runner keeps his eyes on  the goal MET. Jesus is the one we should imitate in the way he perfectly trusted  God. When he died on the cross he endured it as he suffered greatly MTY, instead of  thinking about the things he would rejoice about  later. He disregarded being disgraced by  dying that way. He is now sitting at the place of highest honor MTY at the throne  where God rules. 
Jesus patiently endured it when sinful people acted so hostilely against him. Try to act the way he did, so that you do not give up  trusting God or become discouraged. 
While you have struggled against  being tempted to sin, you have not yet bled  and died because of resisting evil, as Jesus did. 
Do not forget RHQ these words  that Solomon spoke to his son, that are the same as God would exhort you as his children: My child, pay attention LIT when the Lord is disciplining you, and do not be discouraged when the Lord punishes you DOU, 
because it is everyone whom he loves whom the Lord disciplines, and he punishes everyone whom he accepts as his child. 
It is in order that God may discipline you that he requires you to endure the disagreeable things  that happen to you.  When God disciplines you he is treating you as a father treats his children. All fathers RHQ discipline their children LIT. 
So, if you have not experienced God disciplining you just like he disciplines all his other children, you are  not true children of God MET.  You are like illegitimate children;  no father disciplines them. 
Furthermore, our natural fathers disciplined us  when we were young, and we respected them for doing that. So we should certainly more readily accept God our spiritual Father disciplining us, with the result that we live eternally RHQ! 
Our natural fathers disciplined us for a short time in a way that they considered right,  but it wasn’t always right, but God always disciplines us  in a right way, to help us. He does it so that we may be holy as he is. 
During the time that God is disciplining us, that does not seem to be something about which we should rejoice. Instead, it is something that pains us. But later it causes those who have learned from it to be peaceful and to  live righteously. 
So,  instead of acting as though you were spiritually exhausted, renew yourselves MET spiritually. 
Go straight forward  in your Christian life MET, in order that believers who are uncertain about their faith  will imitate you and not ◄ leave God’s way/become useless  to God► MET. Instead, they will be spiritually restored MET as an injured and useless limb is restored. 
Try to live peacefully with all people. Seek to be holy, since no one will see the Lord if he is not holy. 
Beware that none of you stops  trusting in God,  who has done kind things for us that we did not deserve (OR, Beware that you have never  experienced God kindly  saving you). Be on guard lest any of you  act in an evil way towards others, because your doing that will  grow like MET a root  grows into a big plant, and the result  of your doing that will be that many believers will sin and become unacceptable to God. 
Do not let anyone be immoral, or be irreligious as Esau was. He exchanged the rights he had as a firstborn son for only one meal. 
You know that after he did that, he wanted to receive  what his father would promise to give him if he blessed him. But  his father was unable  to change what he had already done. And Esau found no way to change things, even though he sought tearfully to do that. 
In coming  to God you have not  experienced things like what the Israeli people experienced at  Sinai Mountain.  They approached  a mountain that God told them they should not touch.  They approached a blazing fire, and it was gloomy and dark DOU, and there was a hurricane/cyclone. 
They heard a trumpet sounding and they heard  God speak. The result was that those who heard it pleaded for God not to speak to them like that again. 
When  God commanded them saying, “If  a person or even an animal touches this mountain,  you must  kill him/it by throwing stones at him/it,” they were terrified. 
Truly, because Moses was terrified after seeing what happened  on the mountain, he said, “I am trembling because I am very afraid!” 
Instead,  it is as though you have come to  the presence of God in heaven MET.  That is like what your ancestors did when they came to worship God on Zion Hill, in Jerusalem, in the city of God who is all-powerful. You have come (OR, you are coming) to where there are countless angels, who are rejoicing as they have gathered together. 
You have joined all the believers  who have privileges like firstborn sons, whose names  God has written down in heaven. You have come to God, who will judge everyone. You have come to where the spirits of God’s people are, people who lived righteously  before they died, and who now have been made perfect  in heaven. 
You have come to Jesus, who arranged a new covenant  between us and God. You have accepted  what he accomplished when his blood flowed  when he died on the cross. His doing that made it possible for God to forgive us. That is better than the blood of Abel,  who just wanted revenge because his brother Cain murdered him. 
Beware that you do not refuse to listen to  God who is speaking to you. The Israeli people did not escape  God punishing them when  Moses (OR,  God) warned them here on earth. So we shall surely not escape  God punishing us if we reject him when he warns us from heaven! RHQ 
The earth shook PRS then when he spoke MTY  at Sinai Mountain. But now he has promised, “I will shake the earth again, one more time, but I will shake heaven too.” 
The words “again, one more time” indicate that things  on earth will be shaken {that  he will shake things  on earth}, meaning that he will set aside all that  he has created, in order that the things  in heaven that cannot be shaken {that nothing can shake} may remain forever. 
So, let us thank God that we are becoming members of a kingdom that nothing can shake. Let us worship/serve God in a way that pleases him by being greatly in awe DOU before him. 
Remember that the God we  worship/serve is like a fire that burns up everything  that is impure MET!