Zephaniah 1:12 And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil.

I would not be surprised if you have not read or remember this verse. Zephaniah is a minor prophet and not well read. I believe this one verse is worth revisiting from time to time. It speaks to me every time I read it. Not that I have a new understanding, but rather that I need to be reminded and encouraged.

Many are not aware of the meaning and significance of lees. It is a crusty result of fermentation, changing grapes to wine. Lees settle to the bottom and just lays there. If it were stirred up, it would not be good for the wine.

I think of myself as wine, having changed. My lees are still down there, at the base of who I was before Christ. Its presence is a clear indication that I have changed. Stirring up the old man will do nothing but make my “wine” bitter.

The difficulty lays in the settling on the lees. If we look at the initial change as being sufficient, that we have lees to indicate we have changed, then we run the risk of not becoming the better wine. If you remember Jesus first miracle of turning water into wine, John 2, the bridegroom saved the best wine for last. Wine that settles on the lees does not become the better wine.

We should not settle for good enough. That is like saying salvation doesn’t do anything for me until I die. That is not true. Salvation is new every morning. So how do we get to be the better wine?

2 Corinthians 3:3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

To the end of Zephaniah 1:12 be not a heart that says God will not do anything.

In you He will.

Hebrews 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 the 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.

What part of impossible do we not understand here? I have had many conversations with believers over this very text and the majority of my contemporaries express this one single fear, “I might fail.” They say it in different ways, they express it in deeds more than words. Those deeds were in every one of them that feared was to NOT TASTE of the heavenly gifts.

If they read it the way I read it, it becomes less fearing and takes a deeper understanding.

“For it is impossible… … … to fall away.”

There is a real fear of apostasy, I will not deny that. It marks the era of revelation of that man of perdition, the Anti-Christ. This too must happen to usher in the end of days. We just don’t want it to happen to us. That is a fair statement but why do we allow fear to prevent us from tasting of the divine gifts?

The thing which is impossible in Hebrews 6 is crucifying Christ afresh. Christ died once for all and then it was finished. Finished is finished and nothing more can be done.

Philippians 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Since it is God who wills and works in you, and not you yourselves, what do you have to fear?

On your next communion take the cup of the new covenant and taste it.