Inside the Salisbury Cathedral.by Ves80 CC-BY-SA-2.5,2.0,1.0; Released under the GNU Free Documentation License; CC-BY-SA-3.0-MIGRATED.
Good morning, beloved!
We are getting out o the hospital today! 🙂 I wish I could say they’ve figured out the causes of what is happening to my boy but….”I am sure of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ [right up to the time of His return], developing [that good work] and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you.” (Philippians 1:6)
I want to get another post in and finish this week and start the next week! 🙂 I’m excited to hear what is going to be revealed and I quote!
“You have only one assignment, but oh, will it be blessing! It will give you the key to why and how you can live according to the precepts of the Sermon on the Mount!!” (SOM, p.73) First to lay the groundwork, remember we…
Ephesians 2:
14 For He is [Himself] our peace (our bond of unity and harmony). He has made us both [Jew and Gentile] one [body], and has broken down (destroyed, abolished) the hostile dividing wall between us,
15 By abolishing in His [own crucified] flesh the enmity [caused by] the Law with its decrees and ordinances [which He annulled]; that He from the two might create in Himself one new man [one new quality of humanity out of the two], so making peace.
16 And [He designed] to reconcile to God both [Jew and Gentile, united] in a single body by means of His cross, thereby killing the mutual enmity and bringing the feud to an end.
So when the next passage was written there was no church. No Catholic, Presbyterian, Evangelical, right? After His death, as we just read, we were reconciled to God both Jew and Gentile. The wall is broken down, destroyed. He annulled the enmity caused by the Law. So as we read the next passage, what is promised to Israel and Judah has been given to us, the Gentiles. (SOM, p.72)
Jeremiah 31:
31 Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,
32 Not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was their Husband, says the Lord.
33 But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel: After those days, says the Lord, I will put My law within them, and on their hearts will I write it; and I will be their God, and they will be My people.
34 And they will no more teach each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they will all know Me [recognize, understand, and be acquainted with Me], from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will [seriously] remember their sin no more.
So what do we learn about the New Covenant?
- It’ll be with the house of Israel and with Judah and then of course, with us, Gentiles! 😉
- Not according to the covenant made with their fathers
- The Lord will put His law within us
- On our hearts He will write it
- He will be our God
- We will be His people
- We will all know God, recognize, understand and be acquainted with Him
- From the least to the greatest
- God will forgive our iniquity
- He will seriously (LOVE THAT!) remember their sin no more!
Let’s just keep bringing the truth over our hearts and minds! Ready?
Nave of Notre-Dame de Paris seen from the choir. We distinguish very well the large-Organs in the West rose window. by Benchaum
Jeremiah 32:
39 And I will give them one heart and one way, that they may [reverently] fear Me forever for the good of themselves and of their children after them.
40 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will not turn away from following them to do them good, and I will put My [reverential] fear in their hearts, so that they will not depart from Me.
More about the New Covenant:
11. God will give us one heart and one way
12. WhY? That we may reverently fear ME(GOD) forever for our good and our descendants
13. God will make an everlasting covenant with us
14. God will not turn away from following us to do us good
15. God will put His reverential fear in our hearts
16. So that we will not depart from Him.
Choir of Notre-Dame de Paris: Nicolas Coustoues Pieta and both sides, statues of Louis XIII and Louis XIV William Coustou sculpted by Antoine Coysevox. by Benchaum
Ezekiel 36:
26 A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
27 And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall heed My ordinances and do them.
The only way for us to…Matthew 5:20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness (your uprightness and your right standing with God) is more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven…is that we are walking with Jesus. Look at this passage in Ezekiel! Remarkable! Wonderful.
We will be given a new heart, new spirit. The stones within us are gone. God’s sweet Spirit is within us which causes us to walk in His statutes and makes us able to heed His ordinances and do them. This is how we can have righteousness that is more than scribes and Pharisees. Beloved, nothing in our own power can cause us to stand in righteousness.
My life, your life (once you have accepted the New Covenant as your own and accepted Jesus as your ever-loving Savior) will be filled. You will be given, you are given so much. Just look over that list, friends. What you gain by living a life in the Beloved. Oh, friends, nothing compares to a life in the Beloved.
Yet, remember, I need to remember, as aptly pointed to in my study by Kay Arthur , a life in the Beloved is not a list of dos and don’ts. We are saved by grace..let’s look at one last passage here, read it aloud at bedtime tonight. 🙂 To your family! 🙂
Statue of Joan of Arc in Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral interior, Paris, taken spring 2001 by Steven G. Johnson
Colossians 2 and 3: (purple=good, red=bad)
6 As you have therefore received Christ, [even] Jesus the Lord, [so] walk (regulate your lives and conduct yourselves) in union with and conformity to Him.
7 Have the roots [of your being] firmly and deeply planted [in Him, fixed and founded in Him], being continually built up in Him, becoming increasingly more confirmed andestablished in the faith, just as you were taught, and abounding and overflowing in it with thanksgiving.
8 See to it that no one carries you off as spoil or makes you yourselves captive by his so-called philosophy and intellectualism and vain deceit (idle fancies and plain nonsense), following human tradition (men’s ideas of the material rather than the spiritual world), just crude notions following the rudimentary and elemental teachings of the universe and disregarding [the teachings of] Christ (the Messiah).
9 For in Him the whole fullness of Deity (the Godhead) continues to dwell in bodily form [giving complete expression of the divine nature].
10 And you are in Him, made full and having come to fullness of life [in Christ you too are filled with the Godhead—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—and reach full spiritual stature]. And He is the Head of all rule and authority [of every angelic principality and power].
11 In Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, but in a [spiritual] circumcision [performed by] Christ by stripping off the body of the flesh (the whole corrupt, carnal nature with its passions and lusts).
12 [Thus you were circumcised when] you were buried with Him in [your] baptism, in which you were also raised with Him [to a new life] through [your] faith in the working of God [as displayed] when He raised Him up from the dead.
13 And you who were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh (your sensuality, your sinful carnal nature), [God] brought to life together with [Christ], having [freely] forgiven us all our transgressions,
14 Having cancelled and blotted out and wiped away the handwriting of the note (bond) with its legal decrees and demands which was in force and stood against us (hostile to us). This [note with its regulations, decrees, and demands] He set aside and cleared completely out of our way by nailing it to [His] cross.
15 [God] disarmed the principalities and powers that were ranged against us and made a bold display and public example of them, in triumphing over them in Him and in it [the cross].
16 Therefore let no one sit in judgment on you in matters of food and drink, or with regard to a feast day or a New Moon or a Sabbath.
17 Such [things] are only the shadow of things that are to come, and they have only a symbolic value. But the reality (the substance, the solid fact of what is foreshadowed, the body of it) belongs to Christ.
18 Let no one defraud you by acting as an umpire and declaring you unworthy anddisqualifying you for the prize, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, taking his stand on visions [he claims] he has seen, vainly puffed up by his sensuous notions andinflated by his unspiritual thoughts and fleshly conceit,
19 And not holding fast to the Head, from Whom the entire body, supplied and knit together by means of its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.
20 If then you have died with Christ to material ways of looking at things and have escaped from the world’s crude and elemental notions and teachings of externalism, why do you live as if you still belong to the world? [Why do you submit to rules and regulations?—such as]
21 Do not handle [this], Do not taste [that], Do not even touch [them],
22 Referring to things all of which perish with being used. To do this is to follow human precepts and doctrines.
23 Such [practices] have indeed the outward appearance [that popularly passes] for wisdom, in promoting self-imposed rigor of devotion and delight in self-humiliation and severity of discipline of the body, but they are of no value in checking the indulgence of the flesh (the lower nature). [Instead, they do not honor God but serve only to indulge the flesh.]
DON’T give up yet, keep on reading!!
If then you have been raised with Christ [to a new life, thus sharing His resurrection from the dead], aim at and seek the [rich, eternal treasures] that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
2 And set your minds and keep them set on what is above (the higher things), not on the things that are on the earth.
3 For [as far as this world is concerned] you have died, and your [new, real] life is hidden with Christ in God.
4 When Christ, Who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in [the splendor of His] glory.
5 So kill (deaden, deprive of power) the evil desire lurking in your members [those animal impulses and all that is earthly in you that is employed in sin]: sexual vice, impurity, sensual appetites, unholy desires, and all greed and covetousness, for that is idolatry (the deifying of self and other created things instead of God).
How about it, beloved? Free yourself from someone else’s rules. Set your minds and keep ’em set on the higher things!!
Now, now, before we say…Romans 6:
What shall we say [to all this]? Are we to remain in sin in order that God’s grace (favor and mercy) may multiply and overflow?
2 Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer?
3 Are you ignorant of the fact that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
4 We were buried therefore with Him by the baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious [power] of the Father, so we too might [habitually] liveand behave in newness of life.
So, let’s behave and habitually live in the newness of life with God’s precious Spirit dwelling within us. It’s the only way to have the righteousness that exceeds the scribes and Pharisees…
Or, I think Paul says it better…
Romans 8:
Therefore, [there is] now no condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live [and] walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life [which is] in Christ Jesus [the law of our new being] has freed me from the law of sin and of death.
3 For God has done what the Law could not do, [its power] being weakened by the flesh [the entire nature of man without the Holy Spirit]. Sending His own Son in the guise of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, [God] condemned sin in the flesh [subdued, overcame,deprived it of its power over all who accept that sacrifice],
4 So that the righteous and just requirement of the Law might be fully met in us who liveand move not in the ways of the flesh but in the ways of the Spirit [our lives governed not by the standards and according to the dictates of the flesh, but controlled by the Holy Spirit].
Pray on, beloved. Pray on. Live in the Spirit. Let us move and dwell and have our being in Him!
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