David and Jonathan Covenant

Living in Covenant

A Personal Perspective

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

A Covenant between Friends

1 Samuel 20:12-17 New International Version 

12 Then Jonathan said to David, “I swear by the Lord, the God of Israel, that I will surely sound out my father by this time the day after tomorrow! If he is favorably disposed toward you, will I not send you word and let you know? 13 But if my father intends to harm you, may the Lord deal with Jonathan, be it ever so severely, if I do not let you know and send you away in peace. May the Lordbe with you as he has been with my father. 14 But show me unfailing kindness like the Lord’s kindness as long as I live, so that I may not be killed, 15 and do not ever cut off your kindness from my family—not even when the Lord has cut off every one of David’s enemies from the face of the earth.”
16 So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the Lord call David’s enemies to account.” 17 And Jonathan had David reaffirm his oath out of love for him, because he loved him as he loved himself.

For Reflection

The cost of righteousness is sometimes high. Jonathan, Saul's son, understood the injustice and treachery of which his father in is jealous state was capable. Jonathan's decision to thwart Saul's obsession to murder David was made out of love for David. Jonathan chose a covenant of love over his father's covenant of hate.

Pray

Pray for the courage to follow the commandment to love one another in the face of difficult choices.


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David Escapes

Living in Covenant

A Personal Perspective

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

A Covenant betweenFriends

1 Samuel 19:8-12 New International Version

8 Once more war broke out, and David went out and fought the Philistines. He struck them with such force that they fled before him.
9 But an evil[a] spirit from the Lord came on Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand. While David was playing the lyre, 10 Saul tried to pin him to the wall with his spear, but David eluded him as Saul drove the spear into the wall. That night David made good his escape.
11 Saul sent men to David’s house to watch it and to kill him in the morning. But Michal, David’s wife, warned him, “If you don’t run for your life tonight, tomorrow you’ll be killed.” 12 So Michal let David down through a window, and he fled and escaped.

For Reflection

The covenant between David and Michal (who was Saul's daughter and promised in marriage to David) was a stronger bond than blood. As a result of David's success against the Philistines, David satisfied the marriage dowry.

Pray

Pray for strong divine covenants.


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Saul Fears David

Living in Covenant

A Personal Perspective

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

A Covenant betweenFriends

1 Samuel 18:10-16 The Message 

10-11 The next day an ugly mood was sent by God to afflict Saul, who became quite beside himself, raving. David played his harp, as he usually did at such times. Saul had a spear in his hand. Suddenly Saul threw the spear, thinking, “I’ll nail David to the wall.” David ducked, and the spear missed. This happened twice.
12-16 Now Saul feared David. It was clear that God was with David and had left Saul. So, Saul got David out of his sight by making him an officer in the army. David was in combat frequently. Everything David did turned out well. Yes, God was with him. As Saul saw David becoming more successful, he himself grew more fearful. He could see the handwriting on the wall. But everyone else in Israel and Judah loved David. They loved watching him in action.

For Reflection

Selected by God as Israel's first king, Saul made several attempts to kill David.  They all failed. Saul forgot that God chose him and expected Saul to be obedient to his word.  But having abandoned his commission, and threatened by David's success and popularity, Saul became enraged by jealousy. Instead of understanding his Kingship as a gift of God, Saul saw his position and power dwindling. He changed his idea of who he was from an appointee of God to a supreme ruler obsessed with self-glorification.

Pray

Pray often and long so that you remain a faithful and humble servant of God.


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Hearing and Doing

Living in Covenant

A Heart-felt Covenant

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

Jesus Teaches about Spiritual Discernment

Matthew 7:24-29 New International Version

The Wise and Foolish Builders

24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.

For Reflection

Hearing the word of God is only the beginning of eternal spiritual life. Just reading the bible, listening to sermons, or regularly attending worship is not enough.  Christ is waiting for you to internalize the Word and live it fully and courageously.  

Pray

Make living the wordyour prayer.

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Asking and Receiving

Living in Covenant

A Heart-felt Covenant

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

Jesus Teaches about Spiritual Discernment

Matthew 7:7-14 New International Version

Ask, Seek, Knock

7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

The Narrow and Wide Gates

13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

For Reflection

We are not talking here about any old request.  "Please God, I need a job" Or as Janis Joplin sang, "Oh Lord, won't you by me a Mercedes Benz. My friends all drive Porches. I must make amends."

Matthew is speaking of spiritual enlightenment. And the fulfillment of the request is a fuller understanding of God's intentions. The spark in your soul that yearns to be satisfied can be satiated only through a close relationship with God.  In this request, we find the peace that passes all understanding and can then rest in Christ.

Pray

Pray often and long so that you can grow in Grace and meet Christ face-to-face, not in fear but hope.

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Settle Differences

Living in Covenant

A Heart-felt Covenant

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

Jesus Teaches about Spiritual Discernment

Matthew 18:15-20 The Message

15-17 “If a fellow believer hurts you, go and tell him—work it out between the two of you. If he listens, you’ve made a friend. If he won’t listen, take one or two others along so that the presence of witnesses will keep things honest, and try again. If he still won’t listen, tell the church. If he won’t listen to the church, you’ll have to start over from scratch, confront him with the need for repentance, and offer again God’s forgiving love.

18-20 “Take this most seriously: A yes on earth is yes in heaven; a no on earth is no in heaven. What you say to one another is eternal. I mean this. When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action. And when two or three of you are together because of me, you can be sure that I’ll be there.”

For Reflection

Who has the responsibility to resolve differences?  The one who feels violated should take the first step toward reconciliation.  Some times one has to be persistent. But it is not about who was wrong. It is about making it right.

Sometimes it is not possible to reconcile. Then, let time heal the differences and continue to permit God to work in you and the other.  

Pray

Pray often and long so that you can love as God loves and correct as God corrects.

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A Fruitful Life

Living in Covenant

A Heart-felt Covenant

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

Jesus Teaches about Spiritual Discernment

Jeremiah 17:5-8 The Message

5-6 God’s Message:
“Cursed is the strong one
    who depends on mere humans,
Who thinks he can make it on muscle alone
    and sets God aside as dead weight.
He’s like a tumbleweed on the prairie,
    out of touch with the good earth.
He lives rootless and aimless
    in a land where nothing grows.
7-8 “But blessed is the man who trusts me, God,
    the woman who sticks with God.
They’re like trees replanted in Eden,
    putting down roots near the rivers—
Never a worry through the hottest of summers,
    never dropping a leaf,
Serene and calm through droughts,
    bearing fresh fruit every season.

For Reflection

Who or what do you worship? Do you trust only in yourself? Do you believe in the accumulation of wealth? Will you be satisfied with the blessings of increased power?


Or do you have such unreasonable trust in God that you rest in the notion that neither human, economic, social, or tragic vagaries, can disable you?  Do you face human sufferings with the confidence that no matter how terrible it seems, God will work in you to make all things right?

Pray

Pray so that you can face life's worrisome vagaries with courage and hope.

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Walk by the Word

Living in Covenant

A Heart-felt Covenant

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

Jesus Teaches about Spiritual Discernment

Psalm 1 New International Version

Psalm 1

1 Blessed is the one
    who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
    or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and who meditates on his law day and night.
3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
    which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
    whatever they do prospers.
4 Not so the wicked!
    They are like chaff
    thatthe wind blows away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
    nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
    but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

For Reflection

The will of God is that we are blessed. Blessed with the image of God. Blessed with free choice. Blessed with a point in our souls where Christ resides.  Blessed with holiness. 

And yet we stumble. We fill our selves with prideful action. We allow our selves to be seduced by our own power. We squander our inheritance as a child of God and in doing so, suffer our trivial lives as useless as wind-driven chaff.

In spite of our missteps, we are always invited and welcomed into the family of God.  We can choose to turn back to live in the light of Christ.

Pray

Pray prayers of praise for God who bears no grudge and invites us to stand again with God to live the truth of God's Grace.

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The Greatest Commandments

Living in Covenant

A Heart-felt Covenant

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

Jesus Teaches about Transforming Love

Matthew 22:34-40 New International Version 

The Greatest Commandment

34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

For Reflection

Where do you place your trust? What do you worship? Loving God with all your heart, mind, and soul is to worship the God of love and justice. Adhering to the letter of the law is a matter of proving one violated the rules. However, adhering to the commandment of love is a matter of fostering justice when the letter of the law is insufficient to do so.  

Pray

Pray often and long so that you remember to treat each human as you would like to be treated. Pray for those who are enslaved to the rules of living.  Pray for those who follow Jesus and seek compassion when the law is incapable of distributive justice.

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Love Your Neighbors

Living in Covenant

A Heart-felt Covenant

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

Jesus Teaches about Transforming Love

Romans 13:1-10 The Message

To Be a Responsible Citizen

13 1-3 Be a good citizen. All governments are under God. Insofar as there ispeace and order, it’s God’s order. So live responsibly as a citizen. If you’re irresponsible to the state, then you’re irresponsible with God, and God will hold you responsible. Duly constituted authorities are only a threat if you’re trying to get by with something. Decent citizens should have nothing to fear.
3-5 Do you want to be on good terms with the government? Be a responsible citizen and you’ll get on just fine, the government working to your advantage. But if you’re breaking the rules right and left, watch out. The police aren’t there just to be admired in their uniforms. God also has an interest in keeping order, and he uses them to do it. That’s why you must live responsibly—not just to avoid punishment but also because it’s the right way to live.
6-7 That’s also why you pay taxes—so that an orderly way of life can be maintained. Fulfill your obligations as a citizen. Pay your taxes, pay your bills, respect your leaders.
8-10 Don’t run up debts, except for the huge debt of love you owe each other. When you love others, you complete what the law has been after all along. The law code—don’t sleep with another person’s spouse, don’t take someone’s life, don’t take what isn’t yours, don’t always be wanting what you don’t have, and any other “don’t” you can think of—finally adds up to this: Love other people as well as you do yourself. You can’t go wrong when you love others. When you add up everything in the law code, the sum total is love.

 

For Reflection

Governments, for good or bad, establish order.  Here Paul may have been reacting to the notion that because one follows Jesus and holds God as the supreme ruler, one has no obligation the secular order. Remember the Jews did not separate the dominion of civil law and the religion they practiced. Jesus refused to adjudicate civil disputes. That is what civil law is to do. Jesus did not establish a new theocracy. Instead, Jesus established a spiritual foundation for the relationships among people and God, a relationship based on love.

 It is right, though, to challenge those civil practices which require the violation of justice. When the laws interfered with the rights of conscience or commanded the worship of idols, non-violent resistance to be subordinated to unjust civil law and ruthless governments has always been a Christian prerogative.

Pray

Pray often and long so that you remember express love even in times of resistance when civil order requires immoral or unjust action of you.

Filled with Grace

Living in Covenant

A Heart-felt Covenant

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

Jesus Teaches about Transforming Love

Acts 6:8-15 The Message (MSG

8-10 Stephen, brimming with God’s grace and energy, was doing wonderful things among the people, unmistakable signs that God was among them. But then some men from the meeting place whose membership was made up of freed slaves, Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and some others from Cilicia and Asia, went up against him trying to argue him down. But they were no match for his wisdom and spirit when he spoke.
11 So in secret, they bribed men to lie: “We heard him cursing Moses and God.”
12-14 That stirred up the people, the religious leaders, and religion scholars. They grabbed Stephen and took him before the High Council. They put forward their bribed witnesses to testify: “This man talks nonstop against this Holy Place and God’s Law. We even heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth would tear this place down and throw out all the customs Moses gave us.”
15 As all those who sat on the High Council looked at Stephen, they found they couldn’t take their eyes off him—his face was like the face of an angel!

For Reflection

Could it be that from time to time for those of us who embrace the saving Grace of God and who respond to the Christ who resides in our souls that our countenance, like Stevens, reflects or mirrors the Grace of God?  Could that explain the occasional deep intimacy that unexpectedly pops up in a discussion even between strangers?

Pray

Pray unceasingly about all things so that your relationship to Christ grows abundantly.

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Restrain Your Anger

Living in Covenant

A Heart-felt Covenant

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

Jesus Teaches about Transforming Love

Leviticus 24:16-22 New International Version 

16 anyone who blasphemes the name of the Lord is to be put to death. The entire assembly must stone them. Whether foreigner or native-born, when they blaspheme the Name they are to be put to death.
17 “‘Anyone who takes the life of a human being is to be put to death. 18 Anyone who takes the life of someone’s animal must make restitution—life for life. 19 Anyone who injures their neighbor is to be injured in the same manner: 20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. The one who has inflicted the injury must suffer the same injury. 21 Whoever kills an animal must make restitution, but whoever kills a human being is to be put to death. 22 You are to have the same law for the foreigner and the native-born. I am the Lord your God.’”

For Reflection

Mosiac law was the law of the land. If a human killed a human he was to be put to death.  Restitution for the life of an aminal, eye for an eye and tooth for tooth indicated the severity of the judgment should not exceed the infraction.  Individuals were not to enact vengeance. Instead, the penalties were inflicted through the judges. 


Blasphemy by a foreigner or native-born were treated equally under the law. The penalties extended to the whole of society and were intended to control anger, evil deeds, and connections with wicked people.

Pray

Pray so that you might control your anger and are cautious about your social interactions.

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Yes and No

Living in Covenant

A Heart-felt Covenant

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

Jesus Teaches Us to Love One Another

Matthew 5:33-37 The Message

Empty Promises

33-37 “And don’t say anything you don’t mean. This counsel is embedded deep in our traditions. You only make things worse when you lay down a smoke screen of pious talk, saying, ‘I’ll pray for you,’ and never doing it, or saying, ‘God be with you,’ and not meaning it. You don’t make your words true by embellishing them with religious lace. In making your speech sound more religious, it becomes less true. Just say ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ When you manipulate words to get your own way, you go wrong.

For Reflection

"As God as my witness," I swear, honest to God," God should strike me dead if I..."  Promises are more costly than threats.  On can remove or alter a threat but is bound to honor a promise made. If you have gained a reputation of broken promises no amount of embellishing can change that fact.  Your answer is always yes or no. No amount of religious trapping will change that.

Pray

Pray often and long so that you will be honor your promises.

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The Marital Bond

Living in Covenant

A Heart-felt Covenant

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

Jesus Teaches Us to Love One Another

Mark 10:2-9 New International Version

2 Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”
3 “What did Moses command you?” he replied.
4 They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.”
5 “It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied. 6 “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’[a] 7 ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,[b] 8 and the two will become one flesh.’[c] So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

For Reflection

A previously widowed or divorced woman in those days found it challenging to survive. Because men were discarding their legal wives for any displeasure with them, Mosaic law made it more difficult by requiring a trial and legal separation papers. Jesus comments that marriage is more than a legal contract. Marriage is a covenant of union and the basis of family life.


Today, marriage is still a civil contract. But, it is also a spiritual covenant.  Same-sex marriages are probably entered into for the same reasons as heterosexual marriages, love or convenience. They are also plagued by the vagaries of all marriages.  The will of God is that we love each other, even those with whom we disagree. If our words or deeds cause others to suffer, then we are not behaving righteously. Judgment is God's not ours. Our task is to heal.

Pray

Pray often and long so that you remember your Christian mission is to heal.

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Living with Believers

Living in Covenant

A Heart-felt Covenant

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

Jesus Teaches Us to Love One Another

1 Thessalonians 5:12-18 New International Version

Final Instructions

12 Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. 13 Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. 14 And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 15 Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

For Reflection

In the community of believers, there are many variations. Some prefer to do this rather than that. Some hold different beliefs. About some, you wonder if they know the same God as you do!  All people have been created by God.  Christ is active in all people, no exceptions. God wills that you love and respect all people. God calls us to use our creativity to be supportive and lead in a way that protects a person's right to choose. 

If God has given us the power to choose, choose love.

Pray

Pray so that you can see The Christ that is in all people and respect them.

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Living With Neighbors

Living in Covenant

A Heart-felt Covenant

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

Jesus Teaches Us to Love One Another

Leviticus 19:11-18 New International Version

11 “‘Do not steal.
“‘Do not lie.
“‘Do not deceive one another.
12 “‘Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.
13 “‘Do not defraud or rob your neighbor.
“‘Do not hold back the wages of a hired worker overnight.
14 “‘Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but fear your God. I am the Lord.
15 “‘Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.
16 “‘Do not go about spreading slander among your people.
“‘Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor’s life. I am the Lord.
17 “‘Do not hate a fellow Israelite in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in their guilt.
18 “‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

For Reflection

So there you have it, all the don'ts!
So what about the dos?  Only one, love.  Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart mind and soul, and love others as you love yourself.  Not hard to remember but takes diligence in practice.

Pray

Pray often and long so that you remember to love everybody all the time.

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Handling Temptation

Living in Covenant

A Heart-felt Covenant

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

Jesus Teaches about Fulfilling the Law

Mark 9:42-48 New International Version

Causing to Stumble

42 “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea. 43 If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. [44] [a] 45 And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. [46] [b] 47 And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48 where
“‘the worms that eat them do not die,
    and the fire is not quenched.’[c]

For Reflection

Jesus realizes the power of his teaching if misused. Just as he was tempted to use his power for self-aggrandizing ends, others will surely succumb to the seduction.  The very graphic language he uses emphasizes that the consequences intended or unintended would undermine confidence in the Gospel message. Jesus asks his disciples not to be so concerned with threats from outside the community of believers. Instead, he cautions the followers to be aware of how they might be undermining the faith of people inside their community.

Pray

Pray so that you will be more aware of how your actions, performed in the name of Jesus Christ, inhibit one's Christian maturity rather than encourage it.

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Life Is About the Pursuit of Redemption

Living in Covenant

A Heart-felt Covenant

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

Jesus Teaches about Fulfilling the Law

Romans 7:24-8:4 The Message

24 I’ve tried everything, and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question?
25 The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions, where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.

The Solution Is Life on God’s Terms

8 1-2 With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah has resolved that fateful dilemma. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.
3-4 God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn’t deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that.
The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn’t deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.

For Reflection

If you are in Christ and Christ is in you, rest in that fact.  No matter how seductive the pull to sin, you no longer are a slave to it.  You can do the unexpected and answer under the will of God. 

Pray

Pray so that you will be more able to follow the Way of Jesus. If you err, remember life is not about removing all sin but the pursuit of redemption. Pray.

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Applying the Law

Living in Covenant

A Heart-felt Covenant

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

Jesus Teaches about Fulfilling the Law

Luke 6:1-11 The Message

In Charge of the Sabbath

6 1-2 On a certain Sabbath, Jesus was walking through a field of ripe grain. His disciples were pulling off heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands to get rid of the chaff, and eating them. Some Pharisees said, “Why are you doing that, breaking a Sabbath rule?”
3-4 But Jesus stood up for them. “Have you never read what David and those with him did when they were hungry? How he entered the sanctuary and ate fresh bread off the altar, bread that no one but priests was allowed to eat? He also handed it out to his companions.”
5 Then he said, “The Son of Man is no slave to the Sabbath; he’s in charge.”
6-8 On another Sabbath he went to the meeting place and taught. There was a man there with a crippled right hand. The religion scholars and Pharisees had their eye on Jesus to see if he would heal the man, hoping to catch him in a Sabbath infraction. He knew what they were up to and spoke to the man with the crippled hand: “Get up and stand here before us.” He did.
9 Then Jesus addressed them, “Let me ask you something: What kind of action suits the Sabbath best? Doing good or doing evil? Helping people or leaving them helpless?”
10-11 He looked around, looked each one in the eye. He said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” He held it out—it was as good as new! They were beside themselves with anger and started plotting how they might get even with him.

For Reflection

The Law was more important than the people it was supposed to help. Unreasonable adherence to the letter of a rule is always unfair, except to those who profit from it. Those who manipulate God's will for their engrandizement are not happy about being thwarted. Their vengeance is profane. Their sin is idolatry. They worship only themselves and claim the robes of the priesthood

Pray

Pray so that you are not a slave to the law, but a servant of righteousness.

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Living Humbly

Living in Covenant

A Heart-felt Covenant

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

Jesus Teaches about Fulfilling the Law

Matthew 23:1-12 The Message (MSG)

Religious Fashion Shows

23 1-3 Now Jesus turned to address his disciples, along with the crowd that had gathered with them. “The religion scholars and Pharisees are competent teachers in God’s Law. You won’t go wrong in following their teachings on Moses. But be careful about following them. They talk a good line, but they don’t live it. They don’t take it into their hearts and live it out in their behavior. It’s all spit-and-polish veneer.
4-7 “Instead of giving you God’s Law as food and drink by which you can banquet on God, they package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack animals. They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn’t think of lifting a finger to help. Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next. They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting called ‘Doctor’ and ‘Reverend.’
8-10 “Don’t let people do that to you, put you on a pedestal like that. You all have a single Teacher, and you are all classmates. Don’t set people up as experts over your life, letting them tell you what to do. Save that authority for God; let him tell you what to do. No one else should carry the title of ‘Father’; you have only one Father, and he’s in heaven. And don’t let people maneuver you into taking charge of them. There is only one Life-Leader for you and them—Christ.
11-12 “Do you want to stand out? Then step down. Be a servant. If you puff yourself up, you’ll get the wind knocked out of you. But if you’re content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.

For Reflection

All Show and no Go.  The Jewish religion, as practiced by God's people, had evolved into a substance less legalistic mishmash of rules and enforcement.  It gave little freedom to love compassionately and to serve the needs of the people of God.  Adherence to the law was paramount and applied without regard to God's will for justice and peace. The practice became institutionalized hypocrisy.


And yet, in spite of all the dysfunction, many of the people of God lived fully compassionate lives. They loved as God loves, served as God serves.  They did this because they responded to the point in their hearts where the Holy Spirit lived.  It is also the reason that many could turn away from the dysfunction of their religious practice and follow the way of Jesus. They were freed at last to respond to their Christ

Pray

Pray so that you will return to the yearning in your soul to be free to love as God loves and serve as God serves.

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Jesus Sacrifice for All

Living in Covenant

A Heart-felt Covenant

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

Jesus Teaches about Fulfilling the Law

Hebrews 10:1-10 The Message

The Sacrifice of Jesus

10 1-10 The old plan was only a hint of the good things in the new plan. Since that old “law plan” wasn’t complete in itself, it couldn’t complete those who followed it. No matter how many sacrifices were offered year after year, they never added up to a complete solution. If they had, the worshipers would have gone merrily on their way, no longer dragged down by their sins. But instead of removing awareness of sin, when those animal sacrifices were repeated over and over they actually heightened awareness and guilt. The plain fact is that bull and goat blood can’t get rid of sin. That is what is meant by this prophecy, put in the mouth of Christ:
You don’t want sacrifices and offerings year after year;
    you’ve prepared a body for me for a sacrifice.
It’s not fragrance and smoke from the altar
    that whet your appetite.
So I said, “I’m here to do it your way, O God,
    the way it’s described in your Book.”
When he said, “You don’t want sacrifices and offerings,” he was referring to practices according to the old plan. When he added, “I’m here to do it your way,” he set aside the first in order to enact the new plan—God’s way—by which we are made fit for God by the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus.

For Reflection

The Mosiac Law could not perfect the people who were chosen by God to exemplify obedience to the will of God. Nor could the frequent offering of blood sacrifices absolve them. The Jesus Christ event perfected the law. It made applying the law fairly and compassionately a personal living sacrifice of our selves for the will of God.

Pray

Pray so that you will better understand the freedom that Christ affords you to live an obedient life of Grace.

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Living Wisely

Living in Covenant

A Heart-felt Covenant

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

Jesus Teaches about Fulfilling the Law

Colossians 4:1-6 The Message

4 And masters, treat your servants considerately. Be fair with them. Don’t forget for a minute that you, too, serve a Master—God in heaven.

Pray for Open Doors

2-4 Pray diligently. Stay alert, with your eyes wide open in gratitude. Don’t forget to pray for us, that God will open doors for telling the mystery of Christ, even while I’m locked up in this jail. Pray that every time I open my mouth, I’ll be able to make Christ plain as day to them.
5-6 Use your heads as you live and work among outsiders. Don’t miss a trick. Make the most of every opportunity. Be gracious in your speech. The goal is to bring out the best in others in a conversation, not put them down, not cut them out.

For Reflection

To try to discern motivations for our actions Is a difficult task.  Motives are locked in a black box. Many times, not even the actor understands why he or she said what was said or did what was done. So, try to react to one's behavior and make sure that your behavior toward others is supportive and full of Grace.

Pray

Pray diligently with an attitude of gratitude. Pray for humility. Pray so that you can open the doors of Christ's mysteries and walk through them boldly and with confidence in the truths found there.

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