Friends in Christ Message for March 28, 2009

Friends in Christ

Home

Weekly Messages

About Us

Spiritual Practice Handouts

Friends in Christ on Facebook

Site Map

Contact Us

Friends in Christ Weekly Message
March 28, 2009

“This is the brand-new covenant that I will make with Israel when the time comes. I will put my law within them - write it on their hearts! - and be their God. And they will be my people. They will no longer go around setting up schools to teach each other about God. They'll know me firsthand, the dull and the bright, the smart and the slow. I'll wipe the slate clean for each of them. I'll forget they ever sinned!” God's Decree.
Jeremiah 31:33-34 (Message*)

Jeremiah was a prophet relaying God's message to a people who saw God's law as something that was written on tablets of stone and in scrolls. They thought that one needed special dispensation, or be part of a hereditary priestly class, to receive God's word directly. And they thought that their sins could only be cleansed with special sacrifices and rituals. Jeremiah's revelation was of a radically different condition in which God wrote His law directly on the hearts of the people and all would know God firsthand.

We live in the covenant about which Jeremiah prophesied. But we are still tempted to look upon God's law as words written on paper rather than an understanding of God's ways written upon our very hearts. And we are still tempted to think we must learn about God from people with special credentials, rather than recognizing that God speaks to each of us directly. Further, we are tempted to think that we must earn God's forgiveness, rather than recognize that it is freely given and we only need to accept it.

Are you living in the reality of the New Covenant?

Bill Samuel