Tag Archives: minds

Let Us Draw Near

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LET US DRAW NEAR

The Holy Spirit also testifies about this. First He says: ‘This is the covenant I will make with them, after that time,’ says the Lord. ‘I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.’

Then He adds: ‘Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.’

And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary (Heb. 10: 15-18).

With the sacrifice of Jesus, God put a full stop at the end of the prophetic sentence. Everything was complete with that one sacrifice – justice satisfied, sin atoned for, forgiven and removed as far as the east is from the west, the new covenant brought into effect, with better provisions based on better promises and mediated by a better high priest.

God was now free to put into effect what He had planned and set in motion at the beginning – a family of sons and daughters who would relate to Him as a Father and who would live with Him in intimate fellowship with nothing between us to obstruct our relationship with Him.

No longer do we need to go to the priest for instruction in God’s word, He has written it on our hearts and in our minds – not just the words but the spirit of His word, His nature, who He is and who we are in Christ. We are no longer slaves but sons, and the Spirit of sonship witnesses with our spirits that we are, indeed, sons and daughters of God.

The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by Him we cry, ‘Abba, Father!’ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children (Rom. 8: 15-16).

The completion of Jesus’s work brings us into a new realm of living – in God’s presence – because all obstacles have been removed. We are no longer shut out by a heavy curtain beyond which we are not permitted to go. We no longer need to rely on an earthly high priest to mediate for us. We have a permanent high priest in the presence of God, who presents His own blood as an atoning sacrifice for our sin. We no longer have to wait for another Day of Atonement before we can receive the assurance that our sin has been forgiven for another year. Our sin has been removed – forever.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is His body, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water (Heb. 10: 19-22).

At last! This is what God has been waiting for – from the moment Adam sinned – His children restored to fellowship with Himself. What an invitation!

The Creator God of the universe, King of the nations, extends His sceptre towards us with the unconditional invitation to draw near. And yet – how few accept that invitation and truly draw near! We come with our crises; we come with our grocery lists of needs; we come with our gripes and complaints; we even come pouting, with our mistrust and suspicion, and we hope to get a reply by next week, or immediately if we need His intervention now! Is that what He means by drawing near?

David, a man who was still part of the old system, who did not know Jesus, who walked with God under the provisions of the old covenant, understood what it was like to draw near.

One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple (Psa. 27: 4).

Something happens when we draw near and gaze on the beauty of the Lord. We are transformed – like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon after weeks of resting – metamorphosed into something ethereal and beautiful.

And we all who, with unveiled faces, contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3; 18).

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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A New Covenant

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A NEW COVENANT

But God found fault with the people and said: ‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them,’ declares the Lord.

This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time,’ declares the Lord. ‘I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbour, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.’

By calling this covenant “new”, He has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear (Heb. 8: 8-13).

Why did God give His people the Mosaic covenant if He knew it wouldn’t work? It seems a futile exercise, doesn’t it?

The covenant that God entered into with His people at Mount Sinai was never intended to be His final dealings with them. It was an interim covenant which was meant to serve a specific purpose.

When Israel came out of Egypt, they had behind them a long history of life in a pagan society and slavery to a cruel and oppressive nation. It would take many generations to establish a culture into which their Messiah would be born. They had to unlearn and relearn many truths about God, themselves and their world in order to understand the nature of God, especially His holiness, His righteousness, His justice and His mercy.

The pagan gods of the Egyptians were the product of human imagination, created in the image of fallen man and often reflecting the worst of human nature. They were heartless, unpredictable and demanding. They were takers, never givers, and they certainly did not have the well-being of their worshippers at heart. Of course, behind every pagan god lay the originator of the evil that they were, Satan, their creator.

God could not simply step in and take over. It would take many generations to teach the people about Himself and to win their trust and their loyalty. How would He do it? He built it into their culture and the national and personal lives. He created a way of life for His people that reflected Him. All 613 “laws” were intended to show them how to live in harmony with Him and with one another, teaching them the nature and seriousness of sin, how to deal with sin and how to love God with all their heart, mind, soul and strength and their neighbour as themselves.

God’s national constitution had a spinoff. It also showed up their impotence to obey God’s teachings. Instead of producing obedient children, it produced rebels. Every time God’s word said, ‘Don’t,’ they did, and every time His word said, ‘Do,’ they didn’t. This was also part of the preparation for the new covenant. Until God revealed their hearts by giving them instructions which they failed to follow, they would never realise how impossible it is to satisfy God’s perfection. They would never learn to rely on Him for the power to obey.

There had to be another way, a way which intervened so powerfully that their very hearts would be transformed. Their rebellion would need to go and be replaced by a new motive and a new internal direction. Rules did not work. They only incited rebellion. A prohibition was an invitation to break it. That’s the nature of the human being.

How would God solve this problem? It would take His divine power to overrule the natural inclination of man to go his own way. That’s what man chose in the beginning. He rejected the way of love and chose to make his own rules. Only God could restore him to what he was created to be. He needed a new covenant with new promises AND the will to obey.

That’s where Jesus stepped in. He became both mediator of, and the sacrifice that ratified God’s new covenant. But God added something else – the power of the Holy Spirit who withdrew when the first pair decided to go it alone. He is the key to the success of the new covenant. By removing sin through the sacrifice of Jesus, God could restore the Holy Spirit to the human race. He came at Pentecost to indwell and empower every believer who embraces and follows Jesus.

Jesus is the perfect fulfilment of God’s teachings. We no longer need laws and rituals. He shows us how to live as God’s beloved sons and daughters who resemble Him and reflect Him to the world. All we need to do is to watch and follow Him. He is the way. His word is in us by His Spirit, the Spirit of truth who leads us into all truth.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Alert And Sober Minds

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ALERT AND SOBER MINDS

Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at His coming. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance (1 Peter 1:13-14).

“Straightforward and serious, not exaggerated, emotional or silly” is the definition of “sober”, according to the Free Dictionary. Alert and fully sober! How much we need minds that are not cluttered with unnecessary information and irrelevant junk in order to focus on what really matters.

Because of our access to the media in all its forms, we are a people who suffer from information overload. It’s as though we think we will somehow suffer damage or deprivation if we are not constantly informed about everything that goes on in the world. As soon as we have an unoccupied moment, we tune in. We flick on the TV, switch on the radio, or pick up the newspaper and fill the air with sound or our eyes with words – and we blot out the opportunity to think soberly.

Even in the Christian context, we are constantly bombarded by every “wind of doctrine” that Christian thinking produces. Never has there been a time when so much confusion is being sown in the minds of believers through the media and Christian writing. Everyone who broadcasts or writes makes his or her own contribution to the chaos. It’s imperative that God’s people switch off the radio and TV, put away the Christian books and magazines for a while and get back to God’s word. It’s there that the simplicity of Jesus’ teaching and what He came to accomplish will be rediscovered.

To the Jews who had believed Him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.’ (John 8:32).

Peter’s three basic instructions are as relevant today as they were for the believers of his day who were in urgent need of redirection. They were in danger of being swamped by the threat of persecution. How much more are we in danger of being drowned in the sea of misinformation because everyone is intent on making his or her opinion known!

What were they to do? Be alert! Let your mind be like a sieve, Filter out everything that does not come from the Word or does not match the teaching of Jesus. He is the authority, not the theologians, no matter how many degrees they might have.

Jesus gave His disciples the mandate and the authority to ‘bind’ His yoke on those who believe their word and choose to follow Him. This is a huge responsibility – His yoke is His interpretation of the Torah and His application of the spirit of the Torah in their everyday lives. Our interpretation and application of Jesus’ teaching must match His disposition: ‘I am gentle and humble in heart.’

Be sober! Be straightforward and serious, not full of exaggerated or silly ideas which do not come from God’s thinking but ours. Take the Christmas and Easter seasons, for example. Where did these traditions originate? Certainly not from God’s mind but from the minds of people ‘drunk’ with their own ideas and the deliberate plan to deviate from the truth.

Santa Claus, snow and reindeer, Christmas trees and lavish decorations, presents and feasting? From God? Really? Merry Christmas – wishing you a merry sacrifice of Jesus! Does this come from God? And as for Easter bunnies and Easter eggs! The very name ‘Easter’ has a pagan origin. Are these the product of sober minds or the stupidity of our ‘sheep’ nature who follow tradition because everyone else is doing it!

The ‘silly season’, we call Christmas. Why? Because God’s people are no longer alert and have lost their ability to think soberly. Overindulgence, spending sprees, debt, drunkenness etc. in Jesus’ name? I don’t think so.

What is the antidote? Set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at His coming. There is a reward for those who live in the light of Jesus’ return which presupposes that they will live as obedient children of God and no longer according to their old, evil desires.

Now there is in store for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day – and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for His appearing (2 Tim, 4: 8).

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.