A Passover for unity in God's community

V11p133001 Torah (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the Torah we do have laws which are case-based. These holy days remembering the passover in many societies the Shir HaShirim — The Song of Songs are read, where we get a magnificent expression of affection between lovers.

This period is an important want concerning the intimate relationship and unity between people and between God. the Nazarene master teacher rabbi Jeshua asked his followers to become one. They had to become one with him, Jesus Christ, but also with their fellow man and with God.

when Jesus came together with his disciples in preparation of the Passover it was to remember how God rescued us from slavery and how god had chosen Himself a People. With the instalment of the New Covenant the followers of Jesus, even when they not originally belonged to the Jewish race, became acceptable to become part of that unity which formed God's community.

For the goim or gentiles Jesus became the passover, the crossing of the sea of death, giving liberation to all people who are willing to accept Jesus as their Messiah.

Passover celebrates our redemption from slavery to freedom. That is binary. One is either a slave or one is a not a slave. There are no degrees of slavery. so how much do you still want to be slave of this world or slave of sin?

Being presented the end of slavery it is up to us to follow God's directions and to accept this given freedom or to refuse God's offering. When freedom was given to Israel in Egypt it was a new beginning and so it is also for us. It is the beginning of everything else.

Like the followers of Moses as slaves had no autonomy, no time, or even emotional energy to engage in the challenges of love, they now faced a new generation were strangely enough the people had again to be re-educated, because soon they seem to have had forgotten the wonders God did to bring them out of slavery. The Jewish slaves might have merely transferred their allegiances from Pharaoh to their God. Their relationship with God would have been the same as their relationship with Pharaoh. Different master, still slaves.

Though God does not want to see slaves.  He wants us to come freely to Him. He does not want to bind us. for Him the commandments are not the chains for the people, but the way to protect ourselves. For God those rules are also a sign of His love for His creation, giving them guidelines to make the best out of life.

God does not want to be the Dictator of the universe. Straight from the beginning He made man partner of His creation, giving them tasks to name all things and to take care of the earth. God has chosen man to be His partner.

Shir HaShirim is a magnificent expression of affection between lovers. Allegorically, the song is interpreted as a love song between God and the Jewish people.

After the laws of the altar God empowers the heroes of the Oral law to bring the Torah to life by interpreting it and applying it in the way appropriate for their particular generation. We get a story of full of drama, intrigue and adventure and God's Words is an open book showing us how God wanted to create a good relationship with man.

Shir HaShirim reminds us we are now free to love, and we are free to feel God’s love. From slavery, to freedom, to love. 

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Please do find to read:

Maintaining unity of Spirit in the bond of peace becoming one with God

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Reflection for today: hating your brother

If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.

1 John 4:20, New International Version

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    "O how I love Jesus!" we sing. Jesus responds by asking how well we are doing with loving our brothers and sisters! We can't love Jesus nor God if we can't love those around us.

    Forgive me, dear Father, for the times I have harbored pettiness in my heart or been unforgiving to those who needed me to be gracious and merciful.
I recognize that when I am unloving to my brothers and sisters in Christ, I am unloving to you.
Please bless me as I work to reconcile some Christian relationships that have not gone well recently. Help these mended friendships to bring glory to you and vitality to your church. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

After Phil Ware.

Dutch translation / Nederlandse vertaling > Christelijke Overdenking: Zijn broeder haten

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2013 update:

 

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The Law of Christ: Law of Love

The Exhortation to the Apostles (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

"... we find that the law of love is the basis of all the instruction given by Christ and his Apostles. They often mentioned details which would not have occurred to us, but the details are all strictly related to the fundamental principle presented in the law through Moses and stated by Christ to be the foundation of his teaching: the whole-hearted love of God, and the self-sacrificing love of man.

The Lord Jesus gave a new impetus and even a new significance to the old command. Some disciples have been puzzled by his saying: "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another" (John 13:34). In view of the fact that this law was so old and Christ had emphasized its fundamental character, why did he call it new? It is easy to find the answer to this question, and when found it becomes perhaps the most moving and searching of all thoughts for disciples.

The Mosaic law commanded that a man should love the Lord his God with all the heart, soul and strength, and that he should love his neighbour as himself; but these were not, and could not be, the laws by which a man could be judged before any merely human tribunal. The feelings and thoughts of a man's mind cannot be assessed correctly by a human judge. The law courts of mortal men can only judge in a negative manner. That was inevitably true in the old dispensation, and so a man who in no way injured his neighbours was legally correct in his social behaviour, even though wrong feelings were in his heart and wrong thoughts in his mind. Human judges were guided by the sight of their eyes and the hearing of their ears. Christ is under no such limitations. Even in the days of his flesh he knew what was in man, and needed not that any should tell him. When he comes as the ruler of mankind, he will not judge after the sight of his eyes or the hearing of his ears. With an all-penetrating knowledge, he will look into the heart of a man, and judge him by what he really is, and not what he appears to be. For us to be acceptable disciples this law of love must be in our hearts. There must be not merely an outward show of piety, but the reality of love for God, not merely a formal show of solicitude for a neighbour's welfare, or conventional acts of charity, but a real love of man. The Lord will look into our inmost being, and require that the reality of love shall be there."

- Islip Collyer
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The Law of Love
What it Means to be a Christian

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2013 update:

 

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Frank risks taking

"It has been my philosophy of life that
difficulties vanish when faced boldly."
- Isaac Asimov

Christianity is not a theory or speculation, but a life;
not a philosophy of life, but a living presence.
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The task ahead of us is never as great as the power behind us.
- Author Unknown

Better to love God and die unknown than to love the world and be a hero;
better to be content with poverty than to die a slave to wealth;
better to have taken some risks and lost
than to have done nothing and succeeded at it.
- Erwin W. Lutzer

"Praying always with all prayer and supplication ...
that utterance may be given to me,
that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel,
for which I am an ambassador in chains;
that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak."
Ephesians 6:18-20

Lord God, give me boldness to speak
and let me step over the problems.
Give that I always shall do well the tasks given to me,
that I ask in Jesus name, amen.

Dutch version / Nederlandse versie > Vrijmoedig risico’s nemen

Cover of Isaac Asimov

 

We should use the Bible every day

SOMETHING TO CHEW ON

Abraham Lincoln once said “Read the Bible for what, on reason, you can accept and take the rest on faith, and you will live and die a better man.” We know that not only will we die a better person for having read the Bible but if we are wise enough to obey its commands after reading them we shall also rise to live forever. Jesus said, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”

   

As we have now progressed well into 2009, how are our daily readings going? It is a great pity that so few read the Bible every day. How can we think godly if we don’t read God’s thoughts? In the natural we sometimes feel we get to know a certain author by being thoroughly familiar with his writings. 

Certainly those who have made a study of Shakespeare feel they are acquainted with him and his thought processes; so it is with any other writer who has left his works behind. It may be nice to know a human author this way but it in no way compares with getting to know God through His Word. In fact, it is completely impossible to obey the first command to love the Lord with all our heart, soul and mind if we do not constantly read His Book, pray and meditate upon His goodness and mercy to us.

  Remember John’s point about hating or loving our brethren? The last part of his question is, “How can he love God whom he has not seen?” How can we? It is impossible to love the unknown. We cannot love someone we have never seen, never heard from, never heard of. Only by becoming familiar with a person can we love them. In the natural this usually comes as a result of personal contact but it has occurred by correspondence. Many lovers first met by mail and the love grew even before they saw one another. Since we have never seen God it is only possible to love Him as a result of our familiarity with His Word and His spirit which he dwells in us with. It goes without saying that if we are not faithful in our daily readings in His Book, we will not love Him. How can we expect Him to save us if we break His first and most important command? Paul asks the question “How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?” His answer is, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”

  It is this word of God that must fill our minds and hearts if we are to love Him, obey Him and receive from Him the crown of righteousness. To ignore the Bible readings is to ignore God. It won’t make much use what else we do if we don’t do them. That’s the trouble with the world today. Every man is doing that which is right in his own eyes. The world expresses it as “doing your own thing.” “Our own thing” will be of no value in the day of judgement.

 If we do not read our Bible regularly in January, we must not let February and the rest of the year take the same course. Making and breaking New Year’s resolutions is the butt of many jokes but not reading God’s Word is no joke whether it was a New Year’s resolution or not. If we cannot find time to read God’s book every day, just how much do we really love Him? Our actions are speaking louder than words.

  The Bible reading charts are not the only way to read the Bible but they are a very good way. Whatever way we use to read the Bible, we should use it and do it every day. It is good to do it as a family if possible. May the words Paul addressed to Timothy apply to us as well. “Continue in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing of whom you have learned them; And that from a child you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”

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The reason why the majority of people are forgetful hearers of the Word of God, is because they are not constant readers of it.

Don’t count your troubles. Rather, count the challenges that are already stacking up higher than a pyramid before you. Whether you want to make a million this 2009 or not, it is entirely up to you. It is in your hands completely. And by a million, I don’t necessarily mean dollars. I mean all the other things besides. Like friends, kindly acts, gestures of goodwill to those who need them most.

  

 Set your sights high. Make a goal, and thereupon work at it with frenzied non-stop effort. Aim at becoming a “Goal-achievement millionaire.” That means in twelve months hence you will have reached your goals, solved your problems, secured inner peace of mind, mental refreshment.

 You will have made more friends than ever before, and in turn, you will find you are on the friendship list of a greater-than-ever range of people, too. This is a wonderful start.

  You may have made a few more dollars as well. But suddenly you find this is not so important. Your new concept of living, working out simple solutions to your vexing problems, finding that negative thoughts have no place in your mental environment, solving problems on a day-by-day basis with a strong, forthright, positive approach - these have suddenly converted you into a mental millionaire.

  Intimately associated with all this, come important facets in your spiritual life. This is a basic key to help solve all problems.

  Did you used to read the Scriptures on a regular daily basis? Maybe up to until a year or two ago. What happened in the interim? Bowed down by the cares of the world? Couldn’t be bothered? Too tired?

 Taking Christ into your life as a working partner is a top way to achieve your goal. He will help keep your computer mind working steadily and accurately. He will keep it oiled with the balm of enthusiasm, a sweet nature, a sober spirit and Christ-like temperament.

  There will be no more need to go mad at your offensive contemporaries. The well-adjusted computer is programmed to cope with such difficulties as they rear their ugly heads. But it is essential you walk hand-in-hand with the Master-mind at all times. With His aid, success is never more assured, never more gratifying and overwhelming in volume.

  Think positive right through 2009 and, without doubt, with Christ in your life your goals will spin into reality with frightening rapidity.

* * * * * * *

- John Aldersley

> Bible Reading Plan

Life is like a ten-speed bike.

Dutch version / Nederlands> Het leven is als een tien-versnellingen fiets.

"Life is like a ten-speed bike. Most of us have gears we never use."
- Charles M. Schultz

Do More

"Do more than exist ... live.
Do more than touch ... feel.
Do more than look ... observe.
Do more than read ... absorb.
Do more than hear ... listen.
Do more than think ... ponder.
Do more than talk ... say something."
- John H. Rhoades

"To do righteousness and justice is more
acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice."
Proverbs 21:3

"Jesus replied:
"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'
This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"
Matthew 22:37-39

Lord let me win the race of this life
and give that I use the correct gears to my goal.
Give me enough inspiration, strength and love for people, animals and plants around me
to treat them with goodness and glory of your name.

Single-speed mountain bike (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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He who kneels before God can stand before anyone!

Dutch version / Nederlands > Hij die knielt voor God kan voor iedereen staan!

"He who kneels before God
can stand before anyone!"
- Unknown

"A lot of kneeling will keep you
in good standing with God."
- Unknown

"Devote yourselves to prayer,
keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving;"
Colossians 4:2

"God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."
So we say with confidence,
"The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What can man do to me?""
Hebrews 13:5-6
"And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more
in knowledge and depth of insight,
so that you may be able to discern what is best
and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ,
filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ
- to the glory and praise of God."Philippians 1:9-11
God,  learn me to be humbly so that I learn to kneel down for you.
Give that I can find the right words to you to speak to you dignified.And let not my prayers remain unanswered,
but fulfil me with your deepest wishes and desires.
Give me wisdom and spiritual understanding so that I fully understand your wishes.
And let me abundantly increase in love for each other and for all,
as my love goes out to you.

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Jesus in Pray (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

2013 update;

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