Christmas and the New Covenant

The Birth of Jesus and our New Covenant

The terms God has set are these: Believe what he says about Jesus Christ, turn from your life of self-reliance and put your confidence totally in Christ to wash you clean of sin, clothe you with righteousness and bring you into the family, the household, the kingdom of God. That is the only way we sinful humans can get off the devil’s side and onto God’s side, so to speak. We do it by accepting the terms of God’s new covenant — the new covenant in the blood of Jesus Christ. That is the only way we can be rescued from our rebel state against our Creator, the Provider of our life and being. That is the only way we can be brought into harmony and allegiance with him.

At its core, the new covenant is Jesus Christ. He embodies everything the new covenant is. He is the Word of God and the Son of God, made flesh for us. He is the Message of God, the Mind of God, and the Meaning of God, made flesh for us to see and know and love. In himself, he enables us to be friends with God. In Jesus Christ, God has given us a new basis for our relationship with God. This is the covenant God has given; we respond to Christ with either yes or no.

Now you might ask, How can a person be an agreement? It is a biblical idea. In a prophecy about Christ, Isaiah 42:6 says that the Messiah, or Christ, would be made a covenant. The Bible calls Jesus a mediator, a go-between. A mediator’s purpose is to get two parties to relate positively to each other. His work is what causes the barriers to come down and the relationship to bear positive fruit. Jesus was the greatest diplomat, the brilliant negotiator of the greatest covenant, or agreement, in human history. Jesus could do that because he was both God and human. He was not only able to represent both parties, he was able to be both parties.

Jesus Christ is the basis of the new covenant, or arrangement, God has given us. We can either accept this or reject it. Because he loves us with indescribable love, he urges us to accept it — to put our faith, our trust, in Jesus Christ, that is, to trust him with our lives, and to accept him as our Mediator, our only means of salvation.

Our salvation — being rescued from spiritual destruction and given glorious restoration as favored friends and children of God — depends entirely on Jesus Christ. He is the basis of this great rescue. Accepting him is the one requirement that God makes as the basis of this magnificent agreement, or arrangement, we call the new covenant. If we accept him, trust in him, and then we are given a right relationship with God (and all the responsibilities and privileges that go with that right relationship). If we do not accept Christ, then we have no basis whatsoever to be brought into peaceful harmony with God. Jesus Christ is the core of the new covenant. That is why he must always be the center of our church, our preaching, our proclamation and our personal lives.

It is the promise of the comforter that Jesus gave to us that gives us that special connection to God and our salvation. I speak on this often and it is a prevalent topic within my lessons. The reason being is it is essential to our fulfilling our side of the covenant. Without the Holy Spirit dwelling within we find ourselves where?  In the flesh. When we are in the flesh we are indeed separated from God. Separated from his grace. His will. His purpose. His covenant.

    The Greek word for Comforter is “parakletos”.  The most familiar translation of this Greek word is “Comforter,” but a better translation is Counselor or Advocate, as in a legal sense.  However, I will use Comforter since it is the most familiar translation.

Below are the New Testament texts concerning the Comforter.

JOHN 14:15-17:  "If you love me you will obey what I command.  And I will ask the Father and He will give you another Comforter to be with you forever - the Spirit of Truth.  The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him.  But you know him for he lives with you and will be in you."

JOHN 14:25, 26:  "All this I have spoken while still with you.  But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you."

JOHN 15:26:  "When the Comforter comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me."

JOHN 16:7,8:  "But I tell you the truth:  It is for your good that I am going away.  Unless I go away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.  When he comes he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment...."

JOHN 16:13-15:  "But when he, the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.  He will not speak on his own, he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.  He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it know to you.  All that belongs to the Father is mine.  That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you."

This all part of the Covenant. The salvation of our very souls and the way to live while here on this earth. The Spirit is who we really are. We are of God and God is not of this world. We are made in the image of God and God is Spirit. It took God to send his son down here to explain the very thing we have struggled so long before Christ to understand.

On Christmas we celebrate that moment God made the New Covenant real for all of us.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

His coming was prophesied hundreds of years prior. The covenant was as well.

Ezekiel 37:26-27

"I will make a covenant of peace with them, an everlasting covenant. I will give to them, increase their numbers, and set my Sanctuary among them forever. My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people."

In Isaiah 7:14 the prophet Isaiah, addressing king Ahaz of Judah, promises the king that God will destroy his enemies; as a sign that his oracle is a true one, Isaiah predicts that a "young woman" ("almah") will shortly give birth to a child whose name will be Immanuel, "God is with us", and that the threat from the enemy kings will be ended before the child grows up. The almah has been identified as either the mother of Hezekiah or a daughter of Isaiah, although there are problems with both candidates.

The gospel of Matthew presents Jesus's ministry as largely the fulfilment of prophecies from Isaiah. In the time of Jesus, however, the Jews of Palestine no longer spoke Hebrew, and Isaiah had to be translated into Greek and Aramaic, the two commonly used languages. In the original Hebrew of Isaiah 7:14 the word almah meant a young woman of childbearing age who had not yet given birth and who might or might not be a virgin, and the Greek translation rendered almah as parthenos, the Greek word for "virgin". Scholars agree that almah has nothing to do with virginity, but many conservative American Christians still judge the acceptability of new bible translations by the way they deal with Isaiah 7:14. The virgin birth is found only in the gospels of Matthew and Luke; there is no reference to the birth of Jesus in Mark's gospel or the Gospel of John, which refers to Joseph as Jesus's father, nor in the epistles of Paul, who says that Jesus was "born of a woman" without mentioning that the woman was a virgin.

So, with all of this being said we live by faith and we know through faith that the covenant is real and God did it for us because we belong to him and he cares for us.

So it is happy birthday to our Lord and the gift of salvation.

Don't fight the flow and live the life meant for you

Boasting About Tomorrow

13 Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." 16 As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. 17 Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.

James 4:13-17

Row, row, row your boat,

Gently down the stream.

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,

Life is but a dream.

The lyrics have often been used as a metaphor for life's difficult choices, and many see the boat as referring to one's self or a group with which one identifies. Rowing is a skillful, if tedious, practice that takes perfection but also directs the vessel. When sung as a group, the act of rowing becomes a unifier, as oars should be in sync for the progression of a rowboat. The idea that human beings travel along a certain stream [time] and suggests boundaries in the path of choices and in free will. The third line recommends that challenges should be greeted in stride while open to joy with a smile. Some have questioned the song's implied necessity to row one's boat downstream. This may in fact be a commentary on the paradoxical nature of time's arrow with respect to man's free will in a universe of materialistic causality. The final line, "life is but a dream", is perhaps the most meaningful. With a religious point of view, life and the physical plane may be regarded as having equivalent value as that of a dream, such that troubles are seen in the context of a lesser reality once one has awakened.

In God’s mind which is the universal mind, everything is known. What is, what has been, and what will be. Jesus, being God stated, I am the alpha and the omega. The beginning and the end. God knows what will happen because he set the whole thing in motion on the day of creation.

The book of Jeremiah tells us in chapter 1 verse 5, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born, I set you apart, I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

Now this was to Jeremiah who was just as human as you and I. Later in this book God tells of the purpose and plan he holds.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” In Jeremiah 29:11.

God had great plans for David but like ourselves he was flesh and the flesh is flawed. David decided to take his boat upstream and row against the current. While his men were at war and instead of being there as a source of leadership he stayed behind. Coming out on his balcony he spied a very attractive young woman bathing. Asking one of his servants, “who is this woman I see”, he was told it was Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah. The flesh at this time was strong with David and he called for her. Upon her arrival they had relations and the next thing you know she’s pregnant. Still rowing against God’s flow, David decided to “fix” his problem. He called Uriah and his troops home for a respite. When Uriah reported to David, he commended him on a job well done on the field of battle and told him to go and see his wife meaning for him to lay down with her. This way, any pregnancy could be attributed to Uriah’s one night back.

In the morning, David opened his chamber door to find Uriah sleeping there amongst his men. “What are you doing here? Why didn’t you go and be with your wife?”. David was perplexed. Uriah responded, “I could not do so my King because my men were not afforded the same opportunity and what kind of leader would I be if I had enjoyed myself and yet denied them?” So David went to plan b and continued his rowing against God’s current.

He sent Uriah back to the battlefield and told his cadre’ to post Uriah and his men in the area of battle where it was the most fierce. Then when the fight was fully engaged they were to withdraw from Uriah’s flanks leaving him unprotected and vulnerable. It was there Uriah was over come and killed. So David had rowed himself right into a scheme that was murder.

God had plans for David and to set him straight he sent the messenger Nathan to call David out in front of all. David repented and went on to father Solomon as well as become one of the greatest leaders in the history of Israel.

Many of us fight the flow of life that God has already set in motion and we suffer for it. Another biblical example would be Jonah.

1The word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, 2"Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me." 3But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

Well, Jonah had his own ideas and then God took charge. When it was over, Jonah found himself on the shore of Nineveh, ready to do God’s will.

You see, all through our lives we think we have the answer. We know. We aren’t going to take any guff off of anybody either. If we become dissatisfied with any aspect of our lives, we will find out who is responsible and we will let them know it. If an inanimate object raises our ire, we will curse it and slam it and hold on to our anger and dissatisfaction. If another person gets on our nerves or treats us in a way we are dissatisfied with we will state our case sometimes in fits of rage and that grudge? Well, we will make love to that. We will attract drama and create drama. We will find no happiness and when we do we will treat it like a stranger and soon it will be on it’s way. We will live rowing our lives up stream and against what ever flow we come across because we aren’t pushovers and we aren’t weak and we dislike our lives and it doesn’t have a thing to do with us.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” In Jeremiah 29:11.

My Job is the worst. I hate my coworkers. My husband is an idiot. My house is a disaster. I’m broke. I don’t have any good shoes.

Argue for your limitations, and sure enough they're yours.”

Richard Bach

We must find that flow that God has created for us and jump into it. We must stop this constant revolution of hate and negativity and dissatisfaction in our lives. We must replace it with gratitude and love and a new perspective of optimism regardless of our circumstances. Remember, things could always be worse and right now, if we don’t give complete focus to happiness, forgiveness, charity, and love, we will endure the sadness, the animosity, the greed and desire, and the hate that will consume the very purpose God holds for all of us if only we would surrender to his flow.

Kill the pessimist inside and count the blessings. Live in gratitude and see the good in your life. When seeing the misfortune in others be that example of optimism and express love and charity. It is up to us to live our live fulfilled or disappointed. Find that flow and row row row your boat gently down the stream of life.

“By becoming a conscious choice-maker, you begin to generate actions that are evolutionary for you.” Deepak Chopra

Where we are right now is a result of all the choices we have made along the path of our life's journey. Though some of those choices may not have been good ones or seemed the best at the time, none the less, the fork in the path came, you chose a direction, and there you went, so here you are. With that choice made, many more choices came about and because of them, you have grown and evolved as you would've had you made a different choice or went down a different path.

The world is a place on purpose and regardless of how we feel about our lives, we too are on purpose. You look at an ant hill and you see these ants going to and fro. All headed somewhere to do something. Then you look from atop a tall building down at the subways below and you see these people coming out of the ground, all headed some where to do something. Then you drive on the interstate and cars fly by, passing one another and moving left to right, exiting on road to enter another and yet another. Then you look at the human body and the series of viens and arteries that move platelets and white blood cells here and there, leaving one artery to enter another. Big or small, the universe has purpose. You must find that purpose and get off of fight. Live your life and don't let it live you.

The Moral Compass

The moral compass. Most of us have one. Some of us were given one by our parents early on but the psychology of most children is “If I can get away with it, then I will do it. Especially if it makes me happy.” But there are times when as children we knew there was a consequence we weren’t willing to risk by acting inappropriately or selfishly. Sometimes we took the chance anyway. In my case, I would occasionally sneak out and go see my girlfriend in my parent’s car. Well, one night my dad became wise and set a rocking chair right at the front door. The only door through which I could possibly get into the house. He sat there trying to sleep, knowing any attempt to come in would immediately wake him and I can promise you, he would not be in a good mood. Then came the consequence. It was tragic for a boy of 16 or 17. No vehicle privileges or phone. I cannot recall the duration of the sentence but let me assure you, much like the scripture “A day was like a thousand years and a thousand years were like a day.”

I lived as a youth much like the Jews of the Old Testament. My moral compass was oriented towards the punishment of a vengeful God or Dad in my case.

There were his commandments, known to me as the law. I was motivated to follow those commandments by the fear or respect I would have for my father. Now, I can say at times I looked pretty fearless and disrespectful but I can assure you the respect and the fear were instilled quite successfully after a period of wandering in the wilderness.

As adults, we make a choice. Will we live under the Law? That is, will we live in fear of the police and a judge and a potential fine or jail term? Is that what will guide our life? Or, will we be guided from within, not reliant upon outside forces to manipulate our behavior so we “stay in line”, but instead on this internal “Moral Compass”?

As the disciples did, and as Christians do, we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Then as Jesus promised and as evidenced in the Book of Acts on the day of Pentecost, we were overcome by the Holy Spirit. It became our conscience. Our direction for every act and when we deviated, we felt remorse. We felt like something was wrong. Like we lacked direction. Like our compass was broken or missing and we never regained that peace until we were reconciled. Until whatever wrong we committed was made right or until we repented.

The Moral Compass or as I know it, the Holy Spirit, convicts. It guides. It motivates for the good.

  Without freedom, we cannot speak meaningfully about morality or moral responsibility. Human freedom is more than a capacity to choose between this and that. It is the God-given power to become who he created us to be and so to share eternal union with him. This happens when we consistently choose ways that are in harmony with God's plan. Christian morality and God's law are not arbitrary, but specifically given to us for our happiness. God gave us intelligence and the capacity to act freely. Ultimately, human freedom lies in our free decision to say "yes" to God. In contrast, many people today understand human freedom merely as the ability to make a choice, with no objective norm or good as the goal.

For an individual act to be morally good, the object, or what we are doing, must be objectively good. Some acts, apart from the intention or reason for doing them, are always wrong because they go against a fundamental or basic human good that ought never to be compromised. Direct killing of the innocent, torture, and rape are examples of acts that are always wrong. Such acts are referred to as intrinsically evil acts, meaning that they are wrong in themselves, apart from the reason they are done or the circumstances surrounding them.

The goal, end, or intention is the part of the moral act that lies within the person. For this reason, we say that the intention is the subjective element of the moral act. For an act to be morally good, one's intention must be good. If we are motivated to do something by a bad intention—even something that is objectively good—our action is morally evil. It must also be recognized that a good intention cannot make a bad action (something intrinsically evil) good. We can never do something wrong or evil in order to bring about a good. This is the meaning of the saying, "the end does not justify the means" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 1749-1761).

Human virtues form the soul with the habits of mind and will that support moral behavior, control passions, and avoid sin. Virtues guide our conduct according to the dictates of faith and reason, leading us toward freedom based on self-control and toward joy in living a good moral life. Compassion, responsibility, a sense of duty, self-discipline and restraint, honesty, loyalty, friendship, courage, and persistence are examples of desirable virtues for sustaining a moral life. Historically, we group the human virtues around what are called the Cardinal Virtues. This term comes from the Latin word cardo meaning “hinge.” All the virtues are related to or hinged to one of the Cardinal Virtues. The four Cardinal Virtues are prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance.

Galatians 5:22-23

New International Version (NIV)

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

When we act in the Spirit we are in accordance with God’s Will. There are times in our lives however that our humanness fogs the Spirit within and confuses us as to what the proper action is we must take. This is where two virtues of the Spirit come into play. Patience and self-control. We must take pause at times to not react hastily in certain situations where our tongue or our impulse will take to a place of regret as it so often does.

We must utilize the peaceful heart and the exercise of prayer to gain a good direction as to where to go. The examples of other Christians who act in good faith are excellent azimuths for which we should aim our compass.

The human virtues are also acquired through seeing them in the good example of others and through education in their value and methods to acquire them. Stories that inspire us to want such virtues help contribute to their growth within us. They are gained by a strong will to achieve such ideals. In addition, God’s grace is offered to us to purify and strengthen our human virtues, for our growth in virtue can be hampered by the reality of sin. Especially through prayer, we open ourselves to the gifts of the Holy Spirit and God’s grace as another way in which we grow in virtue.

The moral life requires grace. This speaks in terms of life in Christ and the inner presence of the Holy Spirit, actively enlightening our moral compass and supplying the spiritual strength to do the right thing. The grace that comes to us from Christ in the Spirit is as essential as love and rules and, in fact, makes love and keeping the rules possible.

So, in closing we must always be aware and on guard as to what our actions, emotions, and motivations are. Are they guided and in alignment with the Spirit? Or are they guided hastily and selfishly and without moral direction? Is our compass broken, unused, or not present? Who are we and where are we in relation to God’s will in our lives? These are questions I constantly ask myself as I will always be learning and growing as well as periodically digressing in my walk with Christ and the Holy Spirit. The key to it all is that we recognize our transgressions and seek forgiveness as we also forgive. We reconcile ourselves with God and whomever we trespass against. We do all of this in the most sincere form of contrition and over time the frequency of sin becomes less and less. We find God is more present in us and we or our flesh is less.

He must increase, but I must decrease.”

John 3:30

The Founding Fathers and Christianity

Although the Declaration of Independence mentioned “Nature’s God” and the “Creator,” the Constitution made no reference to a divine being, Christian or otherwise, and the First Amendment explicitly forbid the establishment of any official church or creed.

If there is a clear legacy bequeathed by the founders, it is the insistence that religion was a private matter in which the state should not interfere.

Once again, diversity is the dominant pattern. Franklin and Jefferson were deists, Washington harbored a pantheistic sense of providential destiny, John Adams began a Congregationalist and ended a Unitarian, and Hamilton was a lukewarm Anglican for most of his life but embraced a more actively Christian posture after his son died in a duel.

(When John Adams and Jefferson discussed the possibility of a more conventional immortality, they tended to describe heaven as a place where they could resume their ongoing argument on earth.)

The pilgrims, as you will recall, were, Christians fleeing Europe in order to escape religious persecution, and they literally began their stay in their new land with the words, “In the name of God, Amen.”

The pilgrims were followed to New England by the Puritans, who created bible-based commonwealths. Those commonwealths practiced the same sort of representative government as their church covenants. Those governmental covenants and compacts numbered more than 100, and were the foundation for our Constitution.

America was indeed founded by bible-believing Christians and based on Christian principles. When they founded this country, the Founding Fathers envisioned a government that would promote and encourage Christianity.

All but two of the first 108 universities founded in America were Christian. This includes the first, Harvard, where the student handbook listed this as Rule #1: “Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, John 17:3; and therefore to lay Jesus Christ as the only foundation for our children to follow the moral principles of the Ten Commandments."

In 1777, Continental Congress voted to spend $300,000 to purchase bibles which were to be distributed throughout the 13 colonies! And in 1782, the United States Congress declared, “The Congress of the United States recommends and approves the Holy Bible for use in all schools.

Raised Episcopalian, Jefferson believed that the New Testament had been polluted by early Christians eager to make Christianity palatable to pagans. He believed that they had mixed the words of Jesus with the teachings of Plato and the philosophy of the ancient Greeks. The authentic words of Jesus were still there, he assured his friend, John Adams. He determined to extract the "authentic" words of Jesus from the rubble which he believed surrounded His real words. That book, intended as a primer for the Indians on Christ’s teachings, is commonly known as the "Jefferson Bible."

Written in the front of his personal Bible, he wrote:

"I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus. I have little doubt that our whole country will soon be rallied to the unity of our creator."

In 1803, at the request of President Thomas Jefferson, the United States Congress allocated federal funds for the salary of a preacher and the construction of his church. That same year, Congress, again at Jefferson’s request, ratified a treaty with the Kaskaskia Indians. Congress recognized that most of the members of the tribe had been converted to Christianity, and Congress gave a subsidy of $100.00 a year for seven years for the support of a priest so that he could “instruct as many ... children as possible.”

On April 21, 1803, Jefferson wrote this to Dr. Benjamin Rush (also a signer of the Declaration of Independence):

“My views...are the result of a life of inquiry and reflection, and very different from the anti-Christian system imputed to me by those who know nothing of my opinions. To the corruptions of Christianity I am, indeed, opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian in the only sense in which He wished any one to be; sincerely attached to his doctrines in preference to all others.”

In that same letter, he wrote,

“To the corruptions of Christianity I am, indeed opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian, in the only sense in which he wished any one to be; sincerely attached to his doctrines, in preference to all others.”

In a letter to William Short on October 31, 1819, he wrote:

“But the greatest of all the reformers of the depraved religion of His own country, was Jesus of Nazareth.”

You say you are a Calvinist. I am not. I am of a sect by myself, as far as I know.

-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Ezra Stiles Ely, June 25, 1819

Benjamin Franklin, in his Autobiography, wrote that “some books against Deism fell into my hands; . . . The arguments of the Deists . . . appeared to me much stronger than the refutation; in short, I soon became a thorough Deist.”

Franklin confessed to some doubts about Jesus’ divinity, and Thomas Jefferson razored his way through the Gospels, keeping words that seemed to him to be authentically Jesus’, but cutting what he took to be the corruptions of other New Testament contributors.

The human side of all of us demands concrete answers and when we are forced to go on terms of faith we sometimes balk and seek the enlightenment of our own mind to guide us when it comes to God. I myself have had to use my own creative analogies to explain God in this world we live.

So, I do not doubt the varied beliefs of our founding fathers and their evolution as life’s years passed into their twilight.

It is not so much the argument that our nation was meant to be a Christian nation as much as it was meant to be a moral one and one that recognized individual freedom and the ability to live your life in a way that pursued your own happiness but not at the expense of another to do the same. In the time of Moses we lived by the law. Those mandates given to humanity by God so that we may acquire direction and build the spirit within. Then Jesus gave the new covenant. This involved an active role by the Holy Spirit upon our recognition of Jesus Christ as our redeemer. When that took place man was compelled from within to do what was pleasing to God.

In that line of thought I ask that you see all of our founding fathers as merely men with flaws and vices just as we all do.  They were also a virtuous group of men beyond reproach in their desire to build a nation that reflected the compassion of Christ as well as the moral, upright image that God and Christ would be pleased with.

Secular Humanism as infiltrated many aspects of who we are as a nation and through their bastardized attempts at defining what this nation is to represent we have become confused and lacking direction.

No matter the faith of our founding fathers, we must get back to what we as Christians know is right and good. We must not compromise our principles to appease those who want the absence of God for our nation.

Remember above all else, neither God nor this country needs or wants half stepping Christians who through their example invalidate their faith.  “ So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will [a]spit you out of My mouth.“

Revelation 3:16

FRIENDSHIP AND IT’S VALUE IN HUMAN LIFE FROM A SPIRITUAL PERSPECTIVE

An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind.

Buddha

Jesus on Friendship

John 15:12-15 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, which someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

Greatest Friend is God

James 4:8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

How To Pick Your Friends

Proverbs 12:26 One who is righteous is a guide to his neighbor, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.

Proverbs 13:20 Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.

Proverbs 14:6-7 A scoffer seeks wisdom in vain, but knowledge is easy for a man of understanding. Leave the presence of a fool, for there you do not meet words of knowledge.

Proverbs 22:24-25 Make no friendship with a man given to anger, nor go with a wrathful man, lest you learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare.

1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”

How To Treat Your Friends

Luke 6:31 And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

Romans 12:10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Out do one another in showing honor.

Ephesians 4:29-32 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Colossians 3:12-14 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

Importance of Friendships

Proverbs 11:14 Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.

Proverbs 17:17 A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

Proverbs 19:20 Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future.

Proverbs 24:5 A wise man is full of strength, and a man of knowledge enhances his might,

Proverbs 27:17 Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.

C.S. Lewis Friendship Quotes

“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.”

“Is any pleasure on earth as great as a circle of Christian friends by a good fire?”

“The next best thing to being wise oneself is to live in a circle of those who are.”

One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood.

Seneca

True friends stab you in the front.

Oscar Wilde

Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence.

George Washington

It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies.

Aristotle

I have had friends in my life I never thought I would lose and lost them to whatever things that come into a life unexpectedly and take away what we treasured so dear. At times we never truly understand the value of such friendship until it reaches its terminus.

As a youth, I had a cadre of friends I thought I would never lose. I carried them into high school and things would change ever so slightly and I would lose a few and gain a few due to circumstances of life as we all do. But for some reason, something in my life experience gave me this psychology within that tells me friends are valuable. When I say friends, I mean true friends. Not those who came in with ulterior motives and sought to gain what they could before they left. I mean those who came in with no expectations, gained my trust, and stuck around to nurture a relationship that continues with me no matter how long the absence or the trials  we endure.

Something with me lives in my heart. My core. My soul. I recognize it as the Holy Spirit. It tells me friendship is valuable beyond a complete explanation. It is a need of the human condition that craves interaction that enlightens in the most subtle of ways that we a good time as just that when it actually builds memories that evolve who we are, what we value, and who we become.

The recent days and months have not only been trying ones for myself but also for those I call friends. One had his day in court and came out the other side vindicated. I and many who sincerely call him friend shared many prayers for God to see him through and our faith was rewarded. Others were dealing with relationships or job loss or loss of significant people in their life and needed the real support that true friendship brings. That act of fulfilling our friendships ultimate duty, (being there) creates a bond that cements who we are to those we value so much.

I remember those who were there for me. I used those moments as a vehicle to maintain my faith and my own belief in who they believed I am. The result was an ability to hang on and make it through to the other side of a dark time where the light awaited. The light of the spirit and the sharing of the spirit through the rare and priceless thing called true sincere friendship. To be one makes us a better person and creates in us an empathetic heart that sees life beyond our own needs and concerns and tells us our true value is to of value to others. It makes us see ourselves as more than separate people leading separate lives and feeling emotions unique to ourselves. We share who we are with those we trust to share those things with and a bond is formed that (whether we see it or not) is founded in spirit and love.

I mention friendship quite a bit in my daily life.  Perhaps it is due to losing friends I never thought I would and how those losses affected me. It was a mourning process I feel in some cases I have yet to come through to other side. Those experiences gave me an insight into the real value of a real friend and how they are not merely interchangeable parts in a sometimes rapidly evolving life. Instead they are the facets we use to create a life of value, of selfless action, of prayerful intercession, and yes, spiritual growth.

In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.

                                                                                      Albert Schweitzer

The Commandments and the Spirit. What Guides You?

The Ten Commandments are a divine guide for living. They comprise the heart of every true religion. In 1764, Emanuel Swedenborg wrote, "All can be saved, in every religion, provided they acknowledge God and live according to the Ten Commandments" (Divine Providence, New York: Swedenborg Foundation, 1982, p. 247). As Jesus said, "If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments" (Matthew 19:17).

One of the most remarkable things about Swedenborg's teachings is the lack of dogmatism. Although Swedenborg saw clearly that Jesus Christ is the One God of heaven and earth, he never asserted that salvation depends on believing this. Rather, he taught that salvation depends on living according to the truths that have always been available to mankind, summed up forever in a Divine series of steps called "The Ten Commandments."

THE NEW CHURCH:

The religion that Swedenborg explains is taught today through the New Church. Although the teachings of this church seem "new," they are actually the ancient truths, many of which have long been forgotten. In thirty Latin volumes, Swedenborg shows how the wisdom of the ages is stored up within the sacred pages of the Holy Bible -- and is concentrated in the Ten Commandments, which were written with "the finger of God."

The Ten Commandments were written on tablets of stone, with strong statements about our outward conduct. Their literal teachings are to be obeyed, but they also contain deeper, more interior levels of meaning which are revealed to man when he is ready to live according to them. Jesus showed this to be true when he deepened the commandments on murder and adultery. He also promised that He would come again and lead us into an even deeper understanding of the commandments: "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth" (John 16:13).

In her spiritual autobiography, Helen Keller describes her faith in the teachings of the New Church. She compares Swedenborg to Michelangelo: just as Michelangelo saw an angel in the stone, and carved out its delicate form, Swedenborg saw angelic wisdom within the literal stories of the Word, and drew forth answers to the age-old questions of life, death, and love. "Swedenborg did not write a new Bible" she says. Rather, "He made the Bible new." And she adds, "We are not born again all of a sudden as some people seem to think. It is a change which comes over us as we hope and aspire and persevere in the way of the Divine Commandments" (My Religion, Swedenborg Foundation: New York, 1974, p.56).

THE TASKS:

Although some may be satisfied to have theological questions answered, others will want more specific suggestions about how to apply the commandments to everyday life.

The Law of Moses regulated almost every aspect of life in Old Testament times. But with the coming of Christ, God established a new covenant of faith and love with mankind. Christians are not required to follow the Old Testament rules about crimes and punishments, warfare, slavery, diet, circumcision, sacrifice, feast days, Sabbath observance, ritual cleanness, etc. However, the moral and ethical teachings of Jesus and His apostles call for even greater self-discipline than those of the Old Testament.

The Law of Moses

In Biblical times, the Law of Moses (also called Old Testament Law, Mosaic Law, or just The Law) regulated almost every aspect of Jewish life. The Ten Commandments and many other laws defined matters of morals, religious practice and government. It regulated the army, criminal justice, commerce, property rights, slavery, sexual relations, marriage and social interactions. It required circumcision for males, blood sacrifices, and Sabbath observance. It provided for the welfare of widows, orphans, the poor, foreigners and domestic animals. Ceremonial rules divided animals into "clean" and "unclean" categories. Clean animals could be eaten; unclean animals could not.

Teachings of Jesus

By the time of Jesus, the great moral principles God had given to Moses in the Ten Commandments had been turned into hundreds of ceremonial rules. People thought they were living holy lives if they just obeyed all those rules. But many people found enough "loopholes" to obey all the rules and still live wicked and greedy lives (Matthew 23:23-28).

Jesus said that was not at all what God had intended. Jesus did not abolish the moral and ethical laws that had been in effect from the time of Moses (Matthew 5:17-18, Luke 16:16-17). He affirmed and expanded upon those principles, but He said obedience must be from the heart (attitudes and intentions) rather than just technical observance of the letter of the law (Matthew 5:21-22, 27-28, 31-32, 33-34, 38-42, 43-44, etc.).

Jesus and His disciples did not observe the strict Jewish rules against doing any work on the Sabbath (Matthew 12:1-14, Mark 2:23-28, 3:1-6, Luke 6:1-11, 13:10-17, 14:1-6, John 5:1-18).

In contrast to the "clean" and "unclean rules," Jesus said no food can defile a person. It is bad attitudes and actions that can make a person unholy (Matthew 15:1-20, Mark 7:1-23).

Council of Jerusalem

The first Christians came from among the Jews, and they continued to observe the Law of Moses as well as their new Christian faith. But as more and more Gentiles (non-Jews) converted to Christianity, there were disputes about whether or not these Gentile Christians must observe the Law. Issues of circumcision and diet were especially troublesome.

In about the year 49 A.D., Peter, Paul, Barnabas, James and other Christian leaders met in Jerusalem to settle the issue (Acts 15:1-29). It was agreed that no conditions should be imposed on the Gentile converts except faith in Christ. However, the council directed the Gentile Christians abstain from certain things that were particularly offensive to their Jewish brethren - food sacrificed to idols, blood, meat of strangled animals and sexual immorality (Acts 15:29).

The New Covenant

With the coming of Christ, God has established a new covenant with mankind (Jeremiah 31:31-34, Luke 22:20, 1 Corinthians 11:25, Hebrews 8:8-13, 9:11-15). Jesus and His apostles gave us a radically new understanding of the true intent of the Old Testament Law; they brought a new era of the rule of love for all people and spiritual truth instead of rule by law (Luke 10:25-28, John 13:34-35, Ephesians 2:14-18).

However, God has not revoked His original covenant with Israel and the Jewish people (Luke 1:72, Acts 3:25, Romans 9:4-5, 11:26-29, Galatians 3:17). The New Covenant does not condemn the Jews, nor does it in any way justify persecution of Jews.

Conclusion

The teachings of Jesus, the Council of Jerusalem, and other New Testament teachings (John 1:16-17, Acts 13:39, Romans 2:25-29, 8:1-4, 1 Corinthians 9:19-21, Galatians 2:15-16, Ephesians 2:15) make it clear that Christians are not required to follow the Old Testament rules about crimes and punishments, warfare, slavery, diet, circumcision, sacrifice, feast days, Sabbath observance, ritual cleanness, etc.

Christians still look to the Old Testament scripture for moral and spiritual guidance (2 Timothy 3:16-17). But when there seems to be a conflict between Old Testament laws and New Testament principles, we must follow the New Testament because it represents the most recent and most perfect revelation from God (Hebrews 8:13, 2 Corinthians 3:1-18, Galatians 2:15-20).

However, freedom from the Old Testament Law is not a license for Christians to relax their moral standards. The moral and ethical teachings of Jesus and His apostles call for even greater self-discipline than those of the Old Testament (Matthew 5:21-22, 27-28, 31-32, 33-34, 38-42, 43-48, 7:1-5, 15:18-19, 25:37-40, Mark 7:21-23, 12:28-31, Luke 12:15, 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, Galatians 5:19-21, James 1:27, 2:15-16, 1 John 3:17-19).

  In Fact, it was Jesus fulfilling the words of the prophets that gave us the Holy Spirit or as Jesus called it, The Comforter that put us in a different league of those who are strictly guided by the Laws of Moses.

On the day of Pentecost, all who believed were occupied by the Spirit and then directed by it as evidenced in their actions. It is our Christian conscience so to speak. So it is not the law itself which dictates our behavior but instead this Comforter that lives in our heart. Not our heart as in that muscle that pumps blood throughout our body but instead the core of who we are. Our soul.

Once we accept Christ into our core. Our mind. Our thoughts. We are born again. New humans now having that spiritual experience but more precisely, Spiritual beings having a human experience because now we are one with God and born into him because of the sacrifice of his Son with a capital S. The spirit we speak of now also lives with in as a capital S being. It doesn’t absolve us of the law but instead it makes us abhor those things which God abhors. We no longer need a phylactery upon our heads or a massive book of over 600 laws to reference. We have the laws within ourselves. We are guided by the Spirit.