Replace Strain with Spirit – - a podcast by David K Payne

He has enabled us to be ministers of his new covenant. This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old written covenant ends in death; but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life. 2 Corinthians 3:6 (NLT)

 Reflecting on my previous blog, as we look into the mirror of the word, we are faced with how we are going to respond to what we see. For me personally, many times I am not equipped to deal with what I see, or I just don’t want to deal with what I see. When pursuing an authentic life, we are not required to pretend, nor do we have to live our lives in a strain because of what we see. Critical to this approach is a fact Christians have missed regarding the usage of the Word of God. Consider the truths in these scriptures.

 … Unlike Moses, we have nothing to hide. Everything is out in the open with us. He wore a veil so the children of Israel wouldn’t notice that the glory was fading away—and they didn’t notice. They didn’t notice it then and they don’t notice it now, don’t notice that there’s nothing left behind that veil. Even today when the proclamations of that old, bankrupt government are read out, they can’t see through it. Only Christ can get rid of the veil so they can see for themselves that there’s nothing there. Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We’re free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him. 2 Corinthians 3:12-18 (MSG)

 It is critical to finding our authentic life that we understand as we look to the scripture, we are not looking for things we must strain to change. One way of making this argument, is the mirror never shows us what we should be, it only reflects what we are.  No one can genuinely look scripture and on their own measure up to the standard the word presents. A study of this chapter of Paul’s writings gives us insight into why. Just to see ourselves as God see us is overwhelming because we are all sinners and fall short of God’s ideal of who we should be. In Moses’s receiving of the law and the continued reading of the ordinances, there is a rigidness of strain that blinds us to the help God’s spirit can bring. As we look at the word with the confidence of faith that comes through Christ, we not only see who we are, but we also know the Glory of God that contains the revelation and strength we need to make the revealed adjustments. 

The difference between religion and relationship as well as law and spirit is explicitly declared in the prophets explanation of the new covenant and promise of God’s Spirit. The New Covenant is God taking the word and placing it inside our hearts and giving us the Spirit to be able to walk out God’s direction. As we depend upon the Spirit of God to changes, we move closer to our authentic and best life. Finding our authentic life is not found in a strained religious approach to reforms. Our authentic life is only found in a relationship with God where we receive the help of the Spirit to become the best versions of ourselves.

 

Just Be

David

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