STUDY

We live in a beautiful world and so much to be thankful for!

The coolness of the morning does my heart and soul good.

I tried to do some visiting by phone but all I got was answering machines.  Maybe too tired with the heat to talk.  I can understand that.

I feel like there is an ocean of knowledge for us to learn and truth may come drip by drip
 not as a huge wave but with little epiphanies along the way.

My book says it better: "The rabbis commented that each line of the biblical text is a "jewel with seventy faces" that we should "turn it and turn it again".  God's Word is limitless in its ability to speak into our lives".  Covenant, commitment, relationship are the building blocks of faith.

There is a lot of anger and hostility that creates prejudice and blocks the flow of the goodness and richness of life.  Jesus stepped out of the past covenant to speak to the Jewish community about the truth of the mercy and love of God.  There would be anger and misunderstandings between their God and them.

I know I can be angry with those I love, but always forgiveness and unending love.....!

Before the covenant I think they lived in a land cursed by legends.

The Jewish people did believe that they had a covenant relationship, a mutual agreement, with a holy God.  In fact his holiness was frightening and so they made sacrifices and believed that the smoke drifted up to heaven and pleased this God so high and mighty.  This was a belief in many cultures and today some think that if they kill the unbelievers they are pleasing God.    This reminds me of the shameful past in our religious history.

The Jews heard that it was mercy not sacrifice that pleased God.  The psalms reveal the unfailing love .that was present with them and which filled the earth.  Psalm 33:22.  As a parent I know the feeling of wanting to protect my children but realized that even though I loved them and wanted the best for them I had to let them go and make their own mistakes.  But my heart's desire is for us to always be in a loving relationship to the best we could.

I like what the New Testament says about the smoke of the incense that is an offering of all the prayers of all the people.  Revelation 8:3.  This was in a vision seen by the author of this book called revelation..

"Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror,
then we shall see face to face".  1Corinthians 13:12

There is a remarkable story in 2Chronicles 28:1-15 that those who like to quote about the fighting and killing omit "Then the men who were designated by name arose, took the captives, and clothed all the naked ones from the spoil;  and gave them clothes and sandals, fed them and gave them drink, anointed them with oil, and led all the feeble ones on donkeys and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, to their brothers.

Study is important in all of life, history, geography, language, and culture and the teachings of the Bible.

With Jesus everything changed because the sacrificial system and all it's ceremonies, all it's rituals and external trappings meant nothing if there was no change in the heart attitude towards others.

We planned to go to a movie but stayed home and watched an Australian D.V.D. called Murray Whekan.  It is a funny drama I guess you would call it.