The musings of Peter

I love to read the Bible. It is a book filled with wisdom. The New Testament is written by people who were close to Jesus himself, so it’s as close as I can get to sitting face to face with Jesus. The letters of those witnesses were written by men who were there when Christianity all began.

What’s even more profound is that thise men and the early Christians didn’t have a Bible to guide them. Thus, when a reference is made to reading the scriptures in the new testament, it isn’t a reference to reading the new testament, because that didn’t exist when the reference was made, it refers instead to the old testament. The Bible chronicles our relationship with God, our encounter with Jesus and the offer of the Holy Spirit. It gives us tools for discernment, a basis for making decisions. It’s our playbook. But you can find Jesus and live a good life without the Bible, and many did.

One of the things you learn about mankind while reading the Bible is that we have a long term memory issue. Apparently, our unseen invisible Father, can make all manner of miracle happen…parting of the Sea, destruction of cities, feeding 5000, raising the dead, and many others… and the overall effect of that miracle is lost in a month. Normally because we need another miracle, and our present need overwhelms our wonder at the previous miracle.The entirety of the Old Testament tells the history of our forgetting who God is. It details rules and a way of life, structured so that we force ourselves to remember God in our brains, with the hope that we will accept Him into out hearts. The story of the Lost Sheep, the Shepered who leaves his flock to go in search of a single lost sheep, in real-life ends when the Shephard fattens that sheep up and eats it. We all will be judged by God, fear is the beginning of wisdom, but most of us want to focus on Love that is central to the New Testament.

Focusing on love, without acknowledging fear, leads us to believe that God will accept our faults and we are free to be ourselves. Which is not true. God gave us the Holy Spirit to correct our faults. The fruit of acceptance of that is not the ability to quote to Bible, it is faith, hope, joy, patience, perseverance, love and the understanding that God will judge us on how well we strove to imitate Jesus. Jesus came to write the law on our hearts because our minds weren’t doing a good job.

I worked in New York City. Everyday I saw beggars looking for money. Overtime my mind studied these people and decided that they were lazy or fraudster who really didn’t need money but were trying to take advantage of well meaning people. I ignored them. As I grew in Faith, one day I realized that these people were a blessing because I could be like Jesus and be generous with my limited resources but could offer to pray for them and eventually with them. My mind yielded to my Heart. As my heart becomes more like the heart of Jesus I don’t need to check the rule book, I know how I am supposed to act, it comes naturally.

Alas I am not perfect, the old me does show up. The difference is that now I know in my heart I am acting in a way that Jesus wouldn’t approve, and I willfully decide to do it anyway. Which is a horrible thing to even admit to. I am not sure that I should even write that because God may read it back to me and then pause and say, Really? That’s where we are at?

I have some work to do.