Sunday, August 22, 2010

The Veil

Talk about a sweet realization. Here for about a month, the family has been getting together for a Bible Study. No curriculum is being used, just verses and praise reports being shared. Questions asked, topics discussed and fellowship had.
 One such subject that has surfaced is Old Covenant and New Covenant. A family member is searching for some answers, as the church he's grown up in doesn't seem to be satisfying him. He was brought up to use the 10 Commandments as a guide for living.  Watching the foundation of his childhood start cracking reminds me so much of my own coming to the end of myself. He's starting to realize that the "Law" doesn't just stop with the 10 commandments--it includes the sacrificial and ceremonial law as well. Which means, if he wants to get God's forgiveness, he's going to have to cough up a bull and/or goat or dove, pigeon, whatever else they sacrificed to get God to forgive them. Oh--and none of this lame, runt-of-the-litter stuff. Only the best please. Nowhere in the scriptures, does it specify that the Law is to be divided up into parts. It's an all or none deal. Mankind has put his two cents in, and divided up the law into sections: 10 Commandments, dietary laws,  & sacrificial laws. Then where does that leave the cross of Christ? Which part of the law did He fulfill? Well, that's another post. I'm getting off track.

One of our reading scriptures was found in II Corinthians 3, where it refers to Moses putting a veil over his face so that the Israelites could look upon him, as he read the instructions from God. The Shekinah glory was so great, although it was fading, that the people could not look on him. Even today, when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. This veil is only taken away when people turn to Jesus. Everything in both the Old and New testaments point to Jesus. If we miss Jesus, we've missed the main thing.

I remember once, back in the days of church attendance, our pastor started a Bible Study on Wednesday nights on Ephesians 4:32. Now, mind you, this was before I knew there was a difference between the Old Covenant and New Covenant; before I knew we were to totally depend on Jesus; before any of this. The preacher taught on Ephesians 4:32 for so long, I had it memorized: Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ sake, hath forgiven you. (We were a KJVonly church, also) I quoted this every week, yet to me, the meaning was lost. I verbalized the verse, but missed an important message: We are already forgiven! God has already forgiven us for Christ's sake! How on earth did I miss that? Simple. There was a veil over my heart. I knew a lot of churchiense, and meant well, but I had not been set free from the law + grace lifestyle that so many people teach today.  I never stopped to think that, Jesus said in (what we call) The Lord's prayer, if we don't forgive others, then God won't forgive us, and yet, in Ephesians it says we're already forgiven--whether we forgive others or not. I knew both scriptures... had taught and recited them enough times. So, why didn't a light bulb go off when I saw the "seemingly" contradiction? One says if we don't forgive, we won't be forgiven, and the other says we've already been forgiven. So which was it? Why didn't that set off any alarms??

That veil again. It's only removed when we come to Jesus. Where the Spirit of the Lord is,  there is freedom.

So, how about it? Ready for some freedom? Ready for that veil to be taken away, and to be taught of the Holy Spirit? If so, be prepared for the ride of your life :-)

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