July 21 -- The LAW of the LORD.-- Szczecin

Good Morning, it's a beautiful morning here with high thin clouds accenting the blue sky.  We are loved.  He loves us continually.  That is simply amazing.  He, the God of all creation, loves you and me.  He actually enjoys you as His personal companion.  He likes to sit and chat with you even more than I do.  And I really would like to be sitting there sipping my coffee and able to see your face as we talk.

Yesterday, I was privileged to spend the day electronically back in the USA.  A long time friend of mine, whom I love deeply, was going through a medical emergency.  His medical emergency was the product of his own foolishness. So many of them are.  But, in this case, my friend reacted without losing his joy or peace.  He continued to believe in God's personal love for him.  He was able to recognize his own foolishness without letting the enemy overwhelm him with feelings of guilt or self-hatred.  When I consider where this man came from just a few years ago, this was a total miracle.  His growth was tested and he passed with flying colors.  He is genuinely ready for more advanced levels of training.  Wow !  God is good.  (Would you like a laugh ?  Think how different the Scriptures would be. Imagine, instead of Paul writing letters to be delivered weeks or months later to his friends, Paul sends text messages to Timothy or Titus.)

Often, when I am reading the translated Scriptures, I find myself curious about what the original words were and what the listeners to those words would have understood.  Having had occasion to speak through translators on four continents, it has become clear to me what the listeners receive from the translator is not necessarily what I said.  Indeed, one of my translators finally confessed to me that when I said something he disagreed with, he simply told the audience something different from what I said.  I have discovered that all translators have a certain amount of bias.  When there are two or more interpretations of the original language, they will choose the one that most closely aligns with their own framework of understanding because it seems right to them.

As I was reading Psalm 1, I read the part about the “law of the Lord.”  Given the enormous importance of the Law throughout the Scriptures, I became curious about that word “law.”  When I looked it up, I was shocked to discover it means something different.  The word was not referring to a set of rules like I had always understood it.  It was not a word that described a series of “Thou shalt …” and “Thou shalt not …” statements.  Rather the word in its original meaning was much more accurately understood to describe a whole group of precepts or principles.  Thus, the Psalmist was not discussing a man who meditates on a mere set of rules about our behavior. Rather the Psalmist was discussing a man who meditates about the principles and precepts that arise from the nature of who God is. He is a man who ponders these concepts continually. 

What about New Covenant discussions of “Law”?  In Romans 8 Paul is discussing the “Law of Sin and Death” as distinguished from the “Law of Spirit and Life.”  Again, I went to look up that word “law.”  The root of the word translated “law” has to do with the apportioning out of something.  That leads to a principle of how the distribution is done.  So, the passage is understood to be discussing the what sin and death apportion or give to us as distinct from what the Spirit and Life apportion or give to us.

You notice in both cases, Old and New, what the Scriptures are dealing with does not have to do with a mere set of rules.  Rather, they can be better understood to be wrestling with our grasp of and alignment with the principals and precepts embodied in the very character of God.  On this basis, it becomes clear and obvious that we are incapable of getting those principles and precepts clear by the power of our own reasoning and logic, the strength of our flesh.  Equally obvious, our only effectual approach is through the Holy Spirit.  

Again we realize the Book is about an introduction to the person of God not about rules for our behavior.  Our behavior will arise out of our relationship. But behavior is not what produces relationship.  Relationship is produced by our receiving His steadfast unconditional love for us.

Papa God loves you completely just like you are right now.  Pause a moment and drink in His LOVE.

His, thus Yours,

  Stuart