September 30th.

David then said to the whole assembly of Israel, "If it seems good to you and if it is the will of the LORD our God, let us send word far and wide to the rest of our brothers throughout the territories of Israel, and also to the priests and Levites who are with them in their towns and pasturelands, to come and join us. Let us bring the ark of our God back to us, for we did not inquire of it during the reign of Saul."

Man working independently of God, like Saul not inquiring of God during his reign is the way the world ruled by human animals works. Man is proud and unable to need God so he doesn't do what's necessary and seems logical (since God obviously hides from him). That is, search for Him who is hidden. Man instead will make up his own gods that are easy to find (since he makes them). Man doesn't want to search for God because it's not clear that it's worth it, and the consensus of the other humans seems to mostly be either that they've already found their made up gods, or else there's no need to search because God can't be found and there are much more important things to be doing than searching for some hidden God.

The LORD looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.
All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.

Why go to the trouble of searching for a hidden God? It appears that one will not go to the trouble unless the seed of wanting to find the hidden God is first put into the man. Otherwise he will just live and die like all the rest—like any tame beast in the field or wild animal in the forest, they just go about their ways until they become no more. The seed that the living God plants in the one who's chosen may remain dormant for years; perhaps with sparse hints here and there that it's even there, but nothing to warrant a full-on search for the God who planted the seed in him because the worries of this life and the desires for other things besides finding Him who is hidden are too powerful to fight.

When it sprouts and begins to grow it's almost as though he has no choice except to respond to the activity going on inside him. It's not a natural deal, though—not like anything else he has ever known because it's genuine in a way that cannot be denied—and it won't be able to be validated by the humans because they've already decided which gods they're committed to searching for: either themselves and their own dilemma of existing they hold up to worship and protect, or their made up gods which come from within their own craving for what they want their gods to be, for their sakes. Either way it's only them and their little bubble of existence they're resigned to searching for. The journey of the sons of the living God is hidden and secret, and not automatically or easily found.

The whole assembly agreed to do this, because it seemed right to all the people...there was joy in Israel.

This feeling of brotherhood and camaraderie was given by God to the nation, to the leaders around David because David was doing what God wanted, His will and desire. He was being the shepherd and leader of God's people who actually wanted to lead the people toward God over aspiring to do his own will. A land of security and safety where God could dwell with His people in peace, without the unclean elements of foreign gods and peoples who worshipped them influencing their relationship and separating them from Him, was God 's intention for them since He led them out of Egypt. Now God had a leader in the midst of them whom He might bless, who could accomplish that condition of ridding the land of the unclean influences that always seemed to lead the people away from Him toward the foreign gods to whom they were being drawn.

"My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray
and caused them to roam on the mountains.
They wandered over mountain and hill and forgot their own resting place.

Whoever found them devoured them; their enemies said, `We are not guilty,
for they sinned against the LORD, their true pasture, the LORD, the hope of their fathers.'

If it did happen, even in some semi-accomplished form, it only lasted a little while. Soon the people were drawn away from their place and condition of the living God dwelling in their midst, because they loved and worshipped any and all the gods that came along. Like the woman who couldn't wait to jump at the chance at satisfying the craving that welled up within her at the sight of the fruit that her God had told her would kill her, those whose God was live did the same thing over and over again.

It's interesting that throughout the story of the accounts of God with His people, that which is designated as evil always seems to win out over what God wants. The people are led astray, away from God way more often than they are dedicated to serving Him. It appears that that's just the way it actually is with the humans who are forever being led astray from the living God, to serve whatever gods they want to serve, whatever seems appealing to them to dedicate their lives to. So is the desire of the living God constantly being thwarted by another force too powerful for Him? Is God engaged in a battle that He's been forever losing? It would seem that way, unless it's assumed that the accounts that were recorded and preserved tell a bigger story about the state and condition of the humans and the power of the curse they're under, rather than the weakness of a God who is too powerless to do anything about it.

"In those days, at that time," declares the LORD, "the people of Israel and the people of Judah together
will go in tears to seek the LORD their God.

We would have to shift our thinking away from our ever-important view of our own individual and collective self-worth, which is actually just a defense wall that we hide behind because of our great fear in order to see a more important message. Alas we can't, because we're so totally driven by our inherent fear that all we can do is hide. So it all just remains an enigma to those who don't buy into the mythological stories made up by the humans about good versus evil gods. For those who accept that it doesn't make sense, there just remains nothing. For those who are willing to trust the human "experts" who claim to know the way because they've uncovered the hidden God, there is just a lie to hang on to, which doesn't make any sense but they don't care.

They will ask the way to Zion and turn their faces toward it.
They will come and bind themselves to the LORD in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten.

Within the accounts of God dealing with Israel, there is the resurgent hope of His people being redeemed, of actually being delivered to the place where they will be His people and He will be their God. But it never seems to have happened, and the way the humans are it doesn't seem that it ever will. Unless the stories of the humans and God add up to say something bigger about the more important message, that which seems to have gone untold about their condition of being cursed with a nature that always does go away from God, because it's His plan for it to be that way.

This would mean not that God is continually losing His battle with "the devil," but that He created it and is using it for His own purposes. It would mean that the humans are constantly being drawn away from God because that's the way He wants it to be, and the accounts of the humans who are supposed to be "His people" are just metaphorically pointing at another reality which is hidden from the humans at large, just as God is hidden from them, on purpose. In the same way, the imperfection of David, whom God greatly loved but who remained far from Him because of the curse, may be to show that being a cursed human he could only ever be a copy of someone more esteemed by God, the Son who would come from his clan, the One predicted by Nathan.

The LORD declares to you that the LORD himself will establish a house for you: When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men. But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.

He wasn't the natural son of David, nor was his kingdom a natural kingdom because God's words to Nathan about this Son of David were the same as the words about the true Israel which would one day come to Him and find Him where He is and wants to be found—not within the natural realm ruled by animals, but in the secret, hidden realm; by a secret, hidden people who aren't recognized by the humans who live and die within the boundaries of the natural.

Then Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked him. Dressing him in an elegant robe, they sent him back to Pilate. That day Herod and Pilate became friends—before this they had been enemies.

In the natural, Jesus only wore a purple robe and a crown as a joke, which is how ridiculous the humans thought the idea was that Jesus was this predicted Son who would be the great shepherd and leader of God's people. His kingdom was not a natural one that could be seen, predicted or controlled by the humans because it wasn't anything that originates or ends within their power to control it. They may think they do for a little while, but very soon all the control they assumed to have just slips away from them, as per everything else that can be observed which seems to have life in it.

The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you.

The kingdom about which the Son spoke—of which he is king—is hidden and secret just like the Father, who only reveals Himself to those He has chosen. The rest are left to the lies they can make up and cling to as though they were true. There seems to be a promise though for those who search for Him in the honest places of their hearts, where they live to be the creature they are defined by, according to its contents (whether in their lives they wanted to find God or not).

The poor will see and be glad—you who seek God, may your hearts live!
Blessed are the poor in spirit (those who don't assume to know the way, or to be able to control it),
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

The humans are given over to thinking that if something isn't natural then it's inferior, because they can't hold on to or control anything that isn't natural and if they can't own and control it and use it for their own good then it's worthless to them. They can only make fun of it, detest it, scorn and ridicule it, then throw it away. This is how the humans feel about God, because they're animals who can't see or control the spiritual world where God is, so they have to make up the gods they want to serve. It's not what they did to Jesus because he was a god, but because the life and spirit of God lived in him, so that he was not an animal but a son of God, and the two identities are opposed.

You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

Even though he had a natural body which normally meant that one was unclean, he was made clean by the will and purpose of God, the intention of what God had already told and promised him, who and what he would remain faithful to. Because and only because that life of God was living in him—the only good thing—therefore Jesus was good. He was sealed up with the promise of sonship, which meant redemption from the grave and not remaining one with it; by the living word which was the voice of the Father who lived in his heart to make him one who could be enjoyed by the Father, one who please Him, one who didn't act like all the rest of the humans because of their condition.

And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."

The prophets told the people the word of God. They faithfully prophesied against her sinful behavior and in each case God did the things He said would be done as He spoke through them in judgment against her. Although He judged her, He also promised to redeem her (unlike Tyre) because her true redemption wasn't actually about a group of unclean animals (humans), but those who had eyes to see their true Father.

I will make you a bare rock, and you will become a place to spread fishnets. You will never be rebuilt, for I the LORD have spoken, declares the Sovereign LORD.

This is what the Sovereign LORD says: When I make you a desolate city, like cities no longer inhabited, and when I bring the ocean depths over you and its vast waters cover you, then I will bring you down with those who go down to the pit, to the people of long ago. I will make you dwell in the earth below, as in ancient ruins, with those who go down to the pit, and you will not return or take your place in the land of the living. I will bring you to a horrible end and you will be no more. You will be sought, but you will never again be found, declares the Sovereign LORD.

It wasn't all the individual humans who were living in Israel that God promised to redeem, but the idea of what Israel represented and the reason for her existence (to be a metaphor of some other, better thing as per the precedent set in the Hebrews letter). Israel was a copy of a nation of sons who all have the same purpose and meaning, that which had been renewed when David became her leader and shepherd, and which was reflected in their attitude in the opening verse. Still, the imperfect—that which was merely a copy—could never be perfect, because it was always imperfect, just like David was imperfect because he was bound up to the animal nature, led by the animal cravings, lusts, urges and impulses, because of the natural animal instincts in him (until the Son of David released him for God's sake, because He wanted David in His true, secret, hidden family).

The LORD sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, "There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.

"Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him."

David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, "As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity."

Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master's house to you, and your master's wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more.

What he did because he was led by those instincts shows how they made him unfaithful and imperfect. It wasn't David himself who was displeasing to God, but the act of giving himself over to the animal instincts to lead and rule him away from God, so that he became utterly unfaithful to the God who had given him everything—to act like the vilest of men who used his natural power to try to cover his unfaithfulness with more reprehensible things when he oppressed and murdered one of his most faithful fighting men who was so loyal to David. There were many loathsome things that came about because David allowed himself to be led by the cravings and urges in him, not just the lust but also the oppressive, corrupt murder of a faithful son of Israel; the injustice of his power abuse, forgetting that God gave him the kingship, breaking God's law and thinking he could hide it all from God. All of this is due to the animal nature that lived in David. His fault was being led by it, and not saying no.

Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.'

This is what the LORD says: 'Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity upon you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.' "

God's prophets spoke of another One coming, the great prophet who was greater than all of them. He was the one who would have the power to give God His longed-for family of sons who love Him, that which Israel, populated mostly by humans, could only be a copy of. Even the most faithful man in all Israel couldn't remain faithful to God, because the animal urges were too powerful. In the humans, the evil always overcomes the good because those instincts are supposed to be more powerful than a human's ability to be pleasing and faithful to God. It's been His purpose for it to be that way, to show the contrast of all the humans who ever lived, and their slavery to that nature, against the Son who was and remained faithful.

Although he was one of the humans, he wasn't led by the animal instincts like all the other humans are. He never became dead to God like all the humans become dead to Him when they pass from child to adult. Jesus never became what the humans love and celebrate—he never became a celebrated, mature human because he always remained God's only Son. He was protected by the spirit, or life of God, who lived in him from birth until he was ready to choose. The spirit had the same purpose for the first century believers. Although they were different than Jesus in that they did become dead to God—they were animals, led by and enslaved to the animal nature/instincts—nevertheless they became sons of God by being born of Him, from above, of the spirit just as Jesus the firstborn Son had been born of God and not any human male.

The same spirit who lived in Jesus also lived in the first century believers. It taught Jesus to choose the right (way of God) and reject the wrong (way of man) as it raised him up as a Son before God. It protected him from what David couldn't be protected from—being led by the animal instincts so that he was unclean before God, unworthy to be redeemed and unable to be brought near to God because he was cursed. As the spirit taught Jesus to choose the way of God and reject the way of the animal, of the serpent, of the humans (even of David), it also in the same way taught many sons of God in the first century to be the same way—proper sons for the Father.

That condition of being inhabited by the spirit of the living God was the new covenant—totally unnatural, purely spiritual and hidden from the vast majority of the humans while it was revealed God because it existed in only a handful of them. It existed to effect a change in the condition of their heart, which is abstract and unseen to the humans just as the thoughts of a man are unseen. Just as the wind is unseen and unable to be controlled by the humans, so was the new covenant which was given shortly after Jesus went to become one with the Father, to become pure spirit so he could come back for those who loved and waited for him.

Jesus became the new covenant, because he was the missing component of the spirit who could inhabit the bodies of those unclean first century human believers because the intention of the Father to make them into sons was there. That was the prophesied condition of God having sons who were able to be faithful to Him because they were being taught on such a fundamental level, deeper than anything else could go, to change an animal into a son who actually could become able to be faithful to God by not being led by the animal instincts to do whatever was in him to do.

Then David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD." Nathan replied, "The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the LORD show utter contempt, the son born to you will die."

David is the example, using his earthly power to cowardly have one of his 30 loyal and faithful mighty men put to death because he used his earthly power and the position God gave him to force one of Israel's daughters to be unfaithful to her husband, one of David's most faithful and loyal warriors. He couldn't help the urge within him to act on that craving and lust, and use his power and king to secure that for himself at the expense of one who was faithful and loyal to him, which God recognized as something pure that He had given to David. When David couldn't weasel out of the sin he had committed, he had this very loyal friend and warrior killed like a rat, just so David could save his face as the honorable king. David hid like a rat hides to try to cover up what he was, as defined by what he allowed himself to be led astray to commit.

After John came in the spirit and power of Elijah to prepare Israel for him, the great prophet predicted by Moses came to give God what He wanted (a family) by making the new way to God available to some of the humans. Not like the old way, the old covenant of obedience to external commands and practices; Jesus brought the more perfect way, with new commands that would be spiritual, not natural—written on the sons' hearts instead of the old commands which were written on tablets of stone. Obedience now was not to an external set of commands, but to an internal law, which had spiritual, unseen commands. There were laws of God that are able to be written by the spirit on a man's heart (invisible and unseen), to teach him in the most real and fundamental way of how to be faithful and pleasing to God. The heart is the secret place where a man lives, but where only God can see.

"The time is coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers
when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them, "
declares the LORD.

"This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD.
"I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God, and they will be my people.

No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,'
because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,"
declares the LORD. "For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more."

After the great prophet came, this new way (new covenant) would become the way to serve and worship God. It would not be like the old way (old covenant). This is what the Son confirmed by his own words when he spoke to the humans.

A time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.

Spirit necessarily means hidden truth, because God is the spirit and He is the only truth there is, the only thing that's good, nevertheless He's hidden. There is nothing "spiritual" that doesn't originate from God (no independent-willed devil rebelling against Him—just the force and power of the curse and that which gives the animals over to whatever lie they want to cling to). The old way of worshipping God was over when the great prophet came, when the new way replaced it. The new way was given and guaranteed by the great prophet, who gave the new direction, way, covenant for the worshippers of God. Living as a stranger here in reverent fear, he lived in God and God lived in him, and he showed God's children the way to Him—he brought them close to God by making them clean by revealing God's intention for them, that they were to become His sons.

You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.

Not involving himself in the pleasures and things of the world out of a reverence and fear of the One who had power to give him life or death, so as not to be led by God's created adversary, he set the example for the others as he taught them with words intelligible only to those who had special "ears" to be able to "hear" him. After he went to the Father, he was able to teach them with words that were not limited to natural utterances. These were words that could go much deeper inside the man, which could live in his heart to be able to transform that man from the inside places where no natural words could ever suffice to do what the spirit would be able to do.

We do speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

However, as it is written:

"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him" 

but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment:

"For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?"

But we have the mind of Christ.

Paul wrote that he had the mind of Christ, because he knew it was the life of God's Christ who lived in him and taught him the way to the Father with those spiritual words that could not be uttered or fathomed in the natural, by natural men, nor especially could they be understood by them. Only by having the spirit i.e., what Jesus told Nicodemus, being born by the spirit to God instead of the animal, the serpent, could one understand the words that Paul understood. The NT letters and epistles are merely testimonies and exhortations by these handful of men like Paul, who were being inhabited by that living but unseen spirit.

When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.

The curse of the animal is to live like the unclean animal, and to never be able to be brought near to God. Living and dying to himself as all animals do. The call of the son, he who wants to follow the firstborn Son is to live as he did, and to bend to his requirements instead of our own. It is giving up this life so that we can find another, not in any kind of half-hearted way but in an uncompromising, pure and honest way—what God requires.

How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

This is not a metaphor. The worries of this life caused by the things that the animal naturally loves are a burden for the son who wants to honestly follow the firstborn Son to where the Father can be found. Money is something that spans the history of man as something that is highly valuable because it helps him survive and it's a very tangible way to feel safe by being able to hold it, knowing you can survive that much longer or better. The reason Jesus wasn't rich is because he knew that money and having it himself would hamper him in his journey to the Father, like weights holding him back, because it would contaminate the heart of one who wants to be purely devoted to his search for the hidden Father. He makes it pretty clear in many different ways.

No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

Either one becomes pure and honest, which the comforter and counselor teaches him to do, or one is walking on a road that is strewn with holes and stumbling blocks. The humans love certain things without there even being a choice, which might be fixed as a rule, perhaps may even be a quasi-formula for the sons who want to be pure in their search for the Father: whatever the humans naturally love, the sons learn to go the other way as part of their gradual transformation away from the thing the Father wants them not to be—merely another wild animal defined as such by the things he loves and runs after like all the rest of the common animals who *must be* separated from God because of their nature.

The requirements of God have always been significant. Man has always been required to give what he loves most to God in order to be His people and live. God wants those He calls His to sacrifice the things they have and could have to Him, for His sake; in effect to say to Him, "We love you enough to go against what everyone else loves and does and instead be a holy people, set apart from the unclean animals for your purpose, not our own. We desire to give up the things that the other nations do, what the mere animals run after, and instead live our life for you according to what you say is good, and be a holy people for your sake, because that's what you want."

The problem with the people of God who are merely humans has always been the same. They always love the things of the world, the nations around them, more than God. Until the time of the Christ, God judged His people by various things He did—the flood, the desert, the Babylonians and Assyrians, etc. Before the work of the firstborn Son, God chose those He wanted to be sons, but they couldn't be born with His own nature. After the work, a man would either be chosen by God to become a son then born of Him, or not. If not, he would just remain an animal, living and dying like any animal lives and dies, merely another piece of the old creation. If so, the law of God would be written by the spirit on his heart, as Jeremiah prophesied and as Paul understood himself to be the witness of that prophesy.

You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

The secret life that a first century believer lived in his heart is where he obeyed the law or not. The outward actions will follow his obedience or disobedience in the secret places, so the outside doesn't matter. That's a thing that the son who had peace in his heart with God just knew. He didn't want his reward from men, because he truly believed that God would reward him, and he wanted to wait, though it's a lot easier to get it from another human, in the here and now.

The light will shine in the dark places and the things that are hidden will be uncovered. What you say in the closet where no one sees matters more than what you say in front of men. "Don't let even your right hand see what your left hand is doing" gets the point across of Jesus' belief in the new truth he brought, which was totally against what the humans could accept. It's not about what you do on the outside where men see, but in your heart where only God sees.

After the Christ, men will be judged by the secrets in their hearts as to whether they loved God or not, whether they are worthy or not to be called sons of God. They will be judged by the life and standard of the Son, the word he has already spoken, and the law that is written on their hearts. Those who are judged worthy to become God's sons will judge the rest of the living and the dead, therefore doing the work of their Father, what is expected of a good son. Now the wheat and the weeds are all just growing up together, and the sifting will be done at the end, unlike the previous judgments God pronounced and executed on His people by starting over with a fresh bunch. The great prophet has already come, and he brought the new covenant and way with him.

Note that there will be many who will say to him, "But Lord, didn't we do all these things in your name?" And he will tell them plainly that he does not know them. Why will he not know them, even though they did all kinds of things they thought were pleasing him? Because the truth was turned into a lie, and men loved the old way better. They loved the way of the animal, of the outside, of being able to always control their gods. So they took what was true backwards and made the worship of God an OT type of thing again (according to the outward parts, aligning with the natural creation), where a man could be one way on the outside, and a completely different way in his heart i.e., he thought he could hide what he was in his heart by the things he did in his body. The leaders taught the people they too could do all these things on the outside, but in the secret places they could love their lives so much that they didn't need to give them up for his sake. They weren't given over to the spirit of truth, weren't born of God who is spirit and truth, but were given over to the lies that they loved. They could just perform acts of righteousness on the outside where other people see and can account righteousness to them, giving them their reward. But the righteousness accounted to them by other men accounts for nothing, according to the Son.

If we love the things of the world, the things of men, then we cannot love God. What we serve is what we love, and we cannot serve two masters. Either we will hate the one and love the other, or we will be devoted to the one and despise the other. This extends to all the things of the world that man enjoys, the things that distract us from having a pure heart that is devoted to the Lord, the things that make us at home in the world.

He has already spoken, and the words are already there, and they don't change because of anything we may decide as individuals or as a group. The even more important thing is that he continues to speak as the living word, which cuts through everything physical.

The word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Truth is truth—either we love the Son or we love the world. Either we lift up the Son in reverent fear, as strangers in the world who assume the position of being poor in spirit, or we lift up our selves and the lies that we love in deception, at home in the world that we love where we define ourselves by the things we love and run after. Searching for the hidden God is not a worthless endeavor, but He's not where the humans say He is (because He's hidden on purpose, and not easily found on purpose).

Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

The animal hates the idea of a heart that is soft and pliable toward the Lord, because it involves sacrifice and harsh discipline toward the things it loves to indulge in. It can justify itself by pointing to other false religions and their forced requirements, then talk about the freedoms found in Christ and go on serving itself. However, the animal is deceived by the deceiver and the adversary, who always lies. The animal loves the lies because they are disguised as something good, always geared toward self-love and self-preservation, while its heart remains hard, sterile, unplowed ground toward the secret things of God. The sons must come back to their Father.

This is what the LORD says to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem:

"Break up your unplowed ground and do not sow among thorns.
Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, circumcise your hearts.

For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back.

Return, faithless people, for I am your husband. I will choose you—one from a town and two from a clan—and bring you to Zion.

Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding.

Then my anger will cease and my wrath against them will subside, and I will be avenged. And when I have spent my wrath upon them, they will know that I the LORD have spoken in my zeal.

Once more a remnant of the house of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above. For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.

Once more the humble will rejoice in the LORD; the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.