November 11th.

Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the LORD, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel.

Ezra the priest and teacher was a man learned in matters concerning the commands and decrees of the LORD for Israel.

In the OT when a man wanted to follow God, to do what was right in His eyes, to be obedient and passionate about His way and His things, he lived by the Law of God, the "commands and decrees of the LORD for Israel." He revered it and respected it, he fought and died for it. He basically lived to love and protect the Law, which was his guide, and allowed him to live because it taught him about God, and its observance would prohibit him from going the wrong way and leading the wrong life.

The LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'I am the LORD your God. You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices. (Instead) You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the LORD your God. Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. I am the LORD.' "

The Law was given by God so that if the people practiced it, they wouldn't go astray and be like the common people of Egypt, Canaan and all other nations who weren't chosen to be the people of God and have His living Law with them, to be able to know it and live by it. They would remain as God intended them to be—a people set apart to be His, holy and devoted to Him. A people who chose Him and loved His ways over all the other ways which a man could go. And He would reward them with blessings commensurate with what a people chosen by God to be His, would expect. In sort of a nutshell, if they loved the Law and practiced it, they would be able to know God through that practice, and move nearer to Him to know Him more. All would go well with them because God would give them peace on all sides (very valuable in those days), and He would be living in their midst waiting for the Son to come.

It wasn't just a legalistic adherence to the Law that God wanted from a man who wanted to please Him. God wanted them to love the Law and regard it as something that could give them life, because it could bring them in harmony with the God who wasn't fundamentally like them. However the yearly, monthly, daily observance of all the God had set up meant that those who were otherwise filled with the wild animal nature would be able to stave that nature off by their adherence to what God had given them to obey and follow. The alternative was just doing what the other nations did—whatever random thing they felt like they wanted to do, which would, if practiced just as religiously as God wanted the Law practiced, lead them away from God so they couldn't be near Him, nor Him them. They would just b like everyone else, against the wishes of the God who had chosen them to be His own people.

Then Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.

There the LORD made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them. He said, "If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you."

The covenant He made with the people was good and God reinforced it over and over. It was that which a man could live by, meaning live according to God (being able to know God, who is hidden) versus the death that the first humans suffered when they broke the covenant—if you do that you will surely die i.e., not be able to know Me because you will be separated from Me because of your new nature.

Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

The law was a complete way of living, not just something "practiced" in the course of his actual existence, by which a man could learn about God, who He was and what He expected. But it wasn't just knowledge about Him. When a man gave himself over to being honest and true to the law, even and especially when no one else was looking, meaning when he lived it to God even in the secret places, a certain kind of reward was given to the man, who was brought closer to God. He was able to commune with God who moved closer to the man who gave himself over to it, because of his willingness to honestly do that, because of his faith in the unseen God. The proper and eventual outcome for a man who lived and loved the Law was that he came to know God by it in that supernatural kind of unspeakable way, beyond the superficial and not like the humans know things or each other.

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.

It wasn't just an arbitrary adherence to the Law that God wanted, a people who just followed the commands for the sake of following the "rules" out of fear, or because by doing it they thought they could get something from Him for themselves. In other words not interested in finding and knowing God but interested in surviving forever, which is the animal's ultimate goal. There was something so much more that would come to someone who practiced it, who learned by it, who came to understand what God liked and disliked because of it. A holy nation who loved their God by it, the shepherds teaching the younger ones and bringing them to the maturity of others who also loved it, loved God and respected and honored Him by it. The Israelites got a taste of being close to God during the time of David's reign. David was a mere man who represented this possibility for Israel—a nation of people like himself, who all had a heart for God, who loved His ways, commands, decrees and laws because they knew they brought peace and freedom for them. Not just rules that they had to obey, but the way to actually move near to the hidden God and begin to be able to know and love Him, to be like a faithful and loyal wife, as He had desired His people to be.

Love the LORD, all his saints!

Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

The law is a preview for the sons of God about how strict they will have to learn to be with themselves, in their relationship with the Father, in order to move toward Him. That will be done by the gradual movement away from what they naturally love within themselves that was cemented into them when they were wild animals who knew of no God who wanted to be a Father to them. Being led by the animal is to follow whatever comes up inside the heart and mind as a reaction to the world that one is living in. It's usually geared toward the defense of maintaining the life one has made for himself as the wild animal, how he has learned to survive in relation to the world of other animals, all doing the same thing and trying to get the same things—whatever can allow them to survive better or longer.

Be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to obey his commands, to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul.

To be in love with someone is to always think about them, to always know who they are and what they represent to you. It is to look after their interests, to be careful not to hurt them, to devote your existence toward their betterment. This is what the Law was intended to make the people be toward God, which David understood. He was willing to give up his self for his father's sheep he had been given responsibility to watch over and make sure they were okay. Being the youngest he was the least of all his brothers, so that his job would have been somewhat menial considering the others didn't have to do it. David loved his father Jesse, and did his job out of respect for him with care and concern for his sheep according to the respect for father and mother contained within the Law of God. He killed the lions and bears who threatened the sheep instead of saving his own life. He was noticed by God as one who was after His own heart, one who wanted to know and do the right, and reject the wrong. Keeping the sheep safe is what David eventually did when he turned God's people back to Him and taught them to love the Law of God, and draw nearer to God by it. This is what made David even more of a man after God's own heart; even from his days as a shepherd of sheep, through his days as shepherd of God's people.

The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.

David understood that the next verse in the Deuteronomy passage was significant, in that verse 5 commands the people to love God and verse 6 explains how they could do it. First the command, then the way the command is fulfilled. In order to love God, they were to meditate on the laws, so that they become written on their hearts, an actual part of their consciousness. Otherwise what is naturally in them would sweep them away after themselves, satisfying all the natural urges and cravings to go after the gods of the nations around them.

They were to teach them to their children and neighbors, and talk about them, discuss them wherever they went and whatever they did, whenever they did it. Putting reminders of them all the places they went in and out of all the time, and even tying reminders of them to themselves in case they went somewhere else where they couldn't see the other reminders; so that they never forget them, and never forgot God. To make them such a part of every waking second of their existence so that they were the only thing they knew. To actually make their existences revolve around them so that they were the only things that were important in their lives. In that way they would actually be able to love God with all their heart and soul, mind and strength, instead of themselves; and they would receive the reward of being close to God for for being faithful and loyal to Him.

The idea of remaining loyal and faithful to the Father and the Son, and the process that has been initiated in us, is something highly valued by God—that which deserves reward. The disciples who remained loyal to the Son were highly valued to the Father, because of their allegiance to His own Son. Like David taking care of his father's sheep, the Father loves those who take care of His possessions, who look out for His things because that comes at a cost of that one's own life and things, and everything he could have and be or become according to his right to live his life like all the animals life their lives, to and for themselves. Contrast this to the fulfillment of ritual requirements in order to get something from God (eternal survival—going to heaven or being in the kingdom). God has a heart and He looks for those whose hearts are genuine and sincere in their motives in the secret places where no one else can judge them but Himself.

There was a covenant between God and His people, and if they did this according to His desire, then He would protect them, and they would receive the blessings He promised them in return for keeping the covenant—large flourishing cities, houses, provisions, wells, food, all things they did not establish, build or plant themselves; it would all be done for them. But the the secret blessing, the thing much more valuable than all the "things," was the love that could only come from God back to those who loved Him—the thing that was lost by Adam when he broke the covenant between God and himself, and died. Not just a concept, but actual, understandable, real love that they could know and comprehend. That is what David experienced, which he wrote about so much in the Psalms.

I love you, O LORD, my strength.
The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.
He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

I love the house where you live, O LORD, the place where your glory dwells.

Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

Receiving the love of God is the only thing worth spending one's life searching for, because it's not just some automatic guarantee of bestowal that we can't actually be certain of until we "get to the kingdom." If we don't know it now, we will not know it then, because it is the kingdom. To know it is to know God, because God is love. Love isn't arbitrary, general or metaphorical; love is specific and particular. Love cannot be real unless one knows another, and is known by the other. Love isn't lofty and conceptual notions.

The truest example of love between God and a human isn't Noah, Abraham, Moses or David; although each of these is a son of God and copy of the better thing—the reality and fulfillment of what each of these men's relationship with God pointed to. The reason we have the record of the preserved words is so we can see how God interacted with them, how He taught them about His way, trained and rebuked them when they went/chose the wrong way. Is it because He liked to punish them? He loved them, the more perfect Father son relationship than all the best human father son relationships, which can only ever point to this better thing, because it's God, the original Father.

The relationship that the Father had with Jesus, whom all these OT humans pointed to, can be inferred by the preserved words. That relationship was the beginning of the fulfillment of the new covenant, because by the power of the unseen spirit, which was the life of God which could exist and be wherever He wanted, God did write His law on Jesus' heart, on that level deep inside Jesus, deeper than where the animal nature could penetrate and live.

"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.

"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."

God lived there in that place within the body of Jesus instead of the animal, what lives on that same level in all the other humans except him. That relationship between the Father and Jesus is the beginning of the new covenant promised by Jeremiah.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

God could only live in Jesus' body because he was clean, so what was the beginning of the new covenant couldn't be continued unless God's body was modified so as to be able to also live in the bodies of animals who were under the curse of death—who weren't clean, spotless animals as Jesus had been—as He had lived in Jesus' body. Otherwise the new covenant would have had its beginning and ending solely in Jesus, and he would have been the only one who was under that covenant, the only one who ever knew God, as per the Jeremiah promise.

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.

The significance of Jesus being killed then resurrected was what allowed him to be/do the great thing, that which would bring the terms of the new covenant to other sons besides Jesus, who technically when he lived in his human body was the only Son of God (even the OT sons weren't able to be considered sons at that point because they were still bound to the earth, waiting for the Son to set them free from its hold on them).

Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.

Going to the Father isn't just some arbitrary token thing that had to happen e.g., since the jesus god came down from heaven, he had to go back to heaven (at the father god's right hand while the holy spirit god stayed on the earth). The Son going to the Father meant being made One with Him so that a new being was created, in the sense that God's body was modified in a way when the Son was taken in to Him, so that He could actually be living in the bodies of unclean animals—those who were still under the curse of Adam, bound to the animal by its nature/instincts living in their heart. That is what the real Jesus (the Son) was devoid of, which made him the only clean and perfect animal which ever existed; and without sin he was the Lamb of God without blemish. That is a big difference from him being a god who came down from heaven to do some token thing, and then went back to heaven, giving his life and meaning no actual relevance or purpose. Yet if you say you don't agree with this lie, you will be excommunicated from whatever christian church you say it in. The christians say that you *must* believe the lie officially adopted in the fourth century in order to be right with the gods (father, son and holy spirit gods). It's wild to think that the entire christian world is based on lies made up by men who had the power to do it.

Some of his disciples said to one another, "What does he mean by saying, `In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,' and `Because I am going to the Father'?"

Jesus was that new component, added to the body of God, which allowed for what happened in the first century. He was the component which was a kind of buffer between God and the unclean humans, that which allowed God to live in places He wouldn't have been living if not for the life of Jesus, having been united with His Son, made One. Jesus going to the Father was what enabled him to fulfill his promise to those he loved, when he told them he was going away, but would be coming back.

They kept asking, "What does he mean by `a little while'? We don't understand what he is saying."

Of course they didn't understand what he meant, and when the events of his death unfolded they didn't understand how he was going to fulfill that promise to come back to them, because what he knew was the spiritual reality, which was beyond their ability to comprehend, not to mention be able to accept. He knew because the life of the Father lived in his heart and told him about things the humans couldn't understand because they're natural and can only understand what they can see, hear and know by their natural faculties.

I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.

Jesus going to the Father is how he was going to fulfill the promise to come back to them and live with them, not imperfectly as before, when he was bound by the limitations of the natural reality—he could only be in one place at one time, and could only interact with them by their natural faculties—but perfectly, just as the Father lived in him, to teach him His way, to keep turning him away from the enemy, to keep him perfect and clean because he wasn't polluted by the animal nature that makes all the humans unclean.

If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

This is what happened to those men and the others, like Paul, who were under the new covenant. When Jesus and the Father came back in the form of the spirit, he was able to fulfill his promise to not leave them as orphans, but to in fact come back for them, although they had no idea how that was going to happen.

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.

How would they see him? With new eyes which had to be given to them in order for them to recognize him. When he was killed they were able to recognize that with their natural eyes, and understand it clearly, because they saw him die. Then they experienced what he told them would happen, that they would weep and mourn, because they grew to love him; they knew he was the only one who could save them, because he was genuinely from God. At the same the world rejoiced, because the world is ruled by the God haters who are ruled by that which hates God—the animal nature, the sinful instincts which makes them unclean. Therefore they hated Jesus because God lived in him. When they killed him they rejoiced because they had chased God from their midst, where they didn't want Him to be because they loved what was in them and didn't want it replaced with what lived in Jesus. But he also promised them that after their weeping and mourning, their grief would turn to joy because he would be faithful to his promise to return to them to live with them and take them where he was going—to the Father!

Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?

But he had already told them where he was going—to the Father, the only place he wanted to go. Only he knew the way to the Father, because the only way to the Father was by being under the terms of the new covenant, and he was the only one who lived under the new covenant at that time.

I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.

They would only be able to go where Jesus was going if he and the Father came back to live inside their heart, just as the Father was living in Jesus' heart when he said these words to them, which was the new covenant. The modified life of God came back to live inside the hearts of those men as he had promised them. Then they were born from above, as per the requirement of that condition being met in order to be under the new covenant, what Jesus laid out in his conversation with Nicodemus.

I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born from above. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.

Natural children are the offspring of unclean humans, whereas God's children are His actual offspring. But God is not natural, so that is not how they are His children. God is spiritual, not natural, so that is how they become His offspring, by something spiritual that happens to them. That's what all the writing about the spirit was about in the first century, because it was this spirit which accomplished that condition of actually becoming God's offspring. Just like Jesus, He only came to live in those who were also chosen to be under the new covenant. The end purpose of that condition where God lived in men's hearts was so that, as per Jeremiah's promise, they would know Him. By actually knowing Him, they could actually begin to love Him, because you can't love someone you don't know, or only know theoretically.

In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

But there was a cost; the covenant had terms, which is not unusual or unreasonable. The terms of the new covenant were that those who wished to be under it must give up the claim to their animal existences (their life), so that they could get the promised new life that Jesus told them was available. One has to be given up in order to get another, because the FAther cannot be near that which is unclean unless the component of the Son is there too, and the intention of God to make that one a son also exists.

Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

Where was Jesus going, that they needed to follow him? To the Father, as he said many times. The way to get there was by losing their human, animal identity and everything naturally attached to it, what the humans love and run after because they find value in it, or else they wouldn't run after it and try to secure it for themselves.

Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

So what are those things that Jesus tells them they must deny in order to follow him? He was specific in telling one rich man what he had to do in order to be able to follow him to the Father, which by saying this was the only way to get what the man asked Jesus for—eternal life. Another thing that the human Jews ran after was the honor that came from loving, taking care of their natural family—not abandoning them. That's what he asked his disciples to do when he said "follow me," and they threw down their fishing nets and left their natural fathers in the boats to follow him.

When Peter saw him, he asked, "Lord, what about him?" Jesus answered, "If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me."

Because Jesus was able to come back and personally live in each of those men's hearts, they were each personally under their own covenant with God, because each one had his own set of things that he loved and ran after, what he cherished and loved by caring for and protecting—which is a definition of how one treats an object of that one's love. That was another perfection of the new covenant, which existed between God and some humans in the first century.

If the covenant is renewed, then those who are chosen to be under it will actually have to live by its terms. We can only assume that those terms have already been given, which are contained in the preserved words. Give up one's lives to be known by Him, is the simplest way to put it, however each one's life is different. If we've been chosen to become sons of God, then we will have what is necessary to understand those terms—the teacher will live in our heart to explain it to us—and be able to fulfill our end of the covenant. We will be taught what the sinful nature is (our own selves), and what we must begin to do about that condition—generally, that we can't just do whatever the animal instincts tells us it wants us to do, which is that we don't have to actually be like Jesus the firstborn Son of God, who is our example of how to live. That we can just take the conceptual notion of Jesus and what he commanded us to do, and pretend we are loving each other and that will be good enough for him (even though we have no actual concern for each other when it comes right down to it because like our notion of Jesus, it's only conceptual). That we can just keep up with this front that everyone is keeping up and we don't need anything more than that (as long as everyone else is doing the same thing).

I'm saying this as much for me as for anyone, because I realize just how much effort I spend trying to protect the things I have set up around me that give me comfort. It is what the animal does; normal behavior for animals who sense that they're always in danger and going to die, so they spend their lives doing whatever they can to try to pretend that reality doesn't exist and that they'll just live forever. Actually, though, underneath all the things they provide for themselves and all the lies the tell themselves, they know everything isn't going to be okay, which is why they spend their lives trying to pretend it is. The first thing the sons begin to do as part of the process of their transformation is see that in themselves.

It'll be easy to see it in the other humans, especially those we know have also been chosen to be under the renewed covenant. Therefore it will also be easy to point the finger at them and tell them what they need to do. That's the hypocrisy of the animal, which is yet another way it serves to protect itself, its ego, its honor, its estimation amongst the other animals. It's impossible to actually see it in us until we're given that ability by the teacher. When we do begin to see it as part of us, then when we desire to be changed so that we can experience the good thing from God—being known by Him, and knowing about His great love for us—then we actually can begin to be transformed into sons who don't hide from God as the first humans did just after they were dead, under the curse. The reward for those who love Him and want His life instead of their own, is His life, living in them, which is the only thing that can effect that transformation.

Certain things become obvious when we get some perspective about them. We all have these crappy little lives filled with problems and troubles, fear and shame, walls of defense and trauma; and we're all doing what animals do best—trying with all that we have to preserve our precious little animal existences. There is no temple where we offer our sheep, goats and bulls as sacrifices to God anymore. We are the temple, and the animal that we offer to God is us, our animal nature, the whole man. When we do that, we will receive what he has promised for those who love Him, which is the will of God for the son, the recipient of His love. To be rid of the animal with all its chaos, lying, pitfalls, problems and fears—and especially hiding from God—to receive what was originally his and be restored to wholeness, peace and perfection.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.

There is treasure to be searched for and found by us, but we're too dulled by the needs and desires of the animal to realize it. It's not found in the things that the animal part of us loves. It is not in money, jobs, houses, cars, positions, acceptance, loves, indulgences, the egotistical reflection of us in our own flesh and blood, or any of the other "things of the flesh" by which the animal finds satisfaction and fulfillment. The only real satisfaction, beyond all the hype and BS of the world, is in finding the love that can only come from God—secret, hidden, pure and super valuable. Following in the steps of the firstborn Son Jesus, who found it; and once he did, was satisfied and compelled only by it, and was made into the Lamb of God and Good Shepherd by its power to keep him from being polluted by its power.

Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.

That is why our reward isn't things, or our conception of the kingdom and an esteemed place in it. The kingdom of God is His love, knowing it because we are near Him who remains hidden. Our reward, as was promised to Abraham, is God Himself. God's love has always been the true reward, beyond all the other "blessings," for those who truly want Him.

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.