June 22nd

People of the Second Chance

You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart. 2 Corinthians 2:6-8

Have you heard of the new thing? A lot of people these days are just looking for the newest thing, the biggest announcement, the latest gadget, the hippest style. But I'm telling you today about the best new thing you can possibly imagine-a new life.

This new life comes through a new covenant that God has offered to us, and a covenant simply means community, so the new covenant is talking about God's community. Let me tell you about it:

First of all, the new covenant provides the real deal. The old covenant was a religious deal, but the new one is the real deal. This means that the old way of life was artificial, but the new is actual. See, in the old way you had a goat or sheep that represented the Lamb of God, but in the new, actual system is the real Lamb of God-Jesus Christ-who opens the way to His presence.

This kind of Christianity is written on your heart and soul. It's not some written law that remains outside of you, but it has now gotten to the core of who you are and transformed you from the inside out.

This law written on your heart finally becomes legible so that you and everyone else can read it. It also becomes convincing because you are now living a first-person relationship with Jesus. In the old way, you were stuck with a vicarious relationship that went through a priest who went into the Holy of Holies once a year, but now you can enter right in for yourself. It also becomes persuasive because now you have the living Creator of all things dwelling inside of you, and there is nothing as persuasive and real as a changed life.

All of this is Christianity in its most enduring form. The old covenant was written on tablets of stone that crumpled to dust millennia ago. If your religion is based on them, then what good is that now? Those tablets could never take the place of what God has for us now.

Real Christianity is the divine Christianity that God has written on our hearts. No surgeon can write on your heart, but God can, and He will make Himself this personal, this powerful, and this real to you if you will just ask.

Prayer Lord Jesus,

I confess that I have been living with less than real Christianity, but I want more. I want the real deal. Please come and write on my heart today, even right now, so that I can enter into the fullness of all You have for me!

Amen