From: "Phil Rembleski" <PHIl@rescuechurchofchrist.org>

To: "1111RESCUEMEMBERS"

Cc:

Sent: Tue, Feb 14, 2023 at 5:57 AM

Subject: 2-14-23 THOUGHTS

2-14-23   THOUGHTS

The “NEW WRITTEN ON THE HEART, SPIRIT COVENANT” is contrasted with “A MINISTRY OF CONDEMNATION” below.  The NEW and the OLD are weighed.  “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life”!  The glory of the new is called  “MUCH MORE”!  A hardened heart VEILS the power of the gospel of Christ.  Only CHRIST can remove that veil!  I pray that each of us is “being transformed into the same image from glory to glory,  just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”   Our great hope in Christ should cause boldness in our speech and lives!   Just words, or do we actually desire this boldness?

2Cor 3:-18    Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you or from you?  2  You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; 3  being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.  4  Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. 5  Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, 6  who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.  7  But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, 8  how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? 9  For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory. 10  For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it. 11  For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory. 12  Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech, 13  and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away. 14  But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted,  because it is removed in Christ. 15  But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; 16  but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.  17  Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18  But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

My Prayer:
Help our transformation that we might behold your glory, O Lord.  May we have your Spirit that we may know true liberty.  Remove any veils from our heart, so that we can see clearly as we mature in our knowledge of you.  We desire more of you in us, O God.  Change us by a true knowledge and absorption of your glory through your Spirit!  Give us a closer walk with you.
In the name of our Savior,       Amen.