Friends in Christ Weekly Message
February 21, 2004

     With that kind of hope to excite us, nothing holds us back. Unlike Moses, we have nothing to hide. Everything is out in the open with us. He wore a veil so the children of Israel wouldn't notice that the glory was fading away - and they didn't notice. They didn't notice it then and they don't notice it now, don't notice that there's nothing left behind that veil. Even today when the proclamations of that old, bankrupt government are read out, they can't see through it. Only Christ can get rid of the veil so they can see for themselves that there's nothing there.
     Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are - face to face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We're free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.
2 Corinthians 3:12-18 (Message*)

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments, his face shone. After he had read the law to the people, he covered his face with a veil. The law was a mechanism to try to keep a people prone to do wrong within some bounds. People saw the law, but they were afraid to see God.

Paul's teaching is that Christ changed this. No longer is law between us and God, but we are invited to a personal relationship with God, through Jesus Christ. Too many still seek a legalistic way, but each of us can rather choose to base our lives on a relationship in which we are guided by a living Spirit. If we follow in this way, our lives can become brighter as we become more and more like God as Christ lives within us and changes us. Hallelujah!

Are you living according to law or in relationship with God? Are you allowing Christ to live within you, transforming you so you shine with the glory of God?

Bill Samuel

* The Message version ©2002 by Eugene H. Peterson.

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