Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Have I kept the whole law? What if I only want to keep part of it? The traditions, the holidays, the sabbath... I only want to keep the part of the law that is easy..


What about.... those not so easy laws; coveting, lust, adultery, loving your neighbor, loving your enemy (Matt 5:44), loving God with my whole heart; idolatry and the list goes on..


James 2:10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. 

This is me.... I am guilty... I stand guilty of not keeping the whole law..
 
Matt 5: 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. v48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Is there Hope for the Lost, the one who is judged a law breaker? 

 2 Cor 5: 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Tough Week

Tired, discouraged, not feeling well, lonely, easily prone to sin and temptation, feeling at times quite overwhelmed with the consequences of decisions I have made, feeling trapped with no way out....waiting God... 'Help!" Sometimes... I contemplate the easy way out, give up on the race... do what the world and all around me say is okay. Take comfort in an easy way out... with sin.. ...it is pleasant for a season but does not fill the empty place in  the soul. "Help Lord!" this sinner.... to keep on the narrow path... the path that goes only one way...
 Hebrews 12
 ¹Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. ²Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
 ⁴In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. ⁵And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons:
   "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline,
      and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
 ⁶because the Lord disciplines those he loves,
      and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."^[a]
 7Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? ⁸If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. ⁹Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! ¹⁰Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. ¹¹No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

 ¹²Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. ¹³"Make level paths for your feet,"^[b] so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.


picture ref: http://t4toby.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/hope-1.jpg

Hebrews.... and this New Convenant!

<sup>I am reading through Hebrews and these verses really struck me tonight.. How great it is!

Chap 8

6</sup>But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises.

 ¹³By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.