9/21/11

A letter for ME!!!

Even though we are far apart, I regularly give my younger brother Dave a call.  He is retired as I am, so we both have time to follow the news.  One of the biggest changes in the Albany, New York area will be the reduction of post office branches.  Most of the branches that I went to when I lived up there are being closed.  Doesn't sound like much, but after going into the same post offices hundreds of times, it leaves a pattern in your life that you WILL remember.  I know, things change, but sometimes, NOT FOR THE BETTER.   The post office was where I met both relatives and friends alike and somehow having those branches closed will change my perception of "home" forever.  But, the letters I sent from "home" will always be the same, regardless of where they were sent from, or for that matter in what form.  Paul puts it this way...

2 Corinthians 3:1-18 (WEB)
1) Are we beginning again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as do 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 revealed that you are a letter of Christ, served by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone, but in tablets that are hearts of flesh.
4) Such confidence we have through Christ toward God;
5) not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God;
6) who also made us sufficient 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 service of death, written engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the children of Israel could not look steadfastly on the face of Moses for the glory of his face; which was passing away:
8) won’t service of the Spirit be with much more glory?
9) For if the service of condemnation has glory, the service of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.
10) For most certainly that which has been made glorious has not been made glorious in this respect, by reason of the glory that surpasses.
11) For if that which passes away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory.
12) Having therefore such a hope, we use great boldness of speech,
13) and not as Moses, who put a veil on his face, that the children of Israel wouldn’t look steadfastly on the end of that which was passing away.
14) But their minds were hardened, for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains, because in Christ it passes away.
15) But to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart.
16) But whenever one 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 transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit.

Communication that means something comes from the heart, from the essence of what it means to be YOU.   Whether written on stone, parchment, velim, papryus, paper or with the 1's and 0's of today's electronic age, the heart of human beings remains the same.  If that is true in human terms, consider what it means in heavenly concepts.  The love of God has never changed.  The expression of it has, from the original interpersonal connect with Adam or the patriarchs, to that of the prophets and finally with Jesus, God has loved us.  God has loved us, now that is something worth repeating, something we should always remember, something that should be engraved on our hearts forever!!!  In a world that is constantly changing, it is nice to know that some things DO NOT CHANGE.  So, even though you may be seeing this on facebook, or my blog, or in the form of a direct e-mail or a referral of some kind God still loves you and that is good news no matter how you get it!!!!!!!