TCH MINI-STUDY 14
THE LAW WRITTEN IN OUR HEARTS
God does not want man to love God because man has to, but because
man wants to. Neither does God want man to do the right thing [keep God's commandments, please God, do God's will] because man has
to or is afraid of not doing the right thing, but because man wants to from his or her deepest parts do the right thing, that is,
the thing that God wants us to do. God wants His laws, statutes, commandments, and will to guide us from the inside out, not from
the outside in. God wants His righteousness to flow not from a stony [hard, unfeeling] heart but a fleshy [soft, tender, feeling]
heart in which God is the center.
Pertinent verses:
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that
I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them,
saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will
put my law in their inward parts [the nearest part, the deepest part, the center], and write it in their hearts [themselves, breast,
heart, mind, understanding]; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour,
and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith
the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more (Jeremiah 31:31-34).
For I will take you from
among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon
you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new [renewed, rebuilt, fresh,
repaired, i. e., reborn] heart also will I give you, and a new spirit [breath, mind, understanding] will I put within you: and I will
take away the stony [hard, unfeeling, stubborn] heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh [feeling, flexible,
obedient]. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God (Ezekiel 36:24-28).
THE CHRISTIAN HERALD
A
Judeo-Christian Bible Study
WISE UNTO SALVATION THROUGH FAITH
And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise
unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good
works
(2 Timothy 3:15-17).
PLEAD MY CAUSE, O LORD
“A Psalm of David. Plead my cause, O LORD, with them that strive with me: fight against them that
fight against me (Psalms 35:1). For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit, which without cause they have digged for
my soul. Let destruction come upon him at unawares; and let his net that he hath hid catch himself: into that very destruction let
him fall. And my soul shall be joyful in the LORD: it shall rejoice in his salvation. All my bones shall say, LORD, who is like unto
thee, which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him? False
witnesses did rise up; they laid to my charge thin gs that I knew not. They rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my soul.
But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into mine own
bosom. I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother: I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother. But
in mine adversity they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together: yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against me, and I
knew it not; they did tear me, and ceased not. With hypocritical mockers in feasts, they gnashed upon me with their teeth. Lord, how
long wilt thou look on? rescue my soul from their destructions, my darling from the lions. I will give thee thanks in the great congregation:
I will praise thee among much people. Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me: neither let them wink with the
eye that hate me without a cause. For they speak not peace: but they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land.
Yea, they opened their mouth wide against me, and said, Aha, aha, our eye hath seen it, This thou hast seen, O LORD: keep not silence:O Lord, be not far from me. Stir up thyself, and awake to my judgment, even unto my cause, my God and my Lord
(Psalms 35:7-23).
"Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him
that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands? Woe unto him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou?
or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth? Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come
concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me. I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my
hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded"
(Isaiah 45:9-12).
