Many of us have special traditions that we honour.  These traditions hold a special place in our heart’s because we are passionate about them.  The traditions are symbolic and meaningful and usually these special traditions are shared with the people we love.

What happens when tradition and passion lose their connection?  Will going to Church on Sunday’s make us faithful to God if we are not passionate about God?

If we study the Bible we understand that God made two covenants with His people that embodied His will and His promises.  The original covenant was based on the Law.  God chose Moses to reveal God’s Law.   God wrote ten commandments on stone tablets and He told Moses that if His people obeyed Him, He would bless them, but if His people failed to obey the commandments, God would exercise punishments.  God’s strategy is not unlike the way we raise little children.   To keep them safe we introduce rules for them to live by.  If they fail to obey the rules we punish them to keep them safe and try to help them to understand.  Why then do little children keep pushing the boundaries and fail to obey the rules parents set for them?

Perhaps because most children are naturally mischievious and sensuous and they don’t always understand the full implications of the rules and the true meaning behind them.  I remember shopping one day with my husband and daughter in a stroller.  When we got ready to get back in my car I noticed our little girl was holding a brand new doll.  “Honey, where did you get that?!”  I was very upset.  I realized she had stollen a doll.  She just smiled at me and giggled and said “I took it”.   So we ran back to the toy store and I told the sales person that I was so sorry but my 3 year old had helped herself to a doll.  “I know” she said, “She was so cute I didn’t have the heart to say anything.”  I was flaberghasted! “Why wasn’t this lady helping me to enforce the rules:  no stealing!” Well, we gave back the doll and I tried to explain the “no stealing” rule to my little 3 year old daughter but I didn’t punish her because I could see she didn’t really understand.  That doll was just too tempting for her.

The New Covenant – A Sign of God’s Infinite Mercy and His Plan to deal with Disobedience

In the case of adults, I think people disobey God, because they don’t yet know Him and love Him.  I have met “swingers” who think it’s perfectly reasonable to have sex with multiple partners.  It’s a “lifestyle” they tell me and they give away their spouses based on mutual consent.  I am sad for them. They don’t realize God is so offended and that there are consequences to these immorale choices.  What to do?  We need to pray for God’s mercy!  May God give them the grace to repent and change!

God’s love for the world is so passionate and so infinite that He did something enormous to help His children understand His will and the depth of His love—God paid the price of our disobedience so that we could understand His Passion for us!

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17

Jesus died on the Cross to renew the old covenant.  The New Covenant is not about rules, it’s about God’s love and it’s not written on stone, it is written on our hearts.

“For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance–now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.”  Hebrews 9:15

I think about this every day:  God loves the world so much that He chooses not to condemn us for our disobedience but to free us by paying the price of divine justice.  In this way He gives us the gift of eternal life.  All He asks in return is that we repent and love Him and one another.   “We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19

Every day I think about the Passion of Christ.  I do this at 3pm, the time Jesus died on the Cross.  I have fallen so deeply in love with Jesus who is willing to suffer so much for our redemption that I am willing to dedicate my whole life to Him.  The idea of offending God is so utterly revolting to me because I love Him and His Passion is always on my mind and His love is written upon my heart.

The New Covenant is signed in the Blood of Jesus Christ.  “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”  John 15:13  I encourage you to get to know Jesus Christ who loves you so much He consented to be tortured and killed so that you could be with Him forever!  The key to obedience to God is not rules it’s about PASSION for Him!  If we are passionate about God we will honour all His commandments and precepts.

Let’s unite in prayer Christian friends at the foot of the Cross of Jesus every day at the time He died for us, 3pm, remembering His love, His Passion, His courage, His everlasting covenant to open the gates of Paradise to the people He loves so much!  Let’s repent of our sins and pray for the mercy of Our Saviour Jesus upon all souls.  For the sake of Your sorrowful Passion Lord, have mercy on us and on the whole world!

I love You Jesus!  You are my heart’s desire!  Join the peaceful revolution in the name of Jesus Christ.