“4 For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.”

Christ came to show us what the Old Testament was all about, what it meant, and in so doing, He amped it up to a whole new level.  Read the red letters in your bible to understand better – they are talking to you.  When you read the Sermon on the Plain Luke 6:20-49 and the Sermon on the Mount Matthew 5-7 you see how He takes the word of God, His story, and lays it out for us.  He clearly shows the expectations of how we are to live.

Everything that was written in the past was written to encourage us.  Warts and all, the lives of His chosen are laid out for us to see how they fail God, how God tests our faith.  We are no different than the characters in the bible.  The faith tests are to strengthen us, to see if we’re really in the game.  God knows if we are or not, and He’s doing it for our benefit.

This life has moments of great beauty and joy.  It also has moments of great pain and sadness.  He provides endurance and encouragement if it is sought.  It’s so cool that God actually came down to seek us out, to teach us, to leave us what we need, and most importantly, to atone for our inability to do what we are expected (required really) to do.  Seek earnestly the peace, love and joy He provides, be encouraged by His forgiveness, endure with His strength.

I’ve seen both ways of life – with Him and without Him.  Living my way created a train wreck of pain in other people’s lives.  I truly wish I could  remove the pain and scars I’ve caused in other people’s lives, yet I can’t undo the past.  That history though is a clear looking glass on the rightness of Christ.  It all makes sense when framed up in how (and why) life is without Him.