The Benefits of the "Law" of the Most High

Oh, how I love your Law!

I meditate on it all day long.

Your commands make me wiser than my enemies,*

for they are ever with me.

I have more insight than all my teachers,

for I meditate on your statutes.

I have more understanding than the elders,

for I obey your precepts.

I have kept my feet from every evil path

so that I might obey your word.

I have not departed from your laws,

for you yourself have taught me.

How sweet are your promises to my taste,

sweeter than honey to my mouth!

I gain understanding from your precepts;

therefore I hate every wrong path.

 

Psalm 119 is the longest psalm in the Bible.  In fact, Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible.  The poem is an acrostic, meaning that each verse is based on one letter of the Hebrew alphabet.  Each line of that verse begins with the same letter, and the entire psalm is a hymn of praise and thanksgiving for the "Law of the Lord."

 

When the biblical writers speak of the "Law," they do not refer to a set of rules and commands to be obeyed as we would think of Law.  Rather, they are referring to the instruction, the teaching, the enlightenment of God to mankind.  This teaching includes the 10 Commandments, but goes far beyond ten rules to actual conversation with God. 

 

When Moses entered the Tent of Meeting -- the Tabernacle--- in the desert, his face shone like the sun as he conversed with God "face to face, as a man speaks to his friend."  He was so radiant that he had to cover his face when he emerged from the tent, because the Israelites could not behold the glory.  All of that reminds us of the Transfiguration of Jesus on the Mount of Olives.  Abraham Heschel translates the starred verse above as "Thy statutes are Thy converse with me."  In other words, when we read and study and pray the Word of God, God Himself teaches us through the Holy Spirit, as the underlined verse above makes clear.  It is not simply that we are reading words in a book, but that our spirit is receiving instruction from God.

 

In the section of Psalm 119 quoted above (vv. 97-104), just as in the rest of the psalm, there are a number of synonyms for the word "Law:"  command, decrees, precepts, word, and promise.  It is interesting to take any section of this psalm and to note all the variations on "instruction, word, or law" in that section.  What is even more interesting, however, is to note in any section the benefits that come to the person who "attends" "listens" "obeys," or "hears" the Word of the Law.  In this one section alone, the recipient of God's Law:

• is wiser than his enemies
• has more insight than all his teachers (we are reminded of the 12-year-old Jesus listening and asking questions in the Temple.)
• has more understanding than the elders
• keeps his feet from every evil path
• does not depart from God's laws
• finds them sweeter than honey
• gains understanding from the precepts
• and therefore hates every wrong path

While Psalm 119 is rather long to plow through at one sitting, it can be a rich and fruitful experience to take one section at a time for prayer, study, and analysis.  What are the benefits that come to the one listening to instruction from the Most High?  What synonyms correlate with the word "Law"?  How does God teach us?  Someone once said, "God comes to us disguised as our life."  What in our life holds the promise of instruction for us at the moment?

 

Would that every one of us could exclaim with the Psalmist:  Oh, how I love your Law!

 

 

 





Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit....

The Sermon on the Mount is not a set of rules and regulations; it is a statement of the life we will live when the Holy Spirit is getting His way with us.  (Oswald Chambers: My Utmost for His Highest -- July 25)

 

During His earthly ministry, Jesus did not teach the 10 Commandments.  He pre-supposed them and went beyond them.  For example, He said, "You have heard it said, 'You shall not kill,' but I say to you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment."  When He gave us the eight Beatitudes, they were not "rules" and "regulations" to be followed.  In fact, at least half of them represent things that are done to us rather than things we ourselves "do."  Rather, they represent attitudes of the heart and mind placed in us by the Holy Spirit, who gives us the power to become children of God, as St. John's Gospel tells us. 

 

We could not make ourselves "poor in spirit" if we tried, for by nature we are more like the church in Laodicea:  You say, "I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.  But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked" (Rev. 3).  When the Holy Spirit comes, He "convicts the world of sin," according to Jesus at the Last Supper.  That is, He convinces us that we have nothing apart from the grace and mercy of God.  That is not an attitude we can achieve by ourselves.  I remember once in my pride thinking that at least I was not as bad as "some people."  Now I know for sure that but for the grace of God, I, like Paul, am the worst of sinners. 

 

Before the crucifixion, Peter had confidence in his own loyalty to Jesus -- "even if all these desert you, Lord, I will remain faithful," he boasted.  In his heart, he spoke the truth, so great was his love for Christ.  But his fear over-rode his great love.  Until he knew himself to be the greatest of sinners, he was not ready to lead the church of Jesus, for there would be many, many behind him to deny Jesus out of fear.  How could he condemn them now?

 

Every one of us must move from Old Testament Law to the realization that we live not by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.  That is, we are poor, blind, destitute, wretched, and pitiful without the moment-by-moment grace and food given by the Holy Spirit. When we are truly poor in spirit, we "hunger and thirst" for the strength given to us by the Spirit of God; we are empty until He speaks, until He feeds us like He did Elijah, strengthening us to continue the journey. 

 

Paul was a devotee and a custodian of the Law, especially of the 10 Commandments.  But until he was 'poor in spirit,' knowing that for him, "to live was Christ," he was not fit for the kingdom of God.  All of us need an anointing from the Holy Spirit to go beyond the Commandments to the Beatitudes. We need not to rely on our own virtues and adherence to the Law, but to know that we need to listen daily for the Spirit.  Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection once told God that if He (God) did not uphold and instruct Lawrence at every moment, he (Lawrence) would without fail choose the wrong way.  That is poverty of spirit -- knowing that we are totally dependent on God's grace at every moment of the day.

 

There is a reason for Pentecost.  The counterpart to the fire and thunder at Mt. Sinai is not the Sermon on the Mount; it is the fire and wind of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  Until we experience that "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit," we are still "Old Testament" Christians.  Once we allow the Holy Spirit to have His way with us, we begin to be molded after the Spirit of Jesus, to be children of God.

The Gift of Meditation

visual

 

We are daily, hourly, even moment by moment bombarded with stimulation to the brain.  I think part of the peace and joy that comes with wilderness camping, hiking, or just sitting by a pond is that for a few moments, we get to "turn off" the visual, auditory, and other stimulation coming from our electronic and 21st-Century devices -- and we "tune in" instead to sights and sounds of peace.  For our mental and spiritual health, we need to stand back on a regular basis from the whirl of temporary events and observe the bigger picture of how things work.

 

When St. Teresa instructed her nuns on the art of meditation, she said this:  "I do not require  of you to form great and curious considerations in your understanding.  I require of you no more than to look."  As Moses stood at the Red Sea with the Egyptian army at his back, his instructions from God were You have only to be still and know that I am God.  That "being still" and "just looking" is the entrance to the gift of meditation.

 

"Looking" is not the same as "seeing."  We "see" with the part of the brain that responds to visual stimulation (the visual cortex).  The cerebellum is that part of the brain that is aware of all the external stimuli that surrounds us.  We need that information for survival -- but not every particle of information is useful at any given time.  For example, if we are sitting in a room, we are somehow aware of all the visual cues around us, whether people are moving about, whether they are speaking, what the temperature in the room is at the moment, etc.  If we are trying to pay attention to something we are reading or that someone is saying to us, the frontal lobe works to screen out the information we are aware of but don't need at the moment. 

 

The frontal lobe is the executive center of the brain.  It has the "Power" to ignore information coming from the cerebellum, or the power to choose which information it will pay attention to.  When we first begin to meditate, we need to train the executive center of the brain to screen out information we don't want -- we need to train it to simply "look," as Teresa taught her sisters.   What we "look at" may be an object, a situation that intrigues or annoys us, or an idea that interests us.  We don't need to form a brilliant conclusion or have some sort of revelation about the object we are considering; we simply need to "look" at it, to observe it carefully until our consciousness has been lifted to a longer, slower rhythm. 

 

At first, we are not yet adjusted to this new rhythm of thought.  We become impatient and restless -- but if we stay with it for 10 minutes, on a daily basis, we discover that we have entered on a fresh plane of perception, that our relationship with things has been altered.  Like Moses standing on the shore of the Red Sea, we might lift our rod over the sea, but what we know deep down is that we don't have to "do" or "achieve" our deliverance.  We see beyond the superficial; we know that God is in charge, and that He will deliver us according to ways that we cannot even dream or imagine. 

 

As we continue to meditate on a daily basis, to train our frontal lobes to "look" instead of responding to the constant stream of stimulation around us, we begin to surrender to a new and deeper world within us.  We begin to see unsuspected beauty, meaning, and power as the spiritual world intersects our physical world.  A perpetual growth of understanding keeps pace with the increase of attention which we bring to bear on our world, our environment, our lives.

 

As our meditation becomes deeper, it defends us against the perpetual assaults of the outer world.  We "see" Pharaoh's army on the attack, but we "know" not only that we have no defense in ourselves, but that God is our shelter and our shield.  As Psalm 57:2 says, "I will hide under the shelter of His wings until the disaster has passed me by."  We set a ring of silence between ourselves and disaster, and within that circle, we are free from fear and anxiety!  If God be for us, who can be against?

 

The world of appearance no longer controls or possesses us; we have entered into another world of peace, of confidence, of really seeing "how things work."  We may not be able to remain in this world as long as we wish, any more than a toddler is able to remain walking after his first tentative steps.  He sits down again and resorts to the convenient and comfortable crawl as his means of locomotion -- but the promise of future development is there.  Surely it is worth a few minutes a day to train our frontal lobes to "look" and to see into a world that promises not to make us walk, but to fly.

Alone With God

Last night, Charles Stanley gave an excellent sermon on "Solitude."  I wish I had taken notes, in order to share his thoughts with a wider audience.  In the beginning, he pointed out the difference between "loneliness" and "solitude."  Most of us have experienced both loneliness and solitude, so we know the difference.  In loneliness, which even Jesus experienced, we feel cut off, abandoned by everyone, isolated and dejected, even useless.  In solitude, however, though we are alone, we feel, not isolated from, but connected to God, the universe, and our fellow travelers.

People who go camping usually do so because they love the feeling of being alone under the stars, beside the running streams, under the trees, or overlooking a wide-open meadow with mountains in the background.  Even if they are with other people, there can be a wonderful sense of solitude under the sky.

Stanley talked about seeking solitude to experience the presence of God.  He mentioned that this time of being alone with God is not for the purpose of Bible Study or even of prayer -- it is solely for the purpose of resting in the Presence of God, much as we rest in the presence of nature.  We can read the Bible a bit to help us focus our thoughts on God, and we can pray a bit for the same reason.  But mainly, our task during the time is to shut out all distractions, so that our minds don't wander off.  He spoke about a time when he had to get away from the office, from the phone calls and interruptions, etc. in order to seek God.  He went down to the basement, where there were no windows, into a room that was separated from the rest of the church by 3 other rooms.  There, no sounds entered to demand his attention.  He learned that, for him, it was necessary to shut out everything else to seek the Presence of God, even to the point of sitting in a dark room.

For me, I find that I need to be close to a window.  A closed and darkened room seems to shut down my soul, while light and beauty opens it up.  However we find the Presence of God, though, it is important that we seek it.

First of all, like two lovers meeting away from the eyes of the world, God doesn't need our accomplishments, our knowledge, or our good deeds.  He only wants US.  He wants us to look at Him, and He wants to reveal Himself to us.  He wants to share with us His love, His goodness, His thoughts, His ways.  He wants to build up confidence in us that we are not alone, that He is with us.  He wants to give us strength and courage to meet whatever our day brings.  And He wants to give us His own peace and joy.

Surely that is worth seeking His Presence.  Those who go camping to "get away from it all" go a great deal of trouble preparing their supplies, driving to their destination, and setting up camp.  For them, it is more than worth the trouble it takes to enjoy the solitude and the connectedness they feel out in the wilderness.  How much more worth while is it for us to take a little trouble to seek solitude with God!  For He does not disappoint us when we seek Him.  He is there, waiting, waiting, waiting -- and finally, like Jacob, we cry out, "Surely God was in this place, and I knew it not!"

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The Complete Man

A shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, from his roots a bud shall blossom.  The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom and of understanding.  A spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the Lord, and his delight shall be the fear of the Lord.  Not by appearance shall he judge, nor by hearsay shall he decide, But he shall judge the poor with justice, and decide fairly for the land's afflicted.  Justice shall be the band around his waist, and faithfulness a belt upon his hips (Is. 11: 1-5)

 

When I read this passage from Isaiah, a prophecy looking forward to the Messiah to come, I cannot help but think of a quote from Boehme: When I see a man standing before me, I see three worlds.

Jesus Christ was and is the "Complete Man," according to Boehme's definition.  In His own Person and Personality, He perfectly integrated the physical, the psychological, and the spiritual worlds.  He was and is perfect God and perfect Man.  Like us, in the physical, psychological, and the spiritual realms, he was tempted to "worship" his own bodily needs of hunger and thirst and rest, his psychological need to know better than God what was "good," and his spiritual need to be "like God," the same temptation given to Adam and Eve.

Looking again at the quote from Isaiah, I am struck by the fact that Eve "judged by appearance and by hearsay -- what she saw with her eyes and what she was told by Satan.  What she and Adam abandoned in that moment of temptation was the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding, the Spirit of Counsel and of Strength, and the Fear of the Lord.  They looked to their own understanding and wisdom instead, learning as we do the hard way that we are NOT "like God."

The man who embraces the spiritual life, who integrates into his physical and psychological world the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, of knowledge and of counsel from above, is the compete man.  This is a man we can trust, whether in politics, in business, in education, or simply in the neighborhood.  The one who relies on his own wisdom and understanding is easily recognized.  In fact, sooner or later -- and usually sooner -- that man will reveal himself as a fool. 

When I look at our political candidates for an upcoming presidential election, I see very few "complete men" (or women, for that matter).  I cannot vote for someone whose "human wisdom" relies solely on his prior experience in the business world, in the world of politics and intrigue, or even in his good intentions, his "humanism."  I need to see a "complete man," one whose person and personality incorporates the Fear of the Lord and who acknowledges that he is not a "god."  I need to see someone who wears justice as "a band around his waist" and faithfulness (to God and to the public) as "a belt upon his hips."

Never mind which party he represents.  Unless he stands with humility before God and man, he will never find my vote.

Why Do You Believe in God?

As a sophomore or junior in high school, I studied the 5 Proofs of the Existence of God developed by St. Thomas Aquinas:  The Unmoved Mover, The Uncaused Cause, the Necessary Being, The Ultimate Good, and the Absolute Intelligence.  Even as young as I was, I remember thinking that these "rational arguments," valid though they were, had nothing to do with my own belief in God.  In an age of rationalism and philosophy, such as that of St. Thomas, I can see a place for clear and rational explanations for the existence of God.  However, I suspect that today -- and maybe even in Thomas' day -- these arguments leave most of us cold.

The truth is that the "love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit" which is given to us (Romans 5:5).  The spring of love is the Holy Spirit, not us.  Oswald Chambers says this:  It is absurd to look for the love of God in our hearts naturally; it is only there when it has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.  Those who do not first love God will not be convinced by rational "proof" of His existence.  As one of my students told me, "I don't want to waste time on this if it is not real." 

And how do we know that God is "real"?  Not by philosophical arguments, but only by revelation -- Person to person.  C. S. Lewis says that if God exists, it stands to reason that He must be self-revealing.  For we cannot know Him, or anything about Him, until He reveals Himself to us.  But He does this not only to saints and philosophers, but to every single one of us who want to know Him -- and even to those who do NOT want to know Him.  St. Paul comes to mind.  He thought he already knew the Yahweh of the Old Testament, for he was well-schooled in the Law.  What he could not know about God was revealed to Him in the Person of Jesus Christ, whom he met personally on the road to Damascus.  Even as Lewis himself met Christ "on the road" to the zoo; when he got into the sidecar of his brother's motorcycle, he did not believe in Christ.  By the time they arrived at the zoo, he was a believer.  Who can explain this?

Each one of us must also have a personal encounter with the God Who Reveals Himself to men.  Evelyn Underhill made a thorough and detailed study of mysticism -- not of "woo woo" phenomenon and unusual occurrences, but of the common patterns of ordinary men and women who know and love God.  Her research crosses centuries and cultures, delving into all forms of faith and expression.  Her conclusion for the "universal experience" of men and women is that our faith journey leads to three ways of knowing God, and until we know Him in all three ways, our knowledge is still incomplete.

First, we must know Him "out there," much as St. Thomas's 'proofs' of His existence.  Or better, as the Book of Hebrews tells us, "anyone who comes to God must first of all believe that He exists, and that He rewards those who come to Him."  We must know Him as "Other," beyond ourselves and our limitations.  We must "look up" to find Him, much as the man who wrote Getting Life cried out in his prison cell for a sign in his most desperate hour.

Secondly, we must know Him as Emmanuel, God - with - us.  The Incarnation, God-made-flesh and dwelling (pitching His tent) among us was a "second revelation," if you will, from that of the Old Testament  --- although it was certainly clear that He was "with" the Israelites on their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, just as He was "with" Abraham and "with" Isaac and Joseph and Joshua.  Now we know through Jesus Christ that He is "with us" always, even to the consummation of the world.  Every person who comes to God will experience that He is "with us" and that His faithfulness to us is eternal.  The author of Getting Life cried out to God-Who-is-in Heaven and found instead a God who was with him in the very prison cell.

Finally, we must know Him as the power within us, moving us toward good and not evil, fulfilling His plans for us, to give us "a hope and a future" (Jer. 31) and to bring us to the purposes for which He made us.  General Honore, the hero of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, told a group of men that the two greatest days in a man's life are the day he is born and the day he discovers the purpose of his life.  It is not just God "out there," or even the great revelation of God "with" me, but the final realization of God "within" me, working in me and through me, that brings us to full and intimate knowledge of God.

This is what Underhill calls "mysticism"  --- the full knowledge of God as Father, as Son, and as Holy Spirit -- the God Without, the God "With," and the God Within.  When we know Him as Other and ourselves as part of Him and with Him and within Him, we know Him.  And no one can take that knowledge from us. 

It has often been said that the man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument.  If our faith journey has been an experience of the Three-Personed God, we not only 'believe in God," but we know Him even as we are known by Him.  Until then, we are shifting back and forth between rational arguments and the philosophy of men.  Once we know Him, though, we know the Truth, the Truth Who is not an argument but a Person, the Truth revealed to us in the Person of Jesus Christ.

In a Darkened World

Fear, hatred, rivalry, anger, anxiety, persecution, abortion, bitterness, divorce, revenge, beheadings, greed, self-seeking to the destruction of others, human trafficking   --  all these things and more characterize the world of darkness, of chaos, of confusion  -- the abyss into which we tend to spiral when left to ourselves.

But God has not left us to our own devices.  He sent His Son not to condemn us, but to save us from those things that threaten to destroy us.  Jesus is the Light of the World, and those who remain in Him remain in the Light.  Not only "remain" in the Light, but themselves are filled with the same Light.  These are the ones that keep the world from spiraling headlong into utter destruction and darkness. 

In the Book of Genesis, after the first 11 chapters of a world spinning out of control, bringing on the Great Flood, God chooses one man -- Abraham -- and his family, whom He will teach to establish righteousness in a darkened world.  As Abraham walks with God on a daily basis, and communicates with Him about everything, God gradually makes Abraham "a man after his own heart," words that will later be used to describe David. 

In every generation, there are those who walk with God, who communicate with Him, who learn from Him the ways of righteousness and truth.  Unlike the nations who do not know God, the Israelites always had His instruction -- the Torah, the "Law."  Though they did not always follow what they knew to be right, they still had the standard by which God judges the world.  Unfortunately, knowing the Law does not save us from human nature -- the tendency to seek not what is just, but what is pleasurable. 

It takes a relationship with Jesus Christ, who dwelling in us, continues to teach us and shape us on a daily basis.  It is His life, His law, His light that saves the world from sin and darkness.  There are those who walk with Him and those who still do not know Him, and are condemned to walk in darkness, suffering the pains of darkness, until they come to Him.

"If you knew the Gift of God," Jesus told the lonely woman at the well, "you would ask, and I would give you, a fountain of water springing up to eternal life."  She was so thirsty at that point for love, joy, peace, understanding, communion with others after being rejected for her sins, that she received His words with joy.  He set her free from separation , separation from God (under the "Law"), separation from friends and neighbors (who condemned her way of life).  But the Father saw her loneliness and sent His Son to her alone at the well.  To her, He spoke words of light and of truth, words that changed her life forever.  Reconciled to God through His Son, she was also reconciled to the village who once scorned her.  Now light, she was a missionary to those who still sat in darkness and condemnation. 

There is a world of Light and a world of darkness.  There is no in between.  If we are not traveling toward the light, we are inevitably moving toward the darkness.  The morning after Katrina, I woke up in a shelter with 300 other survivors.  From them, I was hearing about the shooting and looting filling the city of New Orleans, and I reflected at that moment that in times of crisis, there is no "grey" area.  People choose either heaven or hell at that moment --- either they help one another, or they perish together.  In those moments, the sons of God and the sons of Satan reveal themselves for who they are.

Not a Cause, but a Person

I baptize you with water, but One more powerful than I will come.....He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Luke 3:16)

 

Every Christian life must move from the Old Testament, through Pentecost, to the New.  The aim of the Christian life is not "to be a good person" through obeying the Law -- for at some point each one of us will fail.  Rather, the aim of the Christian life is the Life of Christ continued in the world today through our persons, our characters, our bodies, our minds, our souls.

 

Water baptism is not enough to make us Christians -- unless it leads us to the baptism with the Holy Spirit and with fire.  Only the Person of Jesus Christ can set us on fire with the love of God and the love of neighbor.  It must be Him living in us that continues to do the work of God on earth.  Water baptism is the Promise of God that He will lead us to His Son, through transformation of our personalities, into the character of Christ.

 

Discipleship means personal, passionate devotion to a Person, Jesus Christ.  It means trusting that He will do the work in us that pleases the Father.  This is the difference between the Christian life and devotion to principles or to a cause.  This is the difference between the Old and the New Covenants -- In that day, declares the Lord, I will pour out my Holy Spirit, and I will write my Law in their hearts....

 

Only the Holy Spirit can impart to us the burning love for God and others that Jesus exemplified on earth.  It is no longer a matter of "imitation" of Christ, but rather of doing what the Spirit puts in our hearts to do.  The first is a matter of personal discipline and will; the second is a passionate love that impels us forward.  Someone once asked Mother Teresa why she ministered so passionately to the wretched poor.  Her answer:  "I like doing my own thing." 

 

We may admire Jesus; we may respect Him and reverence Him, but we cannot love Him like this until we are "baptized" with the Holy Spirit and with fire.  And the love of God is indiscriminate -- it is poured out upon all who will, "worthy" or not.  On the day of Pentecost, 3000 were baptized into Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit.  Confessions may have come later, but on that day, the fire touched all who heard the message.

 

I think the story of Jacob, whose name means "cheater, grabber, usurper" might illustrate the "normal" pattern of the Christian life.  Jacob leaves home, fleeing in fear of his brother's anger.  The first night, he dreams of a ladder ascending into heaven, realizes that "God is in this place," and he makes a covenant with God:  If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I may return safely to my father's house, then Yahweh will be my God (Gen. 28).

 

During the ensuing years, we see Jacob's character being transformed by his trust in the God of his fathers.  Though his uncle tries to cheat him in every way possible, Jacob gradually learns that Yahweh is his source and his strength.  On the way back to his father's house, Jacob encounters the living God -- not just His angels --- and is filled with love of God and the brother he has wronged.  Now he is determined to make amends and to be reconciled with his brother.  One could say that his wrestling with God was a kind of "baptism" with the Holy Spirit.  His name is changed from "cheater, grabber" to "One who has prevailed with God and man"  -- Israel.

 

Our baptism is a covenant with God -- if you will go with me, and provide for me, and teach me your ways, then you will be my God.  But our God will not stop there; He will not stop until we have been transformed into His image and likeness, until we are reconciled with our enemies and complete in love for our brothers. He will not stop until we are on fire with His love.  He will not stop until we look like His own Son, until we "are in fact, children of God," as St. John writes in his Gospel.

 

Our baptism is His promise to do all in us that is necessary to bring us to the Spirit that is in Christ Jesus and to the fire that burns away the dross of our "old man" -- the cheater, grabber, usurper that is our Jacob.