The new covenant had to do with a deeper INCARNATION of God into people. Hebrews (8,9) is describing the nature of the new covenant in terms of greater (ever increasing!) incarnation. For, unlike the old covenant, in this new one, God directly puts His Law (Mind) inside people, and writes it upon their hearts, and God is, eventually, known directly in our midst. It is as if Jesus initiated an infusion of God into His Creation! He paid the price to open the Gate (which He is and was!) for the world of The Father to enter ALL of His Creation! The new covenant is then about a much deeper communion God desires with His creation. And it is also the Way into this deeper knowing.

Paul places this in the context of a fading of the old covenant and the coming of the new covenant; this is the covenant which Jesus said He was or came to inact at the last supper in His Toast, where He quoted Jeremiah. Jesus is saying that, I am the new covenant, and it has begun-participate in this deeper communion through Me, for God has begun a work where He will know and be known fully by His Creation. My blood has sealed and started this work! Start to participate in it!

You have BECOME the temple space (as Paul put it in I Cor 3:16). The bread in the sanctuary becomes the bread of Life; all the central metaphors become more incarnate in the NT—from physical/ literal—to—metaphysical/spiritual reality. Literal bread or manna, to “I am the bread of Life.” In the new covenant metaphor, you are seeing God’s pattern of shifting things towards greater and greater incarnation! The new covenant is no longer God WITH us-nearby, up the mountain etc; law “over there”, on tablets etc; but GOD IN US—the law written in us; “My words have I placed in your hearts that you might not sin” etc; Here, is God living IN, and through us; through the life of Jesus He lives out His Life! God communing in us through His Son—that is the the nature of the new covenant.

 Jesus named this at the last supper. Quoting Jeremiah, He said that this is the new covenant sealed by My Blood! This type of communion was new and was about Him dwelling in us through His Spirit and communing directly in us-it was the beginning of a new type pf covenant God was/is making with humanity!.

The idea here is: God decides to come into His Creation through the perfect life of His Son, so that He can have uninterrupted communion with His Creation. This is the process Jesus began and will continue to, until all is consumed, and consecrated into His Life, and, then, given back fully, as a gift, to the Father.

For this reason, Paul says, we have become living temples. And he draws out the comparisons with the older one. There is a continuum of implications or meanings. But this is the temple not built with Hands, but built of Christ. He is the stuffness of the new temple. And it is occurring in us. More to come!

• Midrashing on the life and way of Jeremiah, the prophet . (Remember the essence of midrash is the feeling of an ee cumming poem; run on’s baby!)
•  This passage where Jeremiah buried his underwear–Perath-a reference to the Euphrates where the Jews would soon be taken–ie babylon. Whether Jeremiah literally went 300 miles to the Euphrates or whether God used the closer river with a name which the Jews would have understood to reference the Euphrates isn’t clear. But in this “acted oracle” or symbolic action, each detail mattered.
• the jews liked riddles, then. and often jeremiah, the prophet, was using riddles and puns. good study this! Jeremiah 11
• (also it is thought, that jeremiah started dictating because he was not allowed in the temple to teach them; so he sent Baruch. interesting). 
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• Jeremiah was very much associated with temple life; but not the inner court where priest did rituals; rather the outer court where conversation and teaching occurred.
• Daniel, who lived at the same time as Jeremiah, met God in study and revelations; daniel would have had Jeremiah’s writings, or at least been familiar with them for some time;  for they both lived in Jerusalem at the same time, and Jeremiah was famous. And had to have started circulating his writings through Baruch for these temple conversations which he was not allowed to attend after a period. 
• kin the outer court, people offered wisdom, poems, political thought etc–it was the place where the intellectual life of the Jews developed and occurred.
• the book of Jeremiah the prophet is an anthology crossing 40 years of ministry. the first collection was probably just the first 8 chapters which was destroyed by the king; then jeremiah kept having his teachings, poems, thoughts, stories, compiled over time…
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• Jeremiah had a lot of problems getting published! Baruch does a retelling or contextualizing of the whole compilation, later in Egypt, and then someone else also tried to cull together all the writings. it is truly an anthological collage of the writings and life and times of Jeremiah the Prophet!
• HIS LEGACY
• the lasting legacy of Jeremiah is often said to be his PERSONAL INTIMATE relationship with God. That he and God were in very close contact for a very long time. 
• He, like Daniel, sought to understand the times from a spiritual perspective, but his hallmark seemed to be a real living spirituality as opposed to just religion. So in many ways, his life bumped against the religious spirit! As well as the governments-at times. Daniel had great favor in government; Jeremiah had erratic favor from the various kings.
• Jeremiah=personal COMMUNION with God was his foundation. 
• as they are exiled, Jeremiah buys land un Israel–sign of hope!
• He cared about the people to whom he was prophecying!

“Power belongeth unto God.” The Holy Spirit is the person who imparts to the individual believer the power that belongs to God. This is the Holy Spirit’s work in the believer, to take what belongs to God and make it ours. All the manifold power of God belongs to the children of God as their birthright in Christ. “All things are your’s” (I Cor. 3:21). But all that belongs to us as our birthright in Christ becomes ours in actual and experimental possession through the Holy Spirit’s work in us as individuals. To the extent that we understand and claim for ourselves the Holy Spirit’s work, to that extent do we obtain for ourselves the fullness of power in Christian life and service that God has provided for us in Christ. A very large portion of the church knows and claims for itself a very small part of that which God has made possible for them in Christ, because they know so very little of what the Holy Spirit can do for us, and longs to do for us. Let us study the Word, then, to find out what the Holy Spirit has power to do in men.

We shall not go far before we discover that the same work which we see ascribed in one place to the power of the Word of God is in other places ascribed to the Holy Spirit. The explanation to this is simple. The Word of God is the instrument through which the Holy Spirit does his work. The Word of God is “the sword of the Spirit” (Eph. 6:17). The Word of God is also the seed the Spirit sows and quickens (Luke 8:11; I Peter 1:23). The Word of God is the instrument of all the manifold operations of the Holy Spirit, as seen in Chapter 1.

If, therefore, we wish the Holy Spirit to do His work in our hearts, we must study the Word. If we wish Him to do His work in the hearts of others, we must give them the Word. But the bare Word will not do the work alone. The Spirit must Himself use the Word. It is when the Spirit Himself uses His own sword that it manifests its real temper, keenness and power. God’s work is accomplished by the Word and the Spirit, or rather by the Spirit through the Word. The secret of effectual living is knowing the power of the Spirit through the Word. The secret of effectual service is using the Word in the power of the Spirit. There are some who seek to magnify the Spirit but neglect the Word. This will not do at all. Fanaticism, baseless enthusiasm, wildfire are the result. Others seek to magnify the Word, but largely ignore the Spirit. Neither will this do. It leads to dead orthodoxy, truth without life and power. The true course is to recognize the instrumental power of the Word through which the Holy Spirit works, and the living, personal power of the Holy Spirit who acts through the Word.

But let us come directly to the consideration of our subject: What has the Holy Spirit power to do?

1. Turn to I Corinthians 12:3,

“Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, But by the Holy Ghost”

The Holy Spirit has power to reveal Jesus Christ and His glory to man. When Jesus spoke of The Spirit’s coming, He said: “But when the comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of me” (John 15:26). And it is only as He does testify of Christ that men will ever come to a true knowledge of Christ. You send men to the Word to get a knowledge of Christ; but it is only as the Spirit takes the Word and illuminates it, that men ever get a real living knowledge of Christ. “No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.” If you wish men to get a true knowledge of Jesus Christ, such a view that they will believe on Him and be saved, you must seek for them the testimony of the Holy Spirit. Neither your testimony nor that of the Word alone, will suffice, though it is your testimony, or that of the Word, which the Spirit uses.

But unless your testimony is taken up by the Holy Spirit and He Himself testifies, they will not believe. It was not merely Peter’s words about Christ that convinced the Jews at Pentecost. It was the Spirit Himself bearing witness. If you wish men to see the truth about Jesus, do not depend upon your own powers of exposition and persuasion, but cast yourself upon the Holy Ghost and seek His testimony. If you wish yourself to know Jesus with a true and living knowledge, seek the witness of the Spirit through the Word. Many a man has a correct doctrinal conception of Christ, through a study of the Word, long before he has a true personal knowledge of Christ through the testimony of the living Spirit.

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God is always meeting us, but we are not always finding Him. See, God is on the move.  In each season, He moves ahead of us, and we must once again find Him. This is to protect us in some ways from getting staid in our spiritual walks; but it is also because the nature of the spiritual journey is to keep coming to know and love more and more of God.

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There is no circumstance or season where God is not currently willing to meet with you. It is impossible to feel meaningless if you meet God there. You may suffer, but not with a sense of no purpose. God offers the context for purpose.

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For this season, abiding is a new challenge because of levels of responsibility. But it is my challenge now; to meet and stay with God, However and wherever He moves.  The point for me is to stay in constant contact with Him, even if He moves. Then, others also feel His Presence with me, and that we are in close contact. Therefore it is a ministry to abide.

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Practicing the Presence-ie abiding constantly in Him- is  another challenge in the adult years of responsibility, but even more important. To have a monk’s devotion while parenting many responsibilities is a matured spirituality.

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Take the soup of the hidden place and share it with others.

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Christ is doing things through us, and therefore in us firstly. We do not ask Him to bless our gifts, but to give His Own to us and then through us. Give Yourself to me and then, through me today Christ! Enjoy giving through me today, whatever You desire to give.  Each day has particular gifts given to you and through you-what is given through you, must be in you first. In short, His Life is what we offer. Learning when He is giving through me, and when, to me, is also essential. Which gifts is He giving to whom, and why-what in Him wants to give that particular gift through me (and, why through me?). This last meditation brings me into The Father’s ways. He must work the thing in us firstly, before we offer this newly implanted Life to others.

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This way is an overheard spirituality. It’s less direct as when you are with Jesus in the yard serving people. This is more you are in the house downstairs with Jesus and receiving things, and from this deep hidden place your actions flow in the outer world. The fruits are seen later, but come from a deeper well.

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Thomas Merton said, when you sit with Him, you already know the world. But not the other way round. In the corners of a room, His Presence can teach you about the entire house. This is another way to know the whole. To sit with The Source of all, reveals all as He sees fit to reveal it. So there is an order to the revelation of things. In order to know the entire, sit with and in the One who created it.

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My cross has the history of trees in it; consider this. To take something which symbolizes the tree of Life (physical trees on earth), and to nail the actual Tree of Life to it, is a reversal of the hierarchy of symbols! The enemy of Life was saying that I will reverse the order–the material tree will be that on which The Eternal Tree will be killed. And Jesus submitted Himself to this apparent inversion in order to reveal the character of the True Tree-Himself.  His enemy was saying the created can destroy the Creator. It is the enemy’s way to reverse the ranking of symbols to confuse the messages of God. God was saying I will submit to this forgery to show the true version of Myself through My Son. Only a few saw it at the time–what was and is the true mystery of His Way on His Cross.

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I’m getting used to going down to the hidden places, then returning to the surface. It is a new way for me to ascend after being with Him.

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Several of the gospel writers had a hidden spirituality. John was one. They listened in the secret place of depth, and uttered things back up to the surface.

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What if one made art from this hidden space. It would look like Merton’s photography! That depth of stillness and observation.

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At first one must give up the do in order to enter the be. Then the do can flow out of the be. No matter how much to do there is, if it does not spring from the be, it becomes empty.

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Abide in Me, and I will abide in you. If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship also with one another. The way to connection outwards with others, is to start inwards with God.

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All things are connected in Christ Himself, the sustainer of all things. To be communioned with Him, is to be in contact with the entire world, and all that is in fellowship with Him. The way in, is the way out.

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To not be in His Presence is to be useless. He alone makes us useful eternally. Not I, but Christ in me. Without His Presence, we are an interesting, but un-empowered idea God once had.

His cross was the means through which He opened a new form of relationship with The Father. It was the “to-do” which was necessary. And only one man could do it! Jesus. Thanks. He taught, did symbolic things, prepared a people, but the cross was His Work alone-the cross was the most heroic action in history, and could have only been accomplished by Jesus. And He did it! It opened a new way for all of humanity to enter into direct communion with The Father again. The cross was the deed which changed all of history. His actions on the cross opened an entirely new way to God for all of humanity. Sin kept us from communion. The cross removed that stone, that block, through his dying as a sinless lamb. Think of sin as a wall between us and God. The cross tore down that wall. Jesus, alone, could have imploded that wall.

When you start meditating on His Cross, you start feeling the poor and needy. His Suffering-not ours (Thomas Merton taught), brings us to care for what He cares for. It makes sense that the monks then wanted to look humble, normal, simple in order to identify with the poor, hungry, needy. They wanted to be identified with His Suffering. I think Merton is right, in that, this area can get invaded by religious spirit, and become about our own suffering rather than His. But when you enter HIS Suffering Heart, you start caring for those who are suffering–homeless, those mentally suffering, those born into poverty etc. Those who are serving the poor in HIM, are living close to His Cross. It’s a central aspect of His Nature. It takes discernment to divide what is our suffering versus what is His. But if we are “identified” with His Suffering-ie if we are in Him, and this area of His Heart-then it makes sense that we would be serving the poor and desire to help the oppressed. When we are serving FROM Him, we bless those we serve, and we are moving in the power of His Cross.

I am currently looking at the way of the cross. It is a terrifying and exciting study. Terrifying to my flesh, and exciting to my spirit! The cross is the altar. From our perspective, this is the place of daily death into His power over death. The daily, hourly, bringing the unworthy sacrifice of my flesh, to His worthy sacrifice of his-ie bringing myself to His action over death. In His energy, i am accepted and renewed, or reconciled. In His already and ongoing power, i overcome daily the desires of the flesh, by entering His killing of them. I cannot be in myself a worthy sacrifice, but I can enter His, and by so doing have my old nature killed once more. This is part of the way and power of the cross! Even the desire to do good in overcoming my own sin, must be killed. I cannot offer my own sacrifice for sin, He has already done this, and I must enter in, and put that fleshly desire to do good or evil or even to not bother Him, to death. The way of the cross, or the patterns in it, are terrifying for us all, and there is absolutely no other way to get to union with God.

In the book of Revelation, each of His Churches has a unique identity, and is dealt with individually. There is a complexity of identity. The church is an amazingly complex creature or organism in Him. But does the church know what she looks like in His Mirror?

Restoring the true image of the church is part of His Healing of her imagination of herself. She must have a true image of herself, and her many faces, in order to live as whole. In order to do so, she must begin meeting God (who is Whole) in the area of her imagination, so He can truly cleanse her perception; not only that she might see the world accurately, but firstly herself. If she cannot read herself symbolically, she will not be able to “read the times” and know her role in them.

When we say she is salt and light, we are using symbols. She is also many other things which could be stated symbolically. For her to see herself in truth, she must continue to have her imagination sanctified in and through Christ.

Her perception of herself precedes what she is meant to do on earth; for what we do, flows out from who we are. If she does not have an accurate picture of who she is, how can she do her tasks on earth.

God said to Jeremiah, I knew you in the womb, THEREFORE, I called you as a prophet to the nations. His identity preceded his job or calling. The same is true for the whole church. The healing of her imagination of herself is essential for her to fully accomplish all the wondrous things she is meant to do as His Body.

Each of us is in this same process of getting a truer image of ourselves from God’s perspective. In order to do so, we must meet Him in our imaginations, and come closer to His. This is also true for the whole church.

The prophets saw the salvation plan. The 1st century received that plan. We see the second coming and restoration, by this same Spirit. We then move in this spiritual continuum.

We who live already in dawn’s light are living proof that what was seen through this light before us, was true, “having received our salvation”. The prophets saw by this same light, that the grace of salvation would come. It did! Now we can look on to His return and full restoration of all things.

This works in a similar way with the deposit of the Holy Spirit, guaranteeing us of what is to come–the fulfillment of all things. The one who justified is also able to walk us out into the fullness of our callings. This one is He who we are already looking upon to get us through life. We are in a stream of progressive, time-specific blessing, God is unfolding His Story through. We are post salvation and heading towards a full restoration of all things, and then we are told a new heaven and earth…

We who stare through history in the spirit of Christ have a great hope of His further revelation. There is energy and life in this knowing. And there is a clear motivation for our daily lives.

It is possible in His Spirit to look through all of history as one long unfolding… The old testament prophets saw salvation, the first coming of Christ Jesus. We can now look on to His second incarnation–this hope purifies us, because it puts each of us in that pure and purifying metaphysical spiritual tunnel  of history. It places us in the light already glowing.

The prophets saw the spiritual continuum of God’s plan. They looked at the salvation chapter, they looked on the restoration of earth chapter–the new city, the new order between the nations (Isaiah 41). They looked on..and this contextualized their current moment in history–their daily setting. Seeing the stream of God’s story through history even going into the future, allowed them to live on the earth with wisdom. This is a prophet’s spirituality–to live consciously in God’s continuum.

Another way to look at this argument for morality is to say that because we can see what is coming, we should conduct our lives in view of that reality.

We ourselves look always towards…

this towards is our strength–what we are looking towards gives us hope, life, joy energy to behave on the earth…for already the dawn is here…

Already moving in, and drawing our guidance and life from, the bright morning star who is already rising in our hearts. That is the way of the prophets, and that is the way forward, and the source from which to live in our present situations.

Peter’s argument in his first letter is that everything is already looking towards, and participating in the dawning. The salvation light has already been given, and even as the prophets saw that light coming- having already received the spirit of Christ in them, by which they saw that future plan and action-so we having the Holy Spirit in us, can see the spiritual continuum–the stream of God’s plans. We can already be knowing that He is returning. We base our actions on earth, upon standing in this continuum. We act accordingly–in short, we live according to our amount of vision. It is because we have a clear view of what is to come, and we ourselves are living proof , and a continuation, of what came before us, that what is to come, is already pressing in on us. Peter’s basic argument in this epistle is that there is throughout history a spiritual continuum, and that if we live in this continuum, we will be able to make sense of our lives.