There are times when reading Scripture that God sounds so harsh. So we shrink away. We fear punishment. Then we think that the God of the Old Testament is somehow different from the God of the New Testament. Is He really?

The people are about to enter into a land where parents kill their own children to appease their demanding gods. They are about to enter into a land where sex is a big part of their celebration for their gods. Both defile them and the land. Keep all my decrees and laws and follow them, so that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out. You must not live according to the customs of the nations I am going to drive out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them. But I said to you, “You will possess their land; I will give it to you as an inheritance, a land flowing with milk and honey.” I am the Lord your God, who has set you apart from the nations. Leviticus 20:22-24.

You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own. v. 26.

Reading this morning Hearing God Throughout the Year by Dallas Willard: We have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding…giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. Colossians 1:9,12.

Filling us with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. How different is that from empty practices that fill us with shame and fear and guilt?

Giving thanks to the Father…why? Who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.

I don’t know about you, but I long for that light. I long for His Kingdom to come and fill this Earth with His wisdom and love and teaching. From the very beginning, He has patiently taught us. I imagine a tremendous amount of teaching and healing and love will be needed when Jesus returns. He will fill us with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. God speed that day! We need You.