Winter 2010 reflections part 2

(for lack of a better title =P)

Rachmaninov piano concerto 2. The first time I heard it 2 years ago, I fell in love with it =)
The intensity of it just draws you in...
Tonight, hearing it played by UW orchestra really got me thinking a lot.

I would have been on the stage playing my favourite piano concerto tonight.
Or I would have been getting good at hockey this term.
Or I would have been...

But I'm so thankful for how things turned out this term. The things that I held dear, I knew I could have invested my time so much better in other ways and when I couldn't make the decision to "sacrifice" them, one by one... God took them away from me.
and praise Him for that!

I have been praying on and off for some of my classmates/friends for them and it's amazing to see His work in removing the veil, opening hearts ... to the glory of the new covenant.

⁴Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. ⁵Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. ⁶He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

⁷Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was, ⁸will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? ⁹If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! ¹⁰For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. ¹¹And if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!

¹²Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. ¹³We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away. ¹⁴But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. ¹⁵Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. ¹⁶But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. ¹⁷Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 3:7-18

What does it mean to be unveiled?

Are we living in the freedom of Christ? Are we surrendering it all to Him? Are we reflecting His glory? Do we desire to know that surpassing glory of the new covenant? Or does the new covenant not matter much to us?

¹³The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. ¹⁴How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

¹⁵For 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.

...he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. ²⁷Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, ²⁸so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

~Hebrews 9

I pray that we (we as in including myself!!!) would really get down on our knees, stop trying to be in control of our lives, but we'll all pray that He gives us the hunger for things that are deeper, to know Him more and more...

cos life would mean nothing, nothing without You Jesus