" This new plan I'm making with Israel
isn't going to be written on paper,
isn't going to be chiseled in stone;
This time I'm writing out the plan in them,
carving it on the lining of their hearts.
I'll be their God,
they'll be my people.
They won't go to school to learn about me,
or buy a book called God in Five Easy Lessons.
They'll all get to know me firsthand,
the little and the big, the small and the great.
They'll get to know me by being kindly forgiven,
with the slate of their sins forever wiped clean.
By coming up with a new plan, a new covenant between God and his people, God put the old plan on the shelf. And there it stays, gathering dust." Heb 8
The heart is the centre of our being, the thing that keeps us alive. And God has carved his new plan on the very thing central to keeping us alive.
When you carve something it stays carved. It isn't something temporary. God's salvation is not temporary. It isn't God's intention that this salvation is some sort of passing fad. It is God's permanent gift of eternal life.
God didn't sacrifice his son for some temporary quick fix. He meant it to be eternal and intensely personal.
As it says in verse 13 - "God put the old plan on the shelf. And there it stays, gathering dust." It's never to be used again.
And we don't have to have a privileged upbringing attending Scotch College or Geelong Grammar to get to know God personally. Little, big, small or great, we are all the object of his love.
Thank you God for making a permanent way for me to spend time with you. And thank you for engraving your plan on my heart, never to be removed again.
