To the People of the Tribes of Wrestles with Creator 12
12
A GREAT CLOUD OF TRUTH TELLERS
1We are surrounded by a great cloud of truth tellers who have shown us what it means to trust the Great Spirit. So let us lay to the side everything that weighs us down and the broken ways that so easily wrap around our legs to trip us. And let us run as if we are in a long-distance race, setting a steady pace and heading toward the goal.
2This means we must keep our eyes on Creator Sets Free (Jesus), the trailblazer of our spiritual ways,#12:2 Lit. our faith the one who was first to reach the end of the trail. The joy that lay before him gave him the strength to suffer on the cross and willingly bear its shame. He now sits at Creator’s right hand in the place of greatest honor.
3If you will keep your thoughts on how much hostility Creator Sets Free (Jesus) endured from those with bad hearts and broken ways, it will keep you from growing weary and your hearts from falling to the ground. 4For in your struggle against bad hearts and broken ways you have not yet had to face your own blood being shed.
THE DISCIPLINE OF THE GREAT SPIRIT
5Have you forgotten the wise counsel in our Sacred Teachings that speaks to you as mature sons and daughters? “Do not treat lightly the wise counsel of the Great Spirit Chief or let your heart fall to the ground when he shows you where you have gone wrong. 6For he brings correction to the ones he loves and disciplines every child he takes into his family.”#12:6 Proverbs 3:11-12 7So accept difficult times as the loving discipline of a parent, for Creator is treating you as one of his children. Are not all children disciplined by their fathers? 8But if you never receive the discipline that all take part in, it means you are not truly his children and not part of the family.
9When our earthly fathers disciplined us, we respected them for it. So how much more should we accept and respect Creator’s discipline, for he is our spiritual Father and the one who gives us the life of beauty and harmony! 10For a short time, our earthly fathers disciplined us as they saw best, but the Great Spirit disciplines us for our own good, so we can be holy like him.
11Now, all discipline at the time seems to create more sorrow than joy. But for those who have learned its worth, it grows into a life of peace and doing what is right. 12So lift up your arms that hang down and begin using your weak knees. 13Make the path you walk straight, so that those with weak knees may not stumble from the path but instead be healed.
WALK IN PEACE WITH EVERYONE
14Live in a sacred way by walking the road of peace with all people, for those who fail to walk in this way will not see our Honored Chief. 15See to it that no one among you misses out on the gift of Creator’s great kindness and that no bitter root springs up among you, making trouble and poisoning many hearts. 16See that no one becomes an impure or unspiritual person like Hairy Man (Esau), who for a single meal traded away his family birthright. 17For you know that later on, he wanted it back. But even though he begged his father with many tears, it was too late to undo what he had done.
LEARN FROM THE ANCESTORS
18For you have not come, as your ancestors did, to something that can be touched—a mountain blazing with fire and smoke, with clouds of darkness and gloom, and a windstorm.
This happened long ago when Drawn from the Water (Moses) was given the tribal law on Mountain of Small Trees (Sinai). # 12:18 See Exodus 19.
19There the eagle bone whistle#12:19 Lit. trumpet, or in Hebrew shofar, meaning “ram’s horn” was sounded. A voice spoke out from the mountain, but the people begged the voice to stop and not speak to them again. 20For the instruction, “Even if an animal touches the mountain, it must be put to death with stones,”#12:20 Exodus 19:12-13 was too much for them to bear. 21The vision set before their eyes was so fearful that Drawn from the Water (Moses) cried out, “I am trembling with fear!”
A NEW PEACE TREATY
22 But you, my much-loved relatives, have not come to a mountain like this. Instead, you have come to Strong Mountain (Zion) and to the Village of Peace (Jerusalem) from the spirit-world above, the village of our Creator who is the Maker of Life. This is where many thousands of the spirit-messengers have gathered to celebrate a great festival!
23This is also a gathering of the great sacred family, who are the firstborn whose names have been written down in the book of life kept in the spirit-world above. You have come to the Great Spirit, the one who decides for everyone who has done right and who has done wrong, and to the ones in good standing whose spirits have been made whole. 24Yes, you have come to Creator Sets Free (Jesus), the peacemaker of the new peace treaty between the Great Spirit and human beings. You have come to the blood that has been sprinkled, which says better things than the blood of His Breath Goes Up (Abel).
A SHAKING OF ALL THINGS
25Make sure you do not turn away from the voice of the one who now speaks! For if the ones who turned away from him who warned them on earth did not escape, how will we escape if we turn away the one who speaks from the spirit-world above? 26At that time his voice shook the earth, but he has now promised once more to shake both the earth and the spirit-world above.#12:26 Haggai 2:6 27When he says “once more,” this means he is removing those things that can be shaken, things that are of this creation, so that which cannot be shaken will remain.
28So then, since we are welcoming a good road that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks to the Great Spirit and serve him in a good way, with much honor and respect. 29For our Creator is an all-consuming fire.
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To the People of the Tribes of Wrestles with Creator 12: FNVNT
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