I first read the entire Bible just over 50 years ago when I was finishing law school. I don’t remember anything I learned in any of my classes that year, but I do remember certain things I learned from reading the Bible, and those things are even more important to me today. For example, God talks in Jeremiah 31:31-24 about making a New Covenant with the Children of Israel, not like the first covenant, which they broke. [Note: God never breaks His covenants.] Instead of writing His Law on stone, He will write his Law in their hearts, their minds, their spirits. That’s in the Old Testament, but there’s a resonance between the Old Testament and the New Testament; and when we read the story of the Last Supper in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus takes the cup of wine, asks his disciples to drink of it, and says, “This is my blood of the New Covenant.”  Bingo! The promise of a New Covenant in Jeremiah is fulfilled in Jesus, for he IS the New Covenant, the Word in Flesh, God’s Spirit of Love, Compassion, and Healing in a human body, Emmanuel, “God with us.”

When I talk at churches, I say, “It’s simple! ‘God is Love.’ (1 John 4:16) ‘Do all things in Love.’ (1 Corinthians 16:14) That’s all you need to know as a guideline for all phases of life.” Of course, I go on to talk for thirty minutes or an hour or an hour & a half (whatever time I’m given) to explain and “flesh out” what I’ve just said with examples. Because God is Love, we need to read the entire Bible with this in mind and read the hundreds of “Bible Stories” asking ourselves one simple question, “What does God want to teach us about Love in this story?”