The good news of the kingdom, according to Paul:

Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man (Yeshua) is preached to unto you the forgiveness of sins: And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.

The law of Moses is kadosh, spiritual, and good. It shows how us how to live properly, both in relationship to God and in relationship to other people. Unfortunately, as the psalmist writes, there is no one righteous, not even one. The penalty for breaking the law of Moses is death. One may protest that under the law of Moses only certain actions carried the penalty of execution. That is so. For eating camel's flesh or working the land during a shemitah one is not stoned. But I'm not talking about stoning. I'm talking of death, period. It is an undeniable fact that everybody dies. I believe that we die because we disobey the mitzvot of YHVH. Just as Adam and Chavah disobeyed Yah in the garden and thus garnered death, so all their children die.

But here comes the good news.

In Messiah Yeshua, we who believe have forgiveness of sins, and are justified from all things, from which we could not be justified by the law of Moses. The Torah condemns us to death because we fail to observe all Yah's mitzvot. But through the death of Yeshua all are justified, ie. declared freed of guilt, and through His resurrection, we have eternal life. As in Adam all die, so in Messiah all will be made alive.

In the western sky I can see the crescent moon. It is telling me that it is the 5th day of the 11th month. Good week to everyone.

I leave you with one of my most favourite poems of all time, Glencoe, by Mr G.K. Chesterton.

The star-crowned cliffs seem hinged upon the sky,
The clouds are floating rags across them curled,
They open to us like the gates of God
Cloven in the last great wall of all the world.

I looked, and saw the valley of my soul
Where naked crests fight to achieve the skies,
Where no grain grows nor wine, nor fruitful thing,
Only big words and starry blasphemies.

But you have clothed with mercy like a moss
The barren violence of its primal wars,
Sterile although they be and void of rule,
You know my shapeless crags have loved the stars.

How shall I thank you, O courageous heart,
That of this wasteful world you had no fear;
But bade it blossom in clear faith and sent
Your fair flower-feeding rivers: even as here

The peat burns brimming from their cups of stone
Glow brown and blood-red down the vast decline
As if Christ stood on yonder clouded peak
And turned its thousand waters into wine.