Learn to Love the Law

You think you got problems? Then consider Brian Hise. The following is accurate—with no elaborations. Brian’s problems started when his apartment became flooded from a broken pipe in the apartment above his. Brian headed for his car to go rent a wet-vacuum only to discover that one of the tires was flat on his car. No problem! He put on the spare tire and went inside to phone a friend for help, but got an electric shock from the phone which wasn’t properly grounded. Brian reacted so severely that in pulling free, he also pulled the phone from the wall.

In the meanwhile, the front door had become so swollen from the water that it wouldn’t open. A well-meaning neighbor fixed it by putting his foot on the door and knocking it from its hinges. Again, Brian headed for his car, but when he arrived, it was gone—stolen while he was inside. Brian’s nightmare had a bit of a silver lining because the thief who stole his car ran out of gas only a few blocks away. Brian recovered his car and pushed it to the station for refueling.

You’d think that what I’ve just recounted would be enough problems for any one day, but Brian’s nightmare didn’t end so simply. That evening Brian went to a military ceremony at the university he was attending. After it was over, someone inadvertently put his bayonet in the car seat, and you guessed it—Brian sat on it. Doctors fixed him up, but they couldn’t fix his canaries that had been killed by plaster which fell from the ceiling caused by the water from that broken pipe in the upstairs apartment.

Summing it up, Brian said, “God wanted me dead, but just kept missing!” Talk about adding insult to injury! How much can one person take in a single day?

On the serious side of the ledger, there are days when a person would be better off if he or she had stayed in bed. Undoubtedly, Brian Hise would agree.

Many people believe God gave the law so He would have an excuse to kill us. It’s exactly the opposite. He wants us to love Him. In order to enter a relationship there will always be some do’s and don’ts. God proves His devotion to the Israelites and now He wants them to reciprocate the love and devotion back to Him. Why because He will bring about the most important event in history through Jesus. He wants a people devoted to Him to show a deep love and that carries the message that points to historical touch down again.

John 1:14 NASB95

14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The full story— the Bible’s focused account—of the giving of the law begins with the Israelites’ arrival at the foot of Mount Sinai (). Whereas the preceding 68 chapters, from to , have covered thousands of years, here the pace suddenly slows. Throughout the next 119 chapters (to ), only 40 years will elapse.

God will build a nation where he will give the a religion, a government and a promised land.

The Lord reveals (contrary to our current media coverage that simply tugs at people’s heart strings without discussing the underlying bigger issues. People need a country to belong to which means that we must be a nation-that clearly implies delineation of who is a member and who is not, a place, borders and a common culture or language, how do we get along with one another. Without out those things chaos and polarization occurs. The answer to our countries stresses right now were dealt with right here in the Bible.

God reveals that EVERY COMMUNITY NEEDS A WAY TO CONNECT TO ONE ANOTHER .

Exodus 19:3–6 NASB95

3 Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel: 4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself. 5 ‘Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; 6 and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.”

THE COVENANT OFFERED A WAY TO APPROACH GOD.

the law became revealed after people saw the love of God displayed.

THE LAW IS GOD’S REVELATION ON HOW TO DRAW CLOSE.

Remember that the Lord DREW NEAR to them first. He displayed His love. He showed them kindness and mercy. He now offers them grace.

GOD CARRIED THEM THROUGH MIRACULOUS MEANS.

God used supernatural means to give them an opportunity to follow Him. Also remember, ANYONE could have come with them. And there may have been others who chose not to take God’s offer. But now they must further choose to draw near to Him.

I see in the Bible that God reveals Himself through history, miracles, providence, Scripture and lastly through His Son Jesus. If you remember Christ’s teaching on Lazarus and the rich man. When the wealthy man pleaded to Abraham to send back Lazarus to his brothers, the answer was they have MOSES and the Prophets, if they won’t believe them, they won’t believe the miracle of a

NOW THEY MUST CHOOSE TO DRAW NEAR TO HIM.

(MOSES GIVING THE OPPORTUNITY.)

THE LAW GIVES US A WAY TO CONNECT WITH GOD.

WITHOUT CORRECT PERSPECTIVE, THE OLD NATURE HATES IT.

REALLY LOVING GOD AND HIS LAW COMES ONLY BY A CHANGE OF PERSPECTIVE

In his book, The Vision and The Vow, Pete Greig tells of how a distinguished art critic was studying an exquisite painting by the Italian Renaissance master Filippino Lippi. He stood in London’s National Gallery gazing at the fifteenth-century depiction of Mary holding the infant Jesus on her lap, with saints Dominic and Jerome kneeling nearby. But the painting troubled him. There could be no doubting Lippi’s skill, his use of colour or composition. But the proportions of the picture seemed slightly wrong. The hills in the background seemed exaggerated, as if they might topple out of the frame at any minute onto the gallery’s polished floor. The two kneeling saints looked awkward and uncomfortable.

Art critic Robert Cumming was not the first to criticise Lippi’s work for its poor perspective, but he may well be the last to do so, because at that moment he had a revelation. It suddenly occurred to him that the problem might be his. The painting had never been intended to come anywhere near a gallery. Lippi’s painting had been commissioned to hang in a place of prayer.

The dignified critic dropped to his knees in the public gallery before the painting. He suddenly saw what generations of art critics had missed. From his new vantage point, Robert Cumming found himself gazing up at a perfectly proportioned piece. The foreground had moved naturally to the background, while the saints seemed settled – their awkwardness, like the painting itself, having turned to grace. Mary now looked intently and kindly directly at him as he knelt at her feet between saints Dominic and Jerome.

It was not the perspective of the painting that had been wrong all these years, it was the perspective of the people looking at it. Robert Cumming, on bended knee, found a beauty that Robert Cumming the proud art critic could not. The painting only came alive to those on their knees in prayer. The right perspective is the position of worship.

PICTURE OF THE VIRGIN MARY AND ART CRITIQUES.

THE ONLY critique offered of the Bible is one that assumes God in not the goal and that you are the starting point.

IT FOCUSES ON CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT.

WHEN YOU DESIRE GOD, YOU SEE HOW THE LAW DEVELOPS GODLY CHARACTER.

BUT TO GROW CLOSE TO THE LORD, YOU MUST WANT TO KNOW HIS CHARACTER.

A dear loved one called me this weekend. Such a lovely spirit. But she had trouble in her heart. She shared her story and said, “I’m angry with God...” I said tell me about this God, because I may not like that God as well.

I listened and said, I dont like that God either. Let me tell you about the Lord who loves you… See she asked why did God let all these bad things happen....

right away.

First of all then, love is a fulfilling of the law. The crucial text here is

Romans 13:8–10 NASB95

8 Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. 9 For this, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

The Law Compels us to act.

The Law Chisels out our character Character.

God designed you for a purpose. You have a destiny that He wants you to fulfill.

it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert

Ephesians 2:8–10 NASB95

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

EChorus: G D7 Em C D I have a destiny I know I shall fulfill, G D7 Em C D I have a destiny in that city on a hill. D G D G I have a destiny and it's not an empty wish, Em D C D G for I know I was born for such a time as this.

Verse 1: Bm C Long before the ages You predestined me Bm to walk in all the works C You have prepared for me. F Bb You'd given me a part to play in history A7sus4 A7 D7 to help prepare a bride for eternity.

Verse 2: I did not choose You but You have chosen me, and appointed me for bearing fruit abundantly. I know You will complete the work begun in me, by the power of Your Spirit working mightily.

The “10,000-hour rule” — that this level of practice holds the secret to great success in any field — has become sacrosanct gospel, echoed on websites and recited as litany in high-performance workshops. The problem: it’s only half-true.

If you are a duffer at golf, say, and make the same mistakes every time you try a certain swing or putt, 10,000 hours of practicing that error will not improve your game. You’ll still be a duffer, albeit an older one.

No less an expert than Anders Ericsson, the Florida State University psychologist whose research on expertise spawned the ten-thousand-hour rule-of-thumb, told me, “You don’t get benefits from mechanical repetition, but by adjusting your execution over and over to get closer to your goal.”

“You have to tweak the system by pushing,” he adds, “allowing for more errors at first as you increase your limits.” Ericsson argues the secret of winning is “deliberate practice,” where an expert coach takes you through well-designed training over months or years, and you give it your full concentration.

How experts in any domain pay attention while practicing makes a crucial difference. While novices and amateurs are content to let their passive, bottom-up systems take over their routines, experts never rest their active concentration during practice.

For instance, in his much-cited study of violinists – the one that showed the top tier had practiced over 10,000 hours – Ericsson found the experts did so with full concentration on improving a particular aspect of their performance that a master teacher identified. The feedback matters and the concentration does, too – not just the hours.

Learning how to improve any skill requires top-down focus. Neuroplasticity, the strengthening of old brain circuits and building of new ones for a skill we are practicing, requires our paying attention: When practice occurs while we are focusing elsewhere, the brain does not rewire the relevant circuitry for that particular routine.

Daydreaming defeats practice; those of us who browse TV while working out will never reach the top ranks. Paying full attention seems to boost the mind’s processing speed, strengthen synaptic connections, and expand or create neural networks for what we are practicing.

At least at first. But as you master how to execute the new routine, repeated practice transfers control of that skill from the top-down system for intentional focus to bottom-up circuits that eventually make its execution effortless. At that point you don’t need to think about it – you can do the routine well enough on automatic.

And this is where amateurs and experts part ways. Amateurs are content at some point to let their efforts become bottom-up operations. After about 50 hours of training –whether in skiing or driving – people get to that “good-enough” performance level, where they can go through the motions more or less effortlessly. They no longer feel the need for concentrated practice, but are content to coast on what they’ve learned. No matter how much more they practice in this bottom-up mode, their improvement will be negligible.

The experts, in contrast, keep paying attention top-down, intentionally counteracting the brain’s urge to automatize routines. They concentrate actively on those moves they have yet to perfect, on correcting what’s not working in their game, and on refining their mental models of how to play the game. The secret to smart practice boils down to focus on the particulars of feedback from a seasoned coach.

Owe no one anything except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. The commandments, "You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not covet," and any other commandment, are summed up in this sentence, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. (See also .)

Paul was not taking a big risk when he boiled the whole law down into one command. He had the authority of Jesus for doing so. Jesus said in , "Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them; for this is the law and the prophets." James said it a bit differently (2:8), "If you really fulfill the royal law according to scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you do well." So we have three testimonies in the New Testament that what God is trying to do through the law is make loving people out of us. Every single commandment, says , has love as its aim. So the first point in our nutshell theology of the law is that the law is fulfilled in us when we love our neighbor.

Love Is the Fruit of Faith

The second point is this: love is not a work that we do on our own to show ourselves meritorious to God; it is the fruit of faith in the promises of God. To be sure, genuine love will lead to great labor. But it is not synonymous with labor. It is deeper than labor and prior to labor and enables labor. There are many people laboring for God and neighbor who are not doing it out of love. Love is more than religious practices and humanitarian services. That's why Paul can say in , "If I give away all I have and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing."

Deuteronomy 30:10–13 NASB95

10 if you obey the Lord your God to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this book of the law, if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and soul. 11 “For this commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach. 12 “It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?’ 13 “Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross the sea for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?’

Deuteronomy 30:14–16 NASB95

14 “But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may observe it. 15 “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity; 16 in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it.

37 Who Saw Murder Didn't Call the Police; Apathy at Stabbing of Queens Woman Shocks Inspector

MARCH 27, 1964

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��VIEW PAGE IN TIMESMACHINEMarch 27, 1964, Page 1The New York Times Archives

Editors' Note Appended

For more than half an hour 38 respectable, law‐abiding citizens in Queens watched a killer stalk and stab a woman in three separate attacks in Kew Gardens.

Twice the sound of their voices and the sudden glow of their bedroom Iights interrupted him and frightened him off. Each time he returned, sought her out and stabbed her again. Not one person telephoned ‐ the police during the assault; one witness called after the woman was dead.

That was two weeks ago to day. But Assistant Chief Inspector Frederick M. Lussen, in charge of the borough's detectives and a veteran of 25 years of homicide investigations, is still shocked.

He can give a matter‐of‐fact recitation of many murders. But the Kew Gardens slaying baffles him‐not because it is a murder, but because the “good people” failed to call the police.

“As we have reconstructed the crime,” he said, “the assailant had three chances to kill this woman during a 35‐minute period. He returned twice to complete the job. If we had been called when he first attacked, the woman might not be dead now.”

Continue reading the main story

This is what the police say happened beginnang at 3:20 A.M. in the staid, middle‐cIass, tree‐lined Austin Street area:

Twenty‐eight‐year‐o1d Catherine Genovese, who was called Kitty by almost everyone in the neighborhood, was returning home from her job as manager of a bar in Hollis. She parked her red Fiat in a lot adjacent to the Kew Gardens Long Island Rail Road Station, facing Mowbray Place. Like many residents of the neighborhood, she had parked there day after day since her arrival from Connecticut a year ago, althongh the railroad frowns on the practice.

She turned off the lights of her car, locked the door and started to walk the 100 feet to the entrance of her apartment at 82‐70 Austin Street, which is in a Tudor building, with stores on the first floor and apartments on the second.

The entrance to the apartment is in the rear of the build- ing because the front is rented to retail stores. At night the quiet neighborhood is shrouded in the slumbering darkness that marks most residential areas.

Miss Genovese noticed a man at the far end of the lot, near a seven‐story apartment house at 82‐40 Austin Street. She halted. Then, nervously, she headed up Austin Street toward Lefferts Boulevard, where there is a call box to the 102d police Precinct in nearby Richmond Hill.

She got as far as a street light in front of a bookstore before the man grabbed her. she screamed. Lights went on in the 10‐story apartment house at 82‐67. Austin Street, which faces the bookstore. Windows slid open and voices punctured the early‐morning stillness.

Miss Genovese screamed: oh, my God, he stabbed me! Please help me! Please help me !”

From one of the upper windown in the apartment house, a man called down: “Let that girl alone !”

The assailant looked up at him, shrugged and walked down Austin Street toward a white sedan parked a short distance away. Miss Genovese struggled to her feet.

Lights went out. The killer returned to Miss Genovese, now trying to make her way around the side of the building by the parking lot to get to her apartment. The assailant stabbed her again.

“I'm dying!” she shrieked. “I'm dying!” She shrieked. “I'm dying!”

Windows were opened again, and lights went on in many apartments. The assailant got into his car and drove away. Miss Genovese staggered to her feet. A city bus, Q‐10, the Lefferts Boulevard line to Kennedy International Airport, passed. It was 3:35 A.M.

The assailant returned. By then, Miss Genovese had crawled to the back of the building, where the freshly painted brown doors to the apartment house held out hope of safety. The killer tried the first door; she wasn't there. At the second ‐ door, 82‐62 Austin Street, he saw her slumped on the floor at the foot of the stairs. He stabbed her a third time—fatally.

It was 3:50 by the time the police received their first call, from a man who was a neighbor of Miss Genovese. In two minutes they were at the scene. The neighbor, a 70‐year‐old woman and another woman were the only persons on the street. Nobady else came forward.

The man explained that he had called the police after much celiberation. He had phoned a friend in Nassau County for advice and then he had crossed the roof of the building to the apartment of the elderly woman to get her to make the call.

“I didn't want to get involved,” he sheepishly told the police.

Six days later, the police arrested Winston Moseley, a 29year‐old business-machine operator, and charged him with the homicide. Moseley had no previous record. He is married, has two children and owns a home at 133‐19 Sutter Avenue, south ozone Park, Queens. On wednesday, a court committed him to Kings County Hospital for psychiatric observation.

When questioned by the police, Moseley also said that he had slain Mrs. Annie May Johnson, 24, of 146‐12 133d Avenue, Jamaica, on Feb. 29 and Barbara Kralik, 15, of 174‐17 140th Avenue, Springfield Gardens, last July. In the Kralik case, the police are holding Alvin L.Mitchel1, who is said to have confessed that slaying.

The police stressed how sim‐ple it would have been to have gotten in touch with them. “A phone call,” said one of the detectives, “would have done it.” The police may be reached by dialing . “O” for operator or SPring 7-3100.

The question of whether the witnesses can be held legally responsible in any way for failure to report the crime was put to the Police Department's legai bureau. There, a spokesman said :

“There is no legal responsibil‐ity with few exceptions, for any citizen to report a crime.”

Under the statutes of the city, he said, a witness to a suspicibus or violent death must report it to the medical examiner. Under state law, a witness cannot withhold information in a kidnapping.

Today witnesses from the neighborhood, which is made up one-family homes in the $35,000 to $60,000 range with the exception of the two apartment. houses near the railroad station, find it difficult to explain why they didn't call the police.

Lieut Bernard Jacobs, who handled the investigation by the, detectives, said:

“It is one of the better neighborhoods. There are few reports of crimes. You only get

Path of Victim: Stabber's Third Attack Was Fatal the usual complaints about boys playing or garbage cans being turned over.”

The police said most persons had told them they had been afraid to call, but had given meaningless answers when asked what they had feared.

“We can understand the reticence of people to become involved in an area of violence,” Lieutenant Jacobs said, “but where they are in their homes, near phones, why should they be afraid to call the police?”

He said his men were able to piece together what happened —and capture the suspect‐because the residents furnished all the information when detectives rang doorbells during the days following the slaying.

“But why didn't someone call us that night ?” he asked unbelievingly.

Witnesses—some of them unable to believe what they had allowed to happen—told a reporter why.

A housewife, knowingly if quite casual, said, “We thought it was a lover's quarrel.” A husband and wife both said, “Frankly, we were afraid.” They seemed aware of the fact that events might have been different. A distraught woman, wiping her hands in her apron, said, “I didn't want my husband to get involved.”

One couple, now willing to talk about that night, said they heard the first screams. The husband looked thoughtfully at the bookstore where the killer first grabbed Miss Genovese.

“We went to the window to see what was happening,” he said, “but the light from our bedroom made it difficult to see the street.” The wife, still apprehensive, added: “I put out the light and we were able to see better.”

Asked why they hadn't called the police, she shrugged and replied: “I don't know.”

A man peeked out from a slight opening in the doorway to his apartment and rattled off an account of the killer's second attack. Why hadn't he called the police at the time? “I was tired,” he said without emotion. “I went back to bed.”

It was 4:25 A.M. when the ambulance arrived for the body of Miss Genovese. It drove off. “Then,” a solemn police detective said, “the people came out.”

Editors’ Note: October 12, 2016

Later reporting by The Times and others has called into question significant elements of this account. Subsequent Times coverage includes a review of the case on the 40th anniversary; the obituary of the killer; an essay and video on the case; and a Times Insider account.

I position the sequence of fact and deduction in the following way: Love is the supreme ethic. Where there is the possibility of love, there must be the reality of free will. Where there is the reality of free will, there will inevitably be the possibility of sin. Where there is sin, there is the need for a Savior. Where there is a Savior, there is the hope for redemption. Only in the Judeo-Christian worldview does this sequence find its total expression and answer. The story from sin to redemption is only in the gospel with the ultimate provision of a loving God.

But the question can be pushed back further. Does this not all assume that there is a God? Yes, it does, and there are four stages in the argument. The first is that no matter how we section physical concrete reality, we end up with a quantity that cannot explain its own existence. If all material quantities cannot explain their own existence, the only possibility for self-explanation would be something that is non-material.

A CODE OF CONDUCT promotes character. Character formed by habits, Habits come from acting on commitment.

Imagine if all God did was take them to the mountain and say, no further. Imagine if God did not provide a way

A Way to CLEAR the slate.

Imagine if there was no way back? Yes, you can come to God.

A way out of chaos.

You know, my family member really called because she wanted to belong. She wanted to know she could come back and get out of the chaos. I easily affirmed my love as I had nothing against her. But also told her, other family members loved her (and reminded her of the prodigal son and .)