The Old Testament prioritizes lineage, family, children, liturgy, feast days, priests, rituals, buildings, and land. The New Testament does not abolish these things. On the one hand, it actually further emphasizes their importance; the realities are more plainly manifested and understood. On the other, they are shown to be penultimate realities, for the telos is Christ Jesus. All of these wonderful things find their end in Him. How else could they matter? And how else could they matter more?

The Church’s encounter with Marcion in the 2nd century taught her many things. When this innovative heretic-to-be suggested that Christianity existed in opposition to the Jewish Scriptures and the Jewish God, the Church quickly showed him the door. In this process, above all, she learned that her identity and the identity of the Gospel which she was given is dependent upon the Jewish Scriptures, this Old Testament (or, “OT”). This, of course, goes back to the words of the Apostle Paul himself. When narrating to the Corinthian Christians the matters of “first importance,” he roots his statements in the testimony of the “Scriptures,” i.e., the OT (1 Corinthians 15:3 ESV). That “Christ died for our sins” is “in accordance with the Scriptures”; so also the fact “that he was buried” and “that he was raised on the third day” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). When Marcion suggested that the Church of Christ cut the umbilical cord to those Jewish texts which, in his view, chained her to their religious immaturity, the Church noted, aptly, that the scissors were not aimed at any cord, but at her legs.
The Old Testament, then, is here to stay. To the extent that it vanishes, so do the people of God whose name is written in its language. Removing the Old Testament from Christianity would be like removing color from a sunset; it makes up the base material by which such a glorious sight is constructed. Anyone who misses this has yet to put the Synoptic Gospels and 1-2 Kings side by side, or perhaps has ignored all the miniature footnotes in his Bible when reading the book of Revelation. Birdwatchers have tuned their ears to distinguish the calls of a vast array of species amidst what most people (including myself) hear only as a cacophony. Reading the books of the Old Testament tunes the Christian’s ears to hear the Lord Jesus, to recognize nuances of sound and harmonic allusions.
Approaching the Old Testament, therefore, is no mean task. Quite the opposite: the way one approaches this body of texts will determine his slant on many issues of Christian theology. So often, the hermeneutical lens with which the OT is read ends up, whether intentionally or not, sifting various texts into categories of “Use” or “Do Not Use” for the purposes of the Christian Church. This twofold systematization is built upon a certain dualistic reading of the Hebrew Scriptures.
This primary dualism—the one dualism to rule them all—is a physical/spiritual dichotomy. We must discuss this in detail, because matter matters, and so matters about matter matter. This dualistic principle, in general, states that the OT contained physical promises, physical worship, and physical rituals which have now been surpassed and superseded by a truer and more spiritual version of all these things. There is certainly some truth to this. When asked if worship should take place on the mountain of Jerusalem or of Gerizim, our Lord stated that true worship would exceed the worship in Jerusalem (which heretofore was the correct answer), and that God’s people would worship Him “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23). In this way, Jesus relativizes the specificity of worship. In the Old Testament, God ordained that worship would occur in Jerusalem. In the New, He has restructured the liturgical system such that Jerusalem is no longer central. This example is crucial, but this principle could be extended to other themes (e.g., inheriting Canaan to inheriting the whole earth, sacrificial system to the sacrifice of Christ, etc.)
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Praying comes last after we Seek God and Praise God. Praying comes as a result of seeking God by His Word, and Praising God for who He is and what He has done. We come to God through words after we have already heard His Word and praised Him despite our circumstances. Our seeking is often primed because of difficult waiting, our praise is often primed by encountering and remembering the character and work of God, and our prayer is primed by trusting in the promises of God. We can run to God in prayer, thank Him and ask him to help us during this time of waiting.

We have all had moments in our lives that we spent waiting. Even as a young child, I remember waiting for my birthday, waiting for a holiday, waiting to get my diving license, waiting to get married. In a home blessed with four children 12 and under we hear daily excited voices in our house giggling “Is it my birthday yet? I can’t wait!” As we grow up, those waiting times look different. They become less of an excitement about what will happen next and more of a fear. What college will accept me? Will I get this job? Will I ever fit in? Is this the person I’m supposed to marry? What if I can’t find a spouse? What if we can’t have kids? What will happen when my parents die? How will I pay the bills? Will I ever be able to own a house? Will I ever reconcile with so and so? These questions all require waiting for undetermined amounts of time. While a birthday or holiday celebration has a countdown to look forward to in the midst of the waiting, many period’s of waiting have no such definitive “end date” on the horizon.
These waiting times seem to become more frequent with age. I have recently found myself thinking about all the times I have waited in my short life. Yes, short life as I am only in my 30s, and I know I have a lot more waiting ahead of me. Waiting is an immense time of trial, whether waiting for something exciting or something that could be sad.  Waiting on a diagnosis, waiting to hear if your child is healthy, waiting to find out if you need to move for a job, waiting to hear from the doctor, waiting and waiting. Waiting in itself can be a hardship, not to mention what the results of that waiting might be. Some things suggested to do while waiting are to keep busy, and not think about the topic. Some find that distraction through watching a show, talking to a friend, or reading a book can ease the suffering of the wait. None of these things are bad but as Christians, we should approach waiting differently than the world. Distraction is not our only weapon, nor is suffering in the midst of waiting for something beyond God’s use for growing or blessing us.  Throughout scripture we find people waiting, and we are told to be still and wait patiently for the Lord.
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices! Psalm 37:7
How Should Christians Approach Waiting?
Psalm 37:7, tells us we are to wait patiently for the Lord. We see this theme of waiting patiently for the Lord continually repeated throughout scripture (Psalm 39:7, Psalm 40:1, Isaiah 8:17). But as we all know, or maybe just me, waiting patiently is not easy. As a mom to young kids, we have created a few different songs to help teach our children how to wait. Even with songs and dances to pass the time, waiting for something and waiting patiently for something is even harder. The songs help the kids a ton, as do other fun countdowns, but what about when we don’t know when the end is? What can we do to help us patiently for God? There are three things we can do during the waiting period, we can Seek, Praise, and Pray. 
Seek
During a time of waiting, we should be seeking God. One of the best ways to seek God is to run to His Word. The Bible is God’s word that He gave to us.
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It is true that what Kersey wrote would likely be offensive to most homosexuals. That doesn’t mean there was anything wrong with him saying it. There was nothing hateful about Kersey’s words, certainly nothing about the inherent value of a person or anything wishing them ill will. The claim that what he said is the same as saying a racial slur or cursing all homosexuals is preposterous. Disagreement is not hate. 

The former officer, 19 year-old Jacob Kersey, began working for the Port Wentworth Police Department near Savannah, Georgia, in May 2021 and was reportedly doing well — until his Facebook post caused him to be placed on administrative leave. It’s not the first time social media posts have resulted in problems for police officers, but the content of this post was radically different. While some officers have been fired for posting racist, hateful, or obscene content, Kersey’s post was stating orthodox Christian beliefs.
Kersey spoke with John Wesley Reid about his experience:
God designed marriage. Marriage refers to Christ and the church. That’s why there is no such thing as homosexual marriage.
The following day, he received a call from his supervisor letting him know that he had received a complaint regarding the post and told Kersey to remove it. Kersey refused, but was later contacted by Lt. Justin Hardy, who said that the Port Wentworth Police Department did not want to be held liable in a “use of force” interaction with an LGBT person. Kersey continued to refuse to remove the post.
The next day he was called by Maj. Lee Sherrod and told he was being placed on administrative leave while the department launched an investigation.
Kersey says that Police Chief Matt Libby told him what he posted was the “same thing as saying the N-word and ‘[expletive] all those homosexuals.’”
Kersey also said that Capt. Nathan Jentzen told him Kersey’s free speech “was limited due to my position as … a police officer.”
After a week of paid administrative leave, Kersey’s active status was restored. In a letter dated January 13, Maj. Sherrod, the department’s human resource director, stated that after a review of Kersey’s known social media accounts, including a Christian podcast he had run for years, “we did not find sufficient evidence to establish a violation of any policies.”
However, the letter continued, the views he had shared “would likely be deemed offensive to protected classes” and could raise “reasonable concerns” about his ability to serve the LGBT community “objectively.” Any failure on his part to be seen as objective could cause him to be terminated.
While he would not be fired, Kersey says he was told to not post anything that could be deemed offensive on social media. Kersey says he was told that he could post Scripture but could not post his “interpretation or opinion on Scripture if it was deemed offensive.”
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