2010-08-20
Good Morning Dear Ones,
I’m not at all sure just how a person who is slightly emerging from a long period of apathy about one’s spiritual life can be made to hear the call to a covenant relationship from God, but it happened with me. It’s one of those things where you awaken one day with a gnawing spiritual hunger and haven’t a clue how to feed it. I had left my first husband after years of abuse and had traveled from CA to UT to attend my older brother’s wedding to a Mormon lady, who I came to admire very much. After reading the Mormon “scriptures” and speaking with a member of the Council of the Seventies, I made the decision to convert to the LDS church. Immediately, I was surrounded by positive attention unfamiliar to me. The moment my skills were discovered, I was given things to do in the church that fed my starving ego. I was snapped! That’s a term for being encouraged to make a quick decision to join the church, and “fellowshipped” –surrounded by people eager to establish a friendship with me. I interested them, because I am Jewish and can speak publicly about my feelings and experiences. My ex-husband decided he wanted me back, so he called and agreed to let me practice my new religion freely, if I would return to CA. With a newly puffed out ego, I decided I would do it. God had his reasons for this, but, as usual, I was clueless. It wasn’t long before I found myself speaking in front of 15, 000 people at the Mormon Interstake Center in Oakland, CA about my remarkable conversion. More on me later, but first back to the story of King David and his exercise of his covenant responsibilities.
One day, David asked, ‘Is there anyone left of Saul’s family? If there is, I would like to show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake’” [2 SAM 9: 1]. This rather curious question was David’s way of letting all know that he had every intention of carrying out the covenant relationship that he and Saul’s now-deceased son, Jonathan, had established [1 SAM 18: 1-3]. David took this covenant of friendship with great seriousness. Sadly, Jonathan had been killed with his father, Saul, and two brothers, Abinadab and Malchishua, at the battle at Mt. Gilboa [
When God calls us to a covenant relationship with Him, it is not only a serious matter, but it’s accomplished in whatever way and with whatever speed God feels will most benefit one’s faith and His hope that His covenant partner will one day return to Him in heaven for a blissful eternity. God and the Lord Jesus have both made their mission statements our redemption [JN 6: 39-40; EPH 1: 4-5]. In my own case, this call to a covenant relationship was slow and in a very circuitous path designed to prepare me for the ministry I have today. It was like a slow awakening from a very deep sleep. PS 72: 12-14, “He rescues the poor who call to Him and those who are needy and neglected. He has pity on the weak and poor; He saves the lives of those in need. He rescues them from oppression and violence; their lives are precious to him.” Anyone who has been brought to faith in the Lord Yeshua [Jesus Christ] can rightly feel that He is loved by the Father. PS 9: 9-10, “The Lord is a Refuge for the oppressed, a Place of Safety in times of trouble. Those who know You, Lord, will trust You; You do not abandon anyone who comes to You.” That is true even if their coming is a slow process. God wanted a covenant of friendship with me, and Christ states this plainly for all believers and potential believers in JN 15: 13-16a. “The greatest love a person can have for his friends is to give his life for them. And you are My friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because as servant does not know what his masters is doing. Instead, I call you friends, because I have told you everything I heard from My Father. You did not choose Me; I chose you and appointed you to go and bear much fruit, the kind of fruit that endures…” In my case, my first lesson came in PS 10: 17, “You will listen, O Lord, to the prayers of the lowly; You will give them courage.” Yes, I assumed the worst, that God wouldn’t want to have anything to do with me, because of past life and clueless condition spiritually. I’m here to say resoundingly, “I was wrong!” In the ensuring 12 years, I was active in the LDS church, gave birth to my son, Hilary, ended once and for all my first and disastrous marriage, and assumed the role of Stake Adult Sunday School Inservice Leader. That latter position meant designing and implementing programs for the adult Sunday schools for 11 different wards [churches]. God would soon deflate my ego and give me lessons in humility, trust, patience, learning to live on much less materially, His love, and His sovereignty in my life. These lessons would take me in places I never expected I would go. Never once has He lost patience with or abandoned me.
PRAYER: O Lord, the call to a covenant relationship with You is unique, because You are the strong, more wise, and more lovingly consistent Partner. PS 40: 1-2, “I waited patiently for the Lord’s help; then He listened to me and heard my cry. He pulled me out of a dangerous pit, out of the deadly quicksand. He set me safely on a Rock and made me secure.” That is what You did for Jonathan, when You finally brought him to heaven to be with You. David was made by You into a “man after God’s own heart” [1 SAM 13: 13-14], and You eventually reunited them in heaven, ending David’s sorrow. You showed us through David’s kindness to Saul’s descendant, Mephibosheth, and his household how we should approach a covenant of friendship. Moreover, You call each of us to a covenant relationship with You, opening us to blessings we never knew were there for us and demonstrating Your faithfulness to us. Through the death and resurrection of our Lord Yeshua, You opened the way for our eternal salvation, forgiveness, guidance by the indwelling of Your Spirit, and justification [JN 3: 16; RO 3: 24-25; RO 8: 14-16; HE 8: 12; RO 4: 3]. You gently bring those of us who are clueless into being bathed by Your light and a desire to faithfully obey You for the rest of their lives. You are patient, never unkind or unfair to us. The Rock You set us upon is the Lord Yeshua; He is the Eternal Rock. You are near to us throughout our trials and never allow them to be great enough to break our spirits, our resolve to remain faithful to You [PS 145: 18; 1 COR 10: 13]. Dearest Father, You have made us Your friends. RO 5: 9-11, “By His death we are not put right with God; how much more, then, will we be saved by Him from God’s anger! We were God’s enemies, but He made us his friends through the he death of His Son. Now that we are God’s friends, how much more will we be saved by Christ’s life! But that is not all; we rejoice because of what God has done through our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has now made us God’s friends.” We say all of this in the holy and mighty name of Jesus Christ, my Yeshua. Amen.
Next Week: The Holy Spirit directs me to discuss the transforming power of a covenant relationship with God. Our perception of God’s ability to change us begins when we accept the Lord Jesus as our personal Savior-maybe even before that. Sometimes His efforts are subtle, and other times they are instantaneous and intense. He measures His efforts to our needs at the time. We can love Him with all our hearts, because of Christ’s Atonement and the work He does on us throughout our lives of faith in Him. Piece by piece He matures us in our spiritual lives, chipping away at the sin that clouds His ability to purify and perfect us in preparation for the time when He will call us to our permanent home in heaven. We have been given the hope of the resurrection [RO 8: 29] and at least some idea of His intentions specifically, just enough to encourage each other in strengthening our faith and trust in Him. 1 THESS 4: 13-17 gives us specifics we never knew before reading the Scriptures, for it’s what will happen at the time He calls us to “a meeting in the air.” God has never broken any of His promises, and He promises to protect us from spiritual death, as long as we keep our faith in Him strong. PS 138: 8, “You will do everything You have promised; Lord, Your love is eternal. Complete the work that You have begun.” Now, that’s a great plea to make, even knowing all the while He will do this. Praise and thanks to the Lord!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15