2010-09-03
Good Morning Dear Ones,
As promised, the Holy Spirit is directing me to write about: what is the difference between a covenant relationship and an ordinary one? In an ordinary relationship, while God is aware of it, He is not an active Party to it. We have lots of those in our lives, and it must be understood that they can be sinful or perfectly all right. It can be assumed that that party to this relationship who knows God’s will shall not purposely break it. However, God is only a Bystander. The person who knows God has the greater responsibility to guard against allowing this or any relationship he has to be sinful. It demands that thought be put into it first, before any relationship is established. This would allow the parties not to put themselves in compromising situations. Does this always work? Certainly not, and thus, some of these relationships are poorly conceived. I feel obligated to mention as an example a relationship between a man and woman who decide to have sex without a commitment to each other. That is why 80 % of these relationships break apart, and many of them leaving children to suffer the worst consequences. My heart breaks for these children who didn’t ask to be born into such predicaments.
As has already been stated, a covenant relationship is quite different. It involves being a party to a commitment in which God is a Co-Partner. God has already demonstrated He is a Promise-keeper. PS 138: 7-8, “When I am surrounded by troubles, You keep me safe. You oppose my angry enemies and save me by Your power. You will do everything You have promise; Lord, Your love is eternal. Complete the work that You have begun.” The work that God has begun is the work of perfecting us through sanctification, so what we can, in God’s perfect time, be glorified, i.e. be brought back to Him in heaven for a blissful eternity. For each of us, the nature of this combination of effort on God’s part with our cooperation to mature us spiritually takes a different form. I belong to a generation of people who for the most part, wouldn’t think of saying mean things and being disrespectful to our parents. Today’s young people are quite different than that. This doesn’t mean that we never had anger or some other sinful response to parental applications of limits and discipline. It just means we didn’t talk to our parents the way that children do today. I didn’t know it at the time, but God had me in His sights and never let go of me, though He knows I deserved for Him to do this. That is how God’s love eventually came through to me. PS 33: 5, “The Lord loves what is righteous and just; his constant love fills the earth.”
God never deserted me, though there are times when I thought He did. PS 145: 16-18, “The Lord is righteous in all He does, merciful in all His acts. He is near to those who call to him, who call to Him with sincerity.” As I mentioned before, a covenant is a two-way relationship, with some partners more powerful than others or sometimes the partners sharing equal power. Surely the Covenant of Grace we have with the Lord God is an unequal partnership, with God having the greater power. Even so, it is very beneficial to the human partner when he lives righteously and works to know God better and better every day. God always keeps His part in the relationship, but humans don’t always keep theirs. Once I came to faith in my thirties, I made up for lost time, studying both the OT and the NT. I even read some of the Oral Torah writings in the Mishnah [guidelines for a continuing Way of Life, legal matters or law-written between 100 BC to 11 AD], Talmud [the Law explained] , and Midrash [that tales and sermons that “read between the lines” of the Talmud an OT]. These books are sacred to traditional Jews. In addition, I studied the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, the Pearl of Great Price –the three books that the LDS Church considers Scripture along with the OT and NT. There was other reading and comparing too. All of this was, I believe, at God’s direction, as I was becoming more and more aware of His power over me and His patience with my choices. These were my years between ages 37-39. Truthfully, I learned more about traditional Judaism added to the teaching of LDS church than I had learned in all the previous years since by baptism. God was showing me where the human-crafted books didn’t stand up to the God-crafted ones. Nothing is all bad, but only the word of God is all good. There are always things we can learn from another human or belief system, but God is always the final Arbiter of what is good and right for us [2 TIM 3: 16-17]. My two years were filled with freedom and study; now God wanted me to take what He allowed to fill my head and to translate it to my heart and hands.
It was then that I realized the promises of the Covenant of Grace had been there all my life, but they remained hidden in the shadows, blurred by my veil of ignorance and ingrained intolerance. The name, “Jesus” or “Yeshua” is inflammatory to a traditional Jew, and I had been raised with that intolerance. Now, I was being led by God to let Him “transform me inwardly by the complete renewal of my mind” [RO 12: 2]. The rejection of the Lord Jesus as one’s personal Savior is the main difference between Jews and Christians. Now, I was being called to get off the fence on the side that accepts Jesus as Lord. It wasn’t easy, and I faced considerable opposition, went through a divorce that had religious differences as one of many reasons it needed to happen, and finally married a man who loved me for being me and not for other reasons. He stood by me through my journey from the LDS church to the Presbyterian church and later to the LCMS [Lutheran Church Missouri Synod]. This God-led path had plenty of bumps and difficulties in it.
PRAYER: O Lord, we come before Your throne as Your workmanship, but flawed and capable of sin [GN 1: 27; GN 3: 1-6; GN 3: 15]. And yet, You love us enough that You are willing to be patient and not abandon us, either in our time of trials or in our time of effort to cooperate with You in our sanctification. You understand that some of us are people who can’t embrace a belief system without first learning about it. Others are so obedient and trusting that they can accept belief in the Lord Yeshua [Jesus] without long years of learning about and questioning Your tenets. 2 PET 3: 8-9, “But do not forget one thing, my dear friends! There is no difference in the Lord’s sight between one day and a thousand years; to Him the both are the same. The Lord is not slow to do what He has promised, as some think. Instead, he is patient with you, because he does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants all to turn away from their sins.” It seems that our human nature often makes us go through all our human choices until we come to the end of ourselves, and then, we turn to You. We need to pray, PS 143: 10, “You are my God; teach me to do Your will. Be good to me, and guide me on a safe path.” Such a prayer is nothing new. Isaiah uttered, in IS 50: 4-5, “The Sovereign lord has taught me what to say, so that I can strengthen the weary. Every morning He makes me eager to hear what He is going to teach me. The Lord has given me understanding and I have not rebelled or turned away from Him.” Throughout the time from the giving of the Law [EX 24: 7-11] until now, various people have finally come to the conclusion that they must turn to You for instruction and guidance. Hopefully, You will wait patiently for many more to come in our future. We ask these things of You at the same time we offer You praise and thanks for what You have already done. In the holy, mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Next week: I am directed to write about how the Covenant of Grace gives us the confidence to remove the fear of death. We must understand that knowing God and His word breaks the chains of spiritual imprisonment. Being in a covenant relationship with God frees us from the bonds of ignorance and intolerance. JN 8: 31-32, “So Jesus said to those who believed in Him, ‘If you obey My teaching, you really My disciples; you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’” For the first time in our lives, we can really bask in the light that comes directly from the Lord and no other source. People who are partners in the Covenant of Grace with the Lord are washed in the blood of Jesus’ Atonement on the cross. If we believe in Him, that includes each of us. Let that thought sink into our hearts and keep us smiling with the confidence we have in our faith in Him will let us return to Him and never have spiritual death. Share it with others who will listen, and look for opportunities that God gives us to witness to our faith. Praise and thanks be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15