2011-10-07
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Our God is not sleeping, but instead is actively at work doing His part of the Covenant of Grace. He expects and deserves the same from us. What we are doing is different from what He is doing, but both parties to the covenant need to be engaged in the work of it. Here are some examples of God at work. COL 3: 10 tells us that God is “constantly renewing us in His own image, so as to give us a greater knowledge of Him.” We are imperfect sinners; God wants us to be better than that, so that is why He wants us to mature in our faith and have a deeper knowledge of Himself. Even the most famous NT Scripture of them all, JN 3: 16, is an indication of the work God is doing. “For God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” He is bringing people into faith in the Lord Jesus every day, by commanding the Holy Spirit to open their hearts to this faith. GN 15: 17, is the actual consummation of the Abrahamic Covenant. “When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces [of the animal sacrifice].” While this sentence is in the past tense, we must realize that the promises that were consummated at that moment are still being made true by our God, Who keeps His promises. MT 26: 26-28 is the description of taking Communion by the Lord Jesus. This is a reminder of what we do when we take Communion in church. While there may be differences between how Communion is interpreted from one denomination to another, all agree that it is the coming together of believers with the Lord in the most special, intimate way we can while still on earth. God is an active Partner in this process. If any of these processes were described in the Greek language, the aorist tense would be used, meaning an action which is active and on-going.
We must understand that our covenant with God is a blood covenant. Let’s take another look at the ceremony that took place at the base of Mt. Sinai when the Covenant of the Law was consummated, from EX 24: 5-8. “Then he [Moses] sent young Israelite men, and they made burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord. Moses took half the blood and put it in bowls and the other half he sprinkled on the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. And they responded, ‘We do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.’” We shouldn’t believe for a minute that the Lord wasn’t already at work, thinking up ways to help the people obey. He was doing this, just as He does today, knowing full well how important it is that the people are saved from spiritual death and enjoy eternal life with Him. In a more modern time, Christ, our God’s second personality, is at work providing a covenant relationship for us that is unique in it’s character. JN 15: 14-16, “You are My friends if you do what I command,” He begins. But wait a minute, can the words “friend” and “command” be in the same sentence??? The answer is “yes” because of what follows, picking up at verse (15). “I no longer call you servants because a servant doesn’t know his master’s business. Instead I called you friends, for everything I learned from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask for in My name.” We must remember that Christ had just prior to this had stated, in (13), “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friend.” Now our picture of this of this active, on-going covenant relationship is being fleshed out. If we weren’t learning new aspects to this relationship every day in the process of forwarding our maturation in the faith and being purified daily, it would be harder to describe this as God actively at work. But such is the case, and our God is actively working to further our sanctification.
In this bringing us forward in our spiritual maturity, the shedding of Christ’s blood gives an intensity to His commitment to us. Our Friend gave His physical life for us, was in hell for three days and then, by the unmatched power of the Father was raised to eternal life. His commitment [and the Father’s] to working actively to, inch by inch, move us forward in our sanctification bear out their mission statements [found in JN 6: 39-40 and EPH 1: 4-5]. These essentially are to bring as many people as possible back to their sides in heaven for an eternal life of bliss and sweet, close friendship. Just in case we think that God’s commitment to us is ephemeral, look at HE 13: 5, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’” Imagine, God won’t abandon us, even though we sin, disappoint Him, and act like petulant, irascible children at times! Does this mean He invites such bad behavior? Of course not! It just means that He is forgiving to those who make an effort to expunge their sinful behavior and obey Him. It means that like a good human parent-only better-He wants what is best for us in the long run-in His case, eternally. He is continually supplying the exact lessons we need to learn.
PRAYER: O Lord, we come before Your mighty throne once again, to say “thank You, and we praise You,” for Your longstanding patience with us and for the daily hard work You do for us [2 PET 3: 9]. We know there are limits to the tests of Your patience to which we put You. All but only a few of us who are praying today have an any intention of forcing You to those limits, because they are fairly put down and give us room to grow. As a young mother raising my son, I always loved him, even though he tried my patience mightily with his willfulness. He was inquisitive and as a toddler often got himself into dangerous situations, like the day he decided to take a screw driver and pry off the plastic plug covers on wall sockets and began to stick the screw driver into the socket to see what would happen. He kept me on my toes, often causing me drop what I was doing and hustle over to where he was to prevent him from something like getting 110 volts through his innocent little body. He would look up to me and laugh, as if to say, ‘Got ya again Mommy!” Somehow, Dear Lord, you gave me the patience to deal with him and still love him through it all. That is the way that You are with us-loving us through the lessons we must learn from our innate sinfulness. Dearest Abba, You have said, in HO 14: 9, “Bring My people back to Me. I will love with all My heart; no long am I angry with them.” Through Isaiah, You have said, in IS 54: 10, “’The mountains and hills may crumble, but My love for you will never end; I will keep forever My promise of peace,’ so says the Lord Who loves you.” Your love is active and on-going; we are truly a blessed people to have it. We pledge our loyalty and willingness to obey You faithfully. For we too, want to be sanctified and glorified, just as we have been justified. You and You alone can intervene to see this accomplished. We are forever grateful that You care enough to see us humbled, matured, brought forward toward eternal life, and given peace and salvation. You are our One and only true God in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We pray these things in Christ’s holy/mighty name. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: I’m led to continue writing about God’s active work in the Covenant of Grace in furthering our progress toward eternal life and in allowing us this satisfying and fulfilling covenant relationship with Him. If it is giving each person reading this message some solace to know that God is actively at work in his life, then this writer is doing her job. I can’t help but feel that while we don’t deserve the unmerited favor we are receiving, otherwise referred to as “grace,” our God showers His love on those who are worshipping Him daily. There are many ways to worship God, not just corporate worship in church on Sundays. By the attitude we take in our relationships with other people, the desire we have to do a good job at our chosen careers, our honesty, our willingness to keep promises we make and not make unwise promises, our fidelity in marriage and other commitments, our service to others, and in so many other ways. Honoring God with humility nets us an inner peace available from no other source in the universe. We must remember, 1 JN 4: 12, “No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.” It is God Who gives us anything good we have [PS 16: 2]. It is He Who pulls us from the pit, out of the quicksand-mire of sinfulness [PS 40: 1-2], and out of the darkness into His perfect light [1 PET 2: 9]. Praise and thanks be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15