2014-09-12
Good Morning Dear Ones,
As you know, I have been led to discuss God as our Strong Tower and what this means to us. We saw how He watches over us and need to be in a covenant relationship with Him. We also learned that we can have freedom and confidence in approaching Him [EPH 3: 12; 1 JN 5: 14]. We also saw how shaming the Lord is wholly repugnant to a true believer in Jesus Christ. MT 26: 41 let us know that “the Spirit is strong, while the flesh is weak.” This points directly to our need for God’s intervention and direction in our lives, just as JN 15: 5 does. Taking Communion is a serious, intimate, and precious matter—something we should do after revealing, confessing, and stopping our sinning as we discover them in the process of sanctification. We can be reminded of the crucial nature of Christ’s Atonement, which when coupled with our genuine confession of sin, allows us to decide to stop sinning, rather than be on a one-way road to spiritual death (JN 3: 16; RO 3: 24-25). I can’t say enough how many ways our God demonstrates His love for us.
MT 5: 6, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” If we look carefully at this statement, we can see that we can be filled with righteousness in the very center of our being, our hearts. This is the fulfillment of the promise God made back in EZK 36: 26-27, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit in you, and move you to follow My decrees.” Such a thing couldn’t be possible without Christ’s Atonement and our covenant relationship with the Lord. God’s power is not measurable, and He has chosen to take people from arrogance to humility, from disbelief to profound belief, from anger to sweet friendship, from selfishness to caring about others, from rebellion to obedience, from foolishness to learning His wisdom. The same power He used to raise His Son from death to eternal life is given by Christ to believers to fend off evil. We still reel from the effects of evildoing on the adversary’s part, but we now have the power given us to send him packing! [EPH 1: 18-20]. And to think, that God, through His Spirit, can change our hearts as he can change the course of a river or the heart of a king. PR 16: 9, 18, “In his heart a man determines his course, but the Lord directs His steps…Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”
As I have said before, the friendship covenant between Jonathan and David was entered into before God. God was a Partner to it; it applied to them, their families, and even their servants. This included their descendants. 1 SAM 20: 16, “So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, ‘May the Lord call David’s enemies to account.’ And Jonathan had David reaffirm his oath out of love for him, because he loved him as he loved himself.” Such a thing isn’t possible without God keeping His promise to replace human hearts of stone. If there is any question about God’s part in this covenant, let’s look at 1 SAM 20: 23, “And about the matter you and I discussed [a reference to the plan to protect David from Saul]—remember the Lord is a Witness between you and me forever.” Covenant partners have common enemies and friends. 1 SAM 20: 42, “Jonathan said to David, ‘Go in peace, for we have sworn friendship with each other in the name of the Lord,’ saying ‘The Lord is a Witness between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants forever.’”
One might ask why I called this segment of the “Our Covenant” messages “Our Lives At Stake.” The reason should be quite clear; the penalty for breaking a covenant made before or with God is spiritual death! God arbitrates if the covenant is not kept for some reason, and He decides if extenuating circumstances are taken into consideration or if the covenant-breaker deserves spiritual death. Yes, the stakes are high, but true believers know they are worth it. People who keep their covenants are ones who are blessed accordingly. They are protected when in danger, saved for eternity, forever forgiven. Guidance and an open channel of prayer, the Scriptures, and so much more are given to them. The story of Jacob and his father-in-law (also uncle) Laban is familiar to us. In GN 31: 47-49 after Jacob’s flocks had increased in number, and he had married both Leah and Rachel, Jacob entered into a covenant with Laban that they will each keep their sheep on the opposite sides of a monument (pile of rocks) called Galeed (Hebrew)/ Iegar Sahadutha (Aramaic), which means “A pile to remind us.” The place where this took place is called Mizpah (Hebrew), which means “A Place From Which To Watch.” In GN 31: 49, Laban said, “May the Lord keep watch over you and me when we are away from each other,” to Jacob, sealing the covenant they were making in God’s presence. Jacob said, in (53), “May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor (Laban’s father), the God of their father, judge between us.” This was the end of the trouble between Laban and Jacob, just before the reunion between Jacob and his older twin brother, Esau.
PRAYER: O Lord, it is by Your promise to break through our hearts of stone and to give us fleshly hearts, hearts that can and will accept Your Holy Spirit to dwell in them, that we come before You with humility, reverence, and awe today. You have kept that promise, which is why we recognize our utter need for Your presence and intervention for us to live in righteousness [MT 5: 3, 6]. We eagerly await Your commands and accept the terms of the Covenant of Grace. We offer You praise, loyalty, honor, and thanks for this “life-at-stake” opportunity to enjoy the direction, healing, and blessings of a covenant relationship with You. You have shown us why entering into any covenant is serious and also, why are lives are meaningless/wasted, by refusing to do so. You have instructed Your Son, Jesus, to tell us why the taking of vows must be done carefully [MT 5: 33-37], and He has obeyed. We too seek to obey You in this, by reading Your word and carrying out its teaching. By His teaching in the Beatitudes [MT 5: 3-12], You have both given us crucial instruction for living and blessed us beyond measure. You are surely our Strong Tower, shading us with Your protection from the buffeting of the evil one and his cohorts. You are the main Watchman, the One Who will, through Christ, judge whether or not and to what degree we have kept our covenants. We thank You for listening to our prayers, giving us Your word, and otherwise intervening in our lives to help us live them with the righteousness, compassion, justice, and love. We need all of this to be Your human covenant partners, who inch by inch move forward in the path to spiritual maturity and whom You can purify by sanctifying us with our cooperation. We offer You even more praise and thanks for loving us as You do. We submit to and have faith in You. In Christ’s holy/mighty name we pray. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: I am commanded to write about the epithets for God, which Miriam Webster uses in her song, “Make Me Glad.” Then, we will look at what God has given the ancient Jews with the Passover and Shavuot, as they relate to what He has given us with Easter and Pentecost. If nothing else stands out to us, it has to be the many blessings of our covenants with God! What a provision our covenant relationship with God and other believers/potential believers is! We are provided with a way to walk through that “narrow gate that is on a hard path” [MT 7: 13-14] to an eternal life of bliss and fellowship with our Covenant Partner. We have the choice to cooperate with Him in His efforts to sanctify us, so that we can be obedient and effective citizens of God’s Kingdom. In fact, we can have a part is establishing God’s Kingdom itself. PS 11: 5-6, “But I trusted in Your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because He has dealt bountifully with me.” He has forged life-long and wonderful friendships between us and other believers. These are faith-strengthening and give texture to the fabric of our lives. In the face of His Great Commission, the Lord Jesus provides us with opportunities to witness to our faith and deliver the Gospel message to those who have yet to make this precious covenant with God. When they come to faith, while we can’t take credit for that which belongs to the Holy Spirit, we can feel wonderful accomplishment in knowing that we brought new believers to Him. PS 106: 1, “We will celebrate and praise You, Lord. You are good to us, and Your love never fails.” Praise and thanks be to the Lord!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2014. All Rights Reserved.
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