2015-02-06
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Once again, I’m led to return to the “Covenant Applications” segment of this “Our Covenant” series of messages. In addition, we return to “sharing the king’s table,” which taken in the narrow sense refers to Mephibosheth sharing King David’s table due to their covenant of friendship relationship; and in the broad sense it refers, to our sharing of the King’s [Christ’s] table due to our Covenant of Grace relationship. Let me begin by returning to a verse I’ve often cited, RO 1: 1. “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the Gospel of God…” Suppose we inserted our own name in that introduction; how would it read? Please understand that I believe that none of us are as important in spreading the Gospel as Paul was, but nevertheless, this is a revealing exercise. I would like mine to read, “Lynn, a servant of Yeshua Ha Messhiah [Jesus Christ in Hebrew], set apart to research, write, teach, and serve others for the Gospel of God…” (I’ll leave it up to others to decide if that is actually being effectively done J).
Sanctification is an important part of our covenant relationship with God. Remember this means a cooperative effort in which God is renewing us in our knowledge of Him [COL 3: 10], while we are revealing sins by genuinely confessing them and stopping the behavior. God thus, moves us forward in our spiritual maturity, purifies us, and perfects us in preparation for our glorification. The latter is the day when He decides we are ready to return to His side in heaven for eternity. Once we came to faith in Christ, we were adopted into God’s family [RO 8: 14-16]. HE 2: 11, “Both the One Who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family, so Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.” We are one with all those who believe in Christ as covenant siblings. While the male word “brothers” is used here, it also applies to women as well. We have no need to be constantly reassured or fight “the battle of the sexes.” Biblical truth applies to all humans.
There is nothing new about the equal love that God has for men and women of faith. PS 22: 22-31 expresses this, beginning with, “I will declare your name to my brothers; in the congregation I will praise you. You who fear the Lord praise Him! All you descendants of Jacob, honor Him! Revere Him, all you descendants of Israel…” If there is any question of someone reading this not being Jewish, remember RO 11: 17, a part of the olive tree metaphor where wild branches (representing believing Gentiles) are grafted in place of non-believing Jews on the cultivated olive tree (representing believing Jews). “If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root.”
IS 8: 16 -18, written 300 years before Christ and before Israel was to undergo a dyaspora (temporary scattering and loss of nationhood), was Isaiah’s way of expressing what we all should do before God. “Bind up the testimony and seal up the law among my disciples. I will wait for the Lord, Who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob. I will put my trust in Him. Here am I, and the children the Lord has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from the Lord Almighty, Who dwells on Mount Zion.” Isaiah knew the punishment for idolatry was coming and spoke here to the remnant of believers who remained obedient to God and followed His teaching, as Isaiah himself did. He was treasuring God’s word, as we should do today. The covenant bond between God, Isaiah, and his followers was as real, as is that expressed by Christ between Him and us, in JN 10: 29-30. “My Father, Who has given them (His sheep) to Me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and the Father are One.” [Read RO 8: 38-39 and IS 59: 21].
As far as my own story is concerned, I would discover somewhere in the middle of my sophomore year of high school, that it would be necessary for me to wake up spiritually and recognize God has had me in His sight all my life. This was even though the whole time up to his point I was ignorant of His existence. This realization would jump start a series of heart-attitude and intellectual changes in my life. I found myself in a school that offered a myriad of subjects that interested me, not available at the previous school I had attended. My grades quickly went from a listless B minus average to eagerly enrapt straight A’s. At the same time, I recognized that traditional Judaism, as it had been taught to me, wasn’t fulfilling a deep hunger that gnawed at my soul. The journey that led me to becoming a devoted believer in Christ wouldn’t be either easy or straight. In the ten years between age 15 and age 25, I would take temporary stops in secularism, Transcendental Meditation, and Mormonism. My short-lived and very secret time going, against my father’s wishes, to Catholic catechism with a friend from elementary school weren’t forgotten either. None of these filled the hunger for fulfillment that I had. Once I accepted Christ as my personal Savior, my life took a totally new direction. My son was born, my first marriage ended, and Peter Johnson came into my life. After our marriage, we moved first to southern CA and then to GA. After twelve years in it, I decided to quietly leave the Mormon church as a result of a serious comparison between Mormon doctrine and the Bible. With hindsight, every step of this journey was under God’s supervision/direction. None of it was wasted. And, it wasn’t over yet! I am a child of God, and I had covenant relationships to discover and responsibilities to carry out.
PRAYER: O Lord, You are calling us to worship, to remember our covenant relationships, and to thank/praise You for the blessings You give us. PS 121: 1-3, “I look to the mountains; from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. He will not let you fall; Your Protector never slumbers.” To recognize our blessings, we must first come to feel Your consistent presence in our lives. We must know You are superior and supreme, and the Source of all blessings-all that is good on earth [PS 16: 2]. We acknowledge You, Lord. PS 86: 9-10, “All nations You have made will come and worship before You, Lord; they will bring glory to Your name. For You are great and do marvelous deeds; You alone are God.” Just as You led King David to open his home and life to the last relative of Saul, Mephibosheth, You open Your heart to all who love and obey You faithfully today and always. We are indeed Your covenant partners, and we submit to You as our Covenant Partner-superior in all ways. PS 40: 16, “Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You: Let such as love Your salvation say continually, ‘The Lord be magnified!’” We stand before Your throne to offer You our heartfelt worship, praise, thanks, and glory. For You are the One and only God, Who takes us under His care and directs us to eternal life. You are our loving, wise, compassionate, patient, and faithful God, and we love You. We say this prayer in the holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: My own story continues, as I am led to discuss how lies and misery were supernaturally altered to truth and inner peace. We are invited to the Lord’s table in more ways than one. Certainly, we, as God’s children and believer’s in Biblical truth, are invited to partake of Communion. But there is so much more to coming to the feast of sustenance and peace the Lord offers us. We will truly find out what our covenant relationships mean to us. He takes us imperfect and makes us, eventually, perfect. Sometimes He is so gentle we hardly perceive Him, and He speaks to us in His still, small voice. Other times almost catastrophic things happen to shake us from our reverie and foolishness, to bring us sharply face to face with His will and His love. But our God loves us so much that He sent His only Son, Jesus, to the cross, so that all who believe in Him can have everlasting life [JN 3: 16; RO 3: 24-25]. This statement will always be a part of my writing, because it can never be repeated too often. We need to recognize the intensity of God’s sacrificial love for each of us. Not one of us goes unnoticed and considered unimportant to Him! As for the Lord Jesus, He uttered, in JN 6: 39-40, “And it is the will of Him Who sent Me, that I shall lose none of all that He has given Me, but raise them up at the last Day. For My Father’s will is that every one who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last Day.” That’s our Lord’s mission statement, and it should bring each of us considerable comfort. As for our covenant relationship with other believers and potential believers, we are told by our the Lord Jesus, in JN 13: 34-35, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you should love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.” 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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