2015-02-13
Good Morning Dear Ones,
We’ve been looking into covenant applications in the broader sense, i.e. things we can do to live out our covenant responsibilities. There is a huge feast at the King’s table, but we must be ever mindful of what we should do to live up to the relational responsibilities God urges us to have. While we are at work being sanctified --revealing our sins and genuinely combining confession with stopping the behavior(s)-- God is working daily to renew us in His image, perfecting and purifying us in preparation for our glorification (that time when we return to Him in heaven). This sanctification is an on-going process throughout our physical lives. During our lives we are to be one with our human covenant partners and our one and only divine Covenant Partner. HE 2: 11, “Both the One Who makes men holy and those who are made holy are the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.”
IS 8: 17-18 expresses this important connection between God and those He makes holy. “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 of the Lord has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from the Lord Almighty Who dwells on Mount Zion.” (Remember this was written at the time most of Israel was engaging in idolatry and would eventually be thrust by God into dyaspora as a punishment for this practice. God will never withdraw His love for His children, Israel, but He found the need to punish them). The Lord Jesus Himself reminds us of this in JN 10: 29-30, “My Father, Who has given them to Me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and the Father are One.” Jesus leaves nothing up to question here. Once again, the notion that “nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus” [RO 8: 38-39] is expressed.
RO 11: 17 shows us how God holds precious those who faithfully obey Him, no matter whether of Jewish or Gentile origin. “If some of the branches have been broken off, then you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root.” This is another way of saying that if a Jewish person refuses to be faithful to God, he is represented by the branch that is broken off, but a faithful Gentile can be in a covenant relationship with all the blessings this brings is represented by the shoot that is grafted on to the faithful Jewish root stock.
No discussion of this kind is complete without some of the more modern issues that affect covenant relationships. The destructive effect of children being told lies is one problem, even if it’s done by well-meaning but ineffective parents. If a child is told, as I was, “Children are to be seen but not heard,” that, along with other lies, can be quite destructive to one’s sense of self-worth. Another such lie is told in the schoolyard, “You’re weird, because you have bands on your teeth and corrective ‘clod-hopper’ shoes!” These were a result of my well-meaning parents, trying to help a child become an adult with straightened, healthy teeth and who doesn’t walk duck-toed. But we all know children can be cruel. I remember being in a department store in Atlanta years ago, and a mother was pulling her child along by one arm. The child was resisting, and the frustrated mother shouted out, “You are one stupid little boy,” and then paddled him. Of course we can’t expect children to have the wisdom and attention span an adult should have, but it’s things like these that give rise to adults who repeat these same behaviors. They are the bullies in the boardroom, the insensitive parents who force children to be in places where they can’t nap when naps are needed, and the adults who continue with the self-loathing that leads to unstable, poorly conceived relationships.
From the time I was in my junior year of high school, some huge changes, that I now know were God-driven, began to take place in my own life. God used my father, an overworked military physician, to stop my headlong, one-way path toward jail for doing property damage. He had pulled me out of the school I was in the year before and arranged for me to be tested for, then admitted to, an all academic school that was the only one of it’s kind in the school district where we lived. An intellectual “king’s table” was available there, at which I could feast on many subjects not offered in ordinary comprehensive high schools. That quickly got my attention, and I began placing some of my heretofore misplaced energy on them. I also began to think about my faith life and the need for a change from traditional Judaism, as it had been taught to me. The opportunity to seek out other denominations came to me, and I took an interest in pursuing that. My GPA skyrocketed that year. Because I had to travel as far as any student in this school to get there and home again, and because I had to work tutoring before and after school to make money for car fare and lunches, I had no social life to speak of during those last two years of high school. The desire to be on my own became stronger and stronger in my mind. But a marriage between myself and my Orthodox Jewish first husband was in the works between our parents, to be accomplished as quickly as possible after my graduation. This would be the beginning of fifteen of the most difficult and spiritually destructive years of my life. More on that later.
PRAYER: O Lord, we come before Your mighty throne to offer You thanks and praise for You watching over us, teaching us to think eternally, and to accept our covenant relationship responsibilities. All the while, You seek to guide us toward gaining eternal life and to bless us with what we need to serve You and others in covenant with us. 2 COR 2: 14, “But thanks to God Who Always leads us in triumph in Messiah, Who manifests through us the knowledge of Him in every place.” PS 108: 3-4, “I will praise You, Lord, among the nations; I will sing of You among the peoples! For great is Your love, higher than the heavens; let Your glory be over all the earth.” By Your example, You have shown us what true caring toward others and godly behavior/attitudes can be. 1 PET 5: 6-7, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.” You have endowed us with talents we can use for Kingdom work; You have softened our hearts to care for the needs of others around us. IS 58: 10, “And you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.” Moreover, Precious Lord, through the Atonement of Your Son, Jesus, we have been given the hope of the resurrection [JN 3: 16; RO 3: 24-25]. And, this is Your gift to us for eternity. 2 COR 4: 13-14, “It is written: ‘I have believed, therefore I have spoken. With that same spirit of faith we also believe, and therefore speak, because we know the One Who raised the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to Himself.’” Thanks and praise to You, in the holy/mighty name of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: I’m led to continue with yet another “Our Covenant” message in the segment called “Covenant Applications.” This time we enjoy the feast at the King’s table that has to do with what God does to perfect us at the time of glorification and with some more personal remembrances from my own life. We will see how God’s “Just As You Are” invitation begins to lead to a life where we must become less and Jesus must be more [JN 3: 30]. My own experience has taught me that if one reaches out to others, they will add great blessing and fulfillment to his life. Moving around the country as much as I’ve had to do in my life was God’s way of teaching me this notion and giving me chances to put it into practice. My husband, Peter, has had the same kind of moving around in his life, and he has learned the value of friendships too. The habit of being active in one’s congregation and sharing the chance to do Kingdom work side by side with other believers has been a bulwark against the evil one in our marriage. The same can be said for studying the Bible, getting to know God’s teaching and His will for our lives better, and sharing time with friends/common interests. These are all blessings that our loving God makes possible. Let me end this week with PS 16: 1-2, “Keep me safe, O God, for in You I take refuge. I said to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord; apart from You I have no good thing.’” Thanks and praise forever to our Lord Who loves us so very much!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2014. All Rights Reserved.
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