pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: covenant


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Signs and Wisdom

Reading: 1 Corinthians 1: 18-31

Jesus did not fit into the mold that some people had.  He did not meet their expectations, so they struggled to see Him as the Messiah.  Even though the Jews were looking for a Messiah, Jesus did not match their vision, therefore He was rejected.  The Greeks operated on wisdom and logic.  A person cannot be argued into or convinced of belief.  The miracles had to have some logical explanation.  Jesus did not fit their mold either.

For the Jews, their history is full of big signs of God’s presence.  The signs are often on the national scale.  All of the firstborn die in Egypt – except the Jewish families were passed over.  The manna and quail come for a long period of time to feed the whole nation in the desert.  God sweeps in the Assyrians and then the Babylonians to deal with the nation’s sin.  Perhaps Jesus giving sight to a blind man or raising one person from the dead were simply too small.  These miracles did not fit into their understanding of God at work amongst the nation.

We are not too far removed from the Jews and Gentiles of Jesus’ day.  Wisdom gets in the way of following Jesus all the time.  We rationalize why we couldn’t possibly do this or that instead of stepping forth in faith. We think we know best and need to be in control instead of trusting in God’s lead.  At times we demand signs too.  We try and strike if-then deals – if You will do this Jesus, then I will…  We want to see Jesus at work in the answer to our prayer or in the resolution to a situation and then we will…

The perspective had also changed.  God’s covenant was with the nation of Israel and it covered individuals.  This is how they wanted Jesus to act too.  They wanted to see the Romans banished in one fell swoop, for example.  But Jesus sought a personal relationship with each believer.  Jesus sought a covenant with individuals that extends to the whole world.  This is still what Christ seeks: a one-on-one relationship with each of us.  This relationship is based upon faith, belief, trust, love…  All are foundational.  And all must be experienced.  This is how the relationship begins and how it grows.  These are our experiences that translate into ‘wisdom’ and ‘signs’.  This is what we have to share with those in our lives who do not have a relationship with Jesus.  Through each of us, may the world come to know Christ, one person at a time.


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Faithful

Reading: Micah 6: 1-5

Micah opens this section by letting the people know that they have sinned against God.  In their hearts it is something they surely already know.  Just as at times we have sinned and quickly felt the conviction of the Holy Spirit, so too must the people living in Micah’s time.  God calls all of creation to hear the case He has against Israel.  The grand audience would indicate that this is a pretty serious charge that God is going to level against His chosen people.

Then there is a shift.  It begins in verse three, where God asks, “My people, what have I done to you”?  It is like asking, ‘How could you’?  God then asks how He has burdened the people.  In this question God is preparing them for what comes next.  In the next few verses, God explains things that are just the opposite of burdens.  God reminds the people of the many ways in which He has blessed them and cared for them and protected them.  Perhaps the ‘How could you’ question begins to ring in their minds.  By helping them to remember the ways in which God has been there for them, God is reminding them of the relationship they have and of the covenant on which that relationship is founded.

We too have had many times in our lives where God has looked in and wondered, “How could you”?  And God treats us the same as He did the Israelites.  Through the power of the Holy Spirit, God reaches out to us, shines light on our sin, calls us to repent and return to our covenant relationship with God.  God remains true and faithful to His part of the covenant – always loving and caring for us, always calling us back to a righteous relationship.  God faithfully and patiently calls us back over and over, calling us to walk faithfully with our God.

May we recall the many ways that God has blessed, cared for, protected, and loved us to this day.  Then may we go forth to walk this day and all days as a faithful servant of the Lord our God.


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Well Pleased

Reading: Matthew 3: 13-17

As Jesus is baptized the presence of God is made known.  The heavens open, the Spirit descends, and God speaks.  God claims Jesus as His Son and voices pleasure with Jesus.  God is proud of His son.  It is a good proud – proud of who He has become, proud of how Jesus lived His life, proud of who Jesus will become.  This is what all parents hope for.  All parents want to be able to say, “That’s my boy!” or “That’s my girl!” in conversations with friends and others.  Parents do not long to say this because their child is beautiful or has a fancy car.  They long to claim their child because of who they are.  And so it is with God.

As each of us was baptized, we too are claimed by God.  In baptism, we are brought into the family of God.  Through the sacrament of baptism, we are identified or marked as a child of God.  We are baptized into the name of Christ, making us a fellow brother or sister with Jesus.  There is also an earthly component to  the baptism.  For the child’s immediate family, there is a covenant to raise the child in the family of faith.  For the new extended family, there is also a role to play.  Those welcoming the new son or daughter into the family are also committing to raise up a young Christian.  From God on down to every member of the church, all have roles to play in raising this new child of God.

Beginning with baptism, we are part of God’s family.  We are always a child of God, but with the sacrament others are acknowledging the relationship and the responsibilities.  As family, we love each other no matter what.  As family, we will help model, teach, and encourage one another.  As family, we will correct and rebuke as necessary.  As family, we will do all we each can to help God say, “This is my daughter (or son).  With her (or him) I am well pleased”.  May it be so this day and every day.


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Right Relationship

Reading: Jeremiah 31: 31-34

God promises a new covenant.  God promises a covenant in which God’s ways will be on our minds and written on our hearts.  The faith will become something personal.  It will become something we live.  In stead of going to worship to simply get our fill or to be tuned up, our faith will be instilled within us all of the time.  It will be a faith based upon God’s love.  It will be a faith that does not carry the guilt and shame that many of the Israelites have been hauling around for years and years.

Verse 34 promises that God will forgive our sins and remember them no more.  Instead of bearing the shame of one parent’s or grandparent’s sins or fearing how your sins will forever taint your children’s or grandchildren’s lives, one will be able to be freed from one’s own sins and their consequences.  Through the new covenant, made real in Jesus Christ, faith will become personal and be between just God and you.  What a new covenant!

While the idea of our sins being our sins alone and the idea that God will remember our sins no more is wonderful news, it is also scary.  A distant, lived out through others faith is much easier in many ways.  Having God’s ways in our minds and on our hearts ups the ante.  When God is constantly with us doesn’t that increase the expectations?  If God is always near, doesn’t  that mean we always live and act as God would act?

These things are indeed the goal.  Of course, being human and far less than God, we are not perfect.  But when God forgives and remembers our sins no more, we are made new and are right back on track.  To receive this forgiveness, all we need to do is repent and ask.  Through our personal relationship with Jesus, His blood makes us new again.  Then we return instantly to a right relationship with God, loving God and neighbor as we are called to, bringing glory to the name of Jesus.


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Listen to My Voice

Reading: John 10: 22-30

Ever since mankind has known God, it has been all about the relationship.  Adam and Eve walked in the Garden and talked with God.  Although His presence changed, God has continued to communicate with mankind.  Initially it was through prophets and angels.  Then God entered the world in the flesh.  Jesus lived, walked among, taught, and even performed some miracles.  In His earthly life Jesus revealed who and what God is.

With Abraham, God established a covenant with His chosen people.  Israel was to be God’s people and He was to be their God.  This covenant came with some guidelines.  Over time the Law  grew to be something cumbersome.  Yet the covenant relationship remains.  God’s chosen people, by and large, continue living in covenant relationship with Him.

In time though, it became necessary to establish a new covenant.  Jesus came to accomplish this.  He reminded God’s chosen people of parts of the old covenant: love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love neighbor as self.  He added to the second: love as I have first loved you.  This was a different kind of love.  It was a radical kind of love.  In His love there are no outcasts, no outsiders, no strangers.  Jesus loved all.  He loves you and me.  Through His body and blood, He established a new covenant and offers the gift of eternal life.

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me”.  The new covenant is about relationship too.  It is about hearing Jesus say, ” love as I have first loved you”.  It is about Jesus knowing each of us as a follower.  May we ever hear His voice.  May we ever follow.


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Expanding the Covenant

Long ago God made a covenant with the people of Israel to be their God.  As humanity spread and covered the earth, we can assume that most people did not have a close connection to the God we identify with.  Many people came to worship a creator god as one of many gods they worshiped.  This situation continues today.  Christianity is widespread but remains definitely in the minority.  In fact, in many of the developed countries which were founded on Christian principles, we now live in the ‘post-Christian’ era.

Long ago God identified Israel, of all the Peoples of the earth, as His people.  They were set apart as the chosen people of God.  From the vast and varied tribes of people, God chose Israel and entered into a covenant relationship with them.  It was and is a small, select group of people who follow the Torah and worship the one true God.

Over time though, the Israelites came to focus more on the letter of the Law and its interpretation.  Life became more about the 613 laws rather than loving God and neighbor.  God saw the need to refocus faith on loving God and loving neighbor, so He sent His Son, Jesus, to establish a new covenant.  Jesus lived out the two great commands to love God and love neighbor with every fiber of His being.  He was setting an example for us to follow.  In the end, Jesus gave His body and blood as a means to defeat the power of sin and death and to offer us salvation and eternal life.

God also sent Jesus to expand the original covenant beyond the small nation of Israel into the whole world.  Through the work of Jesus, the apostles, and many Christians that have followed, Christianity has spread to many places throughout the world.  As followers of Jesus Christ, it is our continuing call to do the same – to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth and into the corners of our neighborhoods and churches.

Scripture reference: Ephesians 2: 11-22


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Extend His Love

God offers a covenant to David that is not contingent upon what David or his descendants do.  God promises His faithfulness and love to David and his descendants no matter what they do.  This is an extravagant promise.  God acknowledges that if the sons sin, there will be consequences.  In doing so God recognizes that the human side of the relationship or covenant will at times fail.  But God will remain steadfast.

Human relationships are dynamic and often fluid.  People we were once friends with are no longer close to us.  Others will come to occupy our time and interest for a season.  Some friendships last a lifetime.  Even in marriage, where forever is our intent starting out, some of these relationships come to an end.  Human relationships are affected by so many things; change is often the norm.  And as we are humans, at times we fail.  This can be fatal to some of our relationships.

Through Jesus we are connected into the covenant God made with David and his descendants.  As sons and daughters of Jesus Christ, we too are heirs to this steadfast and unchanging love that God offers.  Our claim to the love of God begins the covenant relationship between God and each of us.  At some point we recognize that love and choose to enter into a relationship with God the creator.

Even though at times we too will fail in this relationship, His love will never fail.  God’s love never fails.  As we come to know this unfailing love more and more, we too begin to share this love with others.  We extend His love.  This is our grateful response to God’s love.  Love generously today.

Scripture reference: Psalm 89: 20-37


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Covenant

God is so faithful.  It is amazing that God could love humanity so much.  His mercies are offered to us over and over and over.  In spite of our propensity to sin, God continues to seek us out.

God is the husband and we, the church, are the bride.  He laid His claim upon the Israelites thousands of years ago and has been faithful ever since.  Christ extended this relationship when He welcomed all who believed into this covenant.  Christ spoke in terms of being the bridegroom and loving the church as a husband loves his wife.

The covenant we have with our heavenly father is much like the marriage covenant was in the times of Jeremiah.  Then it was a permanent and unchangeable covenant.  It was truly for life.  This is how God continues to see the covenant He has with His people.

Because of His great faithfulness and deep love for us, He continually calls us to this covenant that is bound up in relationship.  His forgiveness continues to wash us clean and allows us to enter into His presence over and over.

In this season of Lent, as Easter draws near, may we remember the sacrifice given by Jesus and the victory won over sin and death.  Out of gratitude may we look within and seek to be the follower He deserves – one full of love, mercy, forgiveness, compassion.  May we seek to live as the faithful and true bride of Christ.

Scripture reference: Jeremiah 31: 31-34


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He Calls

God promised to establish King David’s household forever.  That is a very long time.  Being as we are human, that promise can be misread and abused.  If seen from the “free pass” perspective, it can be disastrous.  Some of the kings that followed David were great examples of this.

God also wants to bless our households.  God invites us to live by the grace of His covenant.  This offer is nothing we can earn, but was bought for us by Jesus Christ.  His blood and body bought all freedom from sin and death.

Although we know this to be true, we often live otherwise.  We can allow guilt and shame to stand between God and ourselves.  We can get caught up in the battle of striving to make ourselves ‘acceptable’ to God.  We can choose to live as some of those kings that followed David chose to live.

But it is not about what ‘we’ can do but about what God offers.  God simply says, “Come.”  He calls us to lay aside all that binds and holds us back.  He calls us to walk in His love, to be in His presence, and to be made right by His grace.  Allow God to work in you, to pour out Hs grace and mercy in abundance on your house.

Scripture reference: 2 Samuel 7:8-11 and 16


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Spilling Out

As we draw near to Christmas and the celebration of the birth of Christ, our sense of hope and joy builds.  As we rest into the knowledge of God’s promises fulfilled through this holy birth, our sense of peace and love grows.  Advent is a season where we live close to God and look toward God’s future blessings.

The covenant relationship that we have with God allows us to live in His blessings.  We seek to be content and happy in our lives.  It is through the confidence in God as provider and in our attitude as thankful recipients of these blessings that we find true contentment and happiness.  Knowing that we are loved and cared for by God makes such a difference in life.

In this holy season God wants to meet all of our needs – physical, spiritual, and emotional.  As our thanks and praises to our creator who blesses us so richly grows, it spills out of our lives and into the lives of those around us.  As we spread the joy, hope, love, and peace, others are in turn blessed as well.

Scripture reference: Isaiah 61: 8-11