pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: covenant


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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


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Hand in Hand

Joshua asks the people twice if they will indeed serve God alone.  He wants to be sure they understand the importance of their decision and that they are sure about it.  After two positive affirmations, Joshua tells them to “throw away foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to God and obey him” (verse 24).  He knows that if they hang onto those idols, eventually they will turn back to them.  Joshua knows the importance of relying on God alone in the pursuit of a life of love, mercy, justice, and compassion.

We too face the same choice.  While we sometimes have physical idols like that new car or the latest fashion, most of our idols are things like pride, judging, envy, gossip, and control. We too must work at ‘throwing’ them out.  But we cannot do it alone.  Only with God’s help do we begin to stand a chance against these idols.

As we choose God alone to serve, we are choosing to enter into a covenant relationship with God.  In this relationship we choose to serve God alone and to love God above all else.  For His part, God strengthens, encourages, and enables us to grow closer to Him through prayer, study, worship, fellowship, and other encounters with Him.  God also leads us to serve, give to, care for, and love others as an extension of that loving, covenant relationship that we have with Him.  Loving God and loving neighbor just go hand in hand.  Loving God and loving neighbor are two greatest calls upon our lives.

Scripture reference: Joshua 24: 19-25


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Faithfulness and Love… and Patience

In Romans 9, Paul is in sorrow over the Israelites not seeing Jesus for who He was  – the Son of God, come to redeem the world.  It is a situation where he sees it, has the same background knowledge as them, and does not understand why they do not see it.  Have you ever been one either side of one of these situations in your life?  Maybe you were in the role of Paul and tried and tried to get someone to understand, but just couldn’t.

In this story it is God who is ultimately in this role.  The story also extends out past this current moment in the Bible.  And in this we see something amazing about God.  We can see God covenantal faithfulness and His steadfast love.  Despite all in the Old Testament and all that Jesus said and did, most of the Israelites do not come to understand who Jesus was and is.  Yet God continues to pursue the people of Israel even to this day!

Often I think it is the same with me.  After all of these years of walking with Christ, I still fall short.  At times my sin is that I think I am the one in charge.  Sometimes I take the credit.  Other times it is a thought or word that holds my sin.  But thank God for His faithfulness and love!  Sometimes I can’t imagine why He chooses to stick it out with me.  But He does.  Thank God for His patience too!

Scripture reference: Romans 9: 1-5


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Good Questions

In the beginning it was Israel that was God’s chosen people.  For the thousands of years before Christ, they were God’s only people.  They are the people of the law, the covenant, the prophets, the temple, the history, and of Jesus’ ancestors.  Yet they are, like us, a broken people.  The law is ever before them as a testament to their inability to make it on their own.  We too cannot walk out our faith on our own.  God sent Jesus to establish a new way, to establish a new covenant with a people who became known as Christians.  We are a people of the Jewish Bible but also a people of the New Testament.

In Romans 9 you can hear Paul’s pain and anguish.  He was a former Jew hurting for his fellow Jews.  Paul offers up his own faith – if Israel would just believe in Jesus Christ.  That’s pretty amazing.  It is very sacrificial.  It is also something that I could see Christ doing.

So it begs the question in me – and hopefully in you too – what am I willing to do to bring a lost soul to Christ?  What would I gladly yield up to save another?  These are good questions to spend some time with today.

Scripture reference: Romans 9: 1-5