Having goals are good, they provide vision and motivation to accomplish worthwhile things in our lives. Many people wander about most of their lives without goals and achieve nothing because they lack vision. The scripture says that "without vision the people perish".
Recently I was reflecting on the day that I surrendered my life to Christ and the pastors wife from the church that I began to attend gave me a embroidered and framed wall hanging that said " What we are is God's gift to us, What we become is our gift to God". I don't know whatever happened to that but over the years with moves and such it is just gone. Never the less as I remembered that gift and the saying I thought to myself "what a lovely thought and a great goal". I was brought up short very quickly in my thinking by the Holy Spirit. While it seems a lovely thought and a lofty goal to do something great with my life and consider it my gift to God it is just simply not scriptural and puts the emphasis in the wrong place.
First of all most of us come to God an absolute mess. The devil has had his way with us and made us his child and we are full of his ways. This is not God's gift to us, we are sin saturated and the bible says that the "wages of sin is death" so here we are bound for hell and death and God reaches down in His mercy and snatches us from certain destruction and we dare say the our condition at that time is God's gift to us? No, certainly not. The rest of the above scripture is "but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord".
More important is the emphasis on what I do with my life that is supposed to be my gift to Him and this is where most people miss the mark. Careful study of scripture along with time spent with God will reveal that we actually can do nothing for Him, it is just the reverse. He does it all for us and then rewards us for allowing Him to do it. If I focus on what I'm going to do or think I am doing for God then I can compare myself and my accomplishments with others and can either be prideful or depressed, neither position is acceptable to God. The goal and purpose of a true disciple of Christ is to bring glory to the Father. If I accomplish something I bring glory to myself but if I am helpless and He uses me and equips me to accomplish something that I could not otherwise do then "Who gets the glory"?
How helpless are we really? Matthew 6:27 (New King James Version)
27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? other versions say "or add one hour to your life"?
One of the most difficult tasks that the Lord has with His people is to separate them from pride, arrogance and self sufficiency. We must remember that if we were so good at living life then how come we came to Him in such a mess. There's only one way that we will accomplish anything that we will get credit in heaven for and that is by total surrender and just allow Him to do what He wants with us. I suggest that for deeper understanding on this issue that you read my blog in the archives titled
"Abiding in the Vine" http://acts2216.blogspot.com/2010/03/abiding-in-vine.html
Ephesians 2:10 (New King James Version)
10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Until I came to understand this scripture I often wondered why I had to go through so much hell before God revealed Himself to me in a way that I could accept His gift of life. There had been lots of history before that time, any of which could have been the catalyst but no it just didn't happen. Finally I came to realize that He actually had a purpose for my life and certain things planned for me to do and none of that could happen until I went through certain experiences and was positioned where and when He wanted me. Also because of all the failures that I had experienced it was easier for me to appreciate what God was doing with my life and the changes He brought about. I cannot claim to understand all that God does because I am only human and cannot see the future and actually understand only a little of the past but I have come to trust Him fully and to know that whatever happens it is for the best and that some life somewhere will be affected in a positive way by it. With that comes perfect peace and no amount of earthly possessions can give that to me and what's more, I am assured of a place in eternity where I no longer have to count the days I have left to accomplish anything before I am to weak or sickly to even care. Praise God for His mercy, compassion and gift of eternal life.
Bless you all and may you come to have a greater appreciation of Him this Christmas season.
john Martin
justjohn@eoni.com
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Sunday, December 5, 2010
A New Covenant
What I am going to write about here is going to be and has always been a controversial topic. I do not write to tell anyone what to think but rather to lay out for you the holy scriptures that you may know what they say and make up your own mind. When the apostle Paul was writing about controversial issues he said; Romans 14 (New King James Version)
Romans 14
The Law of Liberty
1 Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. 2 For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. 3 Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him. 4 Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.
5 One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord;[a] and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks. 7 For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ died and rose[b] and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living. 10 But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. The key verse above is "let each be fully convinced in his own mind". The important thing is to know what you believe and why you believe it and what is the source of your belief. I think most Christian's believe whatever they are told in church or it may be that they have a very verbal and highly opinionated friend and that is their source. How many can read the bible and get anything out of it? Understanding scripture is a gift from God, not something bestowed in a seminary and it is given to those who diligently seek Him. So, my goal is to encourage pursuit of truth in order that you may receive and enjoy all that God has in store for you and that you may be able to share it with others.
A covenant is an binding agreement between two or more parties that grants certain rights and benefits to those parties who agree to it. It is usually the more prominent or powerful of the two parties that extends the offer of covenant and because of this factor can also determine the outcome depending on the responses of the parties involved including revising the terms if need be to make it more workable. Now I will ask a question; does it not stand to reason that if the extending party says to the the beneficiary, "this covenant is not working particularly well so I going to give you a better one" that the terms of the new one would not only contain all the good parts of the old covenant but have additional features that were actually better than the old?
This is the question that has been in my mind for some time now and I believe it is time to address the subject because in my 34 years as a Christian I have not heard a single person do so. I would first ask this question of the teachers and pastors; since the whole of the Christian faith rests on the doctrines of the Holy Scriptures why are you afraid to teach them fully and in truth?
The Bible is divided into two parts, the first being called the Old Testament (testament means covenant or agreement) and the second part is called the New Testament or New Covenant. The first mention of Covenant is in Genesis 6:18 where God makes a covenant with Noah, telling him that if he will build an ark that He will save him and his family when the flood comes upon the earth. This first covenant establishes a pattern that never changes because it is God and God never changes. The pattern is that in order to receive the benefits of the covenant the beneficiary must keep all the requirements (this is known as OBEDIENCE). Now every requirement of God mentioned in the old testament can be considered part of the Old Covenant. Theologians might try to take it all apart and say well this part or that part doesn't apply but God made covenants with Noah, Abraham and the Israelite People but they were all in the lineage of Noah. Suffice it to say that any requirement of God found in the Old Testament books was part of the old covenant and was replaced by a new and better covenant.
HEBREWS 8:6-13 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.
7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. 8 Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 9 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 11 None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds[b] I will remember no more.”[c]
13 In that He says, “A new covenant, ” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
Please note that verse 6 states that Jesus is Mediator of a better covenant established on better promises than those of the old covenant. And this is the crux of my concern. If today's People of God have a better covenant than the old testament People of God then why are they worse off than the people of old? Let's examine some of the benefits of the old covenant and see if today's Christian is enjoying this kind of life.
Deuteronomy 28 (New King James Version)
Deuteronomy 28
Blessings on Obedience
1 “Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God:
3 “Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.
4 “Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
5 “Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
6 “Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
7 “The LORD will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.
8 “The LORD will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you.
9 “The LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways. 10 Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they shall be afraid of you. 11 And the LORD will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you. 12 The LORD will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. 13 And the LORD will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them.
Exodus 15:26 (New King James Version)
26 and said, “If you diligently heed the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you.”
Deuteronomy 7:15 (New King James Version)
15 And the LORD will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you.
The above benefits are all part of what was considered an inferior covenant and yet I don't know of a single person today who wouldn't like to enjoy the promised benefits listed. In brief they are:
Freedom from all sickness and disease. Protection from all enemies. All your children born healthy and free from any defects whatsoever. Plant something in the ground and it will always produce a perfect crop and you don't have to worry about early or late frosts that could kill it. If you have animals they will be healthy and their offspring will be healthy and many times your cow may have twins instead of just one. If your sow has 15 piglets not a one will die but all will survive and mature to go on to reproduce themselves. Your horse will not go lame and have to be put down and you won't be bothered by flies and mosquitoes. You will never have to go to the bank and borrow in order to obtain what you need, instead you will have so much that you can lend to your neighbors. Wives, good news for you too, If you are making bread it will always turn out perfectly delicious and beautiful to behold (blessed shall be your basket and kneading bowl). If a jealous neighbor wants to take some of your abundance away from you and goes out and gets a bunch of his friends together and comes and storms your property he will be forced to flee from you seven different directions in utter confusion and you and yours will not suffer so much as a scrape or bruise. You decide to start a business, success is guaranteed.
Men you could rejoice because the wife could never claim to have a headache nor could she claim to be too tired because she spent her whole day trying to keep the children out of trouble or from hurting themselves because they just didn't get hurt and what is more she had two or three nurses to care for them.
The people of God were looked up to, not down on.
Now do you see any of this today under the so called New and Improved Covenant?
If you can answer yes please let me know and provide proof and I will retract every word. Instead I see Christians everywhere loosing their homes, jobs and their health in alarming numbers but I do not hear anyone addressing the issue and telling them why it is happening. For the answer we must always refer to scripture because any other answer is false. God is not man, therefore cannot lie. His Word is true and has stood the test of time and will not change because God does not change.
There is but one reason that the promises of the covenant are not experienced and that is the lack of compliance on the part of the beneficiary. The beneficiary has two options, Obedience or Disobedience and since they are exact opposites so are the results and here are the scriptures to verify what I am saying.
Deuteronomy 28:15-68 (New King James Version)
Curses on Disobedience
15 “But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
16 “Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country.
17 “Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
18 “Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
19 “Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.
20 “The LORD will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me. 21 The LORD will make the plague cling to you until He has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess. 22 The LORD will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with severe burning fever, with the sword, with scorching, and with mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish. 23 And your heavens which are over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you shall be iron. 24 The LORD will change the rain of your land to powder and dust; from the heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.
25 “The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them; and you shall become troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 Your carcasses shall be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and no one shall frighten them away. 27 The LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, with the scab, and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed. 28 The LORD will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart. 29 And you shall grope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in darkness; you shall not prosper in your ways; you shall be only oppressed and plundered continually, and no one shall save you.
30 “You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall lie with her; you shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it; you shall plant a vineyard, but shall not gather its grapes. 31 Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it; your donkey shall be violently taken away from before you, and shall not be restored to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have no one to rescue them. 32 Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, and your eyes shall look and fail with longing for them all day long; and there shall be no strength in your hand. 33 A nation whom you have not known shall eat the fruit of your land and the produce of your labor, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually. 34 So you shall be driven mad because of the sight which your eyes see. 35 The LORD will strike you in the knees and on the legs with severe boils which cannot be healed, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.
36 “The LORD will bring you and the king whom you set over you to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods—wood and stone. 37 And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations where the LORD will drive you.
38 “You shall carry much seed out to the field but gather little in, for the locust shall consume it. 39 You shall plant vineyards and tend them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them. 40 You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil; for your olives shall drop off. 41 You shall beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for they shall go into captivity. 42 Locusts shall consume all your trees and the produce of your land.
43 “The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. 44 He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.
45 “Moreover all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. 46 And they shall be upon you for a sign and a wonder, and on your descendants forever.
47 “Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything, 48 therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you. 49 The LORD will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand, 50 a nation of fierce countenance, which does not respect the elderly nor show favor to the young. 51 And they shall eat the increase of your livestock and the produce of your land, until you are destroyed; they shall not leave you grain or new wine or oil, or the increase of your cattle or the offspring of your flocks, until they have destroyed you.
52 “They shall besiege you at all your gates until your high and fortified walls, in which you trust, come down throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you at all your gates throughout all your land which the LORD your God has given you. 53 You shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and your daughters whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you. 54 The sensitive and very refined man among you will be hostile toward his brother, toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the rest of his children whom he leaves behind, 55 so that he will not give any of them the flesh of his children whom he will eat, because he has nothing left in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates. 56 The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her delicateness and sensitivity, will refuse[a] to the husband of her bosom, and to her son and her daughter, 57 her placenta which comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of everything in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates.
58 “If you do not carefully observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, THE LORD YOUR GOD, 59 then the LORD will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary plagues—great and prolonged plagues—and serious and prolonged sicknesses. 60 Moreover He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you. 61 Also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in this Book of the Law, will the LORD bring upon you until you are destroyed. 62 You shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of heaven in multitude, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God. 63 And it shall be, that just as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good and multiply you, so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you and bring you to nothing; and you shall be plucked from off the land which you go to possess.
64 “Then the LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known—wood and stone. 65 And among those nations you shall find no rest, nor shall the sole of your foot have a resting place; but there the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and anguish of soul. 66 Your life shall hang in doubt before you; you shall fear day and night, and have no assurance of life. 67 In the morning you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were evening!’ And at evening you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were morning!’ because of the fear which terrifies your heart, and because of the sight which your eyes see.
68 “And the LORD will take you back to Egypt in ships, by the way of which I said to you, ‘You shall never see it again.’ And there you shall be offered for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.
Please note that the verses containing the curses are 4 times longer than the blessings. It seems to me that compliance is more beneficial by far.
Now I know that many will tell me that Jesus has delivered us from the curse and they would be right but there's a problem in taking that line alone. There is still the matter of compliance. God doesn't change, He's always demands compliance and the only thing that has changed is the means to compliance. Under the old covenant it was entirely up to the individual to obey and when they sinned they had to take a bull or a goat or if they were very poor, a dove, and take it to the priest and he would sacrifice it and the blood of that animal would be a covering for their sin.
Under the new covenant we have Jesus making His dwelling place within us by the Holy Spirit and literally giving us the power for compliance. So why are we still not experiencing the benefits of the covenant? Let's face it, Christians are not experiencing the lesser benefits of the old covenant much less the better ones of the new covenant.
Not only were the blessings of the old covenant incentive for obedience but the penalty for sin could be a pretty strong incentive as well and therein lies some of the differences between the old and new covenants. Under the old if you committed adultery you could and in most cases were put to death by stoning. Under the new a person who committs adultery can find forgiveness if they are truly repentant because Jesus shed His blood in order that we would not have to shed ours. However many if not most of todays christians think only of the forgiveness aspect and not of the results of the sin because there is still a price to pay and it will indeed come in many forms because God does not wink at sin and Jesus didn't come and die on the cross so that we could freely sin but rather that we could be set free from the very power of sin over our lives. He said "to them that believed on His Name gave He power to become the sons of God". There's only one way to become a son of God and that is through obedience. I have said this many times that obedience is not an option but a commandment but is also a command that He Himself will fulfill in you if your lifes goal and concentration is on seeking relationship with Him above all else. Jesus told a story (parable) about a man who discovered in a field a great pearl of high value, keeping it a secret he went and sold every possession that he had and bought the field with the proceeds. This was told to illustrate the value of turning to Jesus, not a half hearted "well I believe He was the Son of God" but a hearty pursuit to the degree that you are willing to sacrifice everything that you have to obtain this one gift that is greater than anything the world has to offer and that never stops giving. Might I mention that one of the priceless benefits is Peace, peace beyond anything you can imagine. I know people who have every earthly possession and have total free will because they can decide exactly what they are going to do on any given day but have no peace. There's just some things that money cannot buy.
So the question remains; is sickness, disease, accidents, loss of jobs, homes and other unfortunate losses among christians the result of sin and disobedience?
I am not really trying to answer the question for anyone but rather to draw you to the scripture to decide for yourself. The idea that it is not the problem does not go back very far. There is a book titled "The Light and the Glory" written about the early days of the colonists and all the facts written there were taken from the libraries of Yale and other prestigous universities. Whenever there was severe storms that threatened the lives of the colonists or sickness or death other than death from natural causes such as advanced age, the pastors called the people to prayer and fasting and demanded repentance for whatever sin may have been among them and always the result was that the problem vanished.
Scripture also links sin and sicknessJames 5:13-16 13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Confess your trespasses[e] to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. 1 Corinthians 11:27-30 27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood[d] of the Lord. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner[e] eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. 30 For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.
Many tend to think that this has to do with thinking about Jesus physical body in the grave or coming out of the grave or in some other manner but in reality in has to do with His Body the Church. Any show of disrespect of the true followers of Jesus is a direct show of disrespect to God and Christ and will receive the same punishment.
In closing I want to point out that God never punishes us because He wants to hurt us but rather that He wants to encourage our obendience so that He can bless us. This shouldn't be hard to understand, any good parent would rather give love and gifts to their children than spank them but they know that if they do not correct their bad behavour when they are young that someone else in their lifetime will have to and it may be the courts. What joy it brings to a parents heart when their child in obedient and loving, it is so much fun to give them the desires of their heart and watch their delight in receiving. Such is OUR GOD only more so than you can conceive in your heart.
Be blessed and be a blessing.
John Martin
email justjohn@eoni.com
Romans 14
The Law of Liberty
1 Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. 2 For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. 3 Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him. 4 Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.
5 One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord;[a] and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks. 7 For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ died and rose[b] and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living. 10 But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. The key verse above is "let each be fully convinced in his own mind". The important thing is to know what you believe and why you believe it and what is the source of your belief. I think most Christian's believe whatever they are told in church or it may be that they have a very verbal and highly opinionated friend and that is their source. How many can read the bible and get anything out of it? Understanding scripture is a gift from God, not something bestowed in a seminary and it is given to those who diligently seek Him. So, my goal is to encourage pursuit of truth in order that you may receive and enjoy all that God has in store for you and that you may be able to share it with others.
A covenant is an binding agreement between two or more parties that grants certain rights and benefits to those parties who agree to it. It is usually the more prominent or powerful of the two parties that extends the offer of covenant and because of this factor can also determine the outcome depending on the responses of the parties involved including revising the terms if need be to make it more workable. Now I will ask a question; does it not stand to reason that if the extending party says to the the beneficiary, "this covenant is not working particularly well so I going to give you a better one" that the terms of the new one would not only contain all the good parts of the old covenant but have additional features that were actually better than the old?
This is the question that has been in my mind for some time now and I believe it is time to address the subject because in my 34 years as a Christian I have not heard a single person do so. I would first ask this question of the teachers and pastors; since the whole of the Christian faith rests on the doctrines of the Holy Scriptures why are you afraid to teach them fully and in truth?
The Bible is divided into two parts, the first being called the Old Testament (testament means covenant or agreement) and the second part is called the New Testament or New Covenant. The first mention of Covenant is in Genesis 6:18 where God makes a covenant with Noah, telling him that if he will build an ark that He will save him and his family when the flood comes upon the earth. This first covenant establishes a pattern that never changes because it is God and God never changes. The pattern is that in order to receive the benefits of the covenant the beneficiary must keep all the requirements (this is known as OBEDIENCE). Now every requirement of God mentioned in the old testament can be considered part of the Old Covenant. Theologians might try to take it all apart and say well this part or that part doesn't apply but God made covenants with Noah, Abraham and the Israelite People but they were all in the lineage of Noah. Suffice it to say that any requirement of God found in the Old Testament books was part of the old covenant and was replaced by a new and better covenant.
HEBREWS 8:6-13 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.
7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. 8 Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 9 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 11 None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds[b] I will remember no more.”[c]
13 In that He says, “A new covenant, ” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
Please note that verse 6 states that Jesus is Mediator of a better covenant established on better promises than those of the old covenant. And this is the crux of my concern. If today's People of God have a better covenant than the old testament People of God then why are they worse off than the people of old? Let's examine some of the benefits of the old covenant and see if today's Christian is enjoying this kind of life.
Deuteronomy 28 (New King James Version)
Deuteronomy 28
Blessings on Obedience
1 “Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God:
3 “Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.
4 “Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
5 “Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
6 “Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
7 “The LORD will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.
8 “The LORD will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you.
9 “The LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways. 10 Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they shall be afraid of you. 11 And the LORD will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you. 12 The LORD will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. 13 And the LORD will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them.
Exodus 15:26 (New King James Version)
26 and said, “If you diligently heed the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you.”
Deuteronomy 7:15 (New King James Version)
15 And the LORD will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you.
The above benefits are all part of what was considered an inferior covenant and yet I don't know of a single person today who wouldn't like to enjoy the promised benefits listed. In brief they are:
Freedom from all sickness and disease. Protection from all enemies. All your children born healthy and free from any defects whatsoever. Plant something in the ground and it will always produce a perfect crop and you don't have to worry about early or late frosts that could kill it. If you have animals they will be healthy and their offspring will be healthy and many times your cow may have twins instead of just one. If your sow has 15 piglets not a one will die but all will survive and mature to go on to reproduce themselves. Your horse will not go lame and have to be put down and you won't be bothered by flies and mosquitoes. You will never have to go to the bank and borrow in order to obtain what you need, instead you will have so much that you can lend to your neighbors. Wives, good news for you too, If you are making bread it will always turn out perfectly delicious and beautiful to behold (blessed shall be your basket and kneading bowl). If a jealous neighbor wants to take some of your abundance away from you and goes out and gets a bunch of his friends together and comes and storms your property he will be forced to flee from you seven different directions in utter confusion and you and yours will not suffer so much as a scrape or bruise. You decide to start a business, success is guaranteed.
Men you could rejoice because the wife could never claim to have a headache nor could she claim to be too tired because she spent her whole day trying to keep the children out of trouble or from hurting themselves because they just didn't get hurt and what is more she had two or three nurses to care for them.
The people of God were looked up to, not down on.
Now do you see any of this today under the so called New and Improved Covenant?
If you can answer yes please let me know and provide proof and I will retract every word. Instead I see Christians everywhere loosing their homes, jobs and their health in alarming numbers but I do not hear anyone addressing the issue and telling them why it is happening. For the answer we must always refer to scripture because any other answer is false. God is not man, therefore cannot lie. His Word is true and has stood the test of time and will not change because God does not change.
There is but one reason that the promises of the covenant are not experienced and that is the lack of compliance on the part of the beneficiary. The beneficiary has two options, Obedience or Disobedience and since they are exact opposites so are the results and here are the scriptures to verify what I am saying.
Deuteronomy 28:15-68 (New King James Version)
Curses on Disobedience
15 “But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
16 “Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country.
17 “Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
18 “Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
19 “Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.
20 “The LORD will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me. 21 The LORD will make the plague cling to you until He has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess. 22 The LORD will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with severe burning fever, with the sword, with scorching, and with mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish. 23 And your heavens which are over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you shall be iron. 24 The LORD will change the rain of your land to powder and dust; from the heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.
25 “The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them; and you shall become troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 Your carcasses shall be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and no one shall frighten them away. 27 The LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, with the scab, and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed. 28 The LORD will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart. 29 And you shall grope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in darkness; you shall not prosper in your ways; you shall be only oppressed and plundered continually, and no one shall save you.
30 “You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall lie with her; you shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it; you shall plant a vineyard, but shall not gather its grapes. 31 Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it; your donkey shall be violently taken away from before you, and shall not be restored to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have no one to rescue them. 32 Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, and your eyes shall look and fail with longing for them all day long; and there shall be no strength in your hand. 33 A nation whom you have not known shall eat the fruit of your land and the produce of your labor, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually. 34 So you shall be driven mad because of the sight which your eyes see. 35 The LORD will strike you in the knees and on the legs with severe boils which cannot be healed, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.
36 “The LORD will bring you and the king whom you set over you to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods—wood and stone. 37 And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations where the LORD will drive you.
38 “You shall carry much seed out to the field but gather little in, for the locust shall consume it. 39 You shall plant vineyards and tend them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them. 40 You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil; for your olives shall drop off. 41 You shall beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for they shall go into captivity. 42 Locusts shall consume all your trees and the produce of your land.
43 “The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. 44 He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.
45 “Moreover all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. 46 And they shall be upon you for a sign and a wonder, and on your descendants forever.
47 “Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything, 48 therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you. 49 The LORD will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand, 50 a nation of fierce countenance, which does not respect the elderly nor show favor to the young. 51 And they shall eat the increase of your livestock and the produce of your land, until you are destroyed; they shall not leave you grain or new wine or oil, or the increase of your cattle or the offspring of your flocks, until they have destroyed you.
52 “They shall besiege you at all your gates until your high and fortified walls, in which you trust, come down throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you at all your gates throughout all your land which the LORD your God has given you. 53 You shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and your daughters whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you. 54 The sensitive and very refined man among you will be hostile toward his brother, toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the rest of his children whom he leaves behind, 55 so that he will not give any of them the flesh of his children whom he will eat, because he has nothing left in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates. 56 The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her delicateness and sensitivity, will refuse[a] to the husband of her bosom, and to her son and her daughter, 57 her placenta which comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of everything in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates.
58 “If you do not carefully observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, THE LORD YOUR GOD, 59 then the LORD will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary plagues—great and prolonged plagues—and serious and prolonged sicknesses. 60 Moreover He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you. 61 Also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in this Book of the Law, will the LORD bring upon you until you are destroyed. 62 You shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of heaven in multitude, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God. 63 And it shall be, that just as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good and multiply you, so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you and bring you to nothing; and you shall be plucked from off the land which you go to possess.
64 “Then the LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known—wood and stone. 65 And among those nations you shall find no rest, nor shall the sole of your foot have a resting place; but there the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and anguish of soul. 66 Your life shall hang in doubt before you; you shall fear day and night, and have no assurance of life. 67 In the morning you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were evening!’ And at evening you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were morning!’ because of the fear which terrifies your heart, and because of the sight which your eyes see.
68 “And the LORD will take you back to Egypt in ships, by the way of which I said to you, ‘You shall never see it again.’ And there you shall be offered for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.
Please note that the verses containing the curses are 4 times longer than the blessings. It seems to me that compliance is more beneficial by far.
Now I know that many will tell me that Jesus has delivered us from the curse and they would be right but there's a problem in taking that line alone. There is still the matter of compliance. God doesn't change, He's always demands compliance and the only thing that has changed is the means to compliance. Under the old covenant it was entirely up to the individual to obey and when they sinned they had to take a bull or a goat or if they were very poor, a dove, and take it to the priest and he would sacrifice it and the blood of that animal would be a covering for their sin.
Under the new covenant we have Jesus making His dwelling place within us by the Holy Spirit and literally giving us the power for compliance. So why are we still not experiencing the benefits of the covenant? Let's face it, Christians are not experiencing the lesser benefits of the old covenant much less the better ones of the new covenant.
Not only were the blessings of the old covenant incentive for obedience but the penalty for sin could be a pretty strong incentive as well and therein lies some of the differences between the old and new covenants. Under the old if you committed adultery you could and in most cases were put to death by stoning. Under the new a person who committs adultery can find forgiveness if they are truly repentant because Jesus shed His blood in order that we would not have to shed ours. However many if not most of todays christians think only of the forgiveness aspect and not of the results of the sin because there is still a price to pay and it will indeed come in many forms because God does not wink at sin and Jesus didn't come and die on the cross so that we could freely sin but rather that we could be set free from the very power of sin over our lives. He said "to them that believed on His Name gave He power to become the sons of God". There's only one way to become a son of God and that is through obedience. I have said this many times that obedience is not an option but a commandment but is also a command that He Himself will fulfill in you if your lifes goal and concentration is on seeking relationship with Him above all else. Jesus told a story (parable) about a man who discovered in a field a great pearl of high value, keeping it a secret he went and sold every possession that he had and bought the field with the proceeds. This was told to illustrate the value of turning to Jesus, not a half hearted "well I believe He was the Son of God" but a hearty pursuit to the degree that you are willing to sacrifice everything that you have to obtain this one gift that is greater than anything the world has to offer and that never stops giving. Might I mention that one of the priceless benefits is Peace, peace beyond anything you can imagine. I know people who have every earthly possession and have total free will because they can decide exactly what they are going to do on any given day but have no peace. There's just some things that money cannot buy.
So the question remains; is sickness, disease, accidents, loss of jobs, homes and other unfortunate losses among christians the result of sin and disobedience?
I am not really trying to answer the question for anyone but rather to draw you to the scripture to decide for yourself. The idea that it is not the problem does not go back very far. There is a book titled "The Light and the Glory" written about the early days of the colonists and all the facts written there were taken from the libraries of Yale and other prestigous universities. Whenever there was severe storms that threatened the lives of the colonists or sickness or death other than death from natural causes such as advanced age, the pastors called the people to prayer and fasting and demanded repentance for whatever sin may have been among them and always the result was that the problem vanished.
Scripture also links sin and sicknessJames 5:13-16 13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Confess your trespasses[e] to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. 1 Corinthians 11:27-30 27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood[d] of the Lord. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner[e] eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. 30 For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.
Many tend to think that this has to do with thinking about Jesus physical body in the grave or coming out of the grave or in some other manner but in reality in has to do with His Body the Church. Any show of disrespect of the true followers of Jesus is a direct show of disrespect to God and Christ and will receive the same punishment.
In closing I want to point out that God never punishes us because He wants to hurt us but rather that He wants to encourage our obendience so that He can bless us. This shouldn't be hard to understand, any good parent would rather give love and gifts to their children than spank them but they know that if they do not correct their bad behavour when they are young that someone else in their lifetime will have to and it may be the courts. What joy it brings to a parents heart when their child in obedient and loving, it is so much fun to give them the desires of their heart and watch their delight in receiving. Such is OUR GOD only more so than you can conceive in your heart.
Be blessed and be a blessing.
John Martin
email justjohn@eoni.com
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