Love in Covenant Terms
Is not God’s love for the unbeliever (like John 3:16, Ps. 36:5-6) a love for one who has broken covenant?
Hosea 6:7, “But like Adam they have transgressed the covenant…”
If all the sons of Adam, as C.S. Lewis brilliantly described the boys in Narnia (Man in Hebrew is Adam), have likewise broken covenant, this implies 2 things, 1. That God made covenant with man BEFORE the Fall, and 2. All of us, BEFORE we became believers, were covenant-breakers.
If so, this brings New Testament understanding to the Hebrew word for love, “Hassed”; denoting a steadfast, covenantal faithfulness.
If this love is for unbelievers, it means much. It means that God doesn’t have different types of love, one limited type of love toward unbelievers and one vastly different love toward believers. He has one love, the Love that He Himself is, a covenant-keeping love. This changes the way I think God deals with man, He deals with us on the basis of covenant, before and after we fell.
What are the parameters and elements of covenant? These I will explore in the future. For now, let’s think about God’s love for the unbeliever as possibly being a love for one who has BROKEN COVENANT..
(Please comment and tell me what you think)
Truman
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UPDATE: Deadline to enroll extended to May 15th! Get on board!
If you are 18 or younger, live in the States, and want to go against the tide and do a little, hard thing this summer, I think you should enroll in the National Bible Bee.
I found out about this through the blog (via my RSS feed I have set up in Mail) of Alex and Brett Harris (the younger twin brothers of Joshua Harris, the “I Kissed Dating Goodbye” guy). They lead a movement called “The Rebelution”. If you haven’t heard of it, I highly recommend it; it’s the Word of the Lord for my generation. In a sentence, it’s “a teenage rebellion against the low expectations of an ungodly culture.” And calling us to “do hard things” (also the name of a book they wrote), not just coast along with our culture, but actually LIVE the gospel for display of the glory of Christ in the earth before His return.
Ok, back to this. The first-of-its-kind, a world-class Bible Bee Competition. It is very similar to a spelling bee, except contestants are required to recite Bible passages and facts rather than spell words. The competition will begin with Local Contests in communities nationwide on September 12, 2009. The top 100 finalists from each age group will advance to the National Contest in Washington, D.C. to compete on November 5-6, 2009. Not only that, the National Contest awards (if you win in DC) are crazy. For age 15-18, the grand prize is $100,000 (yes). For age 11-14 it’s $50,000, and age 7-10 is $25,000 along with 2nd and 3rd place prizes for each age group. Check it out the awards here.
It’s twenty bucks to enroll (but less if siblings sign up together) and you sign up with your parents online. The DEADLINE to enroll is now May 15th. Check out the details of the Bible Bee on the website. It’s sweet! You have to be 7-18 years old and I just qualify by a couple months.
As youth, this would be a great opportunity to go deep and hide the Word in our hearts by memorizing it and we would have fun together! From April 30th to Sept. 12th, you have over 4 months to study and memorize with their provided study guide (includes all content that we will be judged on) that you can download and print on May 1st (day after enrollment deadline).
Let’s be those who wield the sword of the Spirit! In a day when culture entices us to fill our minds with trivial “stuff”, I want to be a tree planted in the house of the Lord who meditates day and night. Honestly, I find myself constantly “resigning up” for reading the Word, but I think this is a gift of God to have me commit to something that will hold me to the Word. If the Lord stirs your heart like He’s stirred mine, I would go for it! It would be so much fun if we all did it in our communities and youth groups and held each other to the Word in memorizing/studying it. Let’s SPREAD THE WORD and get whole youth groups doing this!
Also, one last thing, the more you read the Word, the more you talk about it (it’s really true- Mt. 12:33-36, what goes in must come out), and if youth groups and friends did this together, I think it could be said of us like John Wesley said of the congregation in Herrnhut, they were those “whose conversation is in Heaven” (i.e. So filled with the Words of truth and life and edification that we are little concerned with the passing fads of the world that hold no substance like the latest movie or latest restaurant, but instead our mind and our hope and our joy are set fully “on things above”, on Christ- 1 Pet. 1:13, Col. 3:1-3) and if this be so, I believe it will set the water level for youth groups in this nation and in schools and on soccer fields, causing us live out this passage: “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture…” (1 Tim. 4:12-13) I want us to be so filled with the Word that we’re contagious weirdos and bold witnesses of Jesus to those who don’t know Him.
-Truman
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Babies Teach Much
I got to watch my nephew, Joshua Kim, tonight. He was having a hard time going to bed (There is something so stirring about hearing a baby’s cry when he can’t fall asleep). At the instruction of my sister, I gave him a bottle and laid him down; no relief. I then gave him the remainder of the bottle. I turned off his noise-maker and just sat in silence with him as I laid him in his crib. This wasn’t the first time I had done this, so I decided to go with my secret weapon: patting his bottom. He quieted down as the noise-maker stopped static-ing and I stopped talking; it was just… presence. His eyes were fully awake, but he was calm and he even held my finger for a bit. I stayed there with him for a good ten minutes, amazed to see how not unlike him I am. In fact, the same cry of Joshua resides in my own heart. I felt the words quietly slip off my tongue, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Heb. 13:5). Perhaps all Joshua wanted was somebody there to just be with him. To be truly alone is dreadful indeed. After patting him for a good while, I slowly got up and sat in the rocking chair next to the crib. I wasn’t going to leave him.
Perhaps, amid all that jumble and muddle of noise we surround ourselves with is a whimpering cry for the Lord’s presence and acceptance that would hold us and never leave us. You are a gaping thirst for God. You need, therefore you seek. All I can say right now is just the invitation the Lord is extending to me, “Let me be with you”. That is really how he feels about us in our crying and whimpering. What I felt with Joshua is but a glimpse of what my Father in heaven feels towards me. Amid all the noise of things we have to do and people we should minister to, could we stop and just be with the One who loves us and accepts us regardless of what we do? I often find myself unable to minister to others when I have not first been with God as a son and a friend. To let that cry for acceptance (presence) come out is vulnerable indeed, but God loves the true you, not what you do. Maybe the story of a child will give you enough boldness to come as one and to cry as one.
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Creator-Ruler
The identity of God as Creator cannot be understood apart from His Governorship. And His Governorship cannot be understood apart from His identity as Creator. Therefore, they cry day and night, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power (as Governor),
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created (creation implying ownership implying right to rule).” (Rev. 4:11)
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I am stirred by 2 things, David Pawson visiting IHOP and speaking on God’s role for Israel in the New Testament (tonight was about Revelation) and John Piper’s message to pastors from the 2001 Shepherd’s Conference. (Outstanding! Matt Candler recommended it to me; you can hear it here)
We know that persecution awaits us (“Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” Timothy 3:12, “we have been destined for this” 1 Thessalonians 3:3) just as the Spirit warned Paul what awaited him (Acts 20:23, see Acts 9:16). Paul’s encouragement to the churches he revisited was this: “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” (Acts 14:22) Does this sound like the “prosperity gospel” we hear today? That a good business and an easy life awaits you? No, persecutions await you. And the only explanation for your life, as you fill up what is lacking in the display to the globe of Christ’s afflictions (Col. 1:24), will be the explanation that you WILL rise from the dead on that day.
The Book of Revelation (along with Hebrews, I think you could say) is a “Manual for Martyrdom”. Throughout chapter 2-3, we see promises given “to him who overcomes/are victorious…” God wants a victorious church in the End-Times.
What does a victorious church in the End-Times look like? I want to give you a brief glimpse. Take these two seemingly contradictory passages right next to each other,
1. “…they (the brethren/the saints/you and me) overcame him (Satan) because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.” (Rev. 12:11)
2. “It was also given to him (the Antichrist) to make war with the saints and to overcome them…” (Rev. 13:7)
I believe one is from heaven’s perspective, the other is from earth’s perspective. What looks like the greatest defeat for us will be our greatest victory. Many think the End-Times is something to dread. I beg to differ. It is something to be have the fear of God over for sure, but also it is ultimately the greatest thing to rejoice in. Why? Why are we singing “Hallelujah!” while Babylon is getting judged and drinks the wine of the wrath of God in full strength (Rev. 19:1-6)? Punishment is to be rejoiced over since it is the means by which the restoration of all things is accomplished. We love God’s judgment because it is the living proof that God is committed to bringing the world back to rights. That’s what the End-Times is about. Our witness (The word of our testimony about Jesus) is about this; that the God who created all things good and perfect will bring all things back into original good and perfection. But then how is that supposed to encourage us in the face of death? How are we supposed to use this gospel/word of our testimony and overcome Satan with it?
One more passage:
Revelation 7- Why are the ones who die, one by one “coming out of the great tribulation” (7:14, implying they have gone through it) shouting, “Salvation to (comes from) our God who sits on the throne and to (from) the Lamb!” (7:10, quoting Ps. 3:8 as well as Prov. 29:26)? Imagine us being those martyrs. Guess what? Death is not the end. Like I just asked before, how is the gospel of restored perfection supposed to encourage us in the face of death? I think it’s the very message of the gospel: Original perfection is that we were never intended to die, therefore, the gospel strengthens us by putting our hope not in temporary relief from pain and sickness, not in the comfort of a good life of long age and being able to see your grandchildren, but in A MAN who holds the keys of death and Hades (Rev. 1:17-18), who is the firstborn from the dead (Rev. 1:5, implying we, as His brethren, shall be raised after Him), “who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself” (Phil. 3:21). Therefore I say to you, Church in the 21st Century, in THIS WAY, in THIS GOOD NEWS, stand firm in the Lord! (Phil. 4:1) It is to live in such a way so that the only explanation for your life is that you will rise from the dead. That would be a life that is incarnate testimony. A life that says, “HE IS GOING TO RESTORE ALL THINGS AND WILL SUBJECT ALL THINGS TO HIMSELF. HE IS GOING TO RESTORE MY VERY BODY. SALVATION COMES FROM OUR GOD AND FROM THE LAMB!” I didn’t even hit on the “blood of the Lamb” or “did not love their life even when faced with death” yet… hopefully more to come. To help walk this out, go meditate on Psalm 49.
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Prayer
I think we may at times take prayer for granted. But I dare to wonder if there is any greater honor or privilege in all the earth than to talk with God. God made us for partnership with Himself, and God never intended for us to have partnership with Him apart from conversation with Him. Can you imagine a husband and wife never talking with one another? How should we expect to be forerunners and do the same?
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Here is a quick excerpt from a news report on this tragic and scandalous event.
Dr. Pierre Jean-Jacque Renelique gave Sycloria Williams laminaria, a drug that dilates the cervix, and prescribed three other medications…
Williams went into labor and delivered the baby.
“She came face to face with a human being,” Pennekamp (Williams’ attorney) said. “And that changed everything.”
The complaint says one of the clinic owners, Belkis Gonzalez came in and cut the umbilical cord with scissors, then placed the baby in a plastic bag, and the bag in a trash can. Williams’ lawsuit offers a cruder account: She says Gonzalez knocked the baby off the recliner chair where she had given birth, onto the floor. The baby’s umbilical cord was not clamped, allowing her to bleed out. Gonzalez scooped the baby, placenta and afterbirth into a red plastic biohazard bag and threw it out.
At 23 weeks, an otherwise healthy fetus would have a slim but legitimate chance of survival. Quadruplets born at 23 weeks last year at The Nebraska Medical Center survived.
Lord, expose the dark work of abortion in this nation for what it really is.
update: Comment from a pro-life blogger Christina Dunigan, whose blog is wonderfully called, “RealChoice”:
Something to keep in mind amidst all the outrage: Things like this are literally an everyday occurrence. The strange and shocking aspect is merely that it’s being reported, talked about, and perhaps might even lead to prosecution.
Thank you very much, Christina. I encourage everyone to go to her blog and read her post about the event (It’s linked in her comment) and then watch the video she has posted there. It is powerful and very sobering. The last baby she mentions in the video, a baby named Rowan, is the same true story that inspired Angel Soto to produce the movie, “22 Weeks”.
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Today, according to foxnews,
“the Obama administration issued a reversal of a ban on federal funding for non-governmental organizations working outside the U.S. that offer abortions or abortion counseling.
Obama signed the executive order on the 36th anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling (Jan. 22, 1973) that legalized abortion in all 50 states.”
And I want to also share a brief comment from a random American on foxnews.com:
“The most important aspect of a woman’s right is to determine her own reproductive health. What’s the point of life, liberty and the other things if you have to buckle under someone else’s rule?” said Anne Hale Johnson, 85, who gave $5,000 to Planned Parenthood last year.
This statement strikes me as profound because it so shamelessly declares the pride of the human heart. Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about submitting to authority and I think it all goes back to Genesis 1-3 when God made man. Is man going to trust the God who gave him the choice and the consequences? What’s the point of life, liberty and other things? That sounds like the crisis of a teenage generation. Well, let’s go back to Genesis 1 for a glance on why God gave us life, liberty, and other things… Genesis 1:26-28
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Isn’t it odd that as Genesis 1 describes the purpose of man to procreate (be fruitful and multiply), abortion seeks to undermine those very intentions in the heart of God for why He gave us life in the first place? Now, is it a woman’s right to determine her own reproductive health? According to Genesis 1, from the very beginning God sets Himself apart as the regulator for humanity’s reproductive health. How offensive is that! But how awesome it is to meditate on. Pause for a minute and consider your history and your first parents. God form and fashions Man from the dust and in the dawn of history, the first voice that will ever breathe in the pristine ear of Man echoes softly, “Be fruitful”. These words are rich with meaning precisely because they issue from the very heart of the One who is meaning Himself. Put right in at the culmination of creation, all of God’s intentions reach their fulfillment in this little clay vessel lying helplessly on the ground. From the start, God issues the decree of what Man will be: A creature that gives life not takes it. A creature that bears fruit. Humanity is not to be sterile and and stagnant, but brimming with life and that is a life that finds it’s blessing and fulfillment in others, not in itself. This is what blessed humanity looks like.
Yet what a departure there is today from these things as God so passionately intended. For now He looks over the earth and grieves over the image-bearers who are now bent inward upon themselves, who now can not live in a state of trust but must assert with independent zeal, “My body, My rights!” The blessing he so intended was turned into a curse. The life He rejoiced over as He formed it together in the womb was snuffed out by a vigorous abortion procedure justified by an arbitrary concept of what viability is. To look for life, liberty, and happiness apart from God is to only result in the opposite: death, bondage, and sadness.
To close, I want to share a passage from Jeremiah 2,
And you, O generation, behold the word of the Lord.
Have I been a wilderness to Israel, or a land of thick darkness?
Why then do my people say, ‘We are free, we will come no more to You’?
Also on your skirts is found the lifeblood of the guiltless poor…
Yet in spite of all these things you say,‘I am innocent; surely his anger has turned from me.’
Behold, I will bring you to judgment for saying, ‘I have not sinned.’
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(A little long, but good…)
I was sitting in the prayer room during our Thursday 10am intercession time for Israel. I didn’t have any prayer on my heart for Israel. Honestly, it felt out of place for me to pray for Israel. Yet, I happened to be reading Jeremiah 31 and I kept reading into Jeremiah 33 and the Lord dropped a little insight into my heart that gave me confidence in prayer. I want to share it with you here.
That classic verse we all read on cards, Jeremiah 33:3, “Call to Me and I will answer you , and I will tell you great and mighty things which you do not know” is actually part of a great dialogue between the Lord and Jeremiah and is meant to be read in the context of chapter 32.
Jeremiah is locked up in prison for prophesying imminent judgment upon Jerusalem and King Zedekiah. Though the city is under siege and the real estate market is looking grim, the Lord tells Jeremiah to buy his uncle’s field. He signs and seals the deed, calls in witnesses and weighs out the seventeen shekels of silver. Jeremiah gives the deed of purchase to Baruch, in the sight of witnesses (I want to learn more about this process, 2 deeds, because I think it has some interesting paralell to Rev. 5 if the scrool is indeed, as Mike Bickle says, the “title deed to the earth”) and commands Baruch in their presence, saying, “Thus says the LORD of hosts the God of Israel, ‘Take these deeds, this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware jar, that they may last a long time.’ “For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Houses and fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land.’ “ (32:14-15). This whole scenario was a prophetic picture of God’s promise to restore the land of Israel again. He has not forgotten the sealed deed.
The very next thing that happens is quite odd. After giving the deed of purchase to Baruch, Jeremiah prays to the Lord (32:16). It is a prayer of confusion. He proclaims and confesses that he knows nothing is too difficult for God, but there is a doubt in his mind, a reluctance. Does Jeremiah remember that he was called not just to prophesy judgment but also “to build and to plant” (1:10)? In light of Israel’s great disobedience and the looming Babylonian army, Jeremiah shares his confused heart with God, “Ah Lord GOD! Nothing is too difficult for You… Behold, the siege ramps have reached the city to take it; and the city is given… You have said to me, O Lord GOD, ‘Buy for yourself the field with money and call in witnesses’- although the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans (that is, Babylonians).” (32:17-25) Jeremiah doesn’t understand what he just prophesied in vs. 15. God responds according to very truths Jeremiah claimed to know, “Behold I am the LORD, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?” (32:26-27) In my words, “Yes, I will give the city into the hand of the Chaldeans, and it is true what you are saying, Jeremiah, they have acted wickedly, but I’m not finished yet. Do you remember what I just told you in 31:35-37? No matter what Israel has done, I will never cast them off just as the witness in the sky is faithful. Behold, I will gather them back (32:36-37). And Jeremiah, “JUST AS I AM BROUGHT ALL THIS GREAT DISASTER ON THIS PEOPLE, SO I AM GOING TO BRING ON THEM ALL THE GOOD THAT I AM PROMISING THEM. Fields WILL be bought in this land… for I will restore their fortunes.” (32:42-44).
The Lord is talking to Jeremiah about Israel’s future restoration, but Jeremiah obviously does not understand yet. So, God comes a “second time, while he was still confined” in prison (33:1). “Thus says the LORD who made the earth, the LORD who formed it to establish it, the LORD is His name, ‘Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’ ” (33:2-3)
And here is the mystery of the ages, God invites Jeremiah nearer. The invitation is to “stand in the counsel of the Lord” (23:18). It is to know the secrets on His heart. He shares His secrets with His friends (Ps. 25:14). “He is intimate with the upright.” (Prov. 3:32) “Call to Me”. “Come, and I will tell you what you can’t understand right now. Let me tell you. Let me hear your confusion, come to Me in the frustration of not understanding your Bible. Just ask Me. Seek Me. Come to Me in the Word.” As I read this, it felt like the rules had changed. Jer. 23:18, “For who has stood in th
e counsel of the LORD?” became an invitation not an indictment against me.
“Call to Me.” This is what it means to stand in the counsel of the Lord, simply seeking and asking.
After I felt this verse strike me, I got up on the mic and prayed for the Lord to give us more insight into the whole purpose of God concerning Israel (praying from Col. 1:9 and Jer. 33:3). We are confused about the future of Israel just as Jeremiah was confused about it. But this doesn’t have to be so. We can know great and mighty things. We can be those who “stand in the counsel of the Lord”, who hear, give heed, mark, and understand His word (Jer. 23:18-19). How so? How can we be like Jeremiah and know the Lord’s heart like this? He gives the invitation right here: prayer. Not by anything we do to earn it, we simply ask. It takes a “coming to God through His word”. Jeremiah cultivated a sensitive heart to the Lord because he was faithful in the place of prayer and the Word. These 2 ingredients are all that the Lord asks. That we read, mark, and heed His word and that we ask Him to tell us more. That’s it. How simple is the invitation, yet awesomely great. May it be said that we answered it. Amen.
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My Feed- I’m Sitting in Vida Abundante’s prayer room in Morelia, Mexico watching GPR pray for me
- Love in Covenant Terms
- The National Bible Bee- This is sweet! I’m doing it!
- Babies Teach Much
- Creator-Ruler
- Persecution Awaits Us, Salvation Awaits Us
- Prayer
- SHOCK: Baby Born Alive at Abortion Clinic — then Killed…
- The Anniversary and Some Thoughts
- The Great Counsel Invitation (Jer. 33:3)
