ENDLESS COMMITMENT

Time with Jesus - Sunday, 09 December 2012

Hi all,

Today’s meditation looks at covenant in general and the marriage covenant in particular. To deal with this topic adequately would take far more space than is available here. So let’s say that this is perhaps the foreword for such a tome. If this excites you as much as it excited us over 30 years ago, we encourage you to begin delving into a covenant relationship instituted by God. Sadly, many Christians today are unfamiliar with this.

Blessings,

Jim & Phyllida Strickland

Matt 10:8 Freely you received, Freely give		Time with Jesus – Sunday, 09 December 2012			Matt 10:8 Freely you received, Freely give
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INTRODUCTION			DAILY LIGHT EVENING SCRIPTURES	ENDLESS COMMITMENT
Phyllida and I have both been divorced. Subsequently we met and married. It’s not something we are proud of. It’s a statement of fact. We believe that at the root of ours and every other divorce is sin; this combined with youthful ignorance. During adolescent years we know what is right and wrong regardless of the opinions of others, God included! So we married and later broke covenant with our former spouse. Marriage was under attack by Satan and his cronies. It still is. God hates divorce and from personal experience, we also hate it. One reason is it makes a mockery of covenant commitment. We grew up knowing the Bible was in two “parts”; the Old and New Testaments, often called the Old and New Covenants. The associated significance was more or less unknown. We knew divorce was wrong, but had no idea why. Our initial years as Christians did nothing to address our ignorance. If we were asked why divorce was wrong we would say naively, “because God said so”! A good reason, but not an explanation. Then as we started to come to grips with Scripture, we began to get a glimpse of what marriage is all about. It’s about covenantal commitment. Like most young people, we looked at the “quaint” words and practices of the typical wedding ceremony. Why did the bride wear white? Why were rings exchanged? Why did the bride take the husband’s surname? What completely confounded us was that after marriage, the bride and groom became “next of kin”. It was a complete mystery. How could two members of unrelated families become next of kin? Why was there a reception? What about the “honeymoon”? Why were the couple supposed to be virgins? What was the importance of the shedding of blood? To answer all these questions is impossible in the available space here. Sufficient to say, that the couple entered into an unbreakable and everlasting blood covenant commitment. This was not just a fancy legal contract between two people. It was much more than that. From that day on the couple were regarded as one. He was Mr Fred Blogs. She was Mrs Fred Blogs. They were required to lay their lives down for each other. Her blood became the blood of their covenant commitment visible to God. In many instances their respective parents demanded to see the evidence of this. The only way out of a covenant was by death. You didn’t quit. Divorce was impossible. This was marriage in God’s eyes and was permanent. So important is this seen by God that when Phyllida and I married, we were told He would regard us as virgins, in spite of us both being parents. We wept when He told us that. That’s probably the greatest reason why we value marriage so highly. We’ve been forgiven and will never willingly break our marriage covenant! Never again! Jim & Phyllida Strickland			5 "Bring My faithful people to Me--those who made a covenant with Me by giving sacrifices." Psalms 50:5 NLT 28 so also Christ died once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for Him. Hebrews 9:28 NLT 15 That is why He is the One who mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are called can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant. Hebrews 9:15 NLT 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. John 17:24 ESV 27 And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. Mark 13:27 ESV 4 Even if you are scattered to the most distant country in the world, the LORD your God will gather you and bring you back from there. Deuteronomy 30:4 GW 16 For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. 17 Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 NLT	Have you made a covenant with God Who reigns on high? Has He reassured you that when it’s time to die, He will draw you to Him? We really need to know. If we are uncertain, then which way will we go? Life is an apprenticeship for us to learn a trade. Not to work for “Brownie Points”, so we can make the grade. That will never happen. Self-effort is a trick, If you try to do it, you’ll founder like a brick When placed into the water. That’s just what God intends. It’s only when you’ve died in Christ, that’s when the Father sends The precious Holy Spirit. He will enable you To do what He has purposed and to His will be true. A covenant is only made when somebody has died. It isn’t all about the way religious folk have tried! You’re saved by cutting covenant. You give your life away. Just like the bride and bridegroom upon their wedding day. No longer are they separate. The two of them are one. Their former independence is finished, dead and gone. Within the bridal chamber, her virgin blood is shed. The marriage consummated, they share the marriage bed, As man and wife together; their singleness behind, They will raise their offspring, the way the Lord designed! They’re called Mr and Mrs and share a common name. Henceforth and for eternity, we see them as the same. Back in the Old Testament, the wife would call him “Lord”. He’d be her protector, defended by his sword! Our covenant with Jesus is very much the same. We give ourselves away to Him and we take on His Name. The blood of the New Covenant by Jesus has been shed. He is now our husband. Our former life is dead. We have no independence and we should call Him “Lord”. But since He’s God almighty, He’s worshiped and adored. We have also promised to honour and obey, Everything that He requires at any time of day. As a “wife” of Jesus, we have no human rights We surrendered all of them. No more are they in sight. We have just one purpose; to serve Him ‘til we die. Nothing’s more important for the likes of you and I. Jim Strickland  Written 9th December 2012