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Saturday, 25 April 2009

4/19/09 John Berglund

Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith... (1 Tim. 1:5)
...having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck (1 Tim. 1:19)
Holding the mystery of the faith wiht a pure conscience... (1 Tim. 3:9)

When considering the matter of the conscience in the believer, we may ask, “Does the conscience change in its operation over our Christian life?” and if we have read of the conscience in the Bible in First Timothy, we may wonder at the difference between holding a “good” conscience and holding a “pure” conscience.

When you look at the matter of the conscience, on one side you have God’s Law (see Romans 7:7-24, where Paul speaks of the struggle between the Law, his desire to do good, and his sinfulness). We must realize that as believers, however, we also have God Himself with His intentions. Those who do not have the Lord Himself only have His Law and/or that which matches that Law within them as creatures created by the One who gave the Law. The conscience corresponds in some way to the Law within all people, and it watches over their actions and demands they do something about the things in their lives that are not according to the Law’s standard.
The word conscience literally means “with knowledge.” Even if others do not know, we know, and we know God knows. That is enough! Therefore the conscience is a tremendous matter, and its importance cannot be overstated. Psychologists recognize that guilt on man’s conscience is one of the basic problems of human existence. Sigmund Freud determined that man’s experience is centered around the interaction between himself (ego), his conscience (super-ego), and his sinful drives (id). The Bible does not agree with his worldly analysis of the origin of these three, but it does agree with the fact that man’s daily struggle is between himself, his sinful nature, and his conscience. Sin cannot be eradicated, and neither can conscience go away, for it is part of our heart. Therefore this battle within man can never be stilled.

Even if it could be argued that a certain matter on someone’s conscience was NOT according to God, the conscience of every individual must be honored, for we take the conscience to be God’s representative. To each one of us it is our guide to what God expects of us. When we go against it, we experience a “fearful looking away to judgment” (Heb. 10:27). (Conscience is adjusted by knowledge as we receive revelation or further understanding of God, but one person’s comparative freedom in some area cannot be imposed upon others or even introduced to them if their consciences are vulnerable. See 1 Corinthians 8; Romans 14 and 1 Cor. 10:23-33. Paul warns that the consequences could be disastrous—1 Cor. 8:11.)
People basically have three choices as to how to deal with the guilt in their conscience brought about by their sinful deeds:

1. Attempting to Deny the Conscience by Denying God

First, there are those who try to convince themselves there is no God (or that if there is a creator, this creator is not personally interested in man). People like this convince themselves conscience is something that came from society and man’s rules. This type of person tries to reason away feelings of guilt. In effect, he denies his conscience and becomes cynical and hardened, for such people have given up their hope of being God’s creation. Eventually their conscience becomes glazed over. They turn away from the conscience and seal it away as in a tomb. (Our conscience never really stops “radiating,” but it can become so deeply buried as to seem inert.) These people believe they have been liberated from guilt and inhibition, when in fact they are more exposed to the damaging effect of sin, which now reigns unrestricted.

2. In Misery Recognizing Its Unremitting Claims

Second, there are those who agree with the accusations of their conscience, but have no way of resolving them. They agree there is a God they are accountable to, and that their conscience is speaking the truth. They acknowledge they are guilty of doing evil things, but feel helpless about doing anything about that fact. Like the person in Romans 7, they know it is proper to always do what is right and good, but realize they cannot fulfill that obligation. Because these people are honest they are most miserable. They may hold onto some vague hope that in some way they might redeem themselves, but they must bear a heavy load until the longed-for opportunity arrives. In a negative sense they are seeking ones, because they long for relief from their constant burden. Since conscience tries to get us to accept responsibility for things in our lives not being as they should, and since no one can afford to accept sin’s penalty, these people will be tempted to seek relief by reasoning away their guilt like those in the first category if they do not discover the Answer.

3. Discovering Release by the Blood of Jesus

Third, there are those who agree with the accusations of their conscience, acknowledging there is a Creator “with whom we all have to do” (Heb. 4:13), and who have finally discovered God’s way of salvation. These people are those who have discovered that Jesus Christ died on the cross for their sins, and have embraced Him and come to know the efficacy of His blood in washing away all the load and stain of their sin (Heb. 9:14; 1 Peter 1:18-19; John 1:29). Their conscience has been cleansed. They can boast of a “good” conscience before God and man.

A Second Category Among Those Who Hold a Good Conscience:
Those Who Hold a Pure Conscience Knowing God’s Purpose

Besides just knowing Christ has died for our sins, we also must come to know what God’s purpose is for having done this. As those created by God, we must discover what God’s intention and will for creating us and saving us is, for we now “doubly” belong to Him (Psalm 100:3; Rev. 5:9)! We should thus be able to testify that we are in what God desires for us, or else our conscience still has a problem. We may be able to testify that Jesus’ blood has cleansed us from our sinful offenses, but can we testify that we are living our lives according to what God wills for us? Can we declare our life is now purely for God and His will? If we can, I believe we are those who can stand before God, the angels, and all mankind as one who holds a “pure” conscience, in spite of whatever weakenesses we might still possess.
Our living should not simply be according to right and wrong. A soldier gets a handbook about everything that is expected of him. He is to behave a certain way towards an officer; he is to wear his uniform a certain way, and so on. When the time comes, however, he must act as a part of the overall move of that military force. Matters must be put in perspective. If he is ordered to shoot his weapon, he cannot refuse because it is not clean enough, or because he forgot to salute his officer earlier. He cannot freeze up due to some remembered breech of protocol. He must take that order as sufficient indication his service is accepted and expected. (This does not mean things are overlooked; it means that we must learn to live according to God’s plan and will, realizing our personal conduct will be dealt with in the process, and that our dealing with our conscience is not an end in itself.)
When we become clear about God’s purpose, our conscience also becomes aware of this higher plane of expectation. Our whole being becomes readjusted, and our conscience comes into a fuller function. It is no longer merely attuned to what is offensive under God’s moral law; it becomes our witness within as to whether we are living according to God’s highest desire for our existence!
To have a cleansed conscience is important. We should apply the blood of Jesus for our offenses so we may maintain a cloudless fellowship with our Father. But we eventually should have the boldness to declare, “I know why I am alive. I am living according to the purpose of my creation. I am fulfilling the obligation of my existence. I am not cheating myself nor am I holding anything back from God. I am standing upon this earth as someone who is wholly for His purpose.” If we can say this, I believe we are those who can confidently say we have a pure conscience, or that our conscience is peaceful in recognizing we are pure. Many may be able to joyfully say, “I am not going to hell. God must accept me into His presence. Jesus has died for my sins. Hallelujah!” They have a cleansed conscience. Praise the Lord for that. But some can say further, “I am living according to the purpose God has me here on earth for.” Until we are marching in God’s army alongside those who likewise have given their lives to live according to His purpose, we know in our conscience that something else is mixed in, indicating our existence is impure. We are still holding something back from the One who has redeemed us by His blood. (In other words, idols are leeching away something that should be God’s.)
When everything is truly “in” and nothing more holds us back from completely following God, our inner witness will grant us boldness to testify there exists nothing in our heart to prevent God from gaining His full satisfaction in us. At that point, we can claim with a pure conscience that we are for God and God alone. Until then, we should keep ourselves under the blood of Christ for whatever we are holding onto besides God, maintaining an honest fellowship with Him until He is able to purge out whatever is frustrating us and we be able to stand purely for Him upon the earth.
Until we can say, “I know what God’s purpose is, and I am standing on this earth for that,” we cannot peacefully say our conscience is pure. We must be able to say, “I am living on this earth for God’s purpose. I am not just here so I can have a good Christian life. I am not just here for my own good or the good of my family. I am not here just so I can be comfortable or gain something for myself. God is doing something, and I am one with what He is doing. My life, my living, and my standard are now according to that.” Such a person can say he has a pure conscience, for his living and standard are according to what he knows to be in God’s heart.
Our conscience is set to the standard that has been revealed or accepted in our hearts as being authoritative from God. If the standard you have for yourself is to live a life that does not offend God, then your conscience will operate according to that standard, and that standard can always be maintained by the blood of Jesus. God will always receive us based on what was accomplished through His death upon the cross. God, however, desires to bring us into the highest existence, which is a life purely lived out in His plan. Unless we can say we live such a life, our conscience will be aware that we still come up short when it comes to the best God has for us.
We have to allow the Lord to be the Lord of our conscience just as He is the Lord of the Sabbath (Matt. 12:8). The Sabbath was created for a purpose which He had the right to define more clearly. It should be the same with our conscience. The Lord has the right to be the Lord of our conscience. There will be times when He may say, “Stop being so concerned about this or that. You have My blood! Go forward. Do not allow Satan to divert or hinder you by accusation and guilt. Come forward by My blood until you arrive at the altar of incense where you can operate with Me for My purpose.” [Heb.4:9-16. The goal of our coming into the Holy of Holies by the blood of Jesus is that we might co-operate with Christ at the incense altar, not merely abide in the Holy of Holies.]

The Conscience that Ushers Us to the Gospel Must Ultimately Become the Conscience that Ushers Us into God’s Purpose

This present geneation has been lied to more than any before it, which means it is the most confident and comfortable in its function apart from God. God has never been felt to be less necessary, and conscience has never been more easily cast off. More than ever, young people have been “educated” by what is declared “scientific” or “progressive” or “outmoded”. As Satan’s lies grow in number and sophistication, the role of the conscience becomes more easily quashed.
Touching people’s conscience thus seems to grow more difficult with each passing generation. Those whose consciences have remained sensitive need to know that the blood of Jesus can cleanse them from every sin (Rom. 11:32; 1 John 1:9). Eventually, however, we need to find out from God what His purpose on the earth is, and give ourselves to it. That should become the standard of our living, rather than simply what is right or wrong. We should be able to tell the Lord, “You got me here, and I now realize Your purpose is why You created me. That purpose has become my standard for my existence. One day, if not yet, I am going to have the boldness to declare before all creation, and even before You Yourself, ‘I gave myself for Your purpose. I consecrated myself to follow You and to live according to what You are after. I refused to settle for anything less.’” Those able to declare this could surely say they lived their lives in a pure conscience.

Sunday, 12 April 2009

April 12, 2009 Steve Whitfield
God wants to have a relationship with man, and He has done everything in His power to make that happen. He has sent us His Son to bring us more and more into this relationship.

Today we are going to consider how to STAY in this relationship. There are two different aspects. Since we are NOT like Christ, there has to be something to keep us in this relationship. Thus, we have to drawn into what maintains this relationship.

We know that man was created as a tripartite being. We have a body, a soul, and a spirit. In our spirit we have fellowship, intuition and conscience. After the fall, conscience was the only one of the three that had a certain function. After man fell, they suddenly realized their nakedness. This indicates something “kicked in” that wasn’t functioning before, because they had been naked all along.

Even before we were saved, we had a conscience. We may have tried to live by that, and thus lived a moral life. This inbuilt function represents God to us. When someone puts out their hand to steal something, their conscience speaks (if their conscience isn’t damaged). The problem is that things that used to be abnormal have become normal, and this has affected people’s consciences, because conscience is affected by knowledge and observation. Society plays a part in the function of the conscience.

Religion also plays a part. It may allow the conscience to lose its normal function by being “bribed,” or by doing something good to make up for what makes a person feel guilty in his or her conscience.

According to the Word, the way to take care of the conscience is to confess, apply the blood of Jesus, and go on. If, however, our conscience is numbed by society, it may be hinder the Lord’s shining light from reaching our hearts and seeing things as God does.

The heart is composed of the mind, emotion, will and the conscience. Our heart is full of things. Abnormal things ma become “normal.” We can vindicate our behavior with rationalizations. The things that we should realize are wrong become justified when we allow reasonings to take root and “smooth over” feelings of guilt.

When we enter into fellowship with God, we enter into His presence. As we enter into His shining presence, we will be convicted of sin. The blood of Jesus, however, has been provided, which we may apply and be confident in for our fellowship. We don’t have to run away from God when we feel convicted of sin; we simply have to admit our wrong and apply the blood of Jesus. When we have a problem with a brother or sister, we need to apply the blood of Jesus and confess (if it is appropriate). We have something called the anointing (1 John 2:20) which teaches us what to do in every circumstance.

John wrote that God is love, light, in Him is no darkness at all. So if we look at someone in a “dark” way, our conscience should alert me to a problem. As this anointing works in us, as an ointment, its elements get into us, like a oil gets into wood when applied. As the Lord is anointing us, His element gets into us and overwrites what society has done to our conscience, or what religion has done. The anointing sensitizes our conscience, which has been desensitized in so many ways.

As we are in this relationship with the Lord, He is inscribing His laws upon our hearts. He is inscribing, “Forgive one another” and so on. This is what is going on in our hearts, and our conscience is a part of our heart.

The Lord works with each one of us according to our own situation. Therefore, we should not judge others according to our own conscience. But as we enjoy the Lord, our conscience becomes more and more refined, and enables us to stay with God in a way that He may continue to work more deeply within us.

The key to all of this is valuing the fellowship we have with God. Once you sense it is broken, we should immediately seek the Lord as to what has offended Him, rather than running away and hiding like Adam did. We are not under the Old Covenant today, but under the New Covenant. The Lord has brought us into a relationship with Him based upon the blood of Jesus Christ. As we return to fellowship over and over, we learn more of the details of what He loves and hates, and are given the power to live according to what He loves and hates, based upon the growth of His life within us through the function of this inner anointing we have.

The Lord’s standard is quite high. If you read Matthew chapters 5 through 7, you will realize whatever we learned in society and religion is not in the same ballpark as the Lord’s level of righteousness. This is the standard the Lord has for us must be written into our hearts, and we must be empowered to carry this standard of living. This all happens through the Lord’s operating anointing of the Spirit of life within us. As we live under the operation of the anointing, we have boldness towards God. If our heart is blaming us, that means we are in the realm where the Lord’s life hasn’t risen to that level yet. This is why we have to apply the blood and keep coming to the Lord…so we may continue to receive the rich supply from Him that will enable us to continue to grow in His life and arrive at the level of righteousness He has.

When we hear the alarm of the conscience, like a smoke-detector going off, we need to go immediately to the Lord. This will keep our relationship fresh and allow us to walk boldly before Him. If we allow offences to accumulate, we will lose our boldness. Don’t try to rationalize or bury the feelings of the conscience; they will not ever really go away. Just deal with them as they come.

As we take care of our relationship with the Lord, we should also be conscious of our relationships with others as well. In this way we may all go on together.

Thursday, 02 April 2009

Dear readers:
Please forgive me for not taking care of the ads that have been presented here. I initiated this because it was a simple and free way to put up the messages, but because it was free it was presenting ads, and I had not been following the nature of them.
I have paid to have the ads removed. I believe we will soon be transferring this kind of feature to the church's personal webpage.
John Berglund

Sunday, 22 February 2009

February 22

February 22, 2009

John S.
As believers today we are living in the new covenant, not in the old covenant. In the old covenant you had no right to come to God directly, and just to be right with God so that I wouldn’t have a problem with God I had to bring sacrifice. In the new covenant, we do not have to qualify ourselves. The Corinthians were even Gentiles, and many were sinful, yet that is where we read of coming to the Lord’s table, and being one spirit with the Lord. There was no requirement to take offering to Jerusalem, because the new covenant is so much better than the old covenant. Today, in the new covenant we have God as the Spirit, and we can enjoy His presence every day. The old covenant has been fulfilled in Christ, who also enacted for us this new covenant through His blood.

Deedee
The new covenant is the basis of all spiritual life. Based upon it we can have direct knowledge of God, even an inward knowing. Apart from it, we could have no confidence that our sins have been forgiven. God’s eternal purpose is that He might work Himself into man that man might have His life and nature. This new covenant also enables us to have fellowship with God. As we enjoy the fellowship, the Lord’s light exposes us, prompting us to apply the Lord’s blood even further, which results in deeper fellowship, further shining, and further cleansing under His blood. In this cycle, we grow in the spiritual life.

Sarah
Two points touched me. In the old covenant there was a continual bringing to mind sins due to the recurring sacrifice. The old covenant could also never perfect anyone. In the new covenant, the Spirit gives us life.

Shirley
In the old covenant if you failed, you died. In the new covenant, if you fail, there is complete mercy. The Lord says, “Their lawlessness I will remember no more.” The Lord knows we are failures; that is why He sent His Son to die for us. Now we can take HIS blood over our sins.

Steve W.
We have been speaking on this matter of the blood of Jesus for a month and a half now. The Lord desires a relationship with us, and in spite of man’s failure, He did not give up on this desire. He covered the sinful pair with animal skins, which was significant. When you love a person, you are so active trying to keep that relationship going. After man fell, God became active. He slaughtered an animal, and that was continued through Abel, Noah, Abraham… so it must have been understood as being necessary to keep up some kind of right stand with God.

God made a covenant with the nation of Israel eventually, and in that covenant God made some laws regarding that relationship. The laws are good, but the problem comes with whether we can keep them, for God is a righteous God. In the USA we could probably get a good lawyer to get us off of something, but God is a judge in the old covenant who could not be swayed, because His standard had to be upheld. If a child were rebellious and the parents took that child before the elders, that child would be stoned. How strict that law was! It was a fearsome thing.

God has to be righteous, because His throne is established upon righteousness (Ps. 89:14). If He were unrighteous in anything, His kingdom would be overturned. Therefore He has to be absolutely righteous in every matter, and the new covenant was something He had to hold Himself to absolutely.

If there were no speed limit on Oberlin Avenue, it would be a race course out front. The law keeps us limited. The old covenant kept things in check until Christ would come. The old covenant was just a shadow of what was to come. God’s promise to Abraham was fulfilled through the new covenant, so the old covenant was something that came in between. The reality of the promise God made is Christ.

In the new covenant, God writes His laws upon our HEARTS instead of upon tablets of stone. The law given outwardly sounds good, but we have nothing within us that can live out what the law represents, which is simply God Himself. Therefore none of us can pass the requirement of keeping the law, no matter how right the law seems. That is why God had to transmit those laws into us by giving us Himself as not only the model of somebody who keeps those laws, but also as the Person who spontaneously keeps those laws.

Older couples begin to act like each other, because they have been around each other for so long that something has been infused from one to the other. God wants such a relationship with us. The new covenant affords God the relationship with us He longs for.

In the old covenant, all the offerings could do was cause the problems to be covered over, and the fact that you had to keep offering just reminded you that you had no real solution to the root problem. In the new covenant, God says He will remember our sins no more!

If you drop a cup of coffee on the floor, and the stain is left there, we can say we forgive you, but that stain remains to remind everyone. God removed the stain! That cleansing is related to God not remembering our sins anymore.

Some people may feel, as they sin, that they cannot change and that they should just forget about being a Christian. But God has taken our sin out of the way! When we make a mistake, it is not over, because God has made provision for us. The Spirit has come into us now because of the Lord’s cleansing blood, and now God is very active within us to transform us into someone who will be as He is.

The Hebrew believers (addressed in the book of Hebrews) were in danger of going back to the old way of worshiping God. They were wavering, thinking perhaps they should go back to the offering of animal sacrifices and so on.

Paul told the Hebrew believers, “You have not come to the mountain that cannot be touched… etc. (Heb. 12)… Paul was writing about Exodus 19, where God put up a “fence” around Mount Sinai lest anyone touch it and get killed. It was surrounded by gloom and was on fire and black smoke. Moses entered into that. There was a whirlwind as well, and trumpet blasts! They sounded the alarm. Even if an animal were to touch the mountain, it was to be killed. This is Paul painting a picture of what the old covenant was like.

Paul then says, “But you have come forward to Mount Zion…to the church of the firstborn who have been enrolled in the heavens, and to God, the judge of all, and the spirits of righteous men who have been made perfect, and to Jesus…and to the blood of sprinkling.” Which would you prefer? The scary mountain of doom, or the bright mountain of the city of God? These two mountains represent the two covenants.

We can touch and enter into this mountain, because the Lord rent the veil so that we might have full entrance into that mountain.

We do need to be sensitive to what offends God, and ask His forgiveness, but we must realize what He has done too take care of it. When we see what He has done, we are joyful to run to Him, without fear. That’s what this race is all about now. We are running, pursuing hard after the Lord now. We are going forward, and the angels are watching as the spectators. Would they have anything to cheer about in the old covenant? Only failure there. But in the new covenant, the runners actually are reaching the Objective!

I believe the angels get excited every time one of us runs a few steps further. We have such a cloud of witnesses surrounding us! And our names are enrolled in the heavens. First Peter 1:12 tells us that the angels know that something is finally happening among men that they long to look into, because it is the fulfillment of God’s desire. They are stretching to look to see how God is working in us in this new covenant.

In this new covenant we are in a race, and the universal host is cheering us on. Therefore, we should not forsake the assembling of ourselves together as those of the new covenant.

The mediator of this new covenant is Jesus. And who are we? We are those who overcome by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of our testimony, and as those who not love our soul-lives unto death (Rev. 12:11). The Lord’s blood speaks better things for us. Abel’s blood spoke condemnation to the guilty ones, whereas the Lord’s blood speaks forgiveness for us (Heb. 12:24).

We have been given a provision by which we might always have a relationship with God. He has given us everything we need. Now it is up to us to realize it all. As we do, we what a glorious church life we have!

Sunday, 08 February 2009

Team 4 sharing February 8, 2009

Nick: What I enjoyed about the New Covenant is through it we are all able to come to the Lord. In the OT there were rules God set up for His people to come to Him, but all through the OT, it was proven to not work. It was a failure. Therefore Jesus came to shed His own blood so we could all come to Him. Only through the blood can we have the covering necessary to come to the Lord. Why did God chose Abel’s offering over Cain’s? Noah wasn’t perfect, but he found favor. Abraham also offered blood sacrifice. In the New Covenant, however, is built upon the Lord’s blood. By means of the blood, we are able to enjoy the grace of the New Covenant.

Melissa: The covenant was never something I got my mind around. I find more appreciation that Jesus established it for us. We could not do the old way, the Law. When you see who we are, you realize it isn’t even really worth trying! I am thankful that the Lord was able to fulfill the Law on our behalf and then offer Himself for us so we might enter into another, new covenant with God based upon His blood.

Eric: I had no clear idea about what the Old Covenant was, as opposed to the New Covenant. The idea of sacrifice being necessary wasn’t apparent to me. Now I somewhat understand that God, who is so great, requires something from us that we might enjoy Him. In Jeremiah 31, God said we would no longer need to teach each other to know the Lord, for we all would know Him, from the least to the greatest.

Bethany: (will try to get, couldn’t hear!)

Raymond:
We need a real understanding of the blood of Christ and its relationship to the New Covenant between us and God. God’s desire from the very beginning was that He could have a relationship with man. If you have read the Bible, you see this from the beginning, even in the creation of man. But something happened to interrupt this relationship, for God is also a righteous God. God told man he could freely eat in the garden, except from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and that on the day he would eat of it, he would die. God is bound by His word. Even if everything else may pass away, but God’s Word will not. He cannot say, “That’s OK. Forget about it.” God’s throne is based upon righteousness (Ps. 89:14). He is a righteous God. So when man partook of the tree, God had to do something, even though He loved man.

God called to man, “Where are you?” God wanted man to see something. Man had tried to cover his problem with something he came up with. God wanted a relationship and never gave up on man. He provided a way for man, clothing him in skins of animals. We can infer there had to be some innocent blood that was shed because of man’s sin.

Throughout the Bible, you will find parents are told to tell their kids. So Adam must have told his kids about what happened, and perhaps even instructed them in the matter. God came to talk to Cain, “If you do well, there will be no problem. Do what is needed. If you don’t, however, sin is crouching in wait for you.” We need to love one another, but we also need to be righteous with one another. If you love a person, you need to love and be fair. You need to “speak truth in love” to one another. God never gave up on man, but instead gave man a way. In the OT, God came to the point where He realized He had to destroy flesh, for it had become so corrupt. Noah was chosen to keep mankind alive. After the ark landed, Noah made sacrifice. After this, God took another step and made a covenant. To Noah he said the rainbow would be a sign for mankind that He would never destroy the earth like that again.

Like a young man courting a young lady, God wants a relationship with us. He is not going to let it go. He wants this relationship to be set, so He made a covenant. It is a contract that binds two parties together.

Read Gen. 9:8-9, 11; Luke 22:20: Jer. 31:31-34; Heb. 9:14-16

God’s desire is to have a relationship with man. We cannot miss this. But man has a condition he contracted since the fall that separates him from God. God always provided a way for man to come to Him, however. If man chose to take God’s way, he could still find favor in God’s sight. But the real “rescue package” didn’t come until God Himself came as a man to die for us on the cross.

If you know you have done something that displeases someone you care about, it brings in a distance. You may even avoid that person. My father was a loving person, but not someone I wanted to be around if there was a problem I had with him that had to be taken care of. Until it was, there was some distance, until I apologized or did what it was that was needed. I knew what he didn’t like, and I know what I should do.

We have entered into a covenant, a new covenant, and we can now enter into a relationship with God based on better provisions than what were available in the old covenant. In this new covenant we can all know God from the least to the greatest! In the new covenant, our sins have been forgiven. In this new covenant, God Himself becomes our righteousness. We have the highest righteousness now. In the old covenant, everything was outward, but it still allowed man a way to interact with God. In the new testament, the Lord fulfilled the righteous requirement, and now we have this provision that we can come to God. Sin is no longer an issue. The Lamb of God came to take away the sin of the world, and sin is what separated man from God. Now we can fellowship, for if we confess, He is faithful and righteous to cleanse us from all of our sins. Even among ourselves, there should be no problem, because of the value of this blood.

A marriage license between a man and a woman means everything they had separately they now share together. Based on the marriage contract they are entitled. We need to realize what we are given in this contract, or covenant. God has given us Himself in this covenant! Now we need to give ourselves to Him in the same way. Even to one another. We do not have to fight for our own righteousness anymore. We don’t need to do things to appear right or wrong. We don’t have to justify ourselves in God’s eyes. In this covenant, we need to simply receive what God has provided for us. One of the matters the Lord has provided is His own blood. If we try to do something in ourselves to make ourselves appear good enough in God’s presence, is like Cain’s offering or the fig leaves they sewed together. That is not to be living according to the new covenant.

In the new covenant, God gives us a new heart and He inscribes His laws into our hearts. Therefore, we really become His people and He can be our God. We don’t try to do things to justify ourselves. We all are guilty. There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. You may think some brother may never mess up, but that brother may mess up all the time! He is able to go on with the Lord, however, because of the blood of Jesus. Because of the blood, we can come forward with boldness to God. We don’t need to come forward to God in fear. We should be aware of what God has done on our behalf in the new covenant, and claim that access to God boldly, based on the blood of Jesus.

We couldn’t keep the Law, but Jesus could and did. For us, the Law showed us who our God was, and exposed our inability to match Him in ourselves. From the youngest to the oldest, we should all know this. We shouldn’t cover things up in God’s sight. He knows. We should appreciate the blood, and confess our sins, and come forward to God. There is no sense in hiding our situation from God. Instead, we need to be those who come forward to Him with a heart full of assurance! This is what God’s covenant is about in our experience.

God paid the ultimate price, but how much of our being are we willing to give? God never gives up, but we give up real quick if we don’t realize or appreciate what has been provided for us. We shouldn’t be ignorant of what is in this new covenant!

It doesn’t matter what we have done; the only thing that matters is that we come to Him. He has given us everything we need to come to Him. Day by day by day, God desires a relationship with us. The more we are in this relationship, the more we are willing to give ourselves to Him. We wouldn’t be so easily removed. He paid the ultimate price for us (read Psalm 22). Yet we are often so clever to try to circumvent Him, and do something to appease our conscience so that we are comfortable without God. O, but our righteousness is but filthy rags in the sight of God! We have nothing. All we need is Christ, and He has been given to us in the New Covenant.

Even the young ones among us need to have a glimpse of what this covenant is about.

TESTIMONIES:

I have come to appreciate the matter of relationship more. We had a problem recently, and decided we wouldn't try to handle it on our own. Instead, we decided to fellowship with a number of saints. Due to that interaction, we really got the help. We need this kind of thorough interaction with the Lord, but we often do not find out what a blessing this could be because we don't come to Him because of some perceived problem. We need to realize the problem is out of the way!

It is not things that built a marriage relationship. My wife appreciates who I AM. Adam could be in the presence of the Lord in the garden. God has done so much on His side to insure this relationship could continue. In the old covenant, the means was of blood of goats and bulls, which had to be done continually. When Jesus died on the cross, however, everything was accomplished and taken care of from that point onward forever. Once we believe and receive it, then God is BOUND. Before the covenant, God could have backed out. He had a choice. But once He made that covenant, He became bound by it, regardless how He felt about it from then out. Why? Because He is, above all, righteous. It was love, however, that caused Him to willingly do this.

I was impressed that God sought this relationship with us, and that we are those who have to MAINTAIN that relationship. In Colossians we read, "Giving thanks to the Father who has QUALIFIED us for a share of the allotted portion of the saints in the light..." There is a covenant between husband and wife. I have to maintain that. My whole being changed when I got married. I had been a single, young lady. Once I became Mrs. Brad Sweet, I had to show honor and respect for him. I think the Lord expects that of us.