Salt of the Covenant

You may have heard me say that God is a covenant keeping God. A divine covenant is a unilaterally imposed promise that rests entirely on the integrity and ability of the promise maker. In this case, God. I believe this to be the essential way in which God relates to humanity. It may also be the unifying theme of Scripture that helps us to understand the way God deals with us throughout the thousands of years of biblical history.

Lev. 2:13 says, "And every offering of your grain offering you shall season with salt; you shall not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking from your grain offerings. With all your offerings you shall offer salt."

What then is the significance of the salt of the covenant? I believe it to be in the fact that salt does not burn. Burning is a chemical reaction and salt is an extremely stable compound. Thus under the heat of fire all else may be consumed, but the salt remains.

This is the way God's covenants are. When everything else fails, God's promises do not fail.

Lam. 3:22-24, "Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. 'The Lord is my portion.' says my soul, 'Therefore I hope in Him!"

Amen to that.

Holiness

I'm starting in Leviticus this week. (I'm also in 2 Peter, but I'll blog about the NT later. I think I will finish Lev. then jump over to the NT. Let me know if you have a preference.)

On another note, Sunday's service was awesome. I am so thrilled to begin this new worship journey. One of the things I want most for the Freedom Life experience at Live Oak is holiness, which is what Leviticus is really all about.

In Exodus the tabernacle was completed and in Leviticus God establishes how the people are to be sanctified (i.e., set apart) and approach Him in His holiness. Then and now, we must approach God in one way, His way.

Today I only want to point out one verse, Lev. 1:4, "Then he shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him."

What is this all about? Essentially it is a personal identification with the sacrifice being offered on behalf of the sinner. There were five offerings acceptable for the burnt offering; 1) bull, 2) lamb, 3) goat , 4) turtledove, or 5) a young pigeon. Laying one's hands on the animal about to be killed and burnt was a tangible way of identifying with the blood about to be shed in atonement for sins. Their blood instead of our blood.

Now we know that the sacrifice of all the bulls, lambs, goats, turtledoves, and pigeons in the world were not acceptable to cover sins. That's why these offerings were repeated over and over again. These offerings were in fact merely sign pointers to the one perfect sacrifice, which was Jesus Christ.

Now picture this. Christ is about to be sacrificed on the cross. Imagine yourself walking up to Him and laying your hands on His head. I want you to identify with Him, with His death, with His blood about to be shed.

Would you do it? Would you place your sins upon Him as your atoning sacrifice? If not, you cannot be saved. No sacrifice you may offer is good enough. It is in Him only that atonement, the covering of sins, is found.

Our Big Day Approacheth

Hi everyone,
Sorry I haven't posted this week. There have been a host of details to take care of in preparation for the first Freedom Life service at Live Oak on Easter Sunday morning, April 24th at 8:30 am. I never imagined how much work would go into bringing us to this day by so many people. I thank God for every one.

Please keep studying God's Word and praying for this new beginning in the life of our church. Hopefully I will be back on track with 2-3 postings per week.

Yours in Christ,
Keith

The Promise of Presence

What do you want from God? Come on now.... be honest. I know you want something. Maybe not right this second, and I know it's hard to admit because of pride, but all of us want something from God. After all, He is God. He can do anything. He knows everything. He is everywhere. With God all things are possible.

Do you know what God wants? He wants to be with us. The end of God's purpose for us is the dwell in the midst of His people.

Revelation 21:3-4 says, "^And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. ^And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” 

But in Exodus 33:3 the Lords says, "I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff necked people." So Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far away. The people would watch Moses come and go, but they did not go with him and God did not come into their midst.

This worried Moses because what he wanted most of all was the presence of God. Moses said in 33:15, "If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here," then Moses asked to see the glory of God. 

Wow! It was all about God's presence. 

So what do you want from God? Do you want His power or His presence? 

Religion, Relationship, and Revelation

Religion is not necessarily a bad word. People do lots of things religiously; brush their teeth, work out, watch TV, eat, and on and on. What does it mean to do something religiously? It simply means to do it regularly and as a matter of course. It's a habit; it's expected, and it's okay to do things that way. But is it okay to be religious in our relationships?

Maybe, but maybe not. I religiously tuck my kids in bed. I religiously wash the breakfast dishes for my family in the morning. I religiously balance our family checkbook and pay the bills. I religiously buy birthday presents for my family. But wait a minute... do they really want me to do those things out of habit and obligation, or do they want me to do them out of love?

I believe they want me to do them out of love, and love is relational. I think it's okay to brush your teeth religiously, but not to give birthday presents that way. Gifts are an act of love. My wife would never want me to buy a dozen roses on her birthday and say, "Here you go honey. It's your birthday, I HAD to buy you something..." She would not appreciate that; she would resent it. No, she wants me to get exited about the gift, to pick out something special that she wants, and to make a big deal about giving it to her. Why? She wants me to love her and to show that love. And I want to love her and to show that love.

That's what God wants. He does not want us going through the motions "religiously" just for habits sake. If we do it out of habit and not out of love God also resents it in a way. He will not accept our worship on those terms. It does matter what we do but it also matters why we do it.

Religion for the sake of being religious, what I call "religiosity," is a stench to God. Religiosity is our attempt to control God by our acts and behaviors. But God will not be controlled any more than He exercises His sovereignty to control us in that way. He could force us to love Him and do certain things, but He does not. Why do we think our little religious things will likewise force God to love us and do certain things?

Relationship on the other hand is the flow of love between two persons. It's communal; a two way street. Our "religion," the things we do, must flow out of our relationship with God. And this relationship is a result of the way God reveals Himself to us.

I mention this in Exodus because throughout the book, even up to the Ten Commandments and the giving of the law, God is revealing Himself. He reveals Himself in order to establish a relationship with His people, not a religion for the sake of religion.

God continues to reveal Himself to those in relationship with Him, even as we reveal ourselves to Him. It's not that He doesn't know us, but it's that through our acts of faith we grow to know that He knows....us, intimately and personally.

So how about it? Religion or relationship? 

My soul never rests, till it rests in Thee

All God's promises come with signs. It's really cool the way God does that because the Lord makes the sign fit the promise. The promise for Adam was that in the day he disobeyed God he would surely die; the sign was animal skins. The promise for Noah was that God would preserve the earth from another disastrous flood; the sign was a rainbow. The promise for Abraham was of blessing and the multiplication of his offspring; the sign was circumcision. The promise for Moses was that God would protect and provide for His people as long as they trusted and depended upon Him; the sign was a day of rest (Sabbath).

Exodus 31:12ff says, "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: 'Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you. You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed."

The Sabbath was "holy" to them, meaning it was set apart. For what purpose? It was a sign between the people and God. Sabbath literally means to rest, cease, desist. Resting in the LORD says, "God I trust you enough to stop striving to do it all on my own. You will protect and you will provide." God took this so seriously that He warns the people twice in this passage that the penalty of not resting in Him was death. Seems paradoxical, "rest or die!," but perhaps this also pointed them to Christ.

Grace is simply God being our God for us. When we go it on our own we essentially say to God, "I don't need you." When we say that to God regarding eternal salvation, the end result is death. When we rest in Christ and His provision for us, then we shall live... forever. Heaven is in fact portrayed as the ultimate Sabbath, rest in the Lord. This does not mean inactivity. For God rested on the seventh day of creation, but He is never inactive. Our rest is in relationship to God as an act of worship. Remember how the Pharisees accused Jesus of breaking the Sabbath? Of what did they accuse Him? They accused Him of working, but Jesus was only busy about His Father's business, therefore, He was not breaking His "rest," but was fulfilling His purpose. Rest is not about doing nothing, passed out in front of the TV on a Sunday afternoon. It is about resting in the Lord, trusting Him, and depending upon Him to be our God as we are His people.

God Provides the Workers

I have agonized over a big problem in the church. It's the problem of workers. In the churches I've served for ten years, we have had a system for finding workers. It's called the "Nominating Committee." The Nominating Committee is not a biblical idea, it is rather, a political idea. This idea was taken by early Baptists from the democratic process of electing people to serve in various governmental positions. We still see this today in the Democratic or Republican National Conventions. A candidate is nominated by a committee to serve in a position. That candidate is voted upon, being either accepted or rejected. If accepted, they are nominated to the American people who then vote on who they will accept. The last several elections have seen many people not like any of the nominees, but that's another story.

In the church, we do the same thing. We nominate a committee, who then nominates people to serve in the various organizational positions; choir director, Sunday school teacher, VBS director, maintenance committee, etc. The Nominating Committee looks around once per year and solicits workers, usually keeping the same people who did it last year, or otherwise attempting to coerce new people to fill slots that have been vacated. You often hear, "If no one else will do it, I'll do it." The Committee then takes the report to the church who votes on it as a slate nomination. In other words, accept them all or accept none. 

Oddly enough, we never find anything like that in Scripture. In Exodus 31:1-11, we find God's plan of placing workers.

"[31:1] The LORD said to Moses, [2] “See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, [3] and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, [4] to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, [5] in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft. [6] And behold, I have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. And I have given to all able men ability, that they may make all that I have commanded you: [7] the tent of meeting, and the ark of the testimony, and the mercy seat that is on it, and all the furnishings of the tent, [8] the table and its utensils, and the pure lampstand with all its utensils, and the altar of incense, [9] and the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the basin and its stand, [10] and the finely worked garments, the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments of his sons, for their service as priests, [11] and the anointing oil and the fragrant incense for the Holy Place. According to all that I have commanded you, they shall do.” (Exodus 31:1-11 ESV)

Here's God's plan in a nutshell. 1) God calls us by name; 2) God gifts us according to the need; 3) God appoints us to the work; 4) we obey God.

In the New Testament there is much said about gifting, calling, appointment, and obedience; but it works essentially the same way.

An interesting series of events has occurred at Live Oak since the announcement of the Freedom Life service. God has been calling people out. God has been gifting people according to the need. God has been appointing people to the work. People have been obeying God and doing wonderful and creative new things.

As pastor, what do I do in this process? Praise God!!