Redemption Covenant

This plan of redemption, this great mystery is the grace of God through the sacrifice of Jesus that covers us with the blood of the perfect sacrifice to be seen as pure in the eyes of our Heavenly Father.  We have been redeemed from all our past, present and future wrong doings.   Bible says, "Once and for all."

Here's how it works:  

We do our best to live according to Jesus example and don't worry about anything else.  We are pure in the sight of God.  We do not have to work for our salvation; God gave it to us through Jesus.  When God the  Father, looks at us He only sees righteous beings.  He cannot see past Jesus pure blood of His son that covers us.

The blood sacrifice was installed when God killed animals to clothe Adam & Eve after they sinned.  Then, God was angry with Cain because he gave an offering of vegetables from the ground that God had cursed.  Abel followed what he was taught and gave a blood offering.  Nothing is cleansed without blood.  We don't need animals because we are redeemed to God by Jesus blood.

We don't have to stop and repent of every wrong thought throughout our day.  Recognize you did did it and know you have been forgiven - 2,000 years ago.  It is done for us for all time.  Jesus cannot crawl back up on the cross to be another sacrifice every time someone sins.   The plan is magnificent in it's simplicity! ! !  What a clever God we have.  What a loving Jesus.

We are the righteousness of God through what Jesus has sacrificed.  God is righteous because of His loving grace to us.  We are righteous in His sight.

As God's perfect law, the 10 Commands make a great guide line.  Just don't expect to keep them or judge yourself when you fail.  You do not have to follow the letter of the law for your salvation.   You cannot get into  heaven on your own efforts.  YOU NEED THE BLOOD OF JESUS.  He already shed it.  You are going.  You have your ticket.  Stop trying to make your salvation all about you.  It's all about Jesus.  Only He is perfect enough to atone for us.  

Believe.  Faith.  Love God above all else and love your neighbor as much as yourself.      -      Easy- peasy!

God made it easy for us because man failed time after time.  God knew we could not save ourselves.  Accept it.  Be free.  Claim Jesus.  The great "I Am".
Amen

The Gospel Truth, Pt 3

Ro 11:4 - 6  In this passage, the word "works" is more correctly translated (from original Greek) to "law".

Ro 13:10  Paul tells us love fulfills the law.  Love God, love your neighbor.  And, the love of Jesus through His sacrifice.

The Ten Commandments are referred to as, "The law written on stone.  IICor 3:7 (Ex 24:12)  This has to be the law that Paul referred to.  Sacrificial laws were done away with because of the blood of Jesus, yes.  But, they were not written on stone. 

Gal 3:10  This verse explains everyone relying on the law is cursed.

Gal 4:22 - 27  In this passage, we are told that the slave woman gave birth to the son of flesh and the free woman, Sarah, gave birth to a son born of spirit.  Sarah's son, Isaac, was an ancestor of Jesus.  This references the law vs grace, which was a constant question in the early church.  Church leaders were preaching law and Christ had died to bring the grace of God allowing us to live according to the will of God and not to His law.  His will is our wellfare.

Eph 2:20  Christ is the living stone (of grace) - replacing the law on cold, dead stone.

Col 2:13 - 15  Our indebtedness, canceled and nailed to the cross.  This is grace over law.

Heb 10:8  Here, Paul explains the animal sacrifices offered with the law; not the law itself.

Heb 11, called "The Faith Chapter":  All these people named here, lived BEFORE the law (Ten Commandments) were given on Mt. Sanai.  They lived by their faith.  They were counted righteous - by faith, NOT by their own works through the law written on stone, or sacrificial laws.

Heb 12:15  is a statement of grace (over law).

Heb 12:18 - 24  Paul compares a mountain of fear, Mt. Sinai, to a mountain of joy, Zion.  The law of the Ten Commandments was given on Sinai and Jesus died on Zion.  He calls Mt Sinai to be feared because the people could not bear what was commanded.  He refers to Jesus as mediator of a new covenant (one without laws). 

 
* Since the resurrection, God no longer tells us "Do this", "Don't do that"; which results in our own efforts.  He gives us freedom to choose to follow the examples and teaching of Jesus and live through His efforts.



Titus 3:9 & 10  Paul instructs Titus to try twice to help people understand the gospel.  If they will not open their minds and listen, avoid them.  He called them warped, sinful and self-condemned.  Jesus, Himself, instructed His disciples to wipe their feet at the house of those who would not listen and move on to those who wanted to hear.  This resulted in Christ taking the gospel to Gentiles, opening up the doors of salvation to everyone.   

Laodicea church: In Revelation 3, God tells this church they are neither hot or cold, meaning they do not teach one or the other, just grace or just the law.  They were trying to live with both.  He goes on to describe His feelings toward this attitude.  It's not good.

Quote:  WHAT a glorious covenant the second covenant (New Covenant) is!  Well might it be called a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.  Heb 8:6

It is so glorious that the very thought of it is enough to overwhelm the soul, when it discerns the amazing condescension and infinite love of God, in having framed a covenant for such unworthy creatures, for such glorious purposes, with such disinterested motives.

It is better than the other covenant, the "covenant of works", which was made with Adam; or that covenant which is said to have been made with Israel, on the day when they came out of Egypt.  It is better, for it is founded upon a better principle.  The Old Covenant was founded on the principle of merit; it was serve God and you shall be rewarded for it.  If you walk perfectly in the fear of the Lord, God will walk well towards you, and all the blessing of Mount Gerizim shall come upon thee, and you shall be exceedingly blessed in this world, and the world which is to come.

But the covenant fell to the ground, because, although it was just that man should be rewarded for his good works, or punished for his evil ones, yet man being sure to sin, and since the fall infallibly tending towards iniquity, the covenant was not suitable for his happiness, nor could it promote his eternal welfare.

C H Spurgeon

Amen

My Personal God

"My God" has made Himself personal to me:

I called on Him when I prayed "Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep" during my parents divorce.  I was seven years old and He made His presence known to me.

He put His wings around me during the abuse I endured at the hands of a stepfather, and sent me a savior; my grandfather.

He advised me when I was molested by three teen boys at a bus stop. I was 16.

When there was disappointment over missing high school graduation, due to minor surgery, He was there holding my hand.

I held fast to Him through the loss of two children at birth.

During marriage to an alcoholic, He advised me through His spirit.

He was there to console me after the death of Grandfather, the only earthly father I have known.

An angel, in the form of a police officer, was sent when my brakes failed early one morning on busy city streets.

I prayed "Our Father" in an ambulance after a car accident.  It left me with 44 stitches to my face, a broken foot and crushed vertebra, but He chose to spare my life.

Late one evening, in New York, He sent an angel to perform a miracle and save me from an assault in a public parking lot. 

Again, He held my hand during surgery for malignant tumors, consoled me when I learned that I would never have children and held my hand during the hysterectomy ten years later.

I had traveled across this country for forty-five years to sell my art work.  I remember dangerous driving conditions, storms in the mountains, icey roads and being lost - a lot.  My God was sitting next to me in the passenger seat every inch of the way.

In Alabama, He sent an angel with yet another miracle to keep me from an auto accident with two little girls in my car. 

During a time of great depression, from many wrong choices through the years, He spoke and saved me from suicide.

He has loved me from my conception, with a plan for my life.  Thirty-five years ago, my God placed me in His church, changed my life and my way of thinking and, twenty-six years ago gave me my greatest earthy treasure, a husband who truly loves me.

My God bandaged emotional wounds and started the healing.  He has always made Himself personal to my needs.

He sent me a healer and holds my hand every time I take a treatment for liver failure.

He stepped in to fill a huge void when my mother died and consoles a great loss, again, when my brother died young.

A compound fracture in my ankle was set without anesthetic by a strange doctor in a strange hospital in a city far from home.  I was alone for surgery - except for my God.

Throughout my life, and even now, my God has been with me every minute to make sure I did not suffer more than I could bare.  He has been there watching, teaching, protecting; keeping my heart, my body and my soul in His ever gentle arms.

My God took hate, fear and guilt and replaced them with joy, compassion and peace.

My God is the magnificent "I Am" who made time and space and lives on the sides of the north in the third heaven.  Every existence exists in His thought.  He knows every inch of every star in the universe, every grain of sand on every beach and cares enough about me to know how many hairs are on my head - He is the keeper of my soul.

My God loves, protects, blesses, teaches, comforts, heals and answers my prayers. Getting to know Him is a lifetime of joy and amazement.

The Christian life is not easy but the rewards are great.
Amen