Monday June 25, 2012

Decide on one person or one family that you can bless today

 

Read Jeremiah 34:8-20

 

Put in its most simple terms, a covenant is that which binds people or parties together. It is far more than a legal contract as we think about them in today’s terms. It is more like a marriage than a legal contract, even though it may have legal ramifications.

 

A covenant is a relationship bond where the character of the bond is usually spoken forth in an oath so that all parties know the boundaries and the conditions of that relationship.

 

Even more so, a covenant is a bond in blood or in life and death because the commitment required between the two parties is grave and serious. God never enters into a covenant lightly, nor casually. Breaking the covenant bond often mitigated death to the guilty party. A covenant was often sworn between two halves of a cut up animal. Hence in the Hebrew Old Testament we read of cutting a covenant. The original word or the root word for covenant meant ’to cut’. ’’ The cut up animal represents the curse the covenant maker calls upon himself should he violate or break the covenant.   Clearly the covenant was a bond in life or death. It was an oath that put down one’s own life as the collateral.

 

Finally, we need to be aware that covenants, though they existed between people, had to be divinely administered when they related to God. He was the only one who could establish or cut a covenant with humanity. By His grace and mercy God has chosen to cut a covenant with His people.

 

Prayer:

¥ As the India mission team prepares to fly out, uphold them in prayer. Pray that the mission will be fraught with open doors to preach the gospel, that many would come to Christ in repentance and faith. Pray too that the team would be kept safe and protected from harm and from illness.

¥ Pray that God would be building up a small team to go to Myanmar later in the year. Ask God to raise up teachers to help out at the Bible College to prepare the students for their ministry. Pray that the college in Myanmar would have all the resources they need to continue their work in the Lord.