Dear
Present Truth Magazine Subscriber:
We
are glad to have you as a subscriber to our Present Truth Magazine. Below
you will find articles from individual authors who have written for our
magazine. Our prayer for all who
receive read these articles is that the Lord "...may give to you the
Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may
know what is the hope of His calling, and what are the riches of the glory of
His inheritance in the saints” (Ephesians 1:17-18).
Resurrection Life Now
By A. Wilson Phillips
Today, many Americans do not
believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ from the
dead. Many who do believe fail to see the significance of their personal
salvation being linked to their eschatological views. Eschatology is
just a fancy word for the study of the end times in the Bible. At this
Easter season, let us reexamine the significance of the cross event. Our
personal salvation experience is at stake.
Since none of us have the
original texts of the Jewish and Christian writings, we must trust in
the Holy Spirit to illumine God’s Word to our hearts. Too often,
historians, theologians, and Bible scholars are divided on biblical
issues. Scripture says, “...when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He
will guide you into all truth…” (John 16:13). Were it not for the
“speaking voice” of God, His written Word would be a dead book.
The Bible starts with the
introduction of death as the problem that needs removing.
And the Lord
God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely
eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat,
for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen.
2:16-17).
The Bible ends with the
overthrow of death and the restoration of life.
And God will wipe away every tear from their
eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying… And the Spirit
and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And
let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the
water of life freely (Rev. 21:4, 22:17).
The question is, “What is this
death that is the ongoing focus of Scripture?” God’s Holy Spirit
must show us.
The meaning of death is
“separation.” We describe physical death as separation of the spirit from
the body (James 2:26a). True death is separation of man from the
eternal life source (1 John 1:1-3).
When Adam sinned in the garden,
God brought His judgment, “spiritual death” (Gen. 3:3-4, 24). However,
Adam lived to a ripe old age (Gen. 5:5). The new creation letter of Paul
says “sin-death” is man’s real problem (Rom. 5:12).
The flow of “death” through the
Bible is a spiritual death not physical. Everyone will die
physically. “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this
the judgment” (Heb. 9:27). However, God gives hope by His grace to
those who trust in His Word:
And He will destroy on this mountain
The surface of the covering cast over all people,
And the veil that is spread over all nations.
He will swallow up death forever,
And the Lord God
will wipe away tears from all faces;
The rebuke of His people He will take away from
all the earth;
For the Lord
has spoken (Is. 25:7-8).
Your covenant with death will be annulled...
(Is. 28:18).
The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not
bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son.
The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the
wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself (Ezek. 18:20).
I will ransom them from the power of the grave;
I will redeem them from death.
O Death, I will be your plagues!
O Grave, I will be your destruction! (Hos.
13:14)
The Old Testament people who
died were held in Sheol/Hades. Before Jesus went to the cross, He said,
“No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven…”
(John 3:13a). The sin problem had to be dealt with to open up the way to
heaven. Sin separated man from God. Man needed to be reconciled to the
holy, righteous Creator through the blood of the cross of Christ.
That blood is just part of the process of redemption. Without the
resurrection, man would still be separated from God.
Jesus prophesied before the
cross event that those who believed in His Word would be united with
the triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus said:
I will not leave you orphans; I will come to
you…At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I
in you (John 14:18, 20).
“He who is joined to the
Lord is one spirit with Him” (1 Cor. 6:17). The apostles give
us the significance of the resurrection to destroy sin-death.
Peter says the salvation that
the prophets prophesied of would come in the last days of the Jewish age
(1 Pet. 1:20).
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again
to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead... (1 Pet. 1:3).
Paul adds:
For if we have been united together in the
likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of
His resurrection… I have been crucified with Christ; it
is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which
I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God…which is
Christ in you, the hope of glory (Rom. 6:5; Gal. 2:20; Col.
1:27).
In
summary, the Holy Spirit through the Word of God leads us to understand
that sin, satan, and spiritual death were put away through the death,
burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We have resurrection life now.
When our bodies expire, we will
transition into our spiritual bodies like our Elder Brother has (2 Cor.
5:1-5; 1 Cor. 15:44; 2 Pet. 1:13-14). We will live in the spiritual realm
(heaven) with our Lord forever.
A. Wilson Phillips is the co-founding and senior
pastor of Abundant Life Covenant
Church.
HUMILITY &
WORSHIP
By Richard K. Clark
One of the most important
attributes for the “worshiper” of Christ is “humility.” Biblical humility
implies purposely bowing our wills to the will of our Supreme Lord. The
definitions for the scriptural words “worship” and “humility” are first
cousins. The Hebrew word for “worship” in Psalm 95:6 is shachah,
meaning “to depress, prostrate, bow down.”
Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
Let us kneel before the Lord
our Maker (Ps. 95:6).
Appropriately the Greek word
for “worship” in John 4:24 is proskuneo, meaning “to kiss, like a
dog licking his master’s hand, or prostrate oneself in homage, to do
reverence, to adore.”
God is Spirit,
and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth
(John 4:24).
We were created by God to
worship and adore Him, but Adam’s sin against his Creator cut off mankind
from God’s holy presence. Adam infected the whole human race with the
pride of Lucifer, which is the opposite of humility. Pride is the
impossible dream that mankind (or any created being) is capable of a
willful rise to God’s place. At this Easter season, we are celebrating
God’s solution for man’s unsolvable dilemma. The absolute pattern for
humility is Jesus Christ.
Let this mind
be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God,
did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of
no reputation (emptied Himself), taking the form of a
bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in
appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the
point of death, even the death of the cross (Phil. 2:5-8).
Not only is Christ our pattern
for humility, He also purchased our way back into the Father’s holiness by
His blood and broken body. We died and rose again with Christ who has
become our righteousness; we are accepted in the Father’s Beloved. We are
reconciled to God to be the praise of His glory.
As we walk in obedience to the
Spirit and Word of God, our fleshly pride is put to death. Our wills,
emotions, and minds are aligned to and subservient to the
Lord—which
is true worship. This lifestyle of humility knows by revelation that God
is everything. Riches, honor, and life are our experiences (Prov. 22:4) as
we recognize where they come from, whom they flow through, and to whom the
true glory always belongs.
For of Him
and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen
(Rom. 11:36).
Richard K. Clark is an associate pastor of Abundant Life Covenant Church.
Writing Checks That You Cannot Cash
By Benjamin Davis
Faith requires listening to
the spoken voice of God.
When God called Abram from the
Ur of the Chaldeans, His spoken voice gave Abram the following
assignment:
Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you (Gen. 12:1).
Abram did not have a Bible in
those days. He was totally dependant on oral teachings that he had
received from his father and the spoken voice of God.
New Testament commentary on
Abram’s obedience states:
By faith
Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to
the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not
knowing where he was going (Heb. 11:8).
While Abram obeyed God, he
faced some severe tests along the way. One of the greatest tests came when
God changed his name from Abram (“Exalted Father”) to Abraham (“Father of
Many”). God required Sarai to partner with him in this change, changing
her name to Sarah. At this point, Abraham only had one child, Ishmael, who
was not even the promised one. God was asking Abraham and Sarah to write a
check with their mouths that they could not cash.
Today we have the Scripture,
many excellent Bible scholars, and books in abundance, but none of these
can replace the spoken voice of God. In fact, without the spoken voice of
God, these written materials can become dead orthodoxy.
God often uses Scripture and
other written materials to speak to His children who are willing to
listen. When He does, He often asks them to write checks with their mouth
that they cannot cash.
God has repeatedly done this in
my life. When I was 15, He initiated a personal relationship with me
through His spoken voice. I was not raised in church, and I had never read
the Bible. My knowledge of it was limited to one passage I had seen on a
road sign along the highway: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou
shalt be saved…” Nevertheless, beside my bed one evening, He spoke to
me, asking me to yield control of my life to Him.
When I was 16, God—through His
spoken voice—revealed His plan for my life; I was to become a pastor. By
then, I had read most of the New Testament and written a book report on it
in my English class. However, the thought of becoming a pastor was like
looking into a black hole—I was shy with people, untrained in the
Scripture, and totally afraid. Nevertheless, again I yielded and began to
write a check with my mouth that I could not cash apart from His
empowering presence in my life.
To follow God’s calling on my
life, I had an Abram-like experience in relocating. I left my family and
familiar country and moved 2000 miles to Bolivar, Missouri, to go to
school. My closest relative, or even acquaintance for that matter, was
over 1000 miles away in another state. I set a major in subjects totally
foreign to me at a school that was too expensive for me. Nevertheless, His
spoken voice was guiding me and confirming His will for my life.
Today, I am still following
God’s spoken voice and writing checks with my mouth that can only be
cashed by the power and anointing of His Holy Spirit. He placed me at
Abundant Life Covenant Church in Springfield and asked me to grow deep
roots. He asked my wife Holly and I to lead the young people into their
inheritance in Christ by living our lives openly before them as examples
of Jesus Christ. The New Creation House on Friday nights has been a check
that our
senior
pastor has been writing for years. As we joined our voices to his, that
check became cashable and is now a reality.
As we continue to listen to and
obey the spoken voice of God, He will continue to ask us to write checks
with our mouths that we cannot cash apart from the leading of His Holy
Spirit. Here is one of those checks in written form: “The Best Is Yet To
Come!”
Benjamin Davis is an associate pastor of Abundant Life Covenant Church
FAIREST LORD JESUS!
By Jonathan Clark
I’ve finally decided to acknowledge a rather embarrassing realization. For
years, I thought that all of my hats and eyeglasses were crooked; but the
painful truth is—it must be my head that is crooked. (I can just hear some
saying, “Well, that explains a lot!”) I have (at least one) physical flaw!
As far as physical perfection is concerned, I’m not the fairest in the
land.
Recently, I was reading a
messianic Psalm of love penned by the sons of Korah.
You are fairer than the sons of men;
Grace is poured upon Your lips... (Ps. 45:2).
The sons of Korah saw, by the
Spirit, just how fair Jesus was/is. Apparently, Munster Gesangbuck also
had revelation of just how fair Jesus was/is when he penned the hymn
“Fairest Lord Jesus!” in 1677. Sorry, Snow White—Jesus was and still is
the fairest in the land.
Fairest Lord Jesus! Ruler of all nature!
O Thou of God and man the Son!
Thee will I cherish, Thee will I honor,
Thou, my soul’s glory, joy, and crown!
Webster’s Dictionary defines
“fair” as pleasing to the eye or mind especially because of fresh,
charming, or flawless quality; clean, pure; beauty; being such to the
utmost. As I read and understand this definition, the flawless beauty and
pleasant charm that are manifested by the “fair” radiate from their “inner
beauty” or purity and freshness. Jesus exhibits these qualities to the
utmost, making Him wholly desirable.
Fair are the meadows, Fairer still the woodlands,
Robed in the blooming garb of spring.
Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer,
Who makes the woeful heart to sing!
As “fairest Lord Jesus” becomes
my very life, His “fair-ness” outshines my external defects, and His
flawlessness overshadows my internal ones. My thoughts can and will become
more fair-minded (noble-minded), just as the thoughts of the Berean
Christians were in the first century:
These were more
fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word
with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether
these things were so (Acts 17:11).
I am glad that the loving,
almighty Father God has sent sweet Holy Spirit to
reveal
fairest Lord Jesus to me and in me and in all those who are His. Just to
know and experience His pleasant beauty and
freshness is reason enough to get out of bed every morning!
Fair is the sunshine, Fairer still the moonlight,
And all the twinkling, starry host.
Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer
Than all the angels heav’n can boast!
Jonathan Clark is an elder of Abundant Life Covenant Church and a physician in
Springfield, Missouri.
Divine Details
By Byron Hamilton
Jesus dealt with a generation that was by-and-large doubters of His
identity and ministry. When the
religious elite demanded a “sign” in order to excuse their unbelief, Jesus
replied:
An evil and adulterous generation seeks
after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the
prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly
of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights
in the heart of the earth (Matt.
12:39-40).
Jesus was speaking here of His
death, burial, and resurrection. He said this would be the only sign
given to confirm His divinity. The chief priests and Pharisees had no
misconception regarding this sign. It was for this reason they
asked Pilot to dispatch a battery of guards to secure the tomb for
“three days” after Jesus’ burial to ensure that the disciples did not
steal the body and claim that He rose from the dead (Matt. 27:62-66).
We understand that Jesus was
crucified on what the church has come to call Good Friday, placed in the
tomb Friday night, and rose from the tomb early Sunday morning. It would
appear that the synoptic gospels give validity to this tradition (Matt.
27; Mark 15; Luke 23). However, the problem with this scenario is that it
doesn’t add up to three days and three nights in the earth. It would be
extremely helpful if it did—for this was to be the unique
sign of Jesus’ messiahship. No matter how we slice the time sequence of
this event, it is impossible to produce “three days and three nights in
the heart of the earth.”
The synoptic writers record that Jesus’ trial and crucifixion occurred on
Preparation Day; however, John adds further clarification that it was
“the
Preparation Day of the Passover”
(John 19:14), as opposed to what we commonly think of as preparation day
to the regular Sabbath (Saturday). “Preparation Day of the Passover” was
highly significant in the Jewish culture. It was when all leaven bread was
removed from the house, and the sacrificial lamb, which had been
quarantined for four days, was prepared to be slain. Late in the afternoon
on Preparation Day, the lamb was slaughtered and prepared for eating. At
sunset, the Day of Passover began with the eating of the Passover meal.
Jesus was arrested by
soldiers and a contingent of religious leaders at the commencement of
Preparation Day. John records:
Now it
was the Preparation Day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour
(noon). And he (Pilate)
said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” (John 19:14).
During the afternoon on Preparation Day as all the remaining leaven was
removed from Jewish homes, God placed the remaining sin of the world on
His Son. Late in the afternoon on
Preparation Day, each family slew their Passover lamb, and outside their
city at precisely the same time, the Lamb of God breathed His last breath
and gave up His spirit.
At dusk, the beginning of Passover, as the
sacrificial lamb was prepared to be eaten by the covenant people; the body
of Jesus was prepared for burial and laid in a borrowed tomb in a nearby
garden. John records:
So
there they laid Jesus, because of the Jews’ Preparation Day, for the
tomb was nearby (John 19:42).
Because the laws of the
Passover were similar to those of the Sabbath, it was considered a High
Sabbath or special Sabbath. This is what has led to the belief that Christ
was crucified the day before the Sabbath; the crucifixion actually took
place on Preparation Day, the day before the High Sabbath (Passover Day).
The regular Sabbath occurred the day after Passover. Again, John
clarifies:
Therefore,
because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should not remain on
the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked
Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away
(John 19:31).
For the first time in a great number of
years, the Passover fell the day before the regular Sabbath giving two
back-to-back Sabbaths (Friday and Saturday). Matthew authenticates this
understanding when he uses the plural form of the Greek (Sab'baton)
in the following verse:
Now after the
Sabbath(s), as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary
Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb (Matt. 28:1).
God the Father had orchestrated the precise
time in history for the fulfillment of long awaited prophecy. He had set
the stage for this momentous event through the celebration details given
to Moses on the eve of the great Exodus from Egypt, 1490 years earlier.
Although planned from the beginning of time, God waited for the fullness
of time to display His own Passover Lamb.
Jesus’ only sign to His
Messianic Deity was fulfilled on time and in exacting detail. He was
“three days and three nights in the heart
of the earth.” We can trust the divine details.
Byron Hamilton and his
wife Leesa own Med-Soft National Training Institute in Springfield,
Missouri.
GOD’S GREAT FISH
By Shari Tyson
“And God prepared a
great fish to swallow Jonah…” Strangely enough, the Lord has comforted
me tremendously with this Scripture verse.
When our eldest son was 18, my husband and I had to give him
a choice. He could either choose to flow with the values and priorities of
our home, or he could leave to live his life by the values he felt were
important. He chose to leave. In the ensuing years, we watched our son
make decisions that brought a great deal of hardship to him and the
greatest degree of heart suffering we, his parents, have known.
For years, we watched and
prayed as his lifestyle became more and more contrary to the one that we
had lived before him. His poor decisions produced serious consequences.
One day I was particularly
concerned about what was happening in our son’s life, and my faith was
beginning to falter. But the Holy Spirit, ever faithful, brought me to the
book of Jonah. Immediately my perspective changed. My unrest had been due
to the fact that I had not believed God was in absolute control. God
reassured me that before the foundations of the worlds were framed, He had
chosen our son and determined how He was going to conform him to the image
of His Son—Christ.
In the story of Jonah, God had
somewhere He needed Jonah to be; He had something He needed Jonah to do.
However, Jonah decided he had a better plan. That did not threaten God,
nor did it interfere with God’s timetable. In order for God to get Jonah
where He needed him to be, He prepared a great fish to swallow him.
The circumstances in our son’s
life were the “great fish” God had allowed to swallow him, to serve His
purposes in our son’s life. Our son was right on course, no matter what
was apparent to the eye. Not only was God teaching my son in the way He
had chosen, He was teaching me to walk by faith and not by sight. Great is
His faithfulness!
Gratefully, this son about whom
I have written now lives his life running toward God’s voice rather than
from it. God has honored that by giving him a beautiful family and a
stable job.
However, one of his brothers is
having his own “fish-belly experience,” and I am finding that, just as God
is using circumstances to develop him, He is taking me deeper also. The
word He gave me several years ago is certainly an encouragement, but the
need today requires a deeper humbling of myself, a greater level of
relating to Jesus’ own words, “…if it is possible, let this cup pass
from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”
Jesus was here to preach the
kingdom of God in order that we would understand what was going to be
restored to us by His precious blood. He was here to reclaim the
inheritance that Adam sacrificed, and Father God will use our lives to do
the same.
I would balk at what God is now
requiring of me except that He is giving me a better understanding of what
it means to partner with Him in faith to bring His kingdom to rule on this
earth. I would be crushed by the heartache except that He is showing me
what it means to appropriate the revelation of covenant to call forth
another life “…from darkness into His marvelous light.”
It is freeing to be able to say
with Christ, “Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘ Father
save Me from this hour?’ But for this purpose I came to this hour.”
So, again I say, “Great is His faithfulness!”
Shari Tyson leads the nursery ministry at
Abundant Life Covenant Church.
YOUNG
HEARTS CONNECT WITH GOD
Now the boy Samuel
ministered to the Lord before
Eli. And the word of the Lord
was rare in those days; there was no widespread revelation... Now the
Lord... called... “Samuel!, Samuel!” And Samuel answered, “Speak, for Your
servant hears (1 Sam. 3:1, 10).
The past
few days God has been really dealing with me about spending more time with
Him—like quieting down for a devotion, or just calming down when I get
nervous before a big basketball game or before a big test. It’s really
hard to get quieted down; I may not talk much, but my mind is off to the
races. He gave me this verse, “Be still and know that I am God”
(Ps. 46:10). This verse really helps me become quiet and calms me down
when things are going rough, because I know that it is not in my hands any
longer, it’s in His. God also told me to pray in my prayer language, and
that also calms me down.
Nathan Wood is an
eighth grader at Carver Middle School in Springfield, Missouri.
God has been showing me a lot
about being afraid. Last summer I was at the lake and got a concussion in
an accident. It hurt, but it also scared me REALLY bad. That night I went
home and didn’t feel very good, but the next morning I woke up and felt as
good as new. Ever since then I have had more faith of how God is always
protecting us, and even if we do get hurt, He is our healer and healing.
That day at the lake, I could have gotten hurt a lot worse, but God was
with me the whole time, and He will help me through my whole life.
I’ve also overcome fear at
school. I started sixth grade at Greenwood this year, and during the
summer, I was kind of nervous. I was afraid that people wouldn’t like me
or something. God showed me that there is no reason to be afraid, and I
don’t have to act differently to make them accept me because God has
already accepted me. So I can just be myself and still make friends. I
love school, and now I have made a ton of friends!
Sara Cook is a sixth grader at Greenwood
Middle School in Springfield, Missouri.
Not long ago when Pastor Davis
was talking about “the error of Balaam for profit” in Jude 11, I
started thinking about the story of Balaam. Balaam could hear from God,
but it turned out that he only did God’s word to a certain extent. He
wanted to throw his own agenda into the mix, and as a result, he later
died because of his selfish agenda. It came to me that lately I have not
been living rightly to help the advancement of the kingdom in my life. The
questions that God posed to me... “How am I living right now? Would God be
pleased with me?” ... I realized that I needed to change if God was going
to work in my life. My outward appearance seemed to be fine, but in
reality I had been living for myself with some of God’s agenda thrown into
the mix ... I realized that I needed to live fully for God so that my life
can be an example to others and so that my life can continue with God’s
plan fully planted in my life...
Justin Clark is a senior at Kickapoo High
School.
SPIRITUALLY
CONNECTED TO GOD AND PEOPLE THROUGH FAITH IN HIS SPEAKING VOICE
By A. Wilson Phillips
Abram’s journey of faith shows
us how God connects His covenant people together spiritually through
faith, not just biologically.
God’s prophet Moses wrote:
Now the Lord
(Yahweh) had said to Abram:
“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you” (Gen. 12:1).
How Abram came to know Yahweh
is clearly revealed in Scripture. The way Abram responded to God’s
speaking voice was, and still is, the key to becoming spiritually
connected to God and His covenant people.
From the beginning of history,
God’s plan to redeem His people has been global. God’s grace was shown to
Abram through his obedience to His speaking voice. Scripture says, “And
he (Abram) believed in the Lord,
and He accounted it to him for righteousness” (Gen. 15:6).
In this verse, God added up
everything that Abram’s belief meant to Him and, computing it all
together, determined that it was equal to righteousness.
For if Abraham
was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before
God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was
accounted to him for righteousness” (Rom. 4:2-3).
Because of Abram’s righteous
living before the presence of the omnipresent, omniscient God, God made a
blood covenant with Abram. In my view, the most important
chapter in the Jewish Scriptures is Gen. 15:1-21.
Earlier, God told Abram that in
him and his descendants “all the families of the earth shall be
blessed” (Gen. 12:3). Now God spoke to Abram:
“Bring Me a
three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram,
a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” Then he (Abram) brought all
these to Him (Yahweh) and cut them in two, down the middle, and
placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in
two…And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that
behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed
between those pieces. On the same day the Lord
made a covenant with Abram... (Gen. 15:9-10, 17-18a).
In the ancient world that Abram
lived in, it was common for “two covenant parties” to use animals to make
a blood covenant in the same manner that the Lord instructed Abram in
cutting the covenant with Him.
The covenant parties arranged
the animals that were cut in two, opposite one another. The covenant
parties passed between the halves indicating that they were irrevocably
bound together in blood. They were establishing a new bond or
covenant. The sacred nature of this bond was attested to by the shedding
of lifeblood.
In this biblically recorded
instance, only God passed between the pieces. This indicated that it was
His covenant and He would assume the responsibility for its
administration.
Present in this
account of covenant making are three essential ingredients: 1) A bond that
originates from God’s initiative, 2) the offering of a blood sacrifice as
a requirement of covenant, and 3) God’s sovereign administration of the
outcome of His oath (New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, Charles
Simpson).
Twenty-four years after God
separated Abram from his family of idol worshippers, He appeared to Abram
and said, “I am the Almighty (El Shaddai) God; walk
before Me and be blameless” (Gen. 17:1). God changed Abram’s name to
Abr-ah-am. God was associating the patriarch more nearly to
Himself. There had been character development in Abram. Now God is
imparting a portion of His own name—“ah” from “Yahweh.”
He did the same with Sarai (Sar-ah).
God wanted both Abraham and
Sarah to speak of themselves as God viewed them—the father of multitudes
and the mother of nations (Gen. 17:5, 15).
When Abraham was 99 and Sarah
was 90, they conceived Isaac, the promised heir by faith in God’s
spoken word. They showed their faith by acting upon God’s Word.
The “Seed” of Abraham, Jesus
Christ of Nazareth, came through the faith of Abraham (Gal. 3:16, 29).
Today, when a person is
“baptized into Christ” or born again, they have been spiritually
connected to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Holy Spirit bears
witness to our spirits that we are joint heirs with Jesus Christ (Rom.
8:15-17). We are in a spiritual union with the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit (John 14:20-23).
Father God
will reveal these precious truths to those who live righteously before
God’s presence as Abram did (Ps. 25:14). He will connect us to Himself
and people who will live righteously by the grace of God’s Spirit and
Word.
WHAT TIME IS GOD?
By Jonathan Clark
I was walking down the hallway
at work the other day with no particular concerns on my mind. All of a
sudden, God quickened a truth in my spirit: “I am now.” I have known this
truth for many years, and He decided now was the right time to refresh it
in me again.
Ephesians 3:20 is a favorite
verse of mine—
Now to Him who
is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think,
according to the power that works in us...”
My mind will usually
automatically focus on the “exceedingly abundantly above all” part,
but on this day, the first word was the focus: “Now...”
God’s incredible power that is
at work in me is at work in me now! His Spirit is at work in me
generating, creating, arranging now! He is in the now. All of His
promises have been fulfilled in the past, yet they are current realities
that I am experiencing now.
Psalm 46:1 declares, “God
is...a very present help...” I am certainly aware of His presence in
times of trouble, and He is making me aware of His dynamic presence at
work in me throughout the course of a normal day.
God is always speaking now:
“Today if you will hear His voice...” (Heb. 3:7). “Be still and
know that I am God...” (Ps. 46:10).
God is always at work creating
new life in people: “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is
the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2).
When is God?
What time is God? He is always right on time; He is always now!
.jpg)
.jpg)