All about covenants...Various passages...a mini break from Matthew


 This is a view of Andrews Peak on the North Inlet Trail.  Somehow I captured the morning sun ray.  It was a good place to stop and get my breathe from this 20 mile hike traveling up 2500 feet in elevation.  Maybe not the last hike of the season because we have a stretch of blue bird days this week and highs in the 50's.  I am thankful for the extended fall weather before the snow makes more of its presence.

It was great to have a mini break from our study of the Gospel of Matthew to talk about covenants and also to read our new official covenant for SCC.  It is important for us to see that what we are committing to is not something man has made up but rather from the pages of the Bible.  It is also important to see that the words of the covenant are based off of the words of God.  These covenants made between God and man and man to man are very evident in the Bible.  There are also signs of these covenants like the rainbow in the clouds to remind us of God's pledge and promise to the earth that it will not be flooded in totality to destroy all life.  We also looked at Joshua who wrote out a covenant that the people were making and set a stone to remind them of their promise to God and one another.  This is found in his final address to the people of God in the Promise Land in the latter portion of Joshua 24.

I really liked this reference because the spiritual leader, Joshua, put together a covenant for the people to affirm and it was based off of the very first commandment to have no other gods before God.  I, as the spiritual leader of SCC, have put together a covenant from the commitment of the core based upon the "one anothers" of Jesus to His disciples.  Joshua wrote it out and also set a stone to remind them of this covenant.  I posted this covenant in the Elder's log, the display case in our foyer and also on the belief page of our website.  The stone will be the Covenant Sundays we will have each time we take communion as others also commit to this covenant with those who have taken it before them.  Joshua wrote the covenant with rules and regulations from the Scriptures that they were to agree to and abide by.  We now have a covenant that has rules and regulations from the Scriptures that we agree to and abide by.

I think the paragraph that I appreciate most or think is the most important of our new covenant is this:

I understand that if I am exhibiting the negative of any of these God given “one another’s” that I am out of step with God’s will 
and will seek repentance (a turning back to God’s standard) following 
1) the words of God (2 Timothy 3:16-17), 
2) the guidance of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 5:23-24; John 16:13), and 
3) the loving discipline of my church family (Matthew 18:15-17).  
This corrective action back to God’s standard 
is for the benefit of the whole and myself.  

This is a "me act first" document.  It is not one to sit back now and wait for all those others to show me the "one anothers" but rather for me to act first with showing the "one anothers" to all the others.  The Golden Rule has us doing first what we would want the others to do unto us.  I will post here the covenant for you to read.  Be in prayer for our church in the mountains as some will step forward this Sunday to take this covenant with others.  For many this will be a first in this area of church life.  

This part of church life and responsibility I would not have been able to accomplish at the start of our ministry.  It was always regulated to those higher up in the denomination and set up already for us to follow.  It is very different leading an independent Bible believing church who doesn't have the "higher ups" to refer to.  I think it does cause more ownership with the church documents created and also a greater dependency on those documents being supporting by something larger than ourselves, the very words of God.  As we move onto a mission, vision and values statement and then our statement of faith and finally our church constitution and bylaws, I pray we will be guided by the Holy Spirit to God's words that not only support these guiding church documents but actually are born out of His words.

Adam








A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 39th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

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