Hey gloggers, great to have you back this week.

Sunday September 27, 2009 I will speak on God Chases: Covenant.

There are 6 covenants in Scripture: Adam -Genesis 1.26, Noah- Genesis 9.8, Abraham -Genesis 12.1, Moses -Exodus 19.5, David- 2 Samuel 7.8, and Jesus- Matthew 16.17; 26.28.

All six connect ending with the fulfillment of covenant in Jesus and his church…you.

The Hebrew word for covenant is berith…this means literally to cut. Blood is shed and the members of the covenant make a loyalty pact that if they break the boundaries of the agreement their own blood is to be shed.

When I consider this aspect of covenant, I think…serious. This is no game.

I also think of loyalty. The primary Hebrew word attached to the word covenant is hesed, community love and loyalty.

Hesed speaks to affection, choice, passion, loyalty, and community. This is no individualistic program. Covenant speaks about a community relationship of loving loyalty locked into a serious commitment.

I like to say that covenant is the deepest word for love in the Bible. When I look at marriages which fail I see serial selfishness and a void of covenant.

I also see the angst of aloneness in the reflections of my single friends. How cool is it to have a friend who will be loyal to the point of shedding their own blood for you?

You are a student in school…do you ever wonder if you truly belong to anyone?

I think this is groundbreaking for your local faith community and your market place or school. Covenant love runs deep…I have a sense of solid connection to Jesus, my wife, and children.

I have this picture in my brain of Charleton Heston as Pres of the NRA raising his rifle above his head and exclaiming to cheering NRAers “from my cold dead hands!!!!” I am not sure about all that but I love his passion and commitment to something.

Glog to me your heart about covenant…I wonder if this is the love our culture seeks. What do you think?

Thank you so much for helping me prepare and think through this message series. Honestly I did not think this process would be so fulfilling and helpful. Your input and discussion challenges me and I think keeps me on a relevant track. I hope you will continue this journey.

Sunday September 20 I will be speaking on God’s love and judgment.

The thinking follows the logic that God’s image can shed light on who we are…our identity becomes clearer as we connect with his image.

In Genesis 1-3 amazing pictures emerge. God creates mankind in his own image and he calls them, man and woman, good creatures.

I see a God of love speaking the world into existence, and our Creator then fashioning man with his own hands. The image is of a personal Creator God who personally brings man into being with love and tenderness.

Then when man falls from the pride of sin, the same loving God judges mankind, pain and suffering result.

How do you reconcile the loving Creator and the just judge? How do you connect those dots in your own life?

Let me give you something to think about as you ponder the six theories of Creation. Think with me about the context of Creation ideas in the ancient world. In Greek mythology Gaea, mother earth, simply appeared. She gave birth to a son named Uranus, in Greek ouranos, the word for heaven. She then became the incestuous lover of her son. They had children who became irritating to Uranus so he imprisoned them in the womb, the deep earth, of Gaea. She became angry and plotted with her son Cronos to ambush Uranus. Cronos with a flint sickle provided by his mother co conspirator cut of the genitals of Uranus and threw the remains into the sea, the bloody foam on the shore produced the goddess Aphrodite.

In Sumerian mythology Tiamat was the primevil chaos monster goddess. Pictured as a dragon she is described as a bizarre figure of serpent parts, udders, and human appendages. Her husband Apsu was irritated by their children and plotted to kill them. Tiamat resisted and in a battle with the god Marduk she was distended, shot, cut in two, and pierced in the heart. Her crushed skull signaled her death and the corpse which remained provided structure to hold up the sky.

And then Genesis…In the beginning God created… He calls his creation good using the Hebrew word tob meaning beautiful, delightful, morally good. The Creation account is good news for mankind gone wild with family meltdowns, incest, hatred, violence, immorality.

What if the purpose of Genesis 1 has nothing to do with the six theories but instead is the Good News of Creation?

Genesis 1.1 says In the beginning God created….

This has been a hot topic for a long time.

There are a number of opinions within the Christian community about who done it and when.

Was there a bang, a boom, or is that all a big bust?

Here are 6 opinions in Christian communities about creation. I want to thank Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill in Seattle for this outline. Gracias Mark.

1. Exegetical Historic Creationism-the Hebrew word bereshith “in the beginning” means an indefinite period of time. This could have been billions of years. Historic creationism also holds to the truth that after this creating for an indefinite period of time, six days of creation took place. In this view you have much time elapsing and 6 literal days.

2. New Earth Creationism-This view holds to a literal 6 days of creation and essentially rejects scientific claims.

3. Gap Theory-This view posits that two creative events happened in Genesis 1-3. The first event explains the “oldness” of the world, and the second event explains the “newness” as it relates to the literal 6 days of creation.

4. Literary Picture-This view holds that the creation account is a lovely literary picture.

5. Creative Event Theory-This position sees creation happening in 6 events without chronological limitation of 24 hour time period.

6.Theistic Evolution- Theistic evolution believes that God created but then removed himself from direct control. This allows the theory of evolution to emerge.

So where do you land and how bad do you want to fight over your position?

Let’s have some fun this week. Watch for more posts as I develop this message.

Glen

This is the final post for the week before our message on Sunday September 6, 2009.

The passage comes from Psalm 107.17

Some were rebels and suffered for their sins.
They couldn’t stand the thought of food and knocked at death’s door.

“Lord Help!”, they cried in their trouble and he saved them from distress.

He sent out His Word and healed them,
snatching them from the doors of death.

He sent out His Word and healed….

The Word of God, His speech, heals. In the context His word heals us rebels from our sins.

Lovely imagery here, we stood anorexic at the door of despair. The speech of God saves and heals.

I find this so true of my life. When I was a young man, I felt so lost. The Scriptures connected with that broken place inside of me and led me to Christ. He fills, connects, and Jesus speaks still.