Posted on Friday, January 31, 2014

#015 – The Blood of God (Blood Covenant Pt 8) [Podcast]

We have seen that a covenant in Bible times was a matter of life and death. This was underscored throughout the ritual by the death of the covenant animal, the oath taken by the two parties, and the shedding of their own blood, which flowed down their arms as they swore to keep the covenant even to the shedding of their own blood.

The Blood of God

For God to make the new covenant, the representative— the God Man, Jesus—had to shed His blood in death and, rising out of death, bring us the blessings of the new covenant in the authority of His shed blood.

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Posted on Friday, January 24, 2014

#014 – The Story of Mephibosheth (Blood Covenant Pt 7) [Podcast]

The making of the new covenant is foreshadowed in many of the Old Testament stories. We must remember that they are records of actual events that took place in the lives of real people in Israel. They are helpful signposts that anticipate and point the way to what Jesus would do. They are not meant to explain His work of covenant-making, nor do they fit every detail of what He did; but they help us to understand how the one act of Jesus 2000 years ago transforms our lives today.  

Mephibosheth

One such story is found scattered through 1 and 2 Samuel. It is the story of a covenant that took place between Jonathan, the son of King Saul and the crown prince of Israel, and David, who at that time was a general in Saul’s army and previously a peasant from Bethlehem.  It is a story of Jonathan’s son, Mephibosheth, a prince in exile who was heirs of a covenant made before he was even born.

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Posted on Friday, January 17, 2014

#013 – The Covenant Representative (Blood Covenant Pt 6) [Podcast]

God has a radical agenda of love! He reaches to every man and woman to reconcile us to Himself, to include us in the circle of His intimate friends, and to return each one of us to the reason for our creation. How does He achieve this goal of totally transforming the man or woman who is dead in sin?  

Covenant Representative

He achieves it with no help from us. He makes the new covenant: a unilateral covenant, originating solely with Him and freely offered to man as His gift; a covenant based on the oath of God, who swears by Himself because He can swear by none greater.

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Posted on Friday, January 10, 2014

#012 – The Core of Covenant (Blood Covenant Pt 5) [Podcast]

Behind the covenant that He makes is the core of His heart, which is infinite love, best understood among men as hesed. As we would not have the rays of the sun if there were no sun, so there would be no covenant if God were not the molten core of infinite and unconditional love! This is the heart of the revelation of God that comes to us in Christ and the Gospel.  

The Core of Covenant

Among humans a covenant is made in order to bring about the state of living in lovingkindness; the oath accompanied with blood-shedding is in order to give strength to such a high ideal. But God makes covenant not to make lovingkindness but to reveal that He is all that it means.

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Posted on Friday, January 3, 2014

#011 – The Lovingkindness of God (Blood Covenant Pt 4) [Podcast]

The Bible knows nothing of abstract discussions of covenant. Rather, what we see is covenant in action.  So, often you will see words such as mercy or lovingkindess more than the word covenant, as these are words of covenant-in-action.  The Hebrew word is hesed.  

The Lovingkindness of God

The very heart of hesed is passionate love, pursuit, strength, and steadfastness.  In this episode, we look at this word through Scripture and see our wonderful union with the Trinitarian God.

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Posted on Friday, December 20, 2013

#010 – World of the Living Dead (Blood Covenant Pt 3) [Podcast]

We were created for covenant union with God, to be in the circle of His friends. We are made in His image and in His likeness, uniquely fitted to interact with Him in love. This is the meaning of our existence: to live by the life of God, enjoying the privilege of being His friends.

World of the Living Dead

Mankind was created to say yes to God and to choose to trust His love. Instead, they said no to God and yes to the lie of Satan and, in so doing, became the enemies of God. They denied the meaning of their existence as creatures and rejected their God-given glory of submission and obedience to the Creator. They said no to the covenant union with Him, for whom they were created, exchanging it for the dead-end street of independence that results in death.

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Posted on Friday, December 13, 2013

#009 – How Covenant is Made (Blood Covenant Pt 2) [Podcast]

When we learn all the components of how covenant is made, it will give us a new Bible. Among the Arabs to this very day is the saying “Blood is thicker than milk,” meaning that those bound by the blood of covenant are held in a stronger bond than those who have drunk of the same mother’s milk.

How covenant is made

A covenant is a binding, unbreakable obligation between two parties, based on unconditional love sealed by blood and sacred oath, that creates a relationship in which each party is bound by specific undertakings on each other’s behalf. The parties to the covenant place themselves under the penalty of divine retribution should they later attempt to avoid those undertakings. It is a relationship that can only be broken by death.

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Posted on Friday, December 6, 2013

#008 – Blood Covenant Pt 1: What’s Missing? [Podcast]

We cannot avoid the blood covenant. It faces us either directly or by implication in every story and miracle of the Scriptures.

blood covenant

The unbelievable news of the Gospel is that God has entered into blood covenant with us, as us, and has pledged Himself to bless us within certain carefully defined promises. He has in fact given Himself away to us, calling us into union with Himself.

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Posted on Friday, November 29, 2013

#007 – Your Life as a Journey [Podcast]

Seeing your life as a journey can make a huge difference in your life.  In this episode, we break apart Proverbs 3:5 … a verse everyone knows … but have we REALLY seen the power in this verse?

The Bible looks at life in terms of journeys.  “In all your journeys…”  In all the roads of your life, in all the pathways you find yourself walking on … not crises, journeys.  And when I saw that, it was the most liberating experience, to be able to revamp my understanding of life.  It’s not a series of crises.  It’s not a series of interruptions.  It’s journeys.  And if I can understand my journeys, and what is going on, and why I’m on the journey, then I can enter into a peace and flow in life that I say, again, is liberating.

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Posted on Friday, November 22, 2013

#006 – Believing the Lie (Search for Self-Worth) [Podcast]

In this episode, we cover the 2nd part of the Search for Self-Worth. In particular, we discuss how we got into the mess we are in today … mid-life crises, poor self esteem, the madness of searching for significance, …

To understand this, we must go back to the beginning … to our original parents believing THE lie.  And see how man, by his choice, walked away from his only true source of worth … and the downward spiral that resulted.

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