At our Monday morning staff meeting this week we focused on the concept of covenant, and explored biblical examples as well as how the true meaning of covenant has been lost in our society today. Covenant still carries with it connotations of a promise, maybe even a serious promise, but the deeper heart of a binding commitment is difficult to grasp. As I understand it, a covenant is made between two parties under the authority and accountability of a third outside party. (E.g., we often refer to marriage as a covenant between two people before God.) Both parties are bound to one another, and serious consequences are in store for whomever dares break covenant. In the Old Testament, covenant required a sacrifice because blood was a key part of covenant. Every covenant mentioned in the Old Testament involves a sacrifice of blood (Gen 8, 15, and 17, just to name a few). Blood is required to indicate how seriously both parties take the covenant; in essence, each is saying "Let this be done to me if I break covenant with you."
While there are grave consequences for breaking covenant, the trust that is displayed by both parties allows opportunity for incredible intimacy. Referring again to the example of marriage, when both people are truly and wholly committed to one another and to the success of the marriage, there is the freedom to give yourself fully to the other without the fear that they're going to run the opposite direction when your sinful nature surfaces. In covenant, there is a beautiful opportunity for growth and refining. Covenant is scary because it's a serious commitment! It requires intense vulnerability, and it continues to demand vulnerability of each party. It's not as if there's a plateau of vulnerability, and then you get to coast. Covenant fosters an ongoing bond between both parties, and there is the opportunity for healthy mutual dependency that promises to be there today, tomorrow, and each day after that.
In Jesus, we live in the New Covenant. Christ has fulfilled the Law and has fully taken on the consequences of our sinful nature and our inability to keep covenant with God. When God made covenant with Abram and chose the Israelites as His people, He did so with the full knowledge that they wouldn't be able to keep the Law and would break covenant again and again. Rather than destroying mankind every time we failed (because He promised never to do that again in Genesis 8, and He is faithful even though we are not!), God accepted animal sacrifices to fulfill the covenantal demand for the shedding of blood. When Jesus came, He came in the dual role of Sacrifice and Redeemer. He came not only to fully and completely pay the blood sacrifice demanded by the covenant, but also to initiate a New Covenant to bring all of Creation back to relationship with God.
Now, our view of covenant directly informs how seriously we understand what it means to submit our lives to Jesus. Do we truly understand what it means to be in covenant with the God of the Universe? When we tell kids in Sunday school about 'asking Jesus into their heart,' do we really understand what kind of commitment we're asking of kids who still think there are monsters under the bed? In giving our lives over to Jesus as King and Savior, we are entering into the New Covenant with Him. We submit to His authority and reign, and we actively choose to live as He commands us to. We refuse all other ways of living, and we obey what He asks of us. We are binding ourselves to Him, and giving our lives over for Jesus to bind Himself to us. That is incredible! Don't miss the beauty of the second part: God is committed to us. The more we understand the gravity of covenant and seek Jesus, the more we experience the love and freedom offered to us through trusting that God will not abandon us. We are faithless and sinful, but God is not. He holds up His end of the covenant and offers us unending grace when we fail. When we understand the kind of Love that is on the table, we can't help but be intrigued and want to know it more!
Thursday, November 14, 2013
Thursday, November 7, 2013
First week in Laradise!
I don't even know where to begin! The incomparable Trudy and I left last week on Friday, drove straight through (Nebraska is still mind-numbingly long), and made it to Laramie in pretty incredible time. We spent Saturday and Sunday exploring Laramie and looking at potential apartments. Praise the Lord, I was able to find a studio apartment! I'll be going in this afternoon during my lunch break to officially take over the lease from the tenant living there now. I'm hoping to move in by the beginning of next week!
I started work at SROM on Monday morning, and I've been loving every moment of it! My coworkers are absolutely phenomenal, and I'm so excited to continue getting to know everyone. We're in the middle of a pretty huge transition right now, and a lot of the projects that we're working on will enable us to run courses much more effectively. Even though the summer is still quite a ways away, there is a LOT to do before courses start in May. It's an exciting time to jump in!
In the midst of all the transitioning, I'm realizing that I fooled myself into thinking that the hard part would be simply getting out here. I wasn't really preparing myself for the emotional side of the physical move. Packing and driving were the easy parts! I've felt a little blindsided by how much I miss those I left in Wheaton. I absolutely have seen the hand of the Lord in providing for me to be here, and I am astounded at how smoothly this transition has gone overall: I have an incredibly community that is welcoming me with open hearts and arms, and I have a job that I really love with amazing coworkers. But there are definitely hard parts about being away from family and friends that I love. Please be praying for wisdom for me as I try to find the balance of pouring in here and getting connected with community, and keeping in contact with loved ones back home. Forming deep relationships takes time, and I'm learning how to nurture the deep relationships I already have without using that as an excuse to avoid forming new relationships.
Sorry that this is more of an update and less of any meat to chew on! I just wanted to keep everyone in the loop as far as moving has gone!
Blessings!
I started work at SROM on Monday morning, and I've been loving every moment of it! My coworkers are absolutely phenomenal, and I'm so excited to continue getting to know everyone. We're in the middle of a pretty huge transition right now, and a lot of the projects that we're working on will enable us to run courses much more effectively. Even though the summer is still quite a ways away, there is a LOT to do before courses start in May. It's an exciting time to jump in!
In the midst of all the transitioning, I'm realizing that I fooled myself into thinking that the hard part would be simply getting out here. I wasn't really preparing myself for the emotional side of the physical move. Packing and driving were the easy parts! I've felt a little blindsided by how much I miss those I left in Wheaton. I absolutely have seen the hand of the Lord in providing for me to be here, and I am astounded at how smoothly this transition has gone overall: I have an incredibly community that is welcoming me with open hearts and arms, and I have a job that I really love with amazing coworkers. But there are definitely hard parts about being away from family and friends that I love. Please be praying for wisdom for me as I try to find the balance of pouring in here and getting connected with community, and keeping in contact with loved ones back home. Forming deep relationships takes time, and I'm learning how to nurture the deep relationships I already have without using that as an excuse to avoid forming new relationships.
Sorry that this is more of an update and less of any meat to chew on! I just wanted to keep everyone in the loop as far as moving has gone!
Blessings!
Friday, October 25, 2013
Long Overdue!
Oh goodness. I honestly didn't mean to let it go this long! To assure anyone who may be concerned, I did not die in Wyoming. In fact, I loved it so much that I'm going back full-time! Soon!
Praise the Lord, my monthly support is at a point where I can begin full-time at SROM! I'm still a bit shy of my monthly goals, but I have enough in a one-time-gift account to supplement my current support levels so that I (should) have enough to pay rent and maybe buy food occasionally. My incredibly supportive mother and I will start the drive early on the 1st, drive straight through the day, and arrive in Laramie later that night. I'll have the weekend to get settled in (most likely in temporary housing...please be praying for the provision of housing!) and I start full-time on Monday the 4th!
During our course back in September (it really has been far too long since I've updated this blog. Again, apologies!) we were given a pretty thorough introduction to SROM as an organization, their philosophy of ministry, their heart for the students they take on course, and their response to those who wonder "why wilderness?" The more I learned about SROM, the more I got to experience the courses as a student, and the more I saw the heart of the Lord in every single one of the staff at the SROM base, the more I was blown away by the realization that I get to go back. I get to be a part of this incredible ministry! As I was rereading some of my journal entries from course, I came across one from our first few days where I ask God "Who am I that You have given me this experience and have called me to this place?" Directly below this question is the response "You are My daughter, and I love you."
This became a recurring theme for me throughout the course. My question of "what have I done?" immediately puts the focus on me. But God resets my identity as stemming from Him; i am His daughter. Those who know me know that I consistently struggle with perfectionism and the need to perform. On course I was reminded again and again that God loves me and claims me as His daughter (again and again). Just as I am. Simple? Elementary? That's the gospel.
Most of our discussions on course stemmed from the dichotomy between the heart of the orphan and the heart of a son. This is an incredibly important concept, and one I will definitely be returning to and unpacking more in future posts. Briefly, the heart of an orphan is a heart of insecure striving: striving to please God and others, striving to get by in an unforgiving world, striving to be loved. The heart of a son (or daughter) is one of response: I trust God's love and I trust that I am eagerly welcomed at His table. I am freed from the pressure to prove that I am His daughter, freed from the pressure to perform as His daughter, and freed from the lie that I must produce in order to keep my position as His daughter. Therefore, I am free to respond to His love; I am free to love others more purely and selflessly; I am free to recognize and exercise the gifts He has given me.
This is huge. This kind of Love and delight is something that I see so many of my peers hunger for without really understanding what it is they're missing. I see the heart of the orphan as a characteristic of the Millennial generation (something we talked at length about during our WMPC course, and something I will also be returning to in future posts!) and something that I am burdened to speak to.
John writes beautifully on this:
"This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: if our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. The one who keeps God's commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us." (1 John 3:19-24 NIV)
Though our orphan hearts condemn us, God is much greater than our hearts. He knows our hearts better than we do, so it's not as if He's unaware of the things we've done or neglected to do. His desire is for us to confidently approach His table and bask in His presence; not confident because of our own righteousness, but confident because of our belief in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ.
This is the heart of the Lord! Because of that, it is also the heart and purpose of the ministry at SROM. And I get to be a part of that. Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, my monthly support is at a point where I can begin full-time at SROM! I'm still a bit shy of my monthly goals, but I have enough in a one-time-gift account to supplement my current support levels so that I (should) have enough to pay rent and maybe buy food occasionally. My incredibly supportive mother and I will start the drive early on the 1st, drive straight through the day, and arrive in Laramie later that night. I'll have the weekend to get settled in (most likely in temporary housing...please be praying for the provision of housing!) and I start full-time on Monday the 4th!
During our course back in September (it really has been far too long since I've updated this blog. Again, apologies!) we were given a pretty thorough introduction to SROM as an organization, their philosophy of ministry, their heart for the students they take on course, and their response to those who wonder "why wilderness?" The more I learned about SROM, the more I got to experience the courses as a student, and the more I saw the heart of the Lord in every single one of the staff at the SROM base, the more I was blown away by the realization that I get to go back. I get to be a part of this incredible ministry! As I was rereading some of my journal entries from course, I came across one from our first few days where I ask God "Who am I that You have given me this experience and have called me to this place?" Directly below this question is the response "You are My daughter, and I love you."
This became a recurring theme for me throughout the course. My question of "what have I done?" immediately puts the focus on me. But God resets my identity as stemming from Him; i am His daughter. Those who know me know that I consistently struggle with perfectionism and the need to perform. On course I was reminded again and again that God loves me and claims me as His daughter (again and again). Just as I am. Simple? Elementary? That's the gospel.
Most of our discussions on course stemmed from the dichotomy between the heart of the orphan and the heart of a son. This is an incredibly important concept, and one I will definitely be returning to and unpacking more in future posts. Briefly, the heart of an orphan is a heart of insecure striving: striving to please God and others, striving to get by in an unforgiving world, striving to be loved. The heart of a son (or daughter) is one of response: I trust God's love and I trust that I am eagerly welcomed at His table. I am freed from the pressure to prove that I am His daughter, freed from the pressure to perform as His daughter, and freed from the lie that I must produce in order to keep my position as His daughter. Therefore, I am free to respond to His love; I am free to love others more purely and selflessly; I am free to recognize and exercise the gifts He has given me.
This is huge. This kind of Love and delight is something that I see so many of my peers hunger for without really understanding what it is they're missing. I see the heart of the orphan as a characteristic of the Millennial generation (something we talked at length about during our WMPC course, and something I will also be returning to in future posts!) and something that I am burdened to speak to.
John writes beautifully on this:
"This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: if our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. The one who keeps God's commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us." (1 John 3:19-24 NIV)
Though our orphan hearts condemn us, God is much greater than our hearts. He knows our hearts better than we do, so it's not as if He's unaware of the things we've done or neglected to do. His desire is for us to confidently approach His table and bask in His presence; not confident because of our own righteousness, but confident because of our belief in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ.
This is the heart of the Lord! Because of that, it is also the heart and purpose of the ministry at SROM. And I get to be a part of that. Praise the Lord!
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