Covenant

Tonight in a meeting we used a reading from the devotional book "Disciples."  It was based on the following scriptures.

Deuteronomy 18:15-20 (New Living Translation)

True and False Prophets

 15 Moses continued, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him. 16 For this is what you yourselves requested of the Lordyour God when you were assembled at Mount Sinai.^[a] You said, ‘Don’t let us hear the voice of the Lord our God anymore or see this blazing fire, for we will die.’

 17 “Then the Lord said to me, ‘What they have said is right. 18 I will raise up a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites. I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell the people everything I command him. 19 I will personally deal with anyone who will not listen to the messages the prophet proclaims on my behalf. 20 But any prophet who falsely claims to speak in my name or who speaks in the name of another god must die.’

What the writer had to say was about covenant especially a covenant between God and ourselves.  That in this covenant relationship there is a commitment on both parties which agrees to mutual care and faithfulness.  The question that the writer asked was how do we know God's Will.  He went on to say that we need to listen carefully to the revealed word of God and carefully build our lives on the word.

As I heard this and as I prepared for the Wednesday service, I realized that what I wanted to talk about based on the book "One Month to Live," was discussing loving completely.  One image that the authors used was the cross.  I expanded on that and I see that as the basis of the covenant relationship.  Look at the empty cross and imagine that the vertical beam is the love that God has for us and the love we give to God.  The horizontal beam is the love that we are to show to one another. When we are able to love in such a way we are living the covenant.  We need to once again listen and live that love.