Bible Study: A Covenant With God 03.11.10

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Today is Thursday March 11, 2010, and we are reading through the Bible in a year. Today's message comes from the reading of the Book of Deuteronomy, chapters 29-31. If you would like to read the chapters along with us here online you can Click Here to read them or copy & paste this URL onto your browser: http://www.readytofollow.com/bible-march-11

Title: Bible Study: A Covenant With God
A covenant is an agreement between two people to do or not do something specified. Those whom have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior have made a covenant with God. When God made a covenant with the Israelites, He made an agreement with them to be with them and protect them as long as they honored their part of the agreement. “Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do. Ye stand this day all of you before the LORD your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel, Your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water: That thou shouldest enter into covenant with the LORD thy God, and into his oath, which the LORD thy God maketh with thee this day: That he may establish thee to day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath; But with him that standeth here with us this day before the LORD our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day:” - Deuteronomy 29:9-15. God promised that as long as they fulfilled their part of the agreement that He would always be there for them and this also included any stranger that chose to live among them as well. The same thing applies to us, when we make a covenant with God, He promises to be with us and protect us as long as we stick to our part of the agreement.

Now, once you make an agreement with God, He is going to hold you to it, God promised to bless the Israelites if they promised to obey His commands, but if they did not, they would suffer. “See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.” - Deuteronomy 30:15-20. God knows each and every persons heart, if they deliberately break the agreement they will suffer. The same thing applies to us, we have a choice, follow God or follow the world, but if you choose to follow God it must be with all your heart, He will know and you will suffer if you deliberately break your agreement with Him.

God turns His back on all who deliberately break their agreement with Him, God knew that once Moses was no longer around that the Israelites would break their agreement, “And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them. Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us? And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods.” - Deuteronomy 31:16-18. Do you think that God wants to see the ridiculous things we do and get ourselves into? Of course not. We are children of God, not heathens and need to start acting like we are. That is why it is important that we never lose sight of God, He is the only way that we can avoid getting into things we need to stay out of and also avoid needless suffering. Life is hard enough as it is without adding to the complication.

Today, God has made a covenant with not just the Israelites, but all of the human race, believe in my Son, receive eternal life. “That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” - John 3:15. God is saying, “I promise to give you eternal life if you believe with all your heart in my Son, Jesus.” “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” - Romans 10:9,10. What is eternal life? Eternal means forever, so eternal life means we live forever. So, how do we live forever if we die? We have three parts to our body, the physical body, the soul, and the spirit. However, when we are born as babies we possess only two of those parts, the physical body and the soul. This means that the spiritual part of the body is not with us. The only way to possess the spiritual part of the body is by receiving it, we receive it by believing in and accepting Jesus Christ into our hearts. Now, this is what is known as being born again. Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” - John 3:5-8. The spirit in us is what gives us life, it is literally God in us. If you do not know Jesus you do not have the spiritual part of your body. That is why those who do not know Jesus are always searching for churches or religions or careers or people to make them feel alive.

Now, when the physical body dies, the soul has one of two places to go, up into heaven with God or down into hell with Satan. If you have the spiritual part of your body, this means you have eternal life and your soul will go up into heaven until Jesus returns and then you are reunited with it. If you have not received Jesus into your heart the soul dies, which is known as the second death and you end up burning in a lake of fire. “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” - Revelation 20:14,15. Would you rather spend eternity with God or burn? The choice is yours. God is not the one that makes us suffer needlessly, we do that all by ourselves, but praise God that He can even take away the needless suffering. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” - I John 1:9. Have you made a covenant with God? If not, it is not too late, He wants to bless you and see you prosper, but you must first be willing to take that step. Remember, He knows your heart and will save all who truly believe in His Son, “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” - Romans 10:10. Praise God!

Enjoy the rest of your day/night and week, we are almost there.
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina

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