Re-living the Covenant

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This past Sunday night's conversation at the Dane's house was incredibly special, for more reasons than normal. It happened to fall on July 10th, which marked the 2 year anniversary of when God called us to this mysterious adventure of following Him into the beginnings of this new community of faith. The story of how He did so is quite lengthy indeed, so for this post, I'll give the abridged version and the basics...perhaps a back dated and linked up longer version is to come later...

Shaunna (my wife, though she wasn't at the time), myself, and a third witness of this "covenant" (who is no longer with us) were with our high school & junior high students at a Student Life camp being held at Covenant College in Cleveland, TN. The morning of July 10th, a heavy and dense fog settled on the mountaintop campus and we could not help but imagine what it would have been like for Moses atop Mt. Sinai as the cloud enveloped it and God spoke with him. Or maybe like the priests in 2 Chronicles 5 who could not perform the service because the cloud of God's presence filled it to the brim (which, coincidently, the "cloud" did later filter inside the sanctuary where we met for our large group times).

That evening a great storm began to come upon us (see Psalm 18) with wind, lightning, thunder, and pouring rain. As we three huddled in what we later found to be the "cleft of the rock", we were moved to weeping under the heaviness and intensity of God's manifest presence as in the ancient days and roots of our faith. After a very short while a gust of wind seemingly forced all 3 of us, simultaneously, to the ground. We sat and wept as our God who's love endures forever brought His showers of refreshing down hard upon us. When words could be mustered, all we could do is declare the goodness of our God and Father with the words He has given us in His holy scriptures.

Many more wonders happened that evening, young men prophesied (so I can assume that old men dreamed dreams), young women did so as well, the praises of our God and Provider were on the lips of His children for hours to come. But that is another story for another day. After the students were settled in their rooms--in an erie calm and peacefulness might I add--we 3 gathered back in front of the huge stone sanctuary where we had been "broken to pieces" just hours before.

It was now past midnight. We new that throughout the history of His people, God has accompanied a specific instruction, message, or warning with the revelation of His glory (masked as it must be). What happened next I can only describe to you in hopes that you will view it through a lens of faith as God allowed us to that night. We sat on the ground with our Bibles in front of us wondering what to do and where to begin. Shortly after, a breeze began to blow. It turned the pages of our 3rd person's Bible and came to rest in Haggai--and so he read the story of God's charge to the the returning Israelite exiles to rebuild the temple. Then the pages of Shaunna's Bible begin to turn (as us other two's remained still) and comes to rest in Ezra 3--and so she read the same story, only a different account, of God's charge to the returning Israelite exiles to rebuild the temple. Many more of these page turning revelations occurred, until finally, our 3rd person states, "I won't believe this is of God until my Bible turns to Jeremiah 23"...all three of our Bibles turned to Jeremiah 23.

These are the basics of the covenant that our God of grace and Lord of the Sabbath made with us that day. Only a part has to do with this new community of faith, the rest is both more lofty than our comprehension may ascertain and incredibly personal at the same time. The Lord has opened a door for us to visit our newly wed friends Maris and Steven as Spur58 (band that Steven rocks the bass in) lead music, and prayerfully worship as well, at Covenant College this week.

This is the God we serve. Who constantly and lovingly reminds us of where He is leading (and journeying with) us to, and at the same time, where it is we first began. So it was with the patriarchs and matriarchs of the faith, and so it will be with us. Grace and Peace to you my friends and sojourners.