A covenant is a general obligation between two parties. A covenant was and is confirmed by an oath, be a solemn meal, by sacrifices, exchanging clothes and passing between cut up parts of animals. The Hebrew word for covenant is berit, the sense of binding or berit-alah, the idea of a binding oath (Gen.26:28). For concluding a covenant the bible uses the expression, karat, to cut a covenant, referring to cutting up an animal. Covenants are established between individuals, between countries and their peoples and between husbands and wives. Covenants aren’t always a mutual agreement. Sometimes they represent relationships between a powerful party and a weak one. This covenant or agreement is freely given and out of good will toward the weaker party. This is God’s covenant with man.

400 years later, God remembered His covenant with Abraham and delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt. God wanted them to become a kingdom of Priests (Ex.19). When Moses and the children of Israel came to Mt. Sinai, they broke the covenant with God (Ex.32, 33). God and Moses wrote a new covenant, the 613 laws. With the 613 laws came man’s accountability for sin. The laws didn’t give the power of God to man to keep the commandments. God gave the covenants to man to help him live the way God wants them to live. What are these covenants that God made with man?

God started a Theocracy (Rom.1:19-21). A theocracy is form of government, where God is king and man can rule himself thought the Laws of God. Man is subject to God, but does have some autonomy. So God created Adam and Eve and gave them a Covenant (Gen.1:26-28). When it was broken, God made a new covenant with Adam, out of the original covenant by adding a Savior for man (Gen.3). Then when man broke the covenant again, God made a new covenant with Noah (Gen.6). This covenant was the same as the one with Adam, but He wrote the Laws down and established a government to enforce the laws. When the Noahic covenant was broken, God decided to choose a people to represent Him on this earth. Abraham entered into a covenant with God. God took the covenants of Adam, the promise of a Savior, the covenant of Noah, the rule of government and added a land to live in, the Promised Land (Gen.15). God chose the center of the earth, Israel, the land flowing with milk and honey, to be their home.

I have been studying the bible for more than 35 years and have come to this conclusion. I hardly know anything about God. The knowledge of God has been my heart’s pursuit, since the day I met Him. I wanted more than just to have my sins forgiven, but to know the person, who forgave my sins, in a real way. I began reading the King James Version. I like the flowery English. At first, God would speak to me quoting scriptures in King James English. Later God would speak to me in American English. I ask Him why He did that. He said so I would become familiar with His voice. My pursuit of God is on all levels, mentally, spiritually and physically. God doesn’t want my mind. He wants my heart and soul.

Where do you start writing about Jesus? The best place to start a story is at the beginning. Most people believe that the Old and New Testaments are two different books, but actually are a collection of 66 books, written by 50 different authors, at different times over a period of some 4000 years. It was to my surprise, when I found out that it is one book written by one person, God. The bible is full of stories of God, angels and men. There are adventures, tragedies, battles and love stories. It sounds like a best-selling novel. In all actuality, it is the best-selling book in all history. The bible contains knowledge accumulated over more than 4000 years and finding a starting point isn’t easy.

Where do you go in the time of trouble? My son has a magazine full of articles to live in the wilderness in the time of trouble. You remember Y2K? I had a friend who stocked up food and provisions if that emergency happened. What happens to life as we know it during the time of trouble? I have evacuated my family during a hurricane. Several times we have left home and gone north to miss the storm. But what happens when the time of trouble is everywhere? Where do you go then? My family lived through the great depression and WWII. They told of the great poverty of people.
Matt.24:6 “And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.”
Where will you go in the time of trouble? I know of only one place. That place is in the arms of Jesus.

Ephesus of the first century was quite a city to behold. It was a free city in the Roman Empire. There was no garrison in it. They paid taxes to Rome and kept the peace. So Rome didn’t have try to control it militarily. What they did was control Ephesus through economics. Ephesus had paved roads, sewer systems, running water, street lights and a booming economy. There were over one hundred thousand people that lived in the port city. It was the center of Christianity in the first century. Paul left Titus as the first bishop. Then eventually the Apostle John became the bishop of Ephesus. This is the city where John was exiled to the Isle of Patmos. There he wrote the book of Revelations. From the book of Ephesians to the book of Revelations was a span of forty years, a generation. From Paul’s writing to the Ephesians to John’s writing of Revelation, the church at Ephesus lost their way. Of which God was not pleased with these people. He definitely was going to destroy the church at Ephesus. This is when the center of Christianity moved to Alexandria, Egypt. It only took forty years to change for the worst. One Generation.

In the 1960’s, the world was in a turmoil. Everything seemed to change. There were wars and rumors of wars. In the Middle East it was no different. Except in 1967, something extraordinary happened. Israel took Jerusalem back. It was in the hands of the Jewish Nation again, after two thousand years. God moved across the world by His Holy Spirit. People began to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Some received it with tongues of fire upon their heads. In the 1970’s revival spend across the world. People were rejoicing, jumping pews, and running around the church. It was a time of joy. In the 1980’s, it was a time of peace. A time to learn about God and practice the gifts of the Holy Spirit. In the 1990’s, it was a time of work. It was the time of Evangelization of the world, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and generally doing God’s work. God was preparing His people for a time of trouble. In the 2000’s, there has been a disaster or two every year to the present. Even the world knows that there is something going wrong in the world. There is global warming, earthquakes, wars and rumors of war, famine, drought and more TV shows on the end of the world than I can count. What does it all mean? Since Israel took Jerusalem in 1967, there has been a generation of people, 40 years. The same thing happened to Ephesus in the first century. It begins at God’s house first.

Many people go to church because their parents did. Some go because it is socially acceptable. Some go for business reasons. Why do you go to church? The bible says that we are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. In the first century, it was a death sentence to attend a church. The Romans hunted down the followers of Jesus and killed them. Then the Romans deemed that Christianity was socially acceptable. By the time the Middle Ages came, the church was living on mountain tops in monasteries. The reformation came in the 1500’s, and war broke against each denomination. Then countries were separated by religion. People moved to the new world for religious freedom. For four hundred years the people of the United States have enjoyed religious freedom. Now it is not socially acceptable to be a Christian. Laws are being made to stop God. It seems that what the bible says is true, there is nothing new under the sun. What you choose to do is up to you. What do you thing Christianity is?

God has always had a people. People that were faithful to God. Some were the most unlikely characters you could think of. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, was called the servant of God. Balaam was a prophet of God. Job was a prophet. God chooses whom He will. They serve Him as the do. Some are good and some aren’t, but God chooses. I have had the most socially unacceptable people come up to me and they turned out to angels. We are not equipped to judge what God does. Nor are we equipped to judge God’s people. There is an older woman that is a customer of mine. She is not pretty, very old, and I know that God sent her to me. In my eyes, she is beautiful. I treat her with respect and kindness. I try to treat everyone that way. Because my life is short. I don’t have time to judge people the way God judges. That is his job not mine. Mine job is to love God above all and to love my neighbor as myself.