God THE Covenant Keeper

Yesterday was uncomfortable for me. Actually really uncomfortable, and I woke up with a feeling that it would be. Our leaders have been pushing for us to go out and partake in village ministry for a long time. They have really wanted us to be able to go out and share the gospel in words, rather than actions. They used that big scary word we all like to avoid…. EVANGELIZE. And if I'm honest I had been hoping to avoid that type of ministry. Give me street kids and the orphanage any day of the week, and I can love on them well and through exhaustion. But hand me a mike and ask me to explain what I believe in basic English so it can be translated…. Well you might have just given me a heart attack. But despite my apprehension they told us we were going. They told us to be prepared to speak and to pray and to really see the Holy Spirit move. And I was freaking out, because I had no idea what to say or how to communicate to these people or how to help them believe.

People in India believe well. In fact they have almost no problem accepting the fact that Christians serve an all powerful and all mighty God. You tell them that and they are all in. The problem is though that they add God to a list of idols and demons in disguise a mile long. They struggle to believe that there is ONE all powerful and loving God. And I, well I feel like I am the last person equipped to explain this truth to them. I didn't have the words or the desire to speak and I even told my leaders that I would rather not.

Yet during our time to plan what we wanted to say, I dove into what it truly means for us to serve a God who keeps the covenant. Throughout the entire bible God speaks in terms of covenants with his people. They were his promise to the nation of Israel that he would always be their God who loved and supplied them with what they needed if they in turn remained perfect and upheld their end of the covenant. Clearly that didn't happen because of sin, and the initial covenant with Adam and Eve was broken.

In Genesis 15:10-18, anger covenant is explained this time with Abraham and in this covenant God preformed both halves of the ceremony. God prepared the sacrifices of the birds and the goat and when it came time for Abraham to preform his half of the ceremony by walking through the fire on either side, he was found to be sleeping and God fulfilled both parts of his covenant with Abraham.

Yet even after this Israel faltered, their sin (our sin) broke the covenant. And because of that god had every right to pour out his wrath on his people.

BUT HE DIDN'T

Ezekiel chapter 16, is a beautiful retelling of this very fact. God finds a child, neglected and uncared for and he raises the child as his own. He adorns her in jewels and gold and raises her to a place of high standing within her community. Yet she turns into a prostitute. Fed by pride and envy she turns from God and finds delight in other lovers. And God destroys her. He knocks her from her place of standing and she is left weeping in the dust. She received everything but the death she deserved. BUT  the story is not finished and in Ezekiel 16:62-63 God turns his face back to her and says that he will re establish the covenant with her. He will once again make her a child of his, and the price she still has to pay HE WILL ATONE FOR. And there is only one God who will do that. One God who so willingly sacrifices for his people actually went to the cross for them.

And I wanted the people at the village to know this God. Because in a nation with millions of gods, not one of them sacrifices for his people, instead they all demand sacrifices. They cannot and never have had the authority to save. They simply are demons masked as idols.

And so I went to the village still not certain I wanted to talk. I dragged my feet and told myself others had more to say. Yet when the pastor asked for 4 volunteers instead of the original 3 we had chosen, one of my leaders said "Kady will do it. We feel like she has something great to say." And my jaw hit the floor and I started sweating and I felt like my heart would beat out of my chest. and I looked out into a crowd of close to 50 people, all who flocked to see the white people speak, and I knew that even as scary as this was that I truly had a purpose for being in that village, and that my words had meaning. So I opened my mouth and spoke. And afterwards when. The people flooded us asking for prayer for anything and everything, a woman approached me with her mother and asked for prayer  for her mothers paralyzed hand. And so I prayed, because what else could I do. And when I opened my eyes the woman had tears streaming down her face. And in the broken English she spoke she said that never before had she felt a love so deep. And I have to believe that that is from God. Because I don't know how her hand is, odds are ill never see that woman again.

But God, the same God who moves mountains, had a purpose and a plan for me to be there praying for that woman. And I hope that that love she said she experienced was truly from the depth of Gods soul. A God who loves his people enough to die on a cross. A God who redeems and keeps the covenant even why he has every right to abandon it. And that was worth all the uncomfortable aspects of last night. Because I saw someone come face to face with the everlasting God who does not disappoint. And that my friends is incredible.