Covenant

Did you see the news story about the San Francisco Giants pitching staff? They got into a little bit of trouble with Major League Baseball during the league's "Pride Month" celebration.

The team had modified the logo on their baseball caps with wonderful, happy rainbow colors.

But then the Giants pitchers wrote something on the cap. "Genesis 9:13-16." What is that?

"And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: ¹³I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, ¹⁵I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. ¹⁶Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.” - Genesis 9:12-16

The rainbow was created by God and therefore belongs to God (v13). Humans have taken God's symbol of a covenant and used it to symbolize something else. Something that God calls sinful and "an abomination."

Back in the Old Testament there is a verse that is repeated a few times. Because of our society's desire to please everyone, it has made obvious its straying from God's Word.

"In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit." - Judges 21:25

And that's the problem with this "anything goes" culture we are living in. It has no king. If it did, if it truly knew Jesus, I would not be writing this story today. We would not be in danger of incurring God's wrath.

There are churches that embrace sin and do so in the name of social justice. This is wrong. As a prominent pastor once said, "There is no such thing as SOCIAL justice. Only JUSTICE."

When we decide to embrace things that are outside of God's commands for us, we enter into the danger zone. And that never ends well.

"Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. ²⁹How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? ³⁰For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” ³¹It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." - Hebrews 10:28-31

 

“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." - Jesus, Matthew 10:34

When It Rains

I drove home during a rather nasty storm last night. Black, dark clouds spanned the sky from north to south. And I was driving right into them. Did I stop? No. Why not? I think people have a sense of "that will never happen to me." Until it happens to them.

Several people pulled over and waited for the storm to pass. I saw a big truck parked under an overpass, a car parked on the side of the road - flashers flashing. They were smart. And me? I just kept right one going. What could happen, right?

That's when my car began to hydroplane. Has that ever happened to you? It's not fun to be going 65 MPH only to discover your steering wheel no longer works. They say there are no atheists in foxholes. Well, there aren't many to be found in severe weather either.

Have you ever heard the saying, "When it rains, it pours?" What does that mean exactly? It sounds redundant to me. Google says it's a proverb. "misfortunes or difficult situations tend to follow each other in rapid succession or to arrive all at the same time."

If that's the case, if that saying is to represent one bad thing after another, then why did Morton put the saying on its containers of salt? A little research finds that pouring salt used to be much more difficult to do on humid days, especially when it was raining. But back in 1914 Morton added magnesium to their salt and humidity, and rain, no longer had an effect on the salt's ability to pour out of the can. "When it rains, it pours," suddenly has a positive meaning instead of a negative one.

Do you remember ever having a really bad day and then something happened to make it amazing? That's happened to me a couple of times and each time it happened, each time the rain poured, a positive, life-changing event shortly followed.

Think about that the next time something really bad happens. Think about what we do when the storm finally stops and the sun comes out. What do we look for? The rainbow! A positive sign that the worst is over and sunshine and better times are soon to follow.

God is an expert at turning bad things and making them better. Look at me! Take your average sinner for example. Everyone of them was made "better" by placing their faith in Jesus. By letting Him into out lives we can somehow manage to navigate even the most difficult storms.

God never promised us a cloudless, sunny sky in this life. He actually promised we would "have trouble" (John 16:33). But right after Jesus said that. He told His disciples something worth remembering through the storms in our lives . . .

³² “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.
 
³³ “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” - John 16:32-33

Remember that, always. When things seem worst, remember that Jesus reigns over everything. Every situation, every struggles . . . even over every storm.

^"37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. ³⁸ Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”
 
³⁹ He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm." - Mark 4:37-39

Jesus can save you from the worst situations in life - like when you decide to trust Him, fully, after trying and failing in your relationships time and time again. Why don't we trust Him? Because, just like me, we think we can do it ourselves. All it takes is one hydroplaning moment for us to realize that we so easily can go spinning out of control.

We need Christ. We need His calming influence on our lives. Please, let Him calm the storm in YOUR life, Today.

Calm The Storm - Spoken