The Covering – Part Three

Gal 3:29 “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

I was watching one of the major golf tournaments recently. The weather was overcast and a storm was moving in. At the first sighting of a flash of lighting, a loud horn began to sound over all the golf course. It was the alarm letting people know they were to get off the course so that no one would get struck by lighting. They wanted everyone to get off the course and under cover.

We’ve been talking about a covering in the last couple writings of Fresh Manna. God’s covering is a source of protection from attacks of the devil in our lives. This covering is accessed by faith through belief in the promises of God that pertains to the particular issues of your life or whoever you are praying for.

Twenty plus years ago when I was a young father, it was this promise of covering – of protection from God that allowed me to leave home for days at a time for my job in peace and not fear. Thoughts would try to come – “Jeff is going to wander in the street when you are gone and be hit by a car.” I’d rebuke those kinds of thoughts and the devil in Jesus’ name. Then I’d thank the Lord for the promise of His Word. In Isa 54:17 it says, that said, “no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and this is their vindication from me,” declares the LORD.” God said this was my heritage as a believer. I began to put my faith there and speak this verse to those surfacing lies and fears every time they raised their ugly heads – every time I went out of town.

I knew that Satan worked destruction in the lives of people every day, but I took comfort from the promise from Psalm 91:7 that said, “A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.” It went on to say, in Psa 91:9-11, ” If you make the Most High your dwelling– even the LORD, who is my refuge (my covering) then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your dwelling (home). For He will command His angels concerning you to guard (cover) you in all your ways.” I believed that. I knew that God wanted to cover us with these promises so I trusted them and thanked God in faith for them.

I’ve told this before but one day I took Jeffrey to a park to play. He was about five years old. As we pulled up to the park – parking on the opposite side of the street, he opened the car door and jumped out before I could say a thing. I started to call out to him but he had run around the front of the car into the street. Just then a car was going by and screeched on its breaks. The car hit Jeff and knocked him down. The woman got out of the car panic stricken. As I was running to him he just jumped up with a big smile, brushed himself off and said, “It’s okay dad, it didn’t hurt!” He did not have a scratch or a bruise on him. It was one of those moments where you are thankful and upset with a child at the same time. The woman in the car could not quit apologizing but I assured her I wasn’t upset with her. I told her that is was completely my fault. All I could think of was all the times I had thanked the Lord that no weapon would prosper and that His angels had charge. I thanked the Lord for his angels watching over Jeff. I think Jeff kept some working overtime.

The covering of God is something that we play a part in. God wants to cover us. God had established a covenant of promises with us through the death and resurrection of Jesus. These promises have become our inheritance. These four verses from Galatians help us understand how those promises of covering become ours. Gal 3:18 & 22& 28-29 say, “For if the inheritance depends on the law (our ability to perfectly obey everything God has asked us to do), then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise…. But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe… There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

To keep the covering of God working in our lives we must be in fellowship with Him walking in His ways. We must also keep our hearts and lives free from schism, division, and relational turmoil. Then our faith and trust in His promises will become the footbridge of blessing and covering extending from Heaven into our lives.

Remember, “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

In His Love,
Pastor Tim Burt
http://readfreshmanna.blogspot.com/

Published by Pastor Tim Burt
Copyright© 2008 Tim Burt, All rights reserved.

The Covering – Part Two

Mal 2:10 “Have we not all one Father ? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our fathers by breaking faith with one another?”

Okay admit it! There isn’t one of us that hasn’t gotten offended by something someone said or did at one time or another. There is probably nothing that hurts more than when an offense happens but escalates to character assassination. Couples often fight that way. An argument starts over something small and pretty soon they are ripping each others character apart. It’s difficult to repair the hurt that’s caused once this happens. It would be better if we could bridal our tongue at times like this and back off and cool off so we don’t say what we will later regret.

I started talking about a covering last writing. I said a covering is some kind of barrier that at its best is meant to serve as a source of blessing and comfort. If the weather outside is horrible and you are waiting to catch a bus and there happens to be a shelter to cover you, that shelter is a barrier between you and the elements and it’s a blessing and a source of comfort.

When I was a young adult, I rented a house that didn’t have a garage. Because there was no covering over my car, my car deteriorated much more quickly than it otherwise would have. In Minnesota winters, if you have any intelligence at all, you learn to buy very warm clothes for our below zero temperatures. That down coat is a barrier – a covering between you and the cold.

God at a time when He was upset with His people Israel, spoke words to them about the covering – the plans and attempts they made to protect or shield or cover themselves. In Isa 30:1 we read, “Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin.”

There is a covering, a protection of God’s Spirit – a barrier of His protection that we by faith can bring into our lives. For a pregnant woman, there is a precious promise of covering of protection for your baby to take hold of in faith. It says in Psa 139:13 “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb.” We stood on this scripture with all our hearts when the enemy was trying to take our future granddaughter’s life.

If I had a son in the military, I would be praying and standing on God’s promise of covering in Psa 140:7 that says, “O GOD the Lord, the strength of my salvation, thou hast covered my head in the day of battle.” These are promises of protection.

Again the covering is supposed to be a barrier of protection and blessing. In the second chapter of Malachi, the Lord refers to the covering again. He refers specifically to it in marriage which I will talk about tomorrow. But He is referring to the covering or lack of it in today’s Fresh Manna verse. He says, “Have we not all one Father ? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our fathers by breaking faith with one another?”

The Lord is saying that as a Christian, we still have relational fallout amongst other Christians. Yet we all know we have the same God and Father. That makes us all family. That also means we are all in a covenant relationship with Him and each other. So, shouldn’t we be a covering or protecting each other instead of getting into schism with each other? Of course the answer is yes, but like everything, it’s easier said than done.

Today and tomorrow I want you to see, that the covering can be a covering of good or a covering of evil. The Lord was talking to His people about covering each other with thoughts of evil and schism and He was upset with them about it.

Prayer from a pure heart of love and faith is the strongest source of covering there is in the earth. A prayer in strong faith built on a promise from God changes and saves lives. God wants us to be a covering of prayer, love, forgiveness, and help to one another. This is a powerful force.

When we are mad at each other, our covering – our thoughts toward the person we are angry with, become what God calls a covering of violence. There is no real prayer of faith going forth. To the contrary, wrong or evil words and thoughts are spilling forth, the covering of God’s protection is down, and those involved become open to Satan’s attack.

God wants us to be led by His Spirit, always back toward the covering. Prov 17:9 says, “He who covers over an offense promotes love, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.” Prov 10:12 says, “Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs.” When we won’t forgive, the good covering comes down and a harmful covering goes up. Psa 73:6 “Therefore pride encompasses them about as a chain; violence covers them as a garment.” When we won’t admit our part and do what’s right, we hurt ourselves. Prov 28:13 says, “He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.”

God wants our covering of protection from the spiritual forces of darkness up and protecting us. We can work toward love and keep that protection working, or we can get in pride and strife and become a sitting duck for Satan’s trouble and at the same time, become useless in covering others. Which should we choose? More later…

In His Love,

Pastor Tim Burt

http://readfreshmanna.blogspot.com/

Published by Pastor Tim Burt
Copyright© 2008 Tim Burt, All rights reserved.

The Covering – Part One

Psa 32:1 “Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered”

I live in Minnesota and one of my favorite seasons is Fall. After a hot summer, cooler air feels good. The air is crisp and refreshing, the humidity low, the colors in the trees breathtakingly beautiful, just over all wonderful. People are out walking and running more and the footballs are flying through the air. I’ve also noticed that many people open their windows at night. They let the cool air in and they cover up. They snuggle under big down comforters to stay warm. It feels so good!

Being covered is supposed to be a wonderful thing. Getting under the covers is supposed to be something comforting. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, they became aware of something they had previously been able to take for granted – God’s provision. When they sinned they immediately discovered they were naked. At this first step of their new form of dependency upon God, they needed help with their nakedness. God covered them. Gen 3:7 says, “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.”

A covering covered their nakedness. It covers our also. Our relationship with Jesus does that. The blood He shed upon the cross in dying for the punishment for our sins covers and washes us so we that we become presentably righteous before God. That covering is a precious thing.

Psalm 91:4 says, “He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge.”

An article in National Geographic several years ago provided an interesting picture of God’s wings. After a forest fire in Yellowstone National Park, forest rangers began their trek up a mountain to assess the inferno’s damage. One ranger found a bird literally petrified in ashes, perched statuesquely on the ground at the base of a tree. Somewhat sickened by the eerie sight, he knocked over the bird with a stick. When he gently struck it, three tiny chicks scurried from under their dead mother’s wings. The loving mother, keenly aware of impending disaster, had carried her offspring to the base of the tree and had gathered them under her wings, instinctively knowing that the toxic smoke would rise. She could have flown to safety but had refused to abandon her babies. When the blaze had arrived and the heat had scorched her small body, the mother had remained steadfast. Because she had been willing to die, those under the cover of her wings would live.

I hope this illustration encourages your faith today to thank God that He for being a covering to you. Let your faith reach for that covering and bring you confidence in His desire to protect and watch over you as you hide in the only real protection and covering this is offered anywhere – “under His Wings…” More later…

In His Love,

Pastor Tim Burt

http://readfreshmanna.blogspot.com/

Published by Pastor Tim Burt
Copyright© 2008 Tim Burt, All rights reserved.