FRONTPAGE COLUMN: DEVOTION

2/20/2023, 12am-7:02am FRONTPAGE COLUMN: Devotion.

"Are we still pleasing to God when He corrects us, or only after He crushes our spirit with it?" Such burdensome recollections can weigh heavily on the soul, hindering us from moving forward, and making us feel trapped in a cycle of shame and self-loathing.

Good Morning! Our introductory video is a masterful showcase of our unending devotion to New Covenant values, complete with a breathtaking musical fanfare. This epic composition is designed to invigorate your spirit and inspire you to embrace prayer and wholeheartedly believe in what God is currently doing within your heart. Be inspired to renew your prayer life, and fervently trust in what God is presently doing beyond your natural ability to serve or please Him. Accept His love over your storm, and broken places. This letter was created out of a passion in my prayers for you all.

"Do not allow fear or shame to hinder you from experiencing the genuine empowerment of faith that can conquer the deepest impossibility. It is imperative to understand that your victory does not depend on your efforts or yourself, but firmly on Him. By living in the rest of the Covenant, you free yourself from a life of toiling, struggling, and performing. What is the fulfillment of the New Covenant, you ask? Let me enlighten you - it is the victory that God has already won over your storm. He has already defeated everything in your life. Christ is yearning to live through you in the face of your failures, and He knows everything that is apart from Him.

Whenever God corrects or challenges something in your life, never forget that it is a response to the victory He is sovereignly causing you to enter into and receive of His covenant- He is not driving you away in your darkness, He is driving away the darkness so you see His hand of support to leave spiritual death and self-dependency in His care instead of ours. It is there to produce in you what is motivated by His power - the hope of redemption, power, and love that you can experience without any obligation of fear or judgment. Whenever God corrects you, it is to release anything unfruitful that might hinder the honor of His work. He desires you to let go of the pain that drives you to despair and the unbelief that interrupts the voice of God telling you that you are more than a conqueror in Christ! Keep careful note, friends.

Let us come together and pray against the temptation of self-dependency, which only serves to harden our hearts and obstruct our ability to reflect the image of Christ. The New Covenant introduces us to an accurate voice of God in Christ, one that we can trust and obey with joy and strength. Even as we surrender our stubborn impulses to Him, we find that He is building us up to endure the complexities, severities, and weariness of life's many storms. And though the storms may vary, they all hold a special place in God's heart, for they represent an opportunity for us to commit ourselves and our burdens to Him without question. Can we believe that He has the power to bring us through, to break us free from our limitations, and to guide us into a greater freedom in Him? Let us hold fast to this hope, knowing that He who began a good work in us will see it through to completion.

 KEYS:

• In surrendering our stubborn impulses hard to lay at His feet, New Covenant promise reminds us, is also the source of His loving response to build us to up extend the resources and provision we find in greater dependency on Him.
• "Will you believe there is a breakthrough to bring you to myself to experience greater freedom in Me?"
• live in agreement toward what New Covenant introduces us to an accurate voice of God in Christ.
• Our reactions are misleading in us in our perspective us into the very struggle in which God is directly pointing to that is hurting us
• 'Platitudes in our human pride tend to lean on harsh relatability in our themes of correction with no substantive consideration to what they actually mean. 
• "The correction is to make us grounded in what can't fail, not that we would never fail, or essentially, have nothing to entreat after failure." 
• Through the power He granted us at the Cross to live in separation from those things that keep us distant from Him."
• It is a far superior fate to endure affliction for pursuing what is morally upright than to undergo the consequence of embracing sin by declining the call of God. The resulting anguish and sorrow that ensues is not of the divine will.

As we yield to His gentle leading, our self-dependency and stubborn impulses, which can hinder our ability to reflect His image in our struggles, are replaced with a firm reliance on the resources and provision that we find in greater dependency on Him, in fulfillment of the New Covenant promise. In response, God asks us, "Will you believe there is a breakthrough that can bring you to Myself, to experience greater freedom in Me?" This breakthrough comes as we live in agreement with what the New Covenant reveals, which is the accurate voice of God in Christ.

It's important to remember that God is not just a theme of scripture but rather the very essence of it. Misapplying or abusing the themes of scripture only serves to choke our understanding of who He truly is. Therefore, let us not be content with a surface-level understanding, but instead seek to delve deeper into the New Covenant promises and embrace the true revelation of God's character that it provides.

Our Bibles tell us the ones who bring storms on themselves are the ones who run from the call of God, not embrace it!

Jonah: 2 Kings 14:25. In the midst of the tempestuous seas, God's redemptive plan emerged greater than any discordant fear that filled the heart of Jonah, who, even before the storm broke, searched for a boat to escape the inward struggle of God's calling. The source of our impulsive fear to flee from places where God is building our trust, power, and testimony is the central focus of His concern for our growth. Yet, the foundation of this growth is rooted in the boundless freedom and love that emanates from the very heart of God and is revealed in His holy Word. Platitudes in our human pride tend to lean on harsh relatability in our themes of correction with no substantive consideration to what they actually mean. We just hope no one notices when we strike- our storm begins when it tends to strike out!'

According to our Bibles, it is not the storms of life that bring ruin to us, but rather our instinctive tendency to flee from the places where God is seeking to build trust, fortitude and a powerful testimony. It is best to suffer for doing right than the wrongs we do in light of the offer we reject, and the pain it causes if not born of God. However, it is crucial to understand that this growth is rooted in the freedom and love that God has for us and His Word. His promises are not designed to cause us pain or heartache, but rather to break the very things that we believe God is just waiting to unleash His wrath upon. Our reactions, instead of helping us navigate through difficult situations, often deceive us into a false sense of security. These emotional responses cloud our perspective and can lead us astray from the very path that God is trying to guide us towards. In fact, our struggles are often a direct reflection of God's divine plan, and it is only through confronting them head-on that we can find true healing and purpose. By surrendering our reactions to God, we can gain clarity and insight into the deeper meaning behind our challenges, and in doing so, discover a renewed sense of hope and direction in our lives. The correction is to make us grounded in what can't fail, not that we would never fail, or essentially, have nothing to entreat after failure.

These promises are breaking the thing we think God can't wait to inflict His greatest pain upon, when Jesus took an eternal beating of inhumane proportions- dehumanization, and pain for us, and never procured our eternal victory on our promises to do right, but given from the cross the power to live separate from what bring us away from Him in our sin.  And yet, how often do we find ourselves constantly haunted by the memories of our past failures, relentlessly reminded of them day after day, with no respite or reprieve in sight, as if God himself won't let them go? Such burdensome recollections can weigh heavily on the soul, hindering us from moving forward, and making us feel trapped in a cycle of shame and self-loathing. But the good news of the New Covenant reminds us that Christ has already paid the price for our sins, that we have been set free from the bondage of guilt and shame, and that our heavenly Father is not interested in holding our past against us, but rather in seeing us grow and thrive in His grace and mercy. So let us cast off the shackles of our past and embrace the glorious future that awaits us in Christ, secure in the knowledge that we are loved, forgiven, and free.

"The intent of God's correction is not to prevent us from ever failing, or to make us believe that we have no need to seek Him after a failure. Rather, it is meant to anchor us in what is unfailing, what endures and sustains through all our ups and downs, namely His steadfast love and mercy in the New Covenant."

~CDCS RESEARCH, Kevin Simon.