Covenant
Life Together
- A Prophetic
Sign of Grace
and
Restoration
.
“I
have given you
as a covenant
to the people,
a light to the
nations”
– Isaiah 42:6
In This Issue
This
issue focuses on a fundamental aspect of our
relationship with God. Our God is a covenant
making God. It is part of his nature to
unite himself with a people who will love
and obey him and serve him together, not
only as individuals but as a community of
disciples who want to follow and serve the
Lord together as a people.
The Apostle Peter reminds us, "For once
you were no people, but now you are God's
people" (1 Peter 2:10).
In
sending us his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
God has established a New Covenant of grace
purchased for us through the atoning blood
of Christ's sacrifice on the cross and he has
put his seal upon us by the Holy Spirit
who dwells with us as the guarantee and
pledge of everlasting friendship with God
as his adopted sons and daughters.
Beginnings of covenant
communities 50 years ago
Fifty years ago in 1969, God led a
charismatic group of university
students at the University of Michigan
in Ann Arbor (USA), on a journey of
discovering what it means to be a
covenanted people who are joined
together in a shared life of
commitment, community and mutual care
for one another - not just for a
season but for the entirety of our
lives. God spoke to us as we gathered
in prayer one evening and he said to
us, "I want to make a covenant with
you... but you must first smash your
idols..." This call to live in
committed relationships as brothers
and sisters in Christ resulted in a
mutual decision to share our lives
together in covenant community. During
our first commitment ceremony in 1970
we each in turn stood and promised to
follow and serve the Lord together as
a covenant community. The Lord spoke
and said this was "an historic night
and a beginning of a work of
restoration for his people." The
community covenant commitment we made
together marked the beginning of a new
wave of grace and work of the Spirit
as many other groups of charismatic
Christians began to form covenant
communities around the world. See
Bruce Yocum's article in this issue, Our
Beginnings in
Covenant
Community - A
Worldwide Work
of God,
and Steve Clark's article, Covenant Community &
Church - A
Work of the
Spirit
We believe that the formation of
covenant communities is meant to be a
prophetic sign of God's work of grace
and restoration for the Christian
people today. Many churches have been
under attack and many Christians are
divided, confused, and many are being
swept away in a tide of moral
confusion, apathy, division, and
isolation. We are called to stand,
fight, and build bastions of faith,
hope, and love together so we can
proclaim the Good News and extend
God's kingdom of peace, joy, and
righteousness.
Signs
of hope and
restoration
Bob
Tedesco's article, Restoring
Covenant Life
&
Relationships:
The Lord’s
Response,
analyzes some
of the key
problems and
challenges for
the Christian
people today,
along with the
Lord's
response to
these problems
and
challenges. He
traces the
roots of these
problems back
to the massive
social and
moral
unraveling
that took
place in the
1960s.
There are many
signs of hope,
renewal, and
restoration.
We believe
that
charismatic
renewal and
covenant
community is a
key part of
God's plan of
restoration
for his people
today. May
this issue
inspire,
encourage, and
call you to a
renewed
commitment to
follow and
serve the Lord
together to
rebuild and
strengthen
marriage,
family life,
and community
life empowered
by the grace,
wisdom, and
power of the
Holy Spirit.
Sincerely
in Christ,
Don Schwager
editor
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