Welcome to Two Covenants Ministries
Making positive changes in our lives is not a simple matter. It's easier to stay with the pack, letting the momentum of our circumstances impact us without much thought. Sure, we can make some changes relatively easily. However, a lot can go wrong when we decide to make a consistent effort to do right. The result is often significantly different from what we were expecting.
We often find that what was initially a good idea begins to feel like an obligation. Even minor issues such as weight loss, exercise, and time with family can become sources for guilt and frustration if we don't perform. We become slaves to our positive resolutions. Then there's the issue of pride for those who see themselves as measuring up. Doing right can spawn self-righteousness and bigotry. So, how can we side-step these problems?
The answer lies in our spirituality. Only as we grow spiritually do we learn how to foster change in a healthy manner, from the inside out. Yet people define spirituality in different ways. This leads to confusion. In this booklet I will present a Christian perspective with important insights that allow us to weave the Biblical principles behind personal change into a reasonable and workable whole.
What then is the source of our problem? The Bible speaks of man as "fallen." This fallen state warps our inner compass causing us to struggle with direction. We end up plodding paths destructive to ourselves and our fellowman. From interpersonal conflicts to wars, we often live in personal and relational turmoil.
The cause lies in our alienation from God. He should be the source of the structure, security, and love we need for healthy growth (Jn 15:5). This alienation results in an egocentric perspective that lies at the root of our problem. Without faith in God's care, our lives are driven by our needs and desires creating a me first attitude. We then seek to mask that egocentrism through self-justification. We create an acceptable persona that we present to the world. Too much of our goodness is then based on our need to look good and feel good about ourselves, rather than coming from genuine love and compassion.
How can this perspective be reversed? We must come to see our need for trust in God and experience a relationship with Him based on the principles of real love. To do this we must understand the reasons for the negative and judgmental persona that God seems to adopt in many portions of scripture. This harsh and dogmatic perspective causes many to relate to God from a distorted perspective and others to look elsewhere for answers.
A proper picture of God lies in a practical understanding of the covenants of Law and Grace. These covenants, also known as the old and new covenants, define two different relationships with God, each having its own purpose. The old covenant behaves like a moral policeman, establishing the authority of law, or truth, as well as our moral responsibility. It is this persona that so often leads to misunderstandings. The new covenant, by contrast, creates a nurturing relationship based on faith, grounded in the attitudes of healing love.
We, however, often run into problems, as I said earlier, when it comes to implementing change in our lives. We don't really understand the nature of Christian obedience. We don't understand how to obey and be truly free at the same time. We don't know how to obey without it becoming a preoccupation or distorting the natural flow of things.
The answer lies in understanding our proper relationship to law, that which defines what we should do. Our proper relationship to law has been distorted to a significant extent. When we understand the nature of the covenants and how they relate to law, it all becomes clear.
It is ultimately love that makes us happy. However, real love must be based on a spirituality that frees us from ourselves. Self, rooted in our needs and desires, creates a taskmaster that is seldom satisfied - always wanting more. Our needs must be appropriately dealt with or our egocentric perspective will always subvert real love.
Our spirituality is the foundation that, if laid correctly, frees us from fussing about our needs and empowers us to freely and naturally do what we should do. We will discuss define this and how it should be incorporated into our lives.
Understanding the reasons for the old covenant and its relationship with to the new is essential to our spirituality. Without that understanding we fail to make an appropriate differentiation between the old and new covenant perspectives. This has a disastrous affect on our spiritual life.
Clarification of the use of the word law is in order here, since a proper
understanding of its use is critical to what follows. First, there is
law that describes what we should do, moral standards. This must be distinguished
from the old covenant of Law, a legal and authoritarian ATTITUDE demanding
compliance with those standards. There is also the Law of Moses, rules
about worship and codes that helped govern Israel.
This is continued in "Law and Grace in Perspective".
(you can click on it at the left)
