Worship: For Heaven’s Sake
God only initiated one covenant and it was called the everlasting covenant. It was given to Adam and Eve. It is also called the new covenant and is the same covenant offered to us.
Wellness: For Health’s Sake
Prescription Addiction, a town hall meeting hosted by Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta, reveals that America, with only 5% of the world’s population, is home to 75% of addictive prescription drugs.
For Heaven’s Sake…
God only initiated one covenant. Man initiated a covenant also. God’s covenant was the original and everlasting covenant. Man’s covenant was the old covenant. God’s covenant was initiated by His unfailing promises. Man’s covenant was initiated by faulty promises of obedience in human strength. The reason why God’s covenant is called the new covenant is that it was ratified after the old covenant at Calvary. The old covenant was actually the second covenant. It was ratified when Moses sacrificed after the children of Israel promised to obey. Therefore, the new covenant is not new at all; it was just the second covenant to be ratified.
The new covenant was really initiated in the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sinned and God promised to place a hatred of sin in the hearts of all of Adam and Eve’s children. Genesis 3:15 states the promise like this: “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”
This would be accomplished through His Son, the promised seed, according to Galatians 3:16: “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.”
The promise was conditional. They had to be obedient. The thought is clearly implied in the context; for they had just been disobedient for the first time in their lives. The result was nakedness. The light that had been their covering was gone. It was this disobedience and its results from which, they clearly understood, one day they would be delivered. Salvation is deliverance from sin.
God gave them two tokens, signs or symbols of His promise. First, the beautiful flying serpent was immediately relegated and demoted to being a belly crawler right before their eyes. Secondly, the apron of fig leaves that exposed their nakedness was replaced with coats of skin symbolizing the covering of the blood of Jesus.
Because the coats were of skin, they saw for the first time in their lives the death of an animal. Imagine their horror as they came to grips with the terrible results of breaking the Ten Commandments. Their choice to eat from the wrong menu brought death to one of God’s creatures.
They understood it would mean the death of their beloved Jesus, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8)! The coats that covered their nakedness was also their sign, token or symbol of the death of Jesus, which would cover their unrighteousness and give them a chance to prove their loyalty to God. It was a bittersweet arrangement.
The method of receiving the promise was faith. They had to wait for the promise to be fulfilled in their offspring. Clearly, this is an operation of faith, not the works so many believe was required for salvation in Old Testament times. They, like we, exercised faith in God’s promises through obedience and received grace.
Recall in Breaking the Lease, Part 1, Hebrews 11:7 informs us that “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.” And Genesis 6:8 confirms that “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”
Recall also that God wanted us to have ownership and thus, promised (or covenanted) heirship to future generations (Genesis 9:9), rather than the temporary access allowed by a typical lease. This covenant was ratified with the blood of Jesus. The blood shed from the killing of the animals to provide their (Adam and Eve’s) covering was a symbol of that ratification.
The date of ratification or confirmation was in AD 31, when Christ died.
This morning’s broadcast featured the above and an anecdotal snake story that can be heard by clicking on the play button above. Tune in Sabbath morning, May 14, 5:30 a.m. Eastern, for Breaking the Lease, Part 3.
For Health’s Sake…
Wednesday, May 11, CNN aired Town Hall Prescription Addiction: Made in the USA. The town hall was cohosted by Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Shocking details of prescription drug overdose were revealed:
1. Overdoses are the most common cause of preventable death in America today.
2. The typical victim is the non-Hispanic Caucasian male in his mid-30s.
3. The average time from the first prescription to the time of overdose death is just 31 months.
4. It is a uniquely American public health epidemic, with 75% of the world’s opioid prescription drugs being prescribed and swallowed up in a country that makes up less than 5% of the world’s population.
5. Typical opioid prescriptions include hydrocodone, OxyContin and Percocet.
6. The initial diagnosis is back pain due to trauma, surgery or degenerative arthritis.
It was further revealed that veteran doctors can tell, without labs, when someone is on the verge of an opiate overdose.
1. The pupils are constricted.
2. The abuser characteristically nods out.
3. They often scratch their itchy skin.
4. The face becomes pale and clammy.
5. Their fingernails and lips begin to turn blue or a sickly purplish-black.
6. They make choking noises or the deep snore gurgling sounds, known as the death rattle, which means it is a pretty clear sign the opiates have just turned off the person’s drive to breathe and they are in the throes of an overdose.
Shockingly, someone dies in this way every 19 minutes.
Pastor Flemons revealed in today’s broadcast that this does not have to be. If people only knew how to address pain in simple, natural methods, many lives would be saved. He mentioned a few major ways to address pain:
1. Valerian
2. Jamaican Dogwood
3. Curcumin, blended with turmeric essential oil
4. Hydrotherapy (i.e., hot foot bath)
5. White Willow Bark
6. Activated Charcoal
7. Clove Oil
Please learn more details about the town hall on prescription addiction at http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/11/
Today’s broadcast can be accessed as directed on this page.
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