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Establishing the Covenant - With My Church

by Jerry Ousley  
4/04/2014 / Christian Living

In 1982 I made a commitment to the U.S. Army. Many of you remember that during the early eighties, times were hard. Jobs weren't easy to find and to get one you pretty near had to sell your soul to the company. I had been trying to make it as an insurance salesman and was failing miserably. I had to do something.

A man I knew had been trying to get me to join up with the Army Reserves for quite some time. I had dismissed it, until I realized that I wasn't going to make it selling insurance and couldn't find another job anywhere. I went to see a recruiter. To make a long story short that guy promised me the moon and talked me into not just signing up for the Reserves, but joining for a three year tour of duty in the Regular Army.

I felt pretty good about my decision until I broke the news to my family. They let me know right away that I had made yet another bad decision. But according to the recruiter, once I had signed on the dotted line it was too late; I was obligated. I went through all the testing and unfortunately passed with flying colors.

What I didn't realize was that until the day I took my oath, I could have gotten out of it. Believe you me, at that point if I had known that, I would have run like a jack rabbit with a hound dog in hot pursuit. But I didn't know that.

The day the recruiter came to pick me up and deliver me to the final testing center where I would take my oath and immediately fly out to Fort Dix, New Jersey, if I had followed the feelings inside of me he would have had to drag me out of my house kicking, screaming and clawing in the dirt all the way.

Once that oath had been taken I was locked in. Thank God I finished my three years and promptly got out. However, there were many things I could have done during that three year period that would have gotten me released, though dishonorably, but once the commitment had been made I was determined to follow it through, and I did as a good soldier of Uncle Sam.

Another clause in our covenant with God is that to the Church. We have covenanted with ourselves, our families, and with others, but we sometimes forget the part about the Church. It is a commitment to God's great big, world-wide body of believers, but is normally carried out in our local congregation.

When we become a part of a congregation we are verbally committing to share, and help fulfill the vision of the pastor and that body of people. Sometimes we don't agree and sometimes that disagreement is justified. In those cases most people simply up and leave. They find another body in which to worship or sometimes start their own congregation (as the result of a split).

What should happen is that when disagreements arise we should seek to resolve them. There are times when it is right and proper to leave a congregation, but we should view it just like a divorce from our spouse It shouldn't happen unless it is absolutely irresolvable and necessary. We should find a way to work it out. If more believers would do that we'd have a whole lot less problems in the Church and we'd have a whole lot better witness with others, if you know what I mean.

Let's work to fulfill our covenant with God and with the Church. Let's show the world that things can be resolved. Let's let our witness as brothers in Christ be proven in our love for each other. I really think we can do that.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com-CHRISTIAN WRITERS

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