PRÉCIS ON GOD’S PROMISES OF IRON: ‘HE’ SHALL NEVER FAIL! (BUT ‘WE’ TOO OFTEN DO)

SCRIPTURE. “He has given food and provision to those who reverently and

worshipfully fear Him; He will remember His covenant forever and imprint it [on His mind].” – PSALM 111:5, AMPC

KEY TERM: “COVENANT.” ‘Berith’ [בְּרִית]: “A compact; treaty, alliance; ‘a league;’ an agreement between two parties;  an official, lawful ordinance; acts as a Divine Constitution that governs conduct; ‘a pledge [unto life or unto death, inviolate];’ mutual consent or agreement of two or more persons, to do or to forbear some act or thing; a contract; stipulation; as a verb, to enter into a formal agreement; to stipulate; to bind one’s self by contract.”

QUOTATION. “Sociologists argue that in contemporary Western society the marketplace has become so dominant that the ‘Consumer Model’ increasingly characterizes most relationships that historically were ‘Covenantal,’ including marriage. Today we stay connected to people only as long as they are meeting our particular needs at an acceptable cost to us. When we cease to make a profit – that is, when the relationship appears to require more love and affirmation from us than we are getting back – then we ‘cut our losses’ and drop the relationship. This has also been called ‘Commodification,’ a process by which social relationships are reduced to economic exchange relationships, and so the very idea of ‘Covenant’ is disappearing in our culture. Covenant is therefore a concept increasingly foreign to us.” ― TIMOTHY KELLER,The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God, 2013; edited

COMMENTARY. “‘He hath given meat’ —All necessary provisions for their being and well-being; ‘unto them that fear him’ — To the Israelites, the only people in the world that feared and worshipped the true God according to His Will, and especially to those among them that truly feared Him, and, for their sakes, to the body of that nation, as well in the wilderness as in their following straits and miseries. ‘He will ever be’ — Or, ‘He hath ever been, mindful of His covenant’ — Which He made with Abraham, and with His seed for ever; whereby He engaged to be their God, and to provide all necessaries for them. Not only by His Words, but by His actions; ‘the power of his works’ —His mighty power in His works, and especially, as it here follows, in giving them the heritage of the Heathen, the Land of Canaan, which had been possessed and inherited by the Heathen.” – JOSEPH BENSON, Notes on the Holy Bible, 5 vols., 1811-1818; edited

DK. I’ll get straight to the point on the basis of copious research and former Commentaries: The American Church is nearly fully Reprobate by her shameless, promiscuous obsession with Mammon! Or as Tim Keller rightly diagnoses, ‘The Commodification of the Gospel!’

I see it everywhere around me here in Colorado Springs, with our fancy-dancy Megachurch sporting a $33 million annual budget, 140 paid employees who cannot even help a down and out couple I once tried to get lodging for, and six figure salaries for pastors who preach mush. All of which makes the thousands of its members shell out massive tithes (money is talked about – a lot!) to support, um, to support, well, to support …

The burgeoning staff and the monthly mortgage payment!

All of which lands them square into a Doctrinal Wasteland, perilously vulnerable to the fully delusional default promises of Donald Trump’s Maga Nationalism to “Make America Great Again.” Very possibly followed by entrance into the Gates of Fiery Hell, and not the ones made of Pearl.

THE PROMISE. Light years away from this Spiritual Treachery is the ‘True Gospel,’ through which Jesus Promises to those who labor honestly, to supply what is ‘needed’ (not what is ‘wanted’). I have seen Him do this for four years running, though yes, it is scary at times, and on occasion our coffers are lean, but it is always enough.

In Sum: The Church has not only ‘Broken Covenant’ with Jesus Christ, but ‘Shattered it entirely!’ Without Repentance – passionate, public, and sustained – America is lost, beloved. Full stop. Game over. “¡Se acabó!” And I continue to wonder:

Are any of our Leaders even listening?