God is reaching out to you. He wants to be your God, your Savior and your personal friend. Personal friends have an impact on our lives, therefore, it’s important to know who God is, what he has done for others, and what he wants to do for you. Who Am I?
“God sent Jesus to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children.” Galatians 4:5. “God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.” Ephesians 1:5. God wants to adopt you into his family.
Like adoption, blood covenant law is legal and binding. God made a blood covenant with Abram in Genesis 15. Why is this still important today? In Abram’s day, each party of a blood covenant would sacrifice his own animal on sloping hills so the blood of each animal would flow down and mix together together in a pool. Then each covenant party would remove his shoes and walk barefooted through the pool of mixed blood. As he walked through the mixed blood, he promised to keep his word, his part of the covenant, promising that if he did not keep his promise, it would cost him his own blood, his own life.
Under a normal blood covenant, both Abram and God would have walked barefoot through the mixed blood, each being responsible only for their covenant promise. BUT GOD took on the promise and consequences of both sides of this blood covenant while Abram slept. If this covenant was broken by either party for any reason whatsoever – God’s unfaithfulness or Abram’s – God would pay the penalty. He would pay the price with his own life. And he did…. On the cross.
This was not a normal blood covenant. God promised to give Abram and his heirs the Promised Land, but Abram had no children, no heirs. Therefore, Abram asked if one of his servants would be an heir and, in verse 8, he asks God how he can be sure he and his heirs would possess it. The Lord told him, “Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” So Abram presented all these to him and killed them. Then he cut each animal down the middle and laid the halves side by side; he did not, however, cut the birds in half. Some vultures swooped down to eat the carcasses, but Abram chased them away. As the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a terrifying darkness came down over him. Then the Lord said to Abram, “You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years. But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end they [Abram’s descendants] will come away with great wealth. (As for you, you will die in peace and be buried at a ripe old age.) After four generations your descendants will return here to this land, for the sins of the Amorites do not yet warrant their destruction. After the sun went down and darkness fell, Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch pass between the halves of the carcasses. So the Lord made a covenant with Abram that day….” From Genesis 15:9-18.
If the vision of Abel’s sacrifice of a lamb wasn’t apparent at Abel’s offering, it is confirmed in Genesis, chapter 15. At this moment, God sealed his promise to come to earth as one of us in the form of Jesus Christ, the pure and holy spotless Lamb of God, to take on the burden of the cross not only to redeem us, pay for our sins, retrieve the authority Adam and Eve handed over to Satan and return it to us; but also because of a promise to his friend. This same blood covenant covers your sins; you simply need to accept God’s offer to adopt you and allow him to become your Lord and Savior.
“So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever.” Hebrews 9:11-12.
- “Behold! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.” Revelation 3:20. Just be aware that if you choose not to open the door, and If you do not ask Jesus to come in, Satan will barge in and take over. Satan is not a gentleman, nor a savior; he is a thief and his only purpose is to steal, kill and destroy. John 10:10.
- To receive God’s simple salvation plan, open your heart to Jesus, ask him to forgive your sins, and then leave them there: “Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. Please forgive my sins and teach me how to follow you not only as my Savior, but also as my Lord. Amen.”
- Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me. If you had known who I am, then you would have known who my Father is. From now on you know him and have seen him!” John 14:6-7.
When you repent and accept Jesus’ payment for your sins, the power you inherit as the blood of Christ spills onto your soul, completely covering and saturating it, proclaims and defines your image as it is reflected from God. It is not only your freedom from slavery and bondage, but also your gift to reflect that image of God, to react to the greatness of God as he has revealed it to you, and to walk with him intimately every day in love, sacrifice and obedience.
“So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.” Romans 8:1-2.
Continue to build a relationship with God through the powerful blood of Jesus. The Bible isn’t just a collection of stories and snippets of wisdom, but a complete instruction manual on how to restore intimacy with God as it was in the beginning prior to the introduction of sin. God wrote the book and he knows how it ends. It isn’t a numbered list of writings; the books are in sections, like history and poetry, not a chronological order. God has given us all we need to know. The twist is that it’s in puzzle form. In order to complete the puzzle, we need to study the pieces and move them around until they fit snugly, keeping in mind that many pieces fit perfectly in more than one area of the puzzle. You are unique and precious to God; you are unlike any other person on earth. He will show you where to put your puzzle pieces. This is God’s design.
Throughout this puzzle maze, God’s words transform us into reflections of his image. The mystery to your transformation grows as you read God’s word and build your relationship with him. God’s method of revealing himself to you comes when you open the door, ask him to come in, and then listen to his words. Staying connected, God reveals not only who he is, but how he can heal, protect, comfort, lead, teach and provide for us. Again, the opposite is also true. The longer we stay away from his word, the less we’re connected to his image – which results in fear, loneliness and depression.
“God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” Ephesians 2:8-10
Full Disclosure: For more information, see Blessings and Cursings.
See Also:
About the Journey
Names of God
Blood
Image of God
Cain and Abel
Book of Life
Day 4