JOSHUA CHARLES URGES CHRISTIANS TO EMBRACE 'THE RESPONSIBILITY OF COVENANT'

GOD, ISRAEL & YOU

YOUR PLACE IN HIS STORY

Exclusive: Joshua Charles urges Christians to embrace 'the responsibility of covenant'

The following is an excerpt from my latest book, co-authored with Michael Onifer, “God, Israel, and You: The Scandalous Story of a Faithful God.”

In Exodus 1:8, the Bible tells us, “There arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.” The king and the people forgot. They forgot about this Hebrew slave who had miraculously ascended from sitting in a dungeon on trumped-up charges to ruling the empire as Pharaoh’s second in command. With divine wisdom, Joseph prepared for a devastating famine, sparing the Egyptians from want and suffering. In the process he also saved his family, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The Egyptians didn’t appreciate the history of the Hebrews in their midst. Jealousy turned to fear, and fear turned to the Hebrews’ enslavement. But God remembered. He remembered His promise; He remembered His covenant. As partakers of that same covenant, through the blood of Jesus (Ephesians 2:13), we need to remember. The existence of the modern state of Israel and the preservation of the Jewish people call us to remember. The apostle Paul calls us, in light of God’s saving grace, to remember the covenants of promise (Ephesians 2:11). Jesus, instituting the new covenant, raised a cup symbolic of God’s deliverance, and issued an eternal charge to His first disciples and to all who would come after: remember! (Luke 22:19; 1 Corinthians 11:25)

The church has fully embraced the blessings of covenant. We also need to fully embrace the responsibility of covenant. Returning to the church’s roots, we need to restore the ethical scope of salvation. Eternal life beckons us to be agents of redemption and to do justice. In order to do so we must acknowledge and submit to the Author of justice. 

While comparisons to the Arab-Israeli conflict have been made to demonstrate the illogical double standards to which Israel is held, the Arab-Israeli conflict is not just another conflict. Israel is not just another nation. The Jews and the Palestinians are not just another example, in the long history of examples, of people groups in conflict. Jerusalem is not just another city. By God’s design, the future of that nation and those people affect the future of all people and all nations.

Joshua Charles’ latest book takes a fresh, biblically based look at how God has and continues to use both Israelis and Arabs to further his purposes: “God, Israel, and You: The Scandalous Story of a Faithful God”

I don’t pretend to offer “solutions” to the Arab-Israeli conflict but rather to place it in the larger context of redemptive history and illuminate that God has placed upon us a co-responsibility for the course of history.

For Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Sophie Scholl, it meant sacrificing personal perspective and preservation. But, they did so because they were compelled by an eternal sense of responsibility. Inevitably, our role as active participant will conflict with cultural norms and, at times (similar to when Peter confronted Jesus), it will be contrary to our most logical and sincere convictions. It should be no surprise to us that to find our life we must lose it, and to be Jesus’ disciple we must pick up our cross and follow Him.

Psalm 25:14 says, “The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant.”

My prayer for you is that the knowledge of God will empower you to be an agent of justice and redemption, and that He would make His covenant known to you and lead you to your place in His story.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2016/05/your-place-in-his-story/#DpGUOMpoqTiJdvUV.99