#LordJesusChrist: an article @CopelandMinistries' July 2020 issue of #BelieversVoiceOfVictory on The Importance of Your Commitment to His Gospel @BibleGateway

You know Lord Jesus Christ (the title we give to the man Y`shua bin Y`sef (or Yeshua bin Yosef (Jesus, son of Joseph)), whom we 'believe' died as a sacrifice to pay for mankind's sin-nature).

I say "believe"--and not necessarily "know" or "agree that the events occurred"--because 'that it actually happened' does not matter as much as 'who we become when we prove our belief.'

... I'll get back to that, but first---Brother Kenneth Copeland starts "100% COMMITTED" (in the July 2020 issue here) recounting his high-school days, when he got a "grin" when people would sign up thinking they'd try-out football (and maybe join the team if it was fun) and they would get SMASHED by the guys who were committed to the game ("who put up with sore muscles, bruises, bloody noses and whatever else they had to endure"

Brother Copeland realized that that's the kind of commitment you have to show for God---the kind of faith that turned Abram into Abraham. Abram--you'll recall--was 100 years old (and his wife 90) when his son Isaac was born. Sure, he had a son with his concubine earlier; but Isaac was 'the royal line'---the son he was counting-on to carry his ancestry into the 'grains-of-sand in the desert'-numbers.

That's important, because that made it extremely valuable that Abram was willing to sacrifice his son (his only chance at a respectable legacy) for his covenant with God. I know it's not logical--earning the chance to be "High Father of Many Multitudes" (rather than just "High Father") by destroying the very person who makes you a Father--but Abram had The Faith that God would provide---by raising Isaac from the dead, by giving him & his wife (the centenarians) a second child.

... it gets a little confusing for me here: Brother Copeland says this was where God came down to Earth & cut covenant with Abraham---a covenant with "God Almighty on one side and His Son Jesus (The Seed of Abraham) on the other!"

Hmm, "cutting covenant"---I think I'll look & see what the Internet has to say about that (It's how the Jewish tradition of circumcision started. ... http://calvinzelie.blogspot.com/2008/11/cutting-covenant.html https://rsc.byu.edu/gospel-jesus-christ-old-testament/cutting-covenants https://www.gotquestions.org/blood-covenant.html http://www.jesuswalk.com/abraham/4_covenant.htm https://www.fpcjackson.org/resource-library/sermons/the-establishment-of-a-covenant-people-the-promises-of-god-the-life-of-abraham-5-the-cutting-of-the-covenant https://www.bibleblender.com/2011/bible-stories/old-testament/genesis/gods-covenant-with-abraham https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-stories/the-abrahamic-covenant-bible-story.html https://www.gotquestions.org/Abrahamic-covenant.html https://www.ministrysamples.org/excerpts/GOD-CONFIRMING-HIS-PROMISE-BY-MAKING-A-COVENANT--WITH-ABRAHAM-THROUGH-CHRIST.HTML https://www.biblehub.com/genesis/15-10.htm etc.),

But the point is that--by 'believing on' Lord Jesus Christ--we are 'Seed of the Promise.'

Brother Copeland cites Scripture to make that claim (Galatians 3:9, 26-29), but I regard The Epistles as 'not quite Scripture'---they're more like 'affirmations written to encourage young Disciples as they patiently wait to be sent on their next mission.'

'The Scripture that I believe' (because of the book of Jude's "show faith by deeds"-principle) is more 'the story that teaches The Truth'---"parable"? maybe, but one that may have actually happened (i.e. "history" that teaches a lesson).

The lesson here: Like Abraham could've ignored God's command--dismissing it as unreasonable and thus -as not the command of a reasonable God--Jesus could've denied that He was 'The Seed of The Promise' and submitted to the rule of Caesar; but instead He (and Abraham) released His spirit (the fate of Abraham's legacy) into the hands of God, who (just like God brought Abraham the sacrificial goat when Abraham was just-about to slaughter Isaac) resurrected Jesus and restored the glory of Abraham!

Just like Our Nation is sustained by the proof of "that banner still waving o`er the land of the free and the home of the brave," Our Faith is sustained by the proof of that bloody-but-unbroken-Son-Crucified.

#LordJesus #JesusChrist