Skip to main content

And Jonathan made a solemn pact with David, because he loved him as he loved himself.
Jonathan sealed the pact by taking off his robe and giving it to David, together with his tunic, sword, bow, and belt.
1 Samuel 18:3-4NLT
It's before dawn on Waitangi Day.
The treaty
A pact
A covenant
This example in Samuel reminds me that behind the treaty it was people.
People who looked one another in the eye and made commitments.
This pact, this treaty, we don't have the words of it to argue over or unpick, but we do have the heart.
The intent.
This one is based on love.
The son of the King makes it, steps into it willingly.
And gives up the symbols of his power, his authority, and his identity.
And seems to get nothing back.
Love.
The Son of the King stepped into a treaty with me.
Gave up his power, his honour, his identity.
Was stripped of his clothing.
Gave himself
This is love.
Amazing Grace
Reckless love
A treaty based on love.
Today look for the people and the heart behind the Treaty, but don't lose sight of the Son of the King who makes his treaty with us
#waitangi
#treaty
#itsaheartthing

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,  for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can't see - such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. Colossians 1:15-16 NLT OK so this is an English translation of a letter Paul wrote to a church 2,000 years ago, but does it feel like Paul is wrestling with words and ideas to try and capture all of who Jesus is, of who God is, of how does it work that the walking around Jesus was also there before the beginning of the beginning of everything we can see and touch and know. Not only that but Jesus was somehow the agent of everything that has been made in the physical, social, and spiritual.  Jesus is at the centre of it all.  Walking around Jesus. Cooking fish for breakfast Jesus. Heart aching as he ...
Post a Comment
Read more
Now rescue your beloved people. Answer and save us by your power. ... Who will bring me into the fortified city?  Who will bring me victory over Edom? Have you rejected us, O God?  Will you no longer march with our armies?Oh, please help us against our enemies,  for all human help is useless. With God's help we will do mighty things, for he will trample down our foes. Psalm 108 6, 10-13 NLT After the most beautiful and uplifting worshipful first half to this song, David takes us somewhere completely different in the second half.  It's all about victory, power, winning, it's all about him. The "mighty things" he wants God to do are all on the outside, all about power, and David's writing sounds like he's a bit lost in his quest to win. And I do the same thing. Praise God and ask him to fix my problems. Fix the classroom/online/workplace bully, fix my finances, fix my relationships, fix my problems. So as I sit with this psalm of 2 halves, its a bit of a mir...
Post a Comment
Read more
That is what the Scriptures mean when they say,  "No eye has seen,  no ear has heard,  and no mind has imagined  what God  has prepared  for those  who love him." 1 Corinthians 2:9 NLT Paul is explaining why the people who were running the world at the time were OK having Jesus put to death - because they didn't get it that there's more.  God is more. The future is more. More than we can grasp or imagine. Paul talks of the mystery of God, yet somehow we want God to be small enough to understand, to predict, to manage how we want or expect God to be.  But Paul reminds this church, and us, that He is More.  I wonder if Paul would ask us with all our wonderful technology if we're looking to that for answers to questions it cannot answer, that the "more" we need is found in the mystery of God and it's OK to not get it all, it's OK that He is beyond our grasp and understanding.  And. We have Jesus. Jesus is God confined and limited like ...
Post a Comment
Read more