Pass the Salt

I've been reading this book, Keepers of Salt by Debby L. Davis. It is answering so many questions, some that I didn't even know were questions for me. It's about things that confused me for years. There are so many references to salt that makes so much more sense now! 

Ah, that's a good thing.

It is! And there are stories she tells that hit so close to home for me. I never heard anyone really talk about covenants. Well, I've heard about them but not how intertwined they are into our lives. I never really considered the impact or importance of them in just the way she explains it. I never realized how they affect not only those in covenant, but those connected to them. I didn't know their importance.

You're not unique in that.

I know. I wonder when we stopped teaching about covenants? Why did we stop? Because we have, you know. No one keeps their word any more. Broken promises are the norm rather than the exception. How does this happen? Why is no one teaching this?

Men... and women, no longer value integrity and promises mean nothing to the vast majority of people, whether Christian or not. Keeping promises requires recognition of a system of honor and integrity... of values. The current intellectual stance is there is no fixed set of values, that everything is relative to one's feelings and desires and it isn't necessary to honor anything. "The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant."  Isaiah 24:5

My laws are out of fashion. Covenants are too much like rules for the average person. Once a person's word was all you needed to transact any business. Then, legal documents came about to insure a person kept a bargain so that integrity of character was no longer a factor. They were designed to keep dishonest people honest under the law. It didn't work. Now, even legal documents are suspect and require a team of lawyers to interpret. 

Covenants have to be honored by both parties. The person who breaks a covenant actually brings curses on themselves! So a broken covenant could be responsible for so much that is wrong in our lives. Covenant keeping and breaking are profound and powerful mechanism that would bring balance to the world. If people began to keep the covenants they make the world would immediately feel the effects.

I know.

When I realized the impact of this... the truth of it... my heart broke.

Mine, too.

I haven't even finished the book and I feel so .....

Guilty.

...........

There is a solution.

Broken covenants can't be fixed. I can only make new ones.

.............  "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children; To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them." Psalms 103: 17-18. 

What if I mess up? You know, break the new ones. I mean, the consequences....

Are no worse than what you've been living with and the understanding you are gaining now will help you do better. If you do not try, then what?

I don't want to contemplate that. 

Would that everyone felt that way.

I am so thankful you put this book in my hands. Oh... I just realized... my banner verse: 
"Vows made to You are binding upon me, O God; I will render praises to You, For You have delivered my soul from death." Psalm 56:12-13  It's a covenant!

It is.

#ConversationsWithHim