Church Covenant Development for YouTube (Seven Steps to Peace Keeping)

A covenant is a solemn and binding agreement entered into freely by individuals and members and groups. A church covenant details the specific and strategic map to proactive organizational peacekeeping.  3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed? Amos 3:3 Do two people walk hand in hand if they are not going to the same place?

Where there is no vision, the people perish (Proverbs 29:18).  The following is a seven-step map to develop church covenant.

First, it must recognize the necessity of the relational investment.  As God has loved, so we must love each other and talk to each other about how to live out our biblical centered faith and values.

Second, we must identify biblical values and our own.  Where they are different, discussion must follow to allow the community a community level understanding of the value and how it is to be lived out in community.

Third, identify as much as is possible all potential opportunities for conflict and offer proposals for their resolution that are not inconsistent with biblical based values.  Be clear.  Be specific.

Fourth, identify the process for identifying unacceptable member in community behavior.  Spell it out. Write it down be clear.  All must be clear about expectations and consequences to all behavior.  Whatever is agreed to in covenant, commit to the course agreed upon.  Establish a range of response from mercy to exclusion for a period of time for violations of acceptable behavior.

Fifth, put it down in writing.  Allow a period for prayer and fasting.  Come back after an agreed upon period to make adjustments or re - negotiations where necessary.

Sixth, agree upon a time for formalizing with community endorsement and signatures and celebrate the occasion.

Seventh, agree upon a regular time for review.

Churches that invest in human relations strategies designed to develop binding agreement (covenant) embraced and endorsed (sealed) by pastors, leaders, and members; assert they love God, themselves, and each other.  They plan for their harmoniously peaceful and productive coexistence as a bright and shining light Jesus Community. This behavioral Church model is the candle lit and atop the candlestick to light the whole house (Matthew 5 vs 15).
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Top Ten Reasons Christians Have No Right to Be Unhappy

Christians have no right to be unhappy even in a global environment of eXtreme unhappiness and fear.  Christians across the global village represent a monolithic perspective of faith whose baseline standards, principles, and direction come from the believed inspiration of the Creator to the pens of human writers.

These inspirations form the book developed over millennia to become the most published and bestselling work of non – fiction in recorded history, according to Kelly Wright’s article of September 19, 2013 entitled, “Is the Bible Still Relevant?”  In a sidebar note to the article are the words, “Be advised.  The Bible will cause you to think and to act.”

While Christians represent a monolithic idea of faith presented in the Bible, Christians live out their faith and values from its standards, principles, and direction in diverse ways.  Therefore, Christians are monolithic by faith and diverse by expression.

What must distinguish Christians is the living out of faith and values.  When the global community is in fear of economic meltdown, wars, nuclear annihilation, bioweapons, earthquakes, community violence; Christians must, as did Jews living out the holocaust, hold fast to what has been written.  The following from what is written are the top ten reasons Christians have no right to be unhappy:

A Thankful Consciousness

Number One - Psalms 139 vs 14, I will praise thee; for I am like all of your creation fashioned in excellence; I fully know it in my heart.

Courage

Number Two - 2 Timothy 1 vs 7, For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Number Three - Isaiah 54:17a, ⁷ No weapon formed against you shall prosper,

Number Four - Mark 11 vs 23, Jesus speaking says, “When you face an obstacle or challenging trial, as a mountain preventing your forward progress; tell it with your faith filled heart and mouth, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea.  Do not doubt in your mind and heart what you spoke: but believe that those things which you spoke shall happen; you shall have you spoke into existence.

Contentment and Happiness

Number Five - Philippians 4:11, Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever physical or emotional conditional situation I am, therewith to be content.

Reward of Forgiveness

Number Six - Mark 3 vs 28 Verily I say unto you, All your and other’s sins shall be forgiven, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme:

Number Seven -2 Corinthians 5 vs 21, For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Number Eight - 2 Corinthians 12 vs 9, And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Security

Number Nine - Matthew 28 vs 20b, Jesus speaking says for all of us who will read, “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”

Number Ten - Romans 8 vs 28, And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Being unhappy is a choice.  While no one desires undesirable conditions, the personal power comes from choice to decide response, happy or unhappy. 

The Bible is filled with writings that bring comfort to the condition of the human soul.  The words of Solomon from the Book of Ecclesiastes Chapter 2 verse 24 close of the top ten reasons Christians have no right to be unhappy, “ There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labor.”

Note:  All Biblical References are from the King James Translation.  Paraphrasing where necessary for clearer understanding is my own and italicized. 

"Four Weeks to Renegotiate a New Relationship"

Four weeks to negotiate a new relationship through intense intentional engagement in negotiation, renegotiation, deal making and sealing the deal can lead to the design of a more loving and productive relationship.  Women and men living in love and long-term relationships find it responsible to communicate with each other to make sure the relationship provides a mutually satisfying experience.  When concerns are noted, conversations take place to manage them in the most effective way.

Euphoric Love

A Hebrew Bible paraphrase of the Song of Solomon, Chapter 2 and verse sixteen reveals a woman declaring her love saying, “All of me is given to my love and he may take his fill of me.” The initial euphoria of love is so intensely good feeling, there is nothing one will not do for love.

Challenged Love

  

Challenges develop when the euphoria peaks and a real person is left behind.  When both discover they loved the euphoria and not with each other, relationship suffers.  This leads to the Hebrew Bible paraphrase of Proverbs twenty – one and verse nineteen, “It is better to live alone in the desert than with an angry nagging woman.” 

The journey from shared euphoric love to shared challenged love is a short one.  Recovery from unhappiness in long-term relationship requires the best that mature people can bring to resolve their situation. 

Negotiate and Renegotiate

To negotiate means to discuss something formally to reach agreement.  Shakespeare said, “Let every eye negotiate for itself and trust no agent.”  By this, he meant nobody represents our interests better than we do.  In relationship, each party must negotiate for their interest and be willing to engage each other and work towards agreement in the interests of both.  To renegotiate means to discuss again the details of an agreement to make it better.  It means to negotiate repeatedly if necessary.

Make a Deal and Seal It

Each must ask tough questions.  Each must be mature enough to ask for what is wanted and needed.  Each must honestly reveal their willingness to love and live in love through intentional sharing of themselves and their resources to the mutual satisfaction of each other.  This willingness includes being giving, being forgiving, and understanding the needs of each other and being willing to give of self to meet those needs with love as the motivation.

Four weeks of intense intentional engagement in negotiation, renegotiation, deal making and sealing the deal can lead to the design of a design of a more loving and productive relationship.  In Week 1, love each other enough to negotiate your interests.  In Week 2, renegotiate your interests to make sure each gets as much of what they want as possible.  Be willing to give to each other in ways that bring each other joy.  In Week 3, make a deal you can live with and believe in.  Make sure, there are scheduled times for looking back over the deal to see if it is working as designed.  Be willing to make adjustments if necessary.  In Week 4, seal the deal however you have negotiated to seal the deal and enjoy it.

Three Things You Can Do to Make the World a Better Place

Oscar Crawford, M.Div., MS/AJS

Three Things You Can Do to Make the World a Better Place

Ecclesiastes 3 vss 18 Concerning people, I said to myself, "God is testing them, so that they will see that by themselves they are just animals. 19 After all, the same things that happen to people happen to animals, the very same thing — just as the one dies, so does the other. Yes, their breath is the same; so that humans are no better than animals; since nothing matters, anyway. 20 They all go to the same place; they all come from dust, and they all return to dust. 21 Who knows if the spirit of a human being goes upward and the spirit of an animal goes downward into the earth?" 22 So I concluded that there is nothing better for a person to do than take joy in his activities, that that is his allotted portion; for who can enable him to see what will happen after him?

Matthew 5  vss 43 "You have heard that our fathers were told, 'Love your neighbor[i] — and hate your enemy.' 44 But I tell you, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! 45 Then you will become children of your Father in heaven. For he makes his sun shine on good and bad people alike, and he sends rain to the righteous and the unrighteous alike. 46 What reward do you get if you love only those who love you? Why, even tax-collectors do that! 47 And if you are friendly only to your friends, are you doing anything out of the ordinary? Even the Goyim do that! 48 Therefore, be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Matthew 22 - 33 When the crowds heard how he taught, they were astounded; 34 but when the P'rushim learned that he had silenced the Tz'dukim, they got together, 35 and one of them who was a Torah expert asked a sh'eilah to trap him: 36 "Rabbi, which of the mitzvot in the Torah is the most important?" 37 He told him, "'You are to love Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.'[c] 38 This is the greatest and most important mitzvah. 39 And a second is similar to it, 'You are to love your neighbor as yourself.'[d] 40 All of the Torah and the Prophets are dependent on these two mitzvot."

Three Things You Can Do to Make the World a Better Place

1.  Love and Honor the Source of Life - Creator and Creation
2.  Love and Honor Self as Expression of Creator and Creation
3.  Love and Honor Others (the good and the not so good) like Creator and Creation

How to Recognize and Respond to Depression

Depression is multi - tiered emotional condition characterized by feelings of disappointment, sadness, low self - worth, and a sense of no inspiration for life.  Even the desire for food, sex, and all other biological prompts lose their urgency.  There is neither interest nor energy to do anything.

Tiers of Depression

Level Four - Normal life ups and downs, the blues.  You did not get the promotion.  You had a word fight with a loved one.  You do not have all the money you want and cannot do all the things you want to do.   Most people live with these kinds of experiences without being overly impressed by their conditions.  These are down for moments but keep up their relationships, routines, and responsibilities.

Level Three - Loss of something or someone significant prompts a grieving of personal loss.  There is the perception of a deeper level hurt that will require an extended amount of time to work through.  Pain may be residual but not debilitating until it is gradually assimilated and managed. These are down for moments but keep up their relationships, routines, and responsibilities.

Level Two - Chronic sadness and deeper feelings of little value leading to withdrawal from  relationships, routines, and responsibilities. Therapy and the consideration of pharmaceutical intervention can prove to be effective short term treatment responses.

LEVEL ONE - Total shutdown of engagement of relationships, routines and responsibilities.  Organic brain chemistry may reveal deficits exacerbating the perception of existing depressing conditions. No hope seems available at this level.  Intense intervention is required through inpatient treatment to stabilize condition.  Trial of medication to determine which are more effective can take 90 days to work out.  Therapy and case management may be necessary to restore to appropriate level of function.

Mark 5 vss 25 - 34 25 A woman was there who had been bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a lot under the care of many doctors, and had spent everything she had without getting any better. In fact, she had gotten worse. 27 Because she had heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his clothes. 28 She was thinking, If I can just touch his clothes, I’ll be healed. 29 Her bleeding stopped immediately, and she sensed in her body that her illness had been healed.

30 At that very moment, Jesus recognized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?”

31 His disciples said to him, “Don’t you see the crowd pressing against you? Yet you ask, ‘Who touched me?’” 32 But Jesus looked around carefully to see who had done it.

33 The woman, full of fear and trembling, came forward. Knowing what had happened to her, she fell down in front of Jesus and told him the whole truth. 34 He responded, “Daughter, your faith has healed you; go in peace, healed from your disease.”

Sources:  

Depression Symptoms & Warning Signs How to Recognize Depression Symptoms

Diagnosing Depression There are different kinds of depression

Definition of Depression 1  Definition of Depression 2