IN THE DANGER ZONE

09/30/2026

Time to re-evaluate

I don't claim that what I write is absolute truth.
Maybe there is a seed of truth here that we can continue from together.

As I have said in earlier posts: I have not been a model Christian, and I'm certainly not one now. I'm still on the way! And still growing. I was lost and didn't know it. I don't write to show off or to push you down. Quite the opposite.

The message may taste salty, because we are not used to hearing what is uncomfortable, even when it is said in love.

Department-Store Christianity

It is possible to speak about Christ, to be involved in a church — and to live without conviction. Without commitment to Him or to His body.

I have met Christians who don't believe a person can be free from the slavery of sin. As free as Jesus says. Many don't even want to hear about it, because they know they haven't managed to live like Christ.

And yet: you can be free. It takes a willingness to let go and to follow.

A rich man asked: "Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?" Jesus answered: "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess… and come, follow me." He went away sorrowful. (Matt. 19:16–22)

He did not let go.

The disciples had already left everything and followed.

We can choose the same. Faith is not a trick.

It is turning around and reaching out. Seeking the kingdom of God until He Himself appears.

I'm afraid we have grown used to the department store. We pick what feels good and leave the rest on the shelf. Many churches are starting to look like that: salvation with as little effort as possible.

Without Covenant

I have never heard anyone talk about covenant-less Christianity. In practice, it exists.

It is like walking into someone else's garden, harvesting the crop and leaving. No responsibility for a single plant. Fruit without sowing.

It is like wanting intimacy without being a spouse.

The Bible doesn't call that love. It calls it unfaithfulness.

In Covenant

The whole Bible is a book of covenant. The old covenant. The new covenant.

The same covenant: Abraham. Israel.

Christ: "This cup is the new covenant in my blood." (Luke 22:20)

It is a relationship. The bride and the bridegroom. "I am His and He is mine." (Song 2:16) The king gives a wedding feast for his son. (Matt. 22:2) Your Maker is your husband. (Isa. 54:5) "I will betroth you to me forever." (Hos. 2:19) "I betrothed you to one husband." (2 Cor. 11:2)

The church is not a random crowd. She is the bride. I don't carry alone. I don't live alone. I don't believe alone.

"By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers." (1 John 3:16)

It wasn't an idea. It was their life. They didn't hold on to what was theirs. They shared.

"And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts… And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved." (Acts 2:44–47)

This is what happens when people belong to Christ and to one another. Not just duty. A free choice. They counted the cost and made a covenant.

The Battle of Trust: Living in the Danger Zone

For me, covenant doesn't fall on doctrine. It falls on trust.

Josh asked me to bring in the coffee cup I had left outside. It was a small thing. Inside me it was huge: once again someone is giving orders, once again someone sees me. I felt naked, because I owned nothing.
I had lost everything.

Kash challenged my self-pity and my bitterness. Every time, the same war inside.

I want to belong. I don't want to hand over the key. I'm afraid that openness and closeness will take more than they give. I feel naked, with no way to defend myself.

That is why covenant relationships are hard for me. I'm afraid someone will take advantage of my openness — crush me, or throw me away like trash when I'm not immediately useful.

Yet that is exactly where He calls: don't stay alone with your faith. Fetch the cup. Stay at the table.

It means I have to fight inside. Do I dare to take a step and trust?

To trust the voice of God that I believe I hear. To trust those who have loved me back to life, even if only for a short while. To trust those He has led me to.

Or do I trust what spins around in my head and heart? Suspicions. Fears. Interpretations. Explanations about people and their motives. In what feels true, because it is happening inside me.

Do I trust the Word — or myself and whatever moves in my head?

Maybe that is the challenge of covenant. Do I dare to come close. To hand over the key. To fetch the cup. To stay at the table.

And maybe to notice that the covenant was not empty after all. Instead, I finally get to belong.

Picture: Howard Wheeler

Hope

I have found a treasure. Here is the joy: because I belong, I am carried — and I get to carry others.

Many have never seen this. How the kingdom advances when Christ and a people are in covenant. Change is not a lonely struggle. It is possible together.

Abraham went out, not knowing where he was going. They acknowledged that they were strangers. They were looking forward to the city whose builder is God. Moses chose the suffering of God's people over the treasures of Egypt. They wandered in need — people of whom the world was not worthy. (Heb. 11)

In covenant there is a conviction that nothing can shake us — we stand together and love each other. A threefold cord is not quickly broken. (Eccl. 4:12)

Faith without covenant stays thin. A person is left alone.

In covenant there is no longer my own name or my own life. Christ. Belonging to Him. Belonging to the body, to a church that is a real community, where people dare to believe, to be open and to count others more significant than themselves.

What lies ahead is not a harsher loneliness. It is a life where God's love binds people together — and change becomes real with others.

The name of this blog comes from covenant. God is "the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him… to a thousand generations" (Deut. 7:9).

The covenant does not end with me. My children and the generations to come will see whether I myself dared to stay at the table.