Unit One: A Few Covenant Essentials 

Lesson One: First Things

 
Welcome to the Confirmation Class at Komstad Covenant Church. The idea of Confirmation started a whole bunch of years ago, before you were born, before video games and cell phones.

Churches wanted their young adults to hear some very basic truths about life in Christ and life in the church. So they started a class that would do exactly that, and they called it “Confirmation.”

That’s why we’re all here—to study the basics. And there’s a lot to talk about. So for the next two years, we are going to examine scripture and talk to people and shake up our brain cells.

Because there’s a lot to know. So let’s get started.

Let me introduce you to a few new words. Well, maybe they’re new, and maybe they’re old. Either way, let’s get them into our vocabulary.

The first word is covenant.

You’ll see the word covenant a lot in the Old Testament, and it even filters into the New Testament at times. In the OT, as we call it, God established a covenant with a guy named Abraham, and that covenant was passed on to a lot of people.

A covenant is a contract or an agreement. When you buy a house, there may be covenants attached to a deed for property. It’s a legal term in today’s world, and it was pretty much the same in the Old Days.

When we celebrate communion in church, we sometimes use Jesus’ words where he described a new covenant. He was saying that God was establishing new terms for the contract with humanity. A new agreement.

The word is so important that it found its way into the name of Komstad Covenant Church. And the reason for that will be explained later, so keep your ears open.

For today, you don’t have to know everything about covenants in the Bible. We have a more immediate need for the word.

This class will be difficult. There is a lot of information to cover, and it is all very, very important. It will take work. It will take commitment.

So we want you to make a covenant, right here at the start of everything, to put in the time that this class will demand. Lesson material will be online for most of the days that you come to class. Read it.

There may be projects or assignments. Do them. There may be activities that you can do alone or with the rest of the class. Get involved.

There may be questions that come to your mind. Ask them.

Our part of the contract is to provide the information in ways that you can understand and use. Your part of the covenant will be to spend time in your Bibles and in the material, talk in class, be involved in the study.

That’s the first word: covenant.

The second word is paraphrase. 

We’re going to spend a lot of time in our Bibles, because that’s where we find the answers. One way to make scripture easier to understand is to paraphrase it, or to say it in our own words.

When we print scripture in the lesson, you might find it in the NIV translation, which is the New International Version, which is a common, simple Bible that we use here at Komstad.

But some of the verses will be paraphrased, which means someone will say the same verse in a simpler, clearer, maybe goofier way. They will usually be marked as a paraphrase or carry the tag in my own words.

I’ll show you how it works. Suppose we looked at the verse:

Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.  

First Timothy 4:12    (NIV)

Not too hard to understand it. But it might be even easier to change it a little.

I know you are young, but come on! That’s no reason for anyone to look down on you. Set an example! Show everyone what it means to be a real Christian! Show them how a Christian is supposed to talk and live and care for each other, and show them what a pure life is all about.   

First Timothy 4:12    (paraphrased)

That’s just what I see when I read that verse, so it’s the verse in my own words. You can do the same. You can write the verse in your own words. It can help make a complicated verse simple.

Before we leave this, let’s ask the simple questions.

This was written to someone (or someones) who was being “looked down upon.” Just so we are clear, what does it mean for someone to look down on someone else? Got another word for that?

Why was this person being down-looked?

Instead, this person was supposed to set an example to other Christians, which would add a measure of uplookery to their life. What are the four areas in which this person could be an example?

If this verse is true for somebody, somewhere, then it is true for us. We can be an example to other Christians, even older Christians, if we take our life in Christ serious.

Remember that.

Okay, one more thing. No new words. Just another verse that begs to be rewritten in our own words. Your words, actually.

Here it is: 

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.
Second Timothy 2:15  (NIV)

The verse mentions the word of truth. What do you think that is?

You might notice two opposite words: approved and ashamed.

If a Christian wants to be approved by God, what kinds of things should they do?

If they don’t want to be ashamed, what kinds of things might they avoid?   

Now that you’ve looked at the verse a bit, write it in your own words. Not perfectly, but quickly, off the top of your head. If you had to tell someone what the verse told you, how would you say it?

Write it here.

We’ve just started, so get your brain cells working. There’s a lot to do in class, so make a covenant to be there all the time, or almost. It will be fun, and it will be cool, and it will be worth it.

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