Baal-berith - Are You Covenanting with True Christian Ministries or the Devil in Diguise?

How did the definitions of Baal translate into my Christian life? I am no intellectual nor scholar. I am just curious. And like the old adage "Curiosity killed the cat!" without discernment it almost killed me (spiritually speaking).

Baal-berith the covenant Baal, how on earth did I manage to hook up with him? How many of you are guilty of signing documents that you did not read thoroughly? I am. I always start out with good intentions, but by the second page of legalease, I'm bored and ready just to sign anything to put myself out of the misery of reading it all. I entered into covenant with strange ministries by committing to support them. I didn't really analyze their mission statements in light of God's Word to prove that they were worthy of my support. According to Matthew 25:14-30 in the Parable of the Talents, I'm going to have to give an accounting for what I did and how I used what God gave into my hands. I do not relish that day but, anticipate it with shame and horror.

One of the ministries I supported was an outreach ministry to Jews. The focus of this ministry was signs and wonders. The scripture basis for this particular signs and wonders ministry was based on

I Corinthians 1:22 (NKJV) For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom."

My internal sensor (the still small voice of the Holy Spirit) kept repeating to me over and over - "that's not what that verse means, that's not what that verse means" - and I ignored that little warning. I knew that Jesus told the Jews the only sign they would receive would be the sign of Jonah. I was simply taken away with all the reports (unsubstantied for the most part) of miraculous events happening in peoples lives.

Therefore, I was entering into covenant with this ministry without reading my legal document, The Holy Bible, the only authority on the Word of God. And when my merciful God finally got through to me I went back and examined those passages.

This is the rest of the passage in

I Corinthians 1:18-25 (NKJV) For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." 20 Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. 22 For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

I understand this passage to mean that -while the Jews request a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom- all God is going to give them is Christ crucified which is a -stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks. Therefore, I am quite certain that signs will not be the saving of the Jews or the gentiles but it will be Christ crucified to those who are being saved.

When I run the references on this passage of scripture it leads back to

Matthew 12:38-42 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from You." 39 But He answered and said to them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 "The men of Nineveh will rise in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. 42 "The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this geneartion and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.

It is my understanding from these passages that it is Christ crucified and resurrected

that leads both Jew and gentile to repentance that results in salvation. Signs and wonders do not lead to eternal life in the Kingdom of God.