A New Testament in My Blood
The Old Testament and the New Testament are called “testaments” because of a translation quirk. The Greek word diathéké is typically translated as covenant in our English Bibles. Diatheke, translated into Latin, is testamentum. The English transliteration of testamentum is testament. A better English translation would be the New and Old Covenants.
In today’s language, the most familiar way the word testament is used is regarding a will, as in one’s last will and testament. That word is used in the Bible, too, and when it is, it is the Greek word diatheke, meaning “covenant” (underlined in the passage below). Many people attribute the titles of the New and Old Testaments to this passage in Hebrews.
For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant. In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living. This is why even the first covenant (the Greek only has the word “first” here, NIV translators insert the word covenant here to help readers follow) was not put into effect without blood. When Moses had proclaimed every command of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.” (Hebrews 9:15-20)
The author of Hebrews speaks of a new covenant, a will, and the first covenant, all from the same Greek word, diatheke. He mentions Moses, but Abraham was also given a covenant that required the blood of circumcision. “You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.” (Genesis 17:11)
The New Testament (Covenant) is not just God’s story or will expressed. A covenant implies an ongoing relationship. I can buy a used car (or inherit), and once it is paid off, have no ongoing connection or interaction with the seller. A covenant ensures both parties have a connection, a relationship, and ongoing security. That is why Jesus encouraged his followers to regularly remember, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” (Luke 22:20)
John Riley
Junior High Pastor
What’s in a Name?
When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless...” (Genesis 17:1)
This question, “What’s in a name?” became familiar when first used in the Shakespearean tragedy Romeo and Juliet. Juliet expressed this phrase because Romeo’s family was in a feud with hers. But names do mean a lot and can carry weighty implications. It is generally the first thing we want to know about someone. On April 13 of this year, my husband and I welcomed our first great-grandchild. Everyone asked us what his name was, but his parents took three days to make the final decision. Colter David Overstreet carries the legacy of the Overstreet name.
When God called Himself “God Almighty” in Genesis 17:1, He was giving a description of His own self. This was His first revelation of Himself as El Shaddai. His name is a compound word, with “El” translated as “God” and “Shaddai” as a “mountain.” According to Charles Ryrie, the visual “pictures Him as the Almighty One standing on a mountain.” We are not to measure His power by our limitations, and God wanted Abram to know that He would accomplish His will.
Names are clearly important to God, as we saw in the continuation of the chapter. Abram receives a new identity as Abraham, the father of many nations. Sarai becomes Sarah as He promises to bless her with nations and kings who come after her out of the son she will bear. Throughout the Old Testament, we read of names and their meanings or even their destinies in the name.
Jacob becomes Israel after wrestling with God. God was redefining Jacob as Israel, which means “he strives with God. This was a paradigm shift for Jacob’s life, and the new name reflected that change.
A name can be an identity, but often is a purpose as well. Zechariah was told to name his son John, which was not a family name. John was to be the voice crying in the wilderness, preparing the way for the Savior, preaching repentance, and enacting baptism.
And how many names did Jesus have? Emmanuel, Prince of Peace, Savior, King of Kings, Holy One, Son of God, Son of Man, Lamb of God…
What’s in a name? Lots of things. This made me think about all the names Jesus gives us. Some of the names speak of identity, and some are adjectives of our lives. Here are just a few of them. Don’t read them quickly, but stay a few moments with each and reflect on your life as a:
Believer — Follower — Disciple — Image bearer — New creation — Saint — Son/Daughter — Friend — Living stone — Priest — Worshiper — Servant — Christian — Chosen — Faithful ones — Beloved — Holy people — Brother/Sister.
We can only claim these names because of what the Lord Jesus has done for us and in us. But the names can shape us as we live out our life journeys here. As you pray through this list, perhaps one more time, ask the LORD to remind you of your identity in Him and the adjectives of your life that show the hope you have to a world in desperation.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Francie Overstreet
EFCC Member
Time Goes Bye
Genesis 17:1
One of the fascinating things about the Bible is the way it handles time. Entire decades can pass in a single sentence. The Scriptures don’t always narrate every moment because the point is often not what happened during the years, but what God was doing through them. That’s exactly what we see in Genesis 17: “When Abram was ninety-nine years old…” (Genesis 17:1).
And just like that, 13 years pass between the end of Genesis 16 and Genesis 17:1. One sentence, and we have over a decade of life that passes without any details or explanation, just silence.
It makes me think about my life. I tend to want God to do great things all the time. While God is always at work, some of our lives might be in “ordinary time.” In fact, some of the best moments in our lives might be ordinary time. Time coaching our kids' sports teams. Time sitting around a dinner table with good friends. Time early in the morning with a cup of coffee and an open Bible. Time where nothing “significant” happens, nothing that would make a memoir, but the things that make for a rich life.
As I read about this 13-year gap tucked between two verses, I have so many questions about all the life that happened during that time period. I’m struck by that fact just because I don’t read about any word from God. The silence of Genesis 17 does not mean the absence of God.
That’s one of the hardest lessons for us to learn spiritually. We tend to assume that if God feels quiet, He must be distant. If nothing seems to be changing externally, we assume nothing is happening internally. But throughout Scripture, God often does His deepest work in seasons that feel the most ordinary, hidden, or silent. Think about all that happened during those silent years. Abram grew older, and weaker, and probably a lot more aware of his limitations. With every passing year, God’s promise probably seemed more impossible. I’m guessing that was precisely the point. God was slowly stripping Abram of the illusion that he could manufacture the promise himself.
Maybe the extraordinary does happen in ordinary time, but it just happens so slowly that it feels ordinary or normal. We want immediate answers, but God wants mature trust. We want quick breakthroughs, but God wants deep roots. We want clarity, but God wants dependence. I’m convinced that some of the most transformative seasons of our lives happen when it feels like the least is taking place.
Maybe you’re in one of those seasons right now. A season where prayers seem unanswered and promises feel delayed. Don’t mistake silence for absence or normal for ordinary. God is at work… in you… today.
Ryan Paulson
Lead Pastor
The Foundation of Faith
Series: Count the Stars: Living by Faith Between Promise and Fulfillment
Text: Genesis 17:1-27
Speaker: Ryan Paulson, Lead Pastor
May 17, 2026: On Sunday, Lead Pastor Ryan Paulson continued our current sermon series, Count the Stars, on the life of Abraham from the Old Testament book of Genesis. The next sermon message is titled “The Foundation of Faith.”
A Window Into the Heart
Genesis 16 is one of those passages that feels uncomfortably honest. Sarai suggests a solution to her pain, and Abram agrees. In no time, Hagar is pregnant with a child who was meant to be a blessing, but quickly became a source of tension. The text tells us that Hagar begins to look at Sarai with contempt, and Sarai responds harshly.
It’s easy to pick sides in this story. Hagar shouldn’t have responded that way. Sarai shouldn’t have treated her so harshly. Both are true. But there’s something deeper going on beneath the surface. Sarai’s reaction isn’t just about Hagar’s behavior; it’s about what that behavior stirred up inside of her.
Hagar’s pregnancy becomes a living reminder of everything Sarai is carrying: her barrenness, her disappointment, and perhaps even her regret over the decision that she made. Instead of processing those emotions, they come out in all sorts of destructive ways. What began as pain turns into blame. What began as insecurity turns into contempt.
This is where the story becomes more familiar than we might like to admit. Because while the details are much different, we’ve all had moments like this. Moments when our reaction is stronger than the situation. When something small sets us off in a big way. Those times when we’re quick to assign motives, quick to judge, and quick to distance ourselves.
When this happens, our problems snowball into something bigger. The original offense is still a problem, but the intensity of our response often makes things worse and reveals something more.
Sometimes, the things we react most strongly to in others are connected to things we haven’t fully dealt with in ourselves. Maybe Sarai’s reaction toward Hagar said more about her own choices than anything that Hagar did.
It doesn’t mean the other person is innocent. But it does mean our reaction might be a window into our own hearts. A window into unresolved hurt, hidden insecurities, regret, or fear.
If we’re willing to pause rather than react with harshness or defensiveness, that window can become an invitation. An invitation to ask:
“Why did that affect me so deeply?”
“What is this stirring up in me?”
“Is there something here that God wants to gently bring into the light?”
Growth rarely tends to happen in a moment of reaction. It happens in the moment of reflection.
So today, pay attention to what triggers you.
Not just so you can manage your reactions better, but so you can better understand your own heart. Because sometimes, the very thing that frustrates you most in others is the place where God is most ready to meet you, shape you, and lead you into freedom.
Josh Rose
Family Pastor
Sees Me Through a Mess
The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert… “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” … “You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery.” She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” (Genesis 16:7-13)
Hagar was an Egyptian slave, which means she had little to no rights or cultural standing. Her master and mistress were blessed and had much, so she probably lived comparably well for someone in her station. Then her whole world flipped when she was co-opted into an ill-advised scheme by Sarai. She became the second wife of Abram and the surrogate mother of the child of promise. Relationships soured, and abuse was allowed to fester as Abram turned a blind eye.
She fled and encountered the Lord in the desert. He opened by stating her whole identity up to that point. She was then told she would bear a son. God Himself named the boy Ishmael, which means “God hears,” and promised that his descendants would be too numerous to count. Most importantly, the Lord had seen her misery and heard her cries. That was enough for Hagar to walk away worshiping, even though she was told to return and submit, and her son would become a hostile man. She had hope tailor-made for her! The difficulties of the future were manageable now.
This biblical account made me think of my dad, who struggled with the despair of my accident. At 18 months of age, I was comatose for months while the doctors actively discouraged hope for any recovery. The Lord showed him one specific tree in an office park plaza. This tree was noticeably big and beautiful, but the branches were gnarled, twisted, and shooting out in non-standard directions, messy and untamed, yet strikingly beautiful. “Your son will be like this tree,” God impressed on him. That picture didn’t fix the situation or promise an easy recovery, but it brought genuine encouragement right in the middle of the pain. Put simply, it was hope. God knew a way to give my dad hope because He still is El Roi.
Oftentimes, we are dismayed and shut down by a difficult future. I think Hagar’s name for God is key. God sees us, and he knows how to feed our souls. He can give us the exact perspective we need to have an abundance of hope. He is an exceedingly good God; he is Jehovah El Roi!
Jonathan Duncan
EFCC Member
The God Who Asks Questions
All knowing. All powerful. Always present in all places. That’s our Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnipresent God.
We love superheroes; it’s awesome that someone could have extreme powers or abilities far beyond average. The impossible idea that someone could travel through time fascinates people. To journey into the future, or the past, or even another dimension is crazy to imagine.
But, all-knowing? Maybe that’s the most outrageous of them all. An all-knowing God formed us, and knew us long before we took our first breath. The Lord told Jeremiah the prophet: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
Only an all-knowing God could make such a claim.
In Genesis 16, Abram listened to his wife Sarai’s “great idea” to sleep with her maidservant Hagar in order to “help God” a little bit, and bring the promised child into the world. When Hagar became pregnant, Sarai, out of bitter jealousy, mistreated her badly, and Hagar fled from Sarai:
“The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. And he said, ‘Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?’ ‘I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,’ she answered.” Genesis 16:7-8 (NIV)
The LORD asks Hagar two questions. Yahweh God, who created the heavens, the Earth and everything in them, who knew Hagar from before she was born, asks her where she came from and where she’s going. Why did all-knowing God ask questions? It wasn’t because He did not know.
God created Hagar and every other living soul to be in relationship with him. One of the best ways to deepen a relationship with somebody is to ask questions and allow them to share with you—as honest and confiding as they wish to be. What they share with you reveals how much they trust you.
Without hesitation, Hagar trusted the LORD with truth. He knew she was running. He knew every why—all the before, all the after. But He asked her anyway because He wanted her to know that He saw her, loved her and cared about her comings, her goings and everything else.
If the LORD asked those questions today, how would you answer? What in your past is painful? What about the future scares you? Will you be honest with God and follow His leading?
Donielle Winter
EFCC Member
The Disappointment Drift
Genesis 16:2
There’s a statement that Sarai makes in Genesis 16 that really made me think. After years of waiting, years of hoping, years of disappointment, Sarai reaches a conclusion… “The Lord has prevented me from bearing children” (Genesis 16:2).
God neither confirms nor denies the validity of her statement. Was God the cause of Sarai’s barrenness? We’re not sure. That’s a question the story leaves hanging without any resolution. But here’s what really struck me about Sarai’s comment: she talks about God, but she never talks to God.
I have the sense that her statement is more than just an observation; she is interpreting her pain. Somewhere along the way, disappointment hardened into an assumption that God was on the other end of her heartache. God had made a promise, but time had worn her down. The silence felt louder than the promise, and instead of bringing her ache to God, she began managing life around God.
It hit me that this not-so-subtle shift of talking about God, but not to Him, can shape our lives as well. We theologize about our pain instead of praying through it. We draw conclusions about God’s character based on our circumstances. We say things like, “God must not care,” or “Maybe this is just how my life will always be,” or “I guess God closed that door.” And maybe we never say those words out loud, but we live from them. Think about this… our prayerlessness is often driven more by disappointment with God than it is by busyness.
See, it’s possible to believe in God while quietly withdrawing from Him. It’s possible to discuss God, study God, even serve God, while our hearts remain guarded and distant. Pain can do that; it’s quite powerful. Unanswered prayers can slowly turn conversation with God into conversation about God.
The invitation of Scripture is always relational before it is practical. God would rather hear the honest ache of Sarai’s heart than watch her carry it alone. The Psalms show us this over and over again. Biblical faith is not pretending everything is fine. It’s bringing the real thing into God’s presence. Confusion. Anger. Grief. Longing. Questions. All of it. The tragedy in Genesis 16 is not simply that Sarai came up with a bad plan. It’s that she stopped bringing her pain to the One who made the promise.
And maybe that’s the invitation for us today. Before you figure it out, fix it, numb it, or control it… Talk to God. Not just about Him; to Him. Because faith grows in conversation with God, not in conclusions about Him.
Ryan Paulson
Lead Pastor
Faith in the Face of Pain
Series: Count the Stars: Living by Faith Between Promise and Fulfillment
Text: Genesis 16:1-16
Speaker: Ryan Paulson, Lead Pastor
May 10, 2026: On Sunday, Lead Pastor Ryan Paulson continued our current sermon series, Count the Stars, on the life of Abraham from the Old Testament book of Genesis. The next sermon message is titled “Faith in the Face of Pain.”
You Can Be Sure
“I know the One in whom I trust, and I am sure that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until the day of His return.” (2 Timothy 1:13b (NLT)
Benjamin Franklin wrote the last of his famous quotes about five months before his death. In November 1789, he wrote to a friend of his in France, a scientist named Jean-Baptiste Le Roy. In the letter, Franklin told him about the ratification of the Constitution and the beginning of a new government under it. Franklin said, “Our new Constitution is now established, everything seems to promise it will be durable; but, in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.”
The fatalistic quote about “death and taxes” has been repeated for over two centuries in our country. While we can understand what Franklin meant, the idea that they are the only things one can be certain of in this world is sad at best. In Genesis 15:13, the Lord says to Abram, “You can be sure…” Those words made me think of many things that God wants each of us to be sure about while in this world. Here is a short list of a few of them:
You can be sure God loves you beyond human comprehension.
You can be sure the shedding of Jesus’ blood atones for all your sins.
You can be sure nothing separates you from God’s love.
You can be sure Jesus is preparing a place for you so you will be with Him.
You can be sure the darkness is not dark to Him, and you are never alone.
You can be sure that Jesus’ resurrection proves death is defeated.
You can be sure that fervent prayer avails much.
You can be sure surrender to Him brings freedom.
You can be sure ____________________________.
What other truths might you put in this space? This could lead to an interesting conversation over a family meal!
What we are sure of makes a difference in how we walk this journey with the LORD. The 2 Timothy 1:13b verse is our response to what we are sure of, and it is reflected in our actions in this world. How have you seen this in your walk?
Prayer: Father, thank You that You want us to be certain about truth. If there is truth that I am not sure about, please show me what it is. I want to walk the journey well that You have for me, and to live for Your glory until the day of Jesus’ return. In His name, Amen.
Francie Overstreet
EFCC Member