Cafeteria Covenant: the Voice, the Choice, and the Challenge

By Dee Emeigh

"Cafeteria Covenant: the voice, the choice, and the challenge" is a come-back story in many ways. Dee Marvin Emeigh relates one authentic, heart-wrenching, and compelling story after another of her experiences over forty years. But, far from leaving the reader impounded by bitter despair, Emeigh delivers a message of faith, hope, and love, along with insights into the character and nature of God. Readers will walk through calamity to find love, through devastation to find encouragement to rebuild. A talented singer-songwriter, Emeigh relates the stories behind many of the songs on her 2011 CD project, Well Seasoned.

Well-written, concise and compelling, "Cafeteria Covenant: the voice, the choice, and the challenge" encourages readers to hear God’s voice for themselves. It could well be used for small group study and discussion, providing documentation to more than forty resources.

The powerful little book may be the antidote for those who have been impacted by abuse, hypocrisy and doctrinal error, as well as those suffering through difficult times in other ways. Yet, the book is also important for those in church leadership who dare to hope for reform.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dee Emeigh
• Release date: Oct 13, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301775620

Dee Emeigh

With credits ranging from songwriting to freelance feature writing for local newspapers, Dee Marvin Emeigh is a truly a journalist, but also writes flash fiction and poetry. Her first book is an autobiographical comeback story that examines abuse of power in churches and delivers a revelation of the New Covenant intended to change the reader's view of God.A talented singer-songwriter, Emeigh has produced several solo albums. Two selections from her most recent CD project, Well SEASONED, have received radio play internationally. A former photojournalist, her images have been published around the globe as well.Yet, Emeigh is passionate about literacy, and has taught secondary English, reading intervention and literacy classes, as well as graduate classes in literature and language acquisition. She holds a B.S. in Literature and M. Ed. degrees in Reading (Specialist) and TESOL Literacy.

Book preview

Cafeteria Covenant

The voice, the choice, and the challenge

Dee Marvin Emeigh

Copyright 2012 Dee Marvin Emeigh

All rights reserved

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Author's Note

Preface

Introduction

1 Back Story

2 Artificial Flowers

3 Butterfly Christianity

4 Fly Away

5 Treasures of Darkness

6 Cornelius

7 Wings!

8 Go On

9 Emerging

10 Power to Mature

11 Finding the Voice

12 Cafeteria Covenant

13 Epilogue

Author’s Note:

This book uses the term church in three ways. To clarify this for the reader, I offer the following designations:

Church (upper case C): The universal, corporate, and eternal body of all Christian believers, across denomination and time. This includes those who are members of this body even though they are no longer alive on the earth.

church (lower case c): The gathering of local Christian believers, usually within a specified building on a weekly basis for a service of worship; also, the service of worship that takes place in such a building.

church (lower case italics): That which comprises the general body of all Christian believers presently alive on earth, regardless of denomination.

Preface

A page from my notebook

Several months ago, the words Cafeteria Covenant appeared at the top of a blog that I posted only briefly and then removed. It required explanation and that meant time I didn’t have just then.

November 1, 2010 - When I read a daily devotional email this morning, I was enthralled with a thought. The New Covenant is a covenant of choice.

David’s ‘last will and testament,’ found in 2 Samuel 23:5 (‘Yes, God has made an everlasting covenant with me. His agreement is eternal, final, sealed. He will constantly look after my safety and success.’ TLB), shows that he never lost faith in God in spite of his trials. The same covenant David had with God is available to everyone who enters into it. I am not sure I ever thought about it that way. Many people talk about being saved and accepting Jesus, making him Lord. Yet, I have never heard anyone say, ‘I have entered into a covenant with God’ (or with Jesus).

This covenant provides us with ‘all things pertaining to life and godliness,’ but we make the choices. God has already done His part. He has kept His covenant, and we can enter into it by choice and choose to believe what we will.

 I choose to abide in the covenant of an incredible, living God, and I will gladly feast on all that he has given his life to give me....

I thought it was a catchy title, and as time passed, I knew it was to be the title of a book, but I wasn’t sure how it fit with the back story I felt compelled to write.

For a long time, I’d known that God would have me write a book; I had not known where to start or what to write about. So I asked the Lord to show me the topic of this book and after arriving at the point of inquiry, the Spirit of God began to reveal to me the book’s areas of focus:

extracting the precious from the worthless¹

hearing His voice and trusting

working out our faith in due diligence² instead of settling or compromising for a form of godliness that denies His power³

realizing the power of the words we speak

recognizing God outside the walls of the church.

experiencing the fellowship of the dead and distant⁴

…and, the choice we are given to believe or not to believe.

(May 20, 2011)

Introduction

For most of forty years, I have been a participating visitor in local churches. It is not what I set out to be. The phrase is derived from the prophetic word of a man whose name I’ve long forgotten but whose word has resonated again and again across those years. The implication was that I would become part of many different churches, not merely as a passive pew sitter, but as an integral part of the ministry. I didn’t really understand why this would be, because it was contrary to anyone’s concept of the proper way to serve God, even my own. Nevertheless, it became a reality, in spite of a good deal of my own resistance.

A Christian woman visiting my home recently inquired where I received my training for the ministry. I told her that it had come from many years of studying God and His Word, through the teaching of various ministries, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, not wishing to disregard her question, I began to look into doctoral programs. It soon became clear that was not the direction I was to go. So, if it is necessary for you to see Ph.D. at the end of my name, you don’t need to read any further. However, as eloquent and learned as he was, the Apostle Paul wrote the following words, which I quote for your consideration:

I did not pose as an expert with all the answers. I did not pretend to explain the mystery of God with eloquent speech and human wisdom. I claimed to know nothing with certainty other than the reality that Jesus is the Anointed One, the Liberating King, who was crucified on our behalf….The sermons I preached were not delivered with the kind of persuasive elegance some have come to expect, but they were effective because I relied on God’s Spirit to demonstrate God’s power. If this were not so, your faith would be based on human wisdom and not the power of God (1 Corinthians 2: 1-5).

Regardless of the years of education Paul received, his training for what God called him to do was directly from God. During my quiet time a few days ago, I was led to a passage by John Eldredge from a collection of his writings titled The Ransomed Heart that reminded me of a little-emphasized fact. Most individuals who know the Bible are aware of Saul’s zealous persecution of the early Church. He really thought he was going to rid the world of those pesky Jesus followers until the Spirit of God knocked him off his horse and blinded him. The call of God is an adventure into the unknown that frequently leaves us wondering where we are and what’s going to happen next; or it should be.

When Saul met Jesus through His Spirit, his life became drastically different. It’s safe to say the new convert, who was given a new name, Paul, was not sent to Jerusalem to be taught by those who had known Jesus. Instead, the Holy Spirit led him to Arabia, where he could unlearn all the old ways and learn the new ones. He spent three years learning directly from the Holy Spirit.

Only God can prepare men or women for the work He is calling them