Covenant teaching on beholding and union with Christ at The Gathering in Colorado Springs

Reflections

January 19, 2026

This message was shared at The Gathering, a church community in Colorado Springs centered on union with Christ, covenant love, prayer, and the Gospel. Each week, we gather to behold the Lord together and allow His presence to shape our lives from the inside out.

This Sunday at The Gathering, we started with simple, family-life things: calling the “wild women of Colorado Springs” to gather again, asking for help with setup and kids ministry, and celebrating the way God is meeting our children in real and tender ways. And then we heard a testimony that felt like a bright flare of the Father’s kindness—Matthew prayed for a $1,000 miracle and received a $777 tip from one table, ending the night only $21 short of what he asked for.

It wasn’t a prosperity story. It was a reminder: God hears. God sees. God answers. And when we haven’t prayed big prayers in a while, sometimes the Spirit simply invites us back into childlike asking.

From there, Chris Berglund taught on covenant—specifically, how covenant is not primarily a religious concept, but the heart of God’s relationship with us, and the interpretive key for marriage, faithfulness, restoration, and even how we learn to behold.

The Bible’s Marriage Arc: A Story About God

Chris began with a thread that runs from Genesis to Revelation: Scripture opens with a marriage and closes with a marriage.

Marriage is not first an idea we project onto God. It’s a mystery God uses to reveal Himself.

Ephesians 1 frames God’s eternal purpose: we were chosen, predestined, and created “in Him.”
Ephesians 5 then says:

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church…”
…and later calls marriage a mystery—Christ and His bride.

So yes, there is a sanctity to marriage on earth. But even more, there is a revelation inside marriage: God’s intent is union—covenantal, enduring, and not powered by human performance.

Covenant Isn’t Primarily About Behavior

One of the clearest shifts in the teaching was this:

Marriage isn’t first a covenant between two people.
God is the witness—and the deepest anchor of covenant is actually with Him.

Chris said this reframes everything. If covenant is grounded in feelings, seasons, and reciprocity, it rises and falls with the emotional weather of a relationship. But if covenant is grounded in God—His nature, His faithfulness, His witness—then covenant becomes something sturdier than our volatility.

This is why the prophets often describe Israel’s unfaithfulness in marital language, and why Hosea’s painful story matters: God wanted His prophet to feel what covenant love endures.

The book of Hosea isn’t given to shame us. It’s given to re-train our vision—to invite us into God’s own way of beholding. It shows us the Lord’s relentless affection toward a people who keep wandering, and it names the mystery: covenant love does not quit simply because the beloved strays.

“Covenant Opens the Door”: A Dream That Changed the Frame

Chris shared again the dream (from the 1980s) where he and Lou Engle stood before a door with glory visible through the cracks. Lou “dialed covenant” like a combination lock—and the door opened.

The point was sobering and freeing:

The door did not open by human striving.
It opened by something God had established.

Not “pray harder.” Not “fast longer.” Not “perform better.”
Covenant opened the door.

This is one of the deep anchors of the message: God is not building union with us through our effort. He is revealing and manifesting a union He has already secured through His covenant love.

The Power of Beholding: What You Gaze At Conceives Something

A major theme was beholding—the focus of the heart, the gaze of the imagination, the attention we give our inner world.

Chris took Jesus’ words seriously:

Matthew 5 (paraphrased in the teaching):
If a man looks with lust, he has already committed adultery in the heart.

The point wasn’t that lust and adultery carry the same consequence. The point was that lust is the beginning of a fracture—because what we behold shapes what we become, and eventually what we do.

He connected this to the pattern in James:

James 1:14–15
“Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”

Beholding → Desire → Conception → Stronghold.

This is why Scripture speaks so strongly about “single vision” and purity of heart—not as moral perfection, but as undivided devotion.

Chris referenced Job’s language:

Job 31 (paraphrase): a covenant with the eyes.

And then turned it toward hope:

2 Corinthians 3:18
“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another…”

Beholding doesn’t just form sin patterns. Beholding also forms glory.

Moses and the Rock: God Guards the Narrative

One of the most striking illustrations came from Moses striking the rock.

Chris pointed to the story where the rock is struck once and water flows, and later Moses strikes it again when God had said to speak. He connected this with:

1 Corinthians 10
…the rock is Christ.

The “striking” points to the cross: Jesus is struck once—once for all—and the covenant is opened. From there we don’t strive to make grace happen; we speak, we pray, we draw near, because access has already been given.

Chris emphasized: Moses was judged in the narrative, but still loved deeply. God even honors Moses later (he appears in the Transfiguration), showing both the sobriety of covenant and the tenderness of God’s favor.

Divorce, Mercy, and the Reality of Spiritual Tearing

Chris spoke carefully here, acknowledging the room: many have lived divorce, betrayal, and deep relational pain. He described divorce as more than emotional loss—it’s a spiritual tearing, because one-flesh union is not merely symbolic.

And yet the gospel does not make divorced people second-class citizens.

He referenced Jesus with the woman caught in adultery: forgiveness is real and immediate—without pretending the wound isn’t massive.

The healing may be a process. The consequences may ripple. But mercy is total.

He made this statement plainly: when someone remarries after divorce, it is not a “lesser” marriage in God’s eyes. In that union, covenant is truly entered again, not as a permanent stain, but as a real joining that God can redeem and fill.

Peter: The Best Beholding in Scripture

Chris returned to Peter—because Peter is the living proof that failure does not get the final word.

He highlighted Luke’s detail:

Luke 22 (summary): after Peter denies Jesus, Jesus looks at him.

Chris called this “the best beholding in Scripture.” Not a condemning stare—an unbroken love.

Then the resurrection message: “Go tell the disciples and Peter.” Not because Peter is excluded, but because Jesus is restoring him personally.

Finally the shoreline moment:

John 21 (summary): “Do you love me?” three times.

Jesus doesn’t interrogate Peter’s failure. He rebuilds Peter’s identity in love. Peter’s confidence shifts from heroism (“I’ll never deny you”) to humility (“You know, Lord”). And within days, Peter is preaching with power and thousands are turning to Christ.

This is the gospel: not perfection—restoration.

Jonah and God’s Mercy Toward Enemies

Chris also referenced Jonah as an example of how a person can obey outwardly while refusing inward transformation.

Jonah couldn’t behold mercy. He could only behold enemies.

And because he couldn’t see God’s heart, he couldn’t carry God’s message without resentment.

This was a warning and an invitation: if we want to think like God, we have to learn to behold like God—especially toward people we struggle to love.

The Closing Invitation: Return to the Secret Place

The service ended with extended worship—an altar not of performance, but of presence.

The repeated prayer was simple:
“Father, reveal our imaginations. Let us behold you truly as you really are.”

Not an invitation to strive.
An invitation to return.

To the secret place.
To the table.
To “first love.”

Reflection Questions

  1. Where have you stopped praying “big prayers,” not because you don’t believe in God, but because you’ve quietly accepted limitation?
  2. What did Matthew’s testimony awaken in you—hope, cynicism, longing, fear? What does that reaction reveal?
  3. When you think about covenant, do you instinctively connect it to behavior—or to God’s faithfulness? Why?
  4. What is one place in your life where your focus has become fragmented (attention, imagination, inner agreement)?
  5. What have you been beholding lately—intentionally or unintentionally?
  6. Where have you tried to “discipline” your way out of something that might actually require a stronger affection and a healed gaze?
  7. If Jesus “looked at you” in your weakest moment, what do you imagine His face would communicate?
  8. Do you relate to Peter more as “the hero” or “the one who was restored”? What would it mean for your identity to be rebuilt in love?
  9. Jonah struggled to behold mercy toward enemies. Who is hard for you to behold with the heart of God right now?
  10. What could it look like this week to return—practically—to the secret place within you?

Links

Covenant Opens the Door: Beholding, Marriage, and the Undivided Heart

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