Mystery - two become one

Yesterday the world learned that one of the richest couples in the world, Bill and Melinda Gates, have decided to call it quits after 27 years of marriage. Hearing the news I was sad for them.  It was a reminder that we live in a broken world. Even with all their resources, with all the advantages in this world that they enjoy, they somehow could not make it work. The public divorce petition did not disclose anything beyond the fact that they considered their marriage “irretrievably broken.” Please understand that my comments pass no judgment on either of them as I obviously do not know them or their situation.  

Marriage is never easy.

Bev and I were married 41 years, a mostly happy union, but marked with times of struggle and disappointment for both of us. The issues that stressed our relationship changed with the seasons of life. Early on it was the exhaustion of a houseful of little ones. Then, it was the pressure of life responsibilities that took my attention from my home as I worked long days leaving little energy for my family.  After our children grew up we wrestled with the common issue of drifting into separate lives, each of us with our own interests. Then, it was the stress of caring for terminally ill parents that brought some challenges. 

We did not stay married because we enjoyed a storybook life though blessed in many ways. It certainly was not just discipline, though that was required, too.  Starry-eyed love ebbed and flowed through the decades but even that was not the ultimate glue in our home.  Our marriage was sustained by a shared love for God and a common conviction about the covenant nature of our relationship. We worked and trusted God together; adjusting expectations, speaking honestly, asking and giving forgiveness, and acceptance of the fact that we each lived with a quite ordinary mortal.

The wisdom of the Scripture is so often challenged, explained away, and ignored these days, but the inspired text remains true. "And further, you will submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. You wives will submit to your husbands as you do to the Lord. For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of his body, the church; he gave his life to be her Savior. As the church submits to Christ, so you wives must submit to your husbands in everything. And you husbands must love your wives with the same love Christ showed the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by baptism and God’s word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. 

In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man is actually loving himself when he loves his wife. No one hates his own body but lovingly cares for it, just as Christ cares for his body, which is the church. And we are his body. As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband." (Ephesians 5:21-33, NLT)

Those words contain wisdom for all of us that will bring blessing to our homes.

The starting point is ‘mutual submission.’ A man and woman who enter into marriage are agreeing to set aside their former ideas about themselves. No longer can they insist on ‘me.’  As they come to Christ together, they choose to think always as ‘we.’  They are ‘one flesh,’ not just a sexual term, but descriptive of their union before God. Marriage, in God’s eyes, is not a contract to form a home or to provide for children.  It is a holy promise to become a reflection of the love of God, in a shared life.

There is a sacred responsibility given to each partner in marriage covenant that involves great love and shared devotion. It strikes me that the passage speaks in extended terms to the husband. He is called to learn to love, to act in the same way that Christ acted. It is tragic that this text has been abused as an excuse for domination, for selfishness.  The leadership of the home is not based in power, nor does God confer a place of privilege on the husband. He calls him to ‘give up his life’ to serve his wife.  It not a wonder to me that this text is rejected by so many.  When God’s word is used to carve out a place privileged power, to justify selfish behavior, the whole of the marital relationship breaks down.

A wife’s willingness to respect her husband rests on twin foundations:  deep faith in Christ to be her ultimate security and the assurance that her husband will choose a pathway in life that seeks the will of God over his own desires. These are not idealistic expressions unattainable in this world. They are the wisdom of God, received by faith, and made reality by the Spirit of God who works in each of us who love and serve Him faithfully.

Christians are tempted to abandon the inspired wisdom of God choosing instead the ‘wisdom’ of our culture. This choice will make a challenging thing – building a solid, loving, and fulfilling marriage – even more difficult. If we interpret these principles as law, we rob ourselves of the joy of discovering the life in them. If we read them through a lens of antiquated ideas about masculinity and femininity we will surely miss God’s best for us. However, if we will come to this text with an open mind, with a heart-felt invitation for God lead us, we will find them a place of life-sustaining truth.

The words of Jesus are the word from the Word today. May He give us grace to receive them. “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.” (Mark 10:6-9, NIV)

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How Do I Love Her?

Well You know it's not the first time

And it will not be the last

When You find me here on my knees

Praying for the storm to pass

But what I am really needing

Is much more than just relief

I am crying out for wisdom

Only You can give to me

'Cause it's such a mystery

I'm a clueless man

When it comes to knowing how to love a woman

 

How do I

I love her

How do I

I let her know

She means more than anything to me

How do I love her

How do I love her love her

 

Out of all the gifts You've given

Besides the very gift of life

There is none as precious to me

As the treasure of my wife

And still all the love in my heart

Is like a raindrop to the sea

When compared to Your love for her

And that's why I'm asking please

Will You teach me what she needs

I'm an earnest man when it comes

To learning how to love this woman

 

Well I know it's gonna take a lifetime

To answer this prayer I pray

But that's okay

'Cause I've given You and her my lifetime

Anyway

 

How do I love her love her

Tell me please

How do I love her how do I love her

Won't You tell me tell me please

How do I love her

Tell me please

Tell me tell me tell me

How do I love her how do I love her

How do I love her

Love her love her love her

 

Steven Curtis Chapman

 

© 2003 Primary Wave Brian (Chapman Sp Acct) (Admin. by BMG Rights Management (US) LLC)

Sparrow Song (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing)

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Soul Serenity

 

After I finished a task, I stepped back to evaluate the outcome, happy for the effort. Unlike the farmer who plants in the Springtime, tends the field through the Summer, and gathers the harvest in the Autumn, many of us work in ways in which our efforts are removed from an actual visible result.  Our farmer grandparents surely grew exhausted, but it was a different kind of tired than many of us experience.  They had to stop working at dark, were not ‘plugged in’  24/7 like many of us. There ‘down’ times built into their seasonal lives. Not so with us. What happens? One of the most common complaints in our time is ‘I am worn out.’ 

Christian, are you weary?
Has your life fatigue flowed over into your faith experience, dulling your soul to the experience of God’s Presence?
Have you abandoned regular times of worship, prayer, and meditation because you are just ‘too tired?’ 

God offers His people rest.  

It is one of those benefits we leave untouched, failing to recognize the amazing renewal of heart and mind, even body, that can be found in Him!

When we worship, as Jesus taught, in ‘Spirit and in Truth,’ we learn a new way to live, a purposeful and meaningful life, that can protect us from the fatigue of endless stress. We work at the same job, but with a different heart. We feel the same pressures to produce results but with an inner strength that comes from His care. We deal with the same frustrations, but are able to commit them to God, to invite Him to work on our behalf.

God asks us to make the choice to prioritize Him, by faith entering a place of peace, even in difficult of circumstances. There is a phrase in Psalm 23 that captivates my imagination. David sings of His God - “You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies!”   Imagine armies drawn up for battle and a table set with candles, fine tablecloth, and the best china right in the middle of it all.  Absurd, you say?  But that is what God offers;  the renewal of the kind that can be experienced in an intimate dinner meal shared with friends or family.  He says, “Let’s step away from life’s battles to sit down together!  I have a table ready!”

Interestingly, our idea of recreation usually involves leaving work behind. Jesus presents us with a different thought. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." (Matthew 11:28-29, NIV)  “Join Me,” He says. “Be a part of my team (take my yoke). I will not beat you emotionally or treat you like an object.”   And, the life we find in Him, His ways, will lead us to a soul-rest.

The letter to the Hebrews speaks of the ‘Sabbath rest’ available to the people of God. It’s not able a day off from work. It is an invitation to live with our souls settled by our trust and obedience to the covenant promises of the Lord. "Since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith." (Hebrews 4:1-2, NIV) Are you troubled that you might not be ‘good enough for God?’

The Good News is that He invites us to enjoy the gift of reconciliation with our Father, not because we are ‘good enough,’ but because He has finished the work of salvation on our behalf. Through Christ Jesus we are made whole, saved completely, and at peace with God.

From that place near the heart of God, where the Spirit speaks to us about His loving acceptance, we enter the world to do the work of God. Working with God is so much more fulfilling than working for Him. If we are trying to prove to Him that we deserve His blessings our efforts become dutiful, exhausting, and often more about appearance than substance. But, if we are engaged in serving the Lord because of our love for Him and for others, even those things that could be drudgery, take on meaningfulness. The same tasks, yes. But, they are done with a different motive, and are kissed with His favor.

Meditate on Jesus’ words. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30, NIV)

This Monday morning, at the beginning of a new week, He will renew your heart. Will you allow Him to do that? There is a kind of soul rest waiting, not the kind of rest we find in a hammock in the backyard on Summer afternoon.

It is the rest of serenity, fulfillment, and purpose that comes from the realization that we are beloved, cherished children of God.

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Rock Of Ages
(Guy Penrod inspires in this hymn)

Rock of Ages cleft for me

Let me hide myself in thee

Let the water and the blood

From thy wounded side which flowed

Be of sin the double cure

Save from wrath and make me pure

 

Not the labors of my hands

Can fulfill thy law's demands

Could my zeal no respite know

Could my tears forever flow

All for sin could not atone

Thou must save and thou alone

 

Nothing in my hand I bring

Simply to the cross I cling

Naked come to thee for dress

Helpless look to thee for grace

Foul I to the fountain fly

Wash me Savior or I die

 

While I draw this fleeting breath

When mine eyes shall close in death

When I soar to worlds unknown

See thee on thy judgment throne

Rock of Ages cleft for me

Let me hide myself in thee

 

Augustus Montague Toplady | Thomas Hastings

© Words: Public Domain

 

He served God’s Purpose

In my lifetime, I have read dozens of “how to” books, full of advice for finding my best life. A stand-out that is memorable is Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Successful People.  Some were worth the time to read, if not memorable. Despite my best efforts and the good advice of others I know this:  I only live my best life when my will is aligned with the purposes of God.  This week I was struck by a line in the book of Acts – "When David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep." (Acts 13:36, NIV)

It’s a question I ponder - am I living to serve God’s purposes for my time?   We cannot aspire to that lofty goal unless we are transformed by the Spirit. The Christian life is more than a self-help program. It is a Spirit experience, God working in us. When we are loved by God and love Him in return, trusting Christ Jesus with our life and destiny, letting Him be Lord, He promises something amazing: He will “do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power! " (Ephesians 3:20, NIV) 

Let’s not confuse ‘serving God’s purpose in our generation’ with religiosity or serving on church committees.  It is quite possible to remain a miserable person living far below your God-given potential while sitting through church. God’s Church has an irreplaceable place in the Christian life but true change is personal, starting in the individual’s heart. Only when we experience, by faith, the Gospel, the daily inner transformation of eternal life, will the purpose of God be revealed. We love God by surrendering ourselves to Him and accepting Christ's love and mercy by faith, by pondering His mighty works worshipfully, and by allowing the Spirit to move deeply in us. That inner work will surely produce spiritual fruit – love joy, peace – the evidence of His life.

Receiving God's grace and practicing the disciplines of the Spirit as taught in the Scripture opens the door to maximum living, making us into the best possible person we can be! Because of Christ, we can be forgiving, gentle, and loving. In Him we find that hope that is so critically important to keeping us from becoming bitter, broken, or cynical by life’s disappointments.  The Creator of the Universe points His Spirit in us and inspires us to be creative, part of the answer for the questions of this broken planet.

Are you trying to ‘make a life’ apart from God? Do your efforts come up short of your expectations?  Are you asking questions like that rich young noble asked of Jesus: “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  The answer remains the same today as it was then – receive the kingdom of God by faith, making Jesus Lord of life and accepting His grace for each day.  We walk it out and if we are led by the Spirit, when our race is run, it will be said of us what was said of David: He “served God’s purpose in his own generation.”

Thank God for the potential He's given you.
Ask Him to inspire you to be the best you can be in His grace.
Never just settle for what is easy, or natural!
Let God make a masterpiece of your life.

Our word from the Word,  is a prayer that Paul offered for those he loved in the church in Ephesus. I pray it for you. Receive it with your amen "I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength— that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3:16-19, The Message) Amen.

____________

 

MASTERPIECE

 

Heartbreak's a bitter sound

Know it well, it's ringing in my ears

And I can't understand

Why I'm not fixed by now,

Begged and I have pleaded

Take this pain, but I'm still bleeding

 

Heart trusts you for certain

Head says it's not working

I'm stuck here still hurting

But You tell me

 

You're making a masterpiece

You're shaping the soul in me

You're moving where I can't see

And all I am, is in Your hands

You're taking me all apart

Like it was your plan from the start

To finish your work of art, for all to see

You're making a masterpiece

 

Guess I'm Your canvas

Beautiful, black and blue

Painted in mercy's hue

I don't see past this

But you see me now, who I'll be then

There at the end, standing there as

 

Your Masterpiece

You're shaping the soul in me

You're moving where I can't see

And all I am, is in Your hands

You're taking me all apart

Like it was your plan from the start

To finish your work of art, for all to see

You're making a masterpiece

You're making a masterpiece

 

Heart trust you for certain

Head says it's not working

 

You're making a masterpiece

You're shaping the soul in me

You're moving where I can't see

And all I am, is in Your hands

 

You're taking me all apart

Like it was your plan from the start

To finish your work of art, for all to see

You're making a masterpiece

You're making a masterpiece

I'll be Your masterpiece

• Danny Gokey

 

Sound the Alarm

 

Somebody said, “The problem with being a prophet is that nobody likes them.” That made me laugh. Prophets, those who hear the Lord’s Word and speak on His behalf, are given an unenviable task of calling for change and pointing out failure. We love the comforting words of the Gospel, the worshipful words of the Psalms, don’t we? But, oh those prophets.  They go on and on about judgment, death, and destruction.   

Do you, like me, tend to leave them unread, unheard?  They do have a message for 21^st century Christians: hard words, but important words, that make us sit up and take notice of the ways of our Holy God.

In my Scripture reading this morning, I went to one of those books, the work of Joel. He left us a little book, just 3 chapters, full of thunderous sermons. He lived in Judah about 800 years before Christ. The nation experienced a plague of locusts that stripped fields bare, leaving people and livestock on the brink of starvation. In those locusts, Joel saw a foreshadowing of a far worse plague, the invasion of foreign armies that God would allow. 

He saw the decay of faith and, moved by the Spirit, cried out - "Sound the alarm in Jerusalem! Raise the battle cry on my holy mountain! Let everyone tremble in fear because the day of the Lord is upon us. It is a day of darkness and gloom, a day of thick clouds and deep blackness. Suddenly, like dawn spreading across the mountains, a great and mighty army appears. Nothing like it has been seen before or will ever be seen again." (Joel 2:1-2, NLT)

As much as we may recoil from that type of words, we need them in our time, too. America, much like ancient Judah, hates those who raise their voices to call for a return to the Lord. “Shut up. Go home. Tell someone else your bad news.” But, the truth is, an alarm needs to be raised, a prophetic warning of the destruction that will inevitably follow rejection of the ways of the Lord God. When we are consumed with ourselves, without spiritual vision and values, we need brave souls who know God’s voice and fearlessly sound the alarm.

As I read Joel’s message I saw words of hope, too. He speaks of God’s faithfulness, His desire to save those who will turn to Him, leaving sinful ways. “Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Don’t tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He is eager to relent and not punish." (Joel 2:12-13, NLT) 

It is a terrible mistake to take stock of our spiritual poverty and decide that there is no future, that we are headed without remedy for the junk heap of history.  Instead of exclusively railing on the failures ‘out there’  I believe the better choice today is for Christians to return to prayer, to genuine repentance, so that they can lead the way to spiritual renewal.

This nation I love is intoxicated with Self, staggering like a drunk, consumed with pleasure, many of us bent on doing our own thing with no thought to what is ‘right’ or ‘just’ or ‘good.’ Our worst sins are Self-will and disregard of God. Justice is compromised. Corruption is rampant. We are indulgent of ourselves, in most every way imaginable. 

Americans who enjoy unparalleled wealth and power have made things their idols, a materialistic people. We are pleasure mad, chasing happiness in ever more diversions. Should anyone even suggest that it might be wise to pause and reflect, that we could benefit from humility, that God waits for us to ‘come home,’ there are only insults and dismissive words for that prophet. 

My prayer is that God, the Spirit, will place the spirit of the prophets in His people, that we will let His words come alive in us, that we will, ourselves, turn to Him, leading the way to repentance. Then, we will be able to turn the corner from judgment to hope. "Rejoice, you people of Jerusalem! Rejoice in the Lord your God! For the rains he sends are an expression of his grace. Once more the autumn rains will come, as well as the rains of spring. The threshing floors will again be piled high with grain, and the presses will overflow with wine and olive oil." (Joel 2:23-24, NLT)

The words of Joel I love most promise the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, Who refreshes us like spring rains renew the earth. 

Here is a word from the Word. May we have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to us.  "“Then after I have poured out my rains again, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions. In those days, I will pour out my Spirit even on servants, men and women alike. “I will cause wonders in the heavens and on the earth—blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon will turn bloodred before that great and terrible day of the Lord arrives. 

And anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. There will be people on Mount Zion in Jerusalem who escape, just as the Lord has said. These will be among the survivors whom the Lord has called." (Joel 2:28-32, NLT)

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Send Revival Start With Me

We're looking to Your promise of old
That if we pray and humble ourselves
You will come and heal our land
You will come
You will come

We're looking to the promise You made
That if we turn and look to Your face
You will come and heal our land
You will come
You will come to us

Lord send revival start with me
For I am one of unclean lips
And my eyes have seen the King
Your glory I have glimpsed
Send revival start with me

Matt Redman

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