Who is this coming up from the wilderness

....     Leaning upon her beloved (Song 8:5)? This is one of the places,  in the Song of Solomon,  where the allegory of Solomon as Christ, and his bride as the Christian and/or the church, comes into its own. A word of caution about allegory, we must not allow it to teach us 'truths' that cannot also be clearly found, by sound interpretation, in the rest of Scripture. Concerning our being the Bride of Christ then,  Paul, for example,  says “I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to Him” (2 Corinthians 11:2). That we were in the wilderness is also clear, for “we were dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). And that we are to lean on (depend on) Christ,  is not only necessary ('without Him we can do nothing' John 15:5), it is what sustains and empowers us ('when I am weak then I am strong' 2 Corinthians 12:10).

The passion of the Shulamite is the pure passion of her first love. It is not jaded, not tainted by lust, as love is in most of our culture. This love  is a strong a death (6b).  Death is strong, because in the end it conquers every living thing. Also this love, like death, cannot be  vanquished. In particular “many waters cannot quench it, nor can the floods drown it (7a).  Waters are spoken of over and over in the Scripture,  as trials (i.e. Isaiah 43:2). In other words if we have this love for our heavenly bride, neither trials nor difficulties will quench it. The determination that this be reality is likely present in all newly weds, and it will of course be tested. The passion of our love for Christ will be tested too! This love is also “a most vehement flame” (6c),  literally 'the fire-flame of Jehovah' (Isaiah 6:6). The passion that burnt in Solomon for his bride, is what stirred up and awakened this love in the Shulamite (verse 4). By analogy it is the love of Jesus Christ for us His bride, that kindles this love in us (1 John 4:19). In fact “we love because He first love us” (1 John 4:19).

Within the analogy, the question posed in this morning verse, is an invitation to see the beauty of Christ's bride who is so head over heals in love with her lover.  A firefly passionate love for Jesus, as depicted above, is a huge witness in and of itself.  Such fiery love for the Lord gives meaning and direction to life, the very things the world lacks, and so often seeks in all the wrong places.  We are intended to live and love Christ and each other in such tangible ways,  that the World will proclaim “I don't know what you have that I don't, but I want it.”  And I find myself this morning examining my heart to see where I may need to return to my first love.

Father, You command us to love You with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength. Forgive us Lord for places and times,  when and where we have lost our first love. We repent this morning Lord,  and seek to buy gold refined in the fire, and salve for out eyes (Revelation 3:18). We do this so that we may truly see,  and that our love for You be rekindled by the fire of Your passionate love for us. We give You praise and Glory in Jesus Name Amen

I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,

....By the gazelles or by the does of the field, do not stir up nor awaken love until it pleases (Song 2:7). Tradition has it that until they were thirty, the Jews were not allowed to read this Old Testament book that talks about the love of Solomon for his Shulamite bride.  Certainly parts of it are somewhat racy, the previous verse for example essentially describes foreplay. A primary Christian interpretation/application of the book is of Christ's love for His bride. It goes along well with what Paul says about the mystery concerning Christ and the Church (Ephesians 5:32). And there is much that is valid here. In particular it is empowering to know that Christ is ravished (in a non sexual way) with my love for Him (4:9). But there are also times when  in my opinion, this is forced. In particular, this morning's verse comes in the context of the foreplay mentioned above. It shows that the primary interpretation of love here,  is sexual love.

That the Bible should seek to teach us about sex should not be surprising. After all God invented sex. He's not up there looking down saying “What are they doing?” But what this morning's verse is saying, is that there is a time and a place for sexual love to be stirred up and awakened.  The Judaeo-Christain teaching from the Scriptures is that God's perfect plan for sexuality is one man one woman in lifelong monogamous relationship. In particular we are to flee sexual immorality (1 Corinthian 6:8). If we do not flee,  we will certainly stir it up, especially if it has already been awakened.  One therapist described our culture as being possessed by pseudo,  hyper sexuality.  Pseudo, because it is a counterfeit of the real thing. The Lord's intention is that it be the culmination of  emotional and spiritual intimacy, a union of body, soul and spirit.  A friend of mine likened sex outside of marriage to playing the cymbals at the wrong time in a concert.

It is hyper because so many are running round jumping in and out of bed, often with complete strangers. I do not come to you this morning in self righteousness, in fact most of us have blown it, but as long as we have breath we can repent and obey. And we need to realize that the propaganda that comes out of Hollywood that has normalized all forms is sexuality,  is a lie. In particular we cannot engage in such behaviour without consequences. And I am not just talking about STD's and pregnancy. Every time we engage in an illicit sexual union we weaken the bonding mechanism and we devalue, and pollute this precious gift that God has given, making it only slightly more significant than shaking hands.  This is not even to mention that we become addicted to it, for “he who sins is the slave of sin” (John 8:34). Many of us have discovered that awakened promiscuous sexual appetites do not disappear simply because we got married!

Father, the verse “remember not the sins of my youth” (Psalm 25:7) comes to mind. What Your Word teaches may seem old fashioned and outmoded in today's world Lord, but it is devastating marriages and relationships,  and the children are the ones who are suffering the most. Forgive us Lord, forgive me, and please grant us repentance,  so that we may live holy and righteous lives that are well pleasing to You our joy and our hope. In Jesus Name I pray Amen

Now since you excel in everything-

..... in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you -- see that you also excel in this grace of giving. I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others (2 Corinthians 8:7, 8). To excel is to be greater or better than someone or something. Paul acknowledges that the Corinthians excelled at the things mentioned. He then admonishes them to excel  in the grace of giving.  He is, he tells them,  testing the sincerity of their love (verse 8), for “love must not be with words only, but also with truth and action”  (1 John 3:18).  It has been said that you can tell if a person's faith is real,  by whether it extends to his pocket book.  Nevertheless this is not a command, it is an admonition (verse 8)

I do want to acknowledge something that grieves me and I think grieves God, and that is that there is much abuse by televangelists and the like, who use Biblical teaching  to manipulate their audience into giving to them. And then living high on the hog. It is, as I say, abuse. Paul here is talking about giving to the needs of the Christians in Jerusalem (Romans 15:26), not to his own ministry. Actually,  the law gave Paul the right to live from the proceeds of the gospel, but many times he would not receive it “lest we hinder the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:8-12).  Nevertheless, we do need to support the local church,  for “the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel” (verse 14). It's the pressure and the manipulation that's the problem. But, again it's not just the church where we need to give.  For example, from the council of Jerusalem came the admonition to “remember the poor” (Galatians 2:10).

Paul is also careful to say, that it's not about making ourselves poor that others might be made rich (verse 13). Nevertheless we “know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for our sake's He became poor, that we through His poverty might become rich” (verse 9). Here the grace of God excels indeed, and we are never commanded or admonished to do something that He has not already done, but more so. We are to be motivated then by  the  extravagant grace of our Lord, but also by the extravagance of others. We see this in verse 8 again, where Paul admonishes them to excel in the grace of giving  “by comparing it with the earnestness of others.” The “others”  Paul is talking here about the churches of Macedonia (verse 1). To put this another way, the Corinthians, and we too,  are admonished in our giving to “provoke one another to love and good works” (Hebrews 10:24).

Father, please give us grace to excel in this grace of giving. We cannot out give You. You are no man's debtor, for “whoever is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and He will reward them” (Proverbs 19:17). Thank You Lord Jesus, that You became poor that we might become rich. Thank You that You became sin, that we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). Thank You for salvation and for Your amazing extravagant healing love and Grace. We praise and bless You again this morning Lord, in Your holy, lovely and precious Name Amen


 

For godly sorrow produces repentance

... leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death (2 Corinthians 7:10).  Paul first letter had corrected the Corinthians for a number of things, and it had caused them sorrow (7:8). And for a while that had caused Paul sorrow too, but now he could rejoice,  because in the end it had lead to their repentance.  It is clear that Paul loved the Corinthians, and that it was out of his heart of love that he wrote. All this illustrates well how difficult it is both to give,  and to receive truth even when it is spoken in love.  It is difficult, because many times we want to give the other person a piece of our mind. For me, part of how I judge if I am ready to speak, is by my reluctance (or not) to hurt the other person. If I love the other person I wont want to hurt them, however “faithful are the wounds of a friend” (Proverbs 27:6).


Another reason it's difficult, is that many times  even when truth is spoken in love, the other person gets mad. This also illustrates the
difficulty in receiving truth,  even when spoken in love!  But as the scripture says “the ear that hears the rebukes of life, will abide among the wise” (Proverbs 15:31). On the other hand, the ear that does not hear (and change his ways) is, with this morning's verse, on the path to death. We reap what we sow (Galatians 6:7), and if I love the truth I will want to know where I might be falling short, no matter that is difficult to hear.  I need to ask myself, am I teachable. Proverbs again “rebuke a wise man, and he will love you” (Proverbs 9:8).

So yes the truth can hurt at times. The Bible puts it this way “no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11).  Are we willing to be trainied by the rebuke.  Is my sorrow godly sorrow that leads to repentance and life? Or is my sorrow “sorry, I got caught,” or sorrow that reality trips me up when I make poor choices? The no regret part of this morning's verse comes, because I realize that if I had not messed up and suffered the consequences, I would not have repented and not be where I am today. I would not be loving the Lord, and appreciating the wisdom of His ways and and the joy of living for Him.

Lord Jesus, truly You are the Way, the Truth and the Life.  And the abundant life only comes as we  follow You in full obedience, repenting and changing when we are nudged by You to do so. Let our sorrow be godly sorrow Lord, and grant us obedience and repentance.  We are not saved by obedience, we are saved by grace. However it is only in full obedience that we experience life as You intend it to be. It's not that there are no problems, but when I am in fellowship with You,  You give me the grace to rise above it all. Thank You Lord, thank You Father, thank You Holy Spirit.  Hallelujah Amen

Sing praises to God, sing praises!

.... Sing praises to our King, sing praises (Psalm 47:6). As I was meditating on this Psalm this morning, the Lord reminded me of an incident in Hong Kong in the summer of 2019. There were widespread demonstrations against the Chinese government's now aborted extradition bill. It would have allowed extradition, to mainland China. At times there were 2 million demonstrators, and  violence and arrests. In June Christians started turning up at protests singing  'Sing Hallelujah to the Lord.'  It was reported that “Once they started singing, everyone became calm."  That particular song is very interesting to me,  since it was that song that first fully brought home to me the difference between singing songs,  and praising the Lord. It was in a church in Vancouver in the summer of 1977. I had known the Lord for several years at that time, but I had never before felt the presence of the Lord so strongly in Church.  It underlined for me the truth that “the Lord inhabits the praises of His people” (Psalm 22:3).  

There was, as I say, a strong sense of the Lord's presence. It is when we truly praise Him that He shows up.  He is always there of course, because He has told us He will never leave us nor forsake us. But there are times when we feel His presence more than others. To put it slightly differently,  He does not manifest His presence when we merely sing songs, even spiritual ones.  And it's not about how good is the  performance! When all else is right, those who admit they cannot sing, are at no disadvantage, for a joyful noise is music to the Father's ears (Psalm 100:1). So what else needs to be right? Well, Jesus told us that the Father seeks worshippers who will worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:23).

But what does that mean? Well for a start,  I cannot imagine the Christians in Hong Kong getting into that very dangerous place between the rioters and the police with unconfessed sin in their lives!They would certainly be walking (living) in the truth of God's Word (3 John 3, 4). It's about obedience, about walking in the light as He is in the light,  and about being at peace with one another (1 John 1:7; Ephesians 4:3).  But what about “in spirit?”  In Christ our spirit is made alive (Ephesians 2:1), and then His Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God (Romans 8:16).  We are body,  soul and spirit, but really to worship Him in spirit is to worship Him with all we are and have.  Paul admonishes us to “be filled with the Spirit speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord” (Ephesian 5:18, 19). So another part of what it means,  is that we are to worship Him with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength!

Father, I confess to You this morning that I do not always feel like worshipping You at all, never mind in spirit and truth. But the song comes to mind “As our hearts begin to worship, we'll be glad because we came.”  In fact Lord when we worship when we don't feel like it, this is precious to You. Thank You Lord. It's not pretending, it is practicing,  and being obedient. Continue to draw us Lord,  and when we come in worship please bring us into Your awesome presence in Jesus Name Amen



Be still, and know that I am God

.... I will be exalted among the nations (Psalm 46:10).  The Psalmist had just invited us to behold the works of the Lord, the desolation of Israel's Assyrian enemies.  He declares that the Lord makes wars cease to the ends of the earth,  and destroys the weapons of war (verses 8, 9). The Lord then speaks through him in this morning's verse telling them and us,  to be still and to know that He is God.   You have to take the long view, to see the truth of verses 8 and 9 in the here and now. Kingdoms, empires come and go, but in the end they all end in destruction. The full truth of these verses however will only come to fruition in eternity (Ezekiel  37:26).

You have to take the long view, the eternal view, to make any sense of truth, justice and righteousness, indeed of life itself. Ecclesiastes (another part of this morning's daily readings) speaks about the vanity and the futility of the endless, seemingly meaningless cycles of life, of life “under the sun.” There is so much pain, so much injustice, so much that is not if the Lord. And we need to hear that God is on the throne, that He is God and that He will be exalted in the nations and in the earth. He will come out on top. It is not enough however to have intellectual knowledge that when we side with God that we win in the end! We need to know God in the way that we truly know people. That is we experience them in encounter, and in relationship with them.

But we cannot truly know God by rushing into His presence and then out again. The value we place on a relationship can be measured by the amount of time we are willing to give to it.  And in the business of modern life, it takes time to quiet ourselves down and be still.  But it is only when we are still that we can hear the still small voice of God (1Kings 19:12).  And if we are not willing to quiet ourselves down and be still, we will miss it. It is in the stillness that we know that He is God. And when we know that He is God, we also know that He is good. And we know that He can be trusted, that no matter what happens He is truly working behind the scenes for our good (Romans 8:28). This does not mean that bad things don't happen, but when they do, and we also know that He is God,  we also have verse 11 that “the LORD of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge.”

Father, I confess my sin,  and the sin of Your people,  that over and over we fill our lives with business, and empty and meaningless things.  Help us Lord, help me, to get my priorities right, to learn to quiet myself down and take time to simply sit in Your presence. As a father who wants the attention of his adult children, I know that You want this more than we do. We thank You Lord for Your patience and Your love. And we give You praise and glory again this morning in Jesus Name Amen

(Christ) died for all, in order that

.... those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. Therefore, from now on, we regard no one from a worldly point of view (2 Corinthians 5:15, 16). “Those who live” are those who were once dead in trespasses and sins, who followed the ways of this world, those who lived according to the sinful nature (Ephesians 2:1, 2). This morning's verses are telling us that there was a purpose in Christ dying.  It is that those of us He rescued from eternal death, hell and destruction should no longer follow the ways of the World. Instead, we should live for Him. So then is it all about me, or all about Jesus?  Do I live to please myself, or do I live to please the Lord?  Is my life in the ongoing process of being changed from glory to glory (3:18), or am I either stuck, or worse left completely unchanged?

I am not asking these questions to condemn, for there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ (Romans 8:1). Though, as we were saying yesterday, we will have to give an account (verse 10). No, I am asking these questions to challenge myself (and you), to ask if I really am living for Him. There are many aspects to this, in this morning's passage our attention is being drawn to how we think about and deal with ourselves and others (verse 16).  Do we regard ourselves and others as new creations with the old gone (verse 17). Are we looking for the treasure, or the trash? Do we see ourselves and others as God sees us? In calling us saints, He is seeing the best version that you and I can be.  He is seeing the potential. 

It's not just about how I see others, I am somewhat frustrated with myself this morning. I have been anxious about something that has no eternal value. It is an area of trust that I thought  had victory in. Yet I find myself wrestling with it. I wrestle through to victory (i.e using Philippians 4:4-8) and find peace. The a short time later I am wrestling again. Something in me that I thought was already dead, has to die. It is by the Spirt, but also with my input,  that these things are put to death (Romans 8:13). It seems that we do not die easily to the self, and it is a process.

Father, I ask this morning for myself and my brothers and sisters that You will help us to see ourselves and others as You see us. Help us to be patient with ourselves and others, and to call ourselves up, not out! We are better than our failures! We need Your grace to live for You Lord,  and not for ourselves. It's all about You, it's not about me, as if You should do things my way. You alone are God, and I surrender (again this morning) to Your ways, in Jesus Name Amen