I, Jesus, take you, Church, to be my wife. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life. I, Jesus, take you, (insert your name), for my lawful wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death brings you to heaven.
Song of Songs 8
6 Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy[q] unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame.[r] 7Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away.
Lately at our base we've experience quite a bit of sickness. Nothing serious or life-threatening, but just enough to humble us and bring us to our knees and our beds. And its in the place of weakness that we really do discover God's amazing love.
You see, while we were still sinners Christ loved us enough to die for us (Romans 5:8). "He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy." (Titus 3:5) Jesus said: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17) And thank the Lord that the strength of our relationship does not depend on our pursuit of God, but of His pursuit of us!
Because of who He is, Jesus is an unending, unrelenting wedding vow to love us, to honor us, to pursue us no matter what our condition is. What a glorious truth!
I discovered that as a follower of Jesus I have to continually keep coming back to that reality. Even when I'm doing good, I'm fasting, praying, studying the word, evangelizing, giving, and loving, He loves me the same. And when I'm in rebellion, falling into temptation, sick and tired of being disciplined, He loves me the same! When I don't want to read my bible, He loves me the same. When I say no to the Holy Spirit, He loves me the same. When I sleep 12 hours and completing miss my appointment with Jesus, he loves me the same. When I disciple the nations and bring a whole country to Jesus, He loves me the same. When I give all of my money away, He loves me the same. When I memorize the whole bible, He loves the same. He already loves me, is already proud of me, He is already pleased with me. If I never opened my bible again, we would still want to be my friend. God loves me the way God loves God, even when I am as far away from being like God as possible.
This amazing, unconditional, unrelenting love is what keeps us going. Its what keeps us coming back to our first love. So please, wherever you are, just remember the He already loves you. And be compelled by His love, and let it be an overflow of this amazing love that touches the world around you.
And Please pray for the YWAM base in Kona that the God who loves us and can heal us would fill us with the knowledge of His love and His healing power. Thank you.
Nate,
ReplyDeleteWhat profound truth you have spoken. I am humbled greatly just to think about it. It is so true! What can we say? Just accept this beautiful truth and thank and praise Him. Just thank Him every day, every moment and keep letting his light be seen in us.
Boxley
"And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
ReplyDeleteBut thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." Matthew 6:5-6
You are awesome Nate! Keep sharing your heart and revelations the Lord gives you... Wow His love is amazing!
ReplyDeleteThank you all so much for your encouragement! May the Lord remind you daily that he is good and loves us so much!
ReplyDeleteBoxley and Joyce:
I am so encouraged by your guys amazing life lived completely from this revelation of His love, for His glory!
Anonymous: Thank you so much that awesome scripture, its always great to read the words of Jesus!
Rebekah: You are such a sweet woman of encouragement, and I'm honored to have the same eyes that gaze on Jesus all day look at my blog. Thank you sister!