The Great Romance
So this is our last installment in the series "It's In The Name."
We have week by week survived the wayward acts of "my third child ", i.e. my keyboard. With its many acts of misspelling ,it's often doubling of the letters and its simply awful way of repeating the ideas that I have so patiently fed its hungry keys. Some how we have made it to the end of the first semester of our Adult Bible Fellowship. I think that we are both a little wiser as to how this hand shake of a relationship will work out. Like riding a wild bronco, I have hung on to the ride of my life. I hope that you have enjoyed. I graciously thank My dear wife for her proof reading of my words and thoughts.
I the meantime, we have surveyed some of the beautiful names of Jesus, the reason for the season, the bright and morning star, the beginning and the end! Yes I can go on!
Each week we have unrolled the carpet to reveal a little more of the picture of the Messiah that has been engraved on the pages of scripture. Truly this same carpet has been unrolled for nearly six thousand years as God, the God of all eternity has endeavored to reveal Himself to his creation. We remain here comparably blind deaf and dumb, like the proverbial six blind men trying to describe the elephant. One feels the ear and thinks that God is a huge Palm leaf. One feels the nose and swears that God is a Fireman's Nose. The next feels the front leg and begins to convince the others that God is a very large tree. The next sits on the back and fights the others that God is very much like a mountain. The little guy in the front feels the tusk and rests in the fact that God is a man of war, with this a huge sword. The last in the back hangs on to the tail swinging as it were on the rope of the trapeze. Each actually does give a true description of the object of his experience, but each sadly falls short of accurately describing the total picture. In actual fact the view Pointe of each is needed to describe the picture. For this reason I eagerly welcome feedback from readers as we traverse the renderings of this study. In the fall, We will attempt to strive through the series "The Ultimate Faith Challenge." We invite you to work through this starting with contending for the faith next week.
This week we will think about the Great Romance. The fire of the Bible, the very power proceeds from the Love of God. Typically we think of Love as being Agape, the unbounded love of the father. But we also experience the deeply romantic love of the marriage, starting with the first miracle preformed by Jesus at the wedding feast. That of turning some vats of water into the celebration wine, And that not of simple everyday wine but so remarkable that the president of the feast proclaimed it the best!
So this is the picture, God in heaven looks for a bride for his son. Finding none he conceives of this world created with people who have free will to choose him or not, Never mind that the choice is between bars of gold and clumps of mud. The choice is still theirs to make. The door on the left or the door on the right, that is the question! On the left is temporary pleasure and sometimes riches, or fame but eventually leading to death of the most dreadful kind . On the right is an simpler less ornate door with very human hardware, yes we studied that last week, The Door! Into this door we find life health peace, along with some sacrifice, we find needs met and healing required by our wavering between the two doors.
Into the fabric of every culture that I have encountered, there is woven what I call the red cord of salvation. By that I mean there is a belief or custom, or strain of emotion that leads one, when studied out, to conclusion that the God of Eternity actually is The God of the life of the enquirer. The American Indian and others have the tradition of the Blood brother. This actually is the basis of the covenant of Abraham listed in Gen 15:1-21.
In Papua, New Guinea among a tribe of cannibals, there rings a tradition passed down through the generations, that a white skin man would come and tell a story of how all men could live in peace with the gods and with others. In the same way men of all races and cultures have a surviving virtue of Romance! In the ultimate, Romance is a person giving up their life for another or so that the other might live or at least live better. The grand scheme of things reveal that this is the actual thing that Jesus did when he came to earth.
He gave up his life that others might have Life and have it more abundantly. In Him we have the ultimate Bridegroom.
Then, there is the Bride. What about her dowry? This is the price he must pay to redeem her from the family of her origin. Jesus must pay the "Just" Price for her sin. That would cost him his own blood for it is written with out shedding of blood there is no remission of sin! Shedding his own blood he paid this just price. Now she is free to follow and marry her beau! The she we have is the Church. Such a story. Even the new Guinean would be proud!
The final agreement is made by simply accepting the exchange. Feelings are not required, but they will come in time. As realization is made of forgiveness of sin, Love is the natural consequence. For he who has been forgiven much will have much love.
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