We are moons

We are moons reflecting his light in the world.. 

When the world comes between us and the son it blocks him from being seen.

Let his light shine on me unhindered so that it is all that is seen.. Hidden by his grace.

Self discipline and his strength.

So my waking thoughts were on discipline and I asked.. How am I suppose to do this in your strength and not in the strength of my flesh.. This has been a struggle with in the desire to live a disciplined life. I don't want to glory in my flesh but only in his grace.. That his grace would be my strength. But that I wouldn't wait or expect  for him to do it for me.. Where is the balance. 

For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. (2 Timothy 1:7 NLT)

Strength.. He enables us to have strength.. We only need apply it.

... Utmost segment for today...

Our battles are first won or lost in the secret places of our will in God’s presence, never in full view of the world. The Spirit of God seizes me and I am compelled to get alone with God and fight the battle before Him. Until I do this, I will lose every time. The battle may take one minute or one year, but that will depend on me, not God. However long it takes, I must wrestle with it alone before God, and I must resolve to go through the hell of renunciation or rejection before Him. Nothing has any power over someone who has fought the battle before God and won there.

Contrast

Again my individuality

Again my excuses

Again my guilt

Again my disgust with myself

Always knocks

Always faithful

Always redemption

Always love

Contrast

Grace

Creation bows under the covering of your grace.. It cannot comprehend it.. Nor bear the weight of it.. In newness your glory shines through like light refracted and any touched by it and receive the flow of current are illuminated as well.

Immersed.. consumed.. Death is swallowed up by the light of men.

It's not my right..

Jason and I spoke at a wedding this weekend. I spoke a little on what marriage is. It is a union, fusion, merging. An alliance. It is an exchange of an individual life for that of yielding and transparent accountability to another.

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. (Ephesians 5:31, 32 NLT)

In the same way ...

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. (Matthew 16:24 ESV)

If anyone does not expect marriage to be the denial of ones self, they are expecting something other reality.

I am reading Oswald Chambers  devotional "My Utmost For His Highest".

This particular devotional is about "individuality".

My God is intentional in His instruction.

When He wants to make a point, He is patient in repeating it over and over until by His grace my ears do hear.

" individuality is all elbows, it separates and isolates" 

"Individuality counterfeits personality as lust counterfeits love."

"The characteristics of individuality are independence and self assertiveness."

"God wants to bring you into union with Himself, but unless you are willing to give up your right to yourself He cannot.  "Let him deny himself" - deny his independent right to himself, then the real life has a chance to grow."

What I am discovering about marriage being a mirror reflection of our union with Christ is so beautifly symbolic of one another. There is so much to learn in this symbiosis.   

There is freedom. Beauty. Intimacy. Tenderness. Romance. Plenty of drama - climatic and dissinent emotion.. Adventure. Raw and brutal love.

This is real. All the while, at times harder to grasp than fiction.. 

Why would I look anywhere else when all in all is finished here.

Completed. Perfected.

It is Him. My inheritance. My prize. My reward... 

What else should I want?

What else could satisfy?

He formed me.

He completes me.

Selah

Can I love my husband this way? 

It will only show me the face of Christ in more detail. His hands. His heart. 

My heart desires this. 

He will give me my desires.

http://youtu.be/8v5gV4gCggU

The heart of The Savior.

Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth. I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me. I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. Father, I want these whom you have given me to be with me where I am. Then they can see all the glory you gave me because you loved me even before the world began! (John 17:17, 21, 23, 24 NLT)

He understands it all.

The union...

The fall..

Both extremes of possibilities..

He desires us...

He desires our company....

He sees eternity..

He knows the plan...

He knows why he had to come to the depth that allowed him to submit to his own death for a people who would reject, deny, forget, and literally abuse his glorious grace.

His love is greater

His mercy powerful

His compassion untouchable

His jealousy just

His promises true

His word unstoppable!

He is The Champion!

I am my Beloveds and He is mine.

He is faithful to reveal himself and his love... If you just seek him you find that he is closer than your very breath.. He is more consistent than your own heart beat.. He is faithful as the dawn. 

He loves romance 

He loves to fight for you

He laughs with delight and gazes upon the beauty of the bride.

..... Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of 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. (Ephesians 5:25-27 NLT)

Ah! 

Hmmm! 

Rest.... 

Breathing him in.

Thank you Jesus!

If it pleased the Father to bruise His own Son..

If it pleased the Father to bruise His own Son..

Should I not trust Him in my trials that even then He is good?
It was in that beating, bruising, rejection, and greatly wounded Son by consent of the Holy Father that I am truly free.. That in my trials and pain that I can truly have joy and peace.
It is in the trial and deep need that the Father can truly show his intimate tenderness if I just rest in his goodness and the Hope that is mine. 

Who has believed our message? To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm? My servant grew up in the Lord ’s presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him. He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all. He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. Unjustly condemned, he was led away. No one cared that he died without descendants, that his life was cut short in midstream. But he was struck down for the rebellion of my people. He had done no wrong and had never deceived anyone. But he was buried like a criminal; he was put in a rich man’s grave. But it was the Lord ’s good plan to crush him and cause him grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord ’s good plan will prosper in his hands. When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins. I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier, because he exposed himself to death. He was counted among the rebels. He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels. (Isaiah 53:1-12 NLT)

One flesh

Remember your first love.

Place him as a seal on your arm ..as a seal Upon your heart

Nothing shall separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. 

So many times this chapter has been read.. 

Some may have never read the scriptures for themselves yet many have been graced to hear these words. Which are the description of who Christ our first love is.

1 cor 13

As we demonstrate any of these characteristics, we are truly emulating Christ. 

Is 54  take the pressure off your spouse a bit..

he is who we turn to. His great counsel never fails. He is closer than a brother..We are secure in His love ... His love is truly all we need.

Eph 5:21-33

How do we know our personal responsibility? We have been given clear instructions! Praise Him for that! :) 

wives submit as unto The Lord. You and your husband are under his umbrella.. As you submit to The Lord and his perfect love that casts away all fear...he will lift you up.

Husbands love your wives.. Your love is a purifying tonic.. It says that loving your wife is actually showing love to yourself.

We go into marriage with such great expectations for ourselves..

Yet our God, the father most definitely has even greater expectations for us..

More than validating your feelings or wants

He wants you to see him. See his face when you respect your husband. See his heart when you cherish your bride. 

He wants you to be him.. His hands and feet and His heart. An extension of all he is. That is where our focus needs to be. 

We can sometimes fall into  focusing on those things our spouse is not doing for us.. let us focus on how we can touch the heart of God by loving, serving and respecting our spouse.

Only his love in you will be able to secure the love you both desire to share in this life together. This new life of becoming one flesh .. 

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Marriage synonyms:

union, alliance, fusion, mixture, mix, blend, amalgamation, combination, merge

Life exchange-ring exchange vow exchange

 And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything. 

There are a few ways submission is described

.

For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of 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 who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. 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)

This passage shows leadership,

It shows how your love and cherishing your bride is a tonic that purifies her and makes her even more beautiful. That it bring life and goodness and love for yourself.

Let love be your compass 

With word and action

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7, 13 NLT)

All who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. 

God is love,

 and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. We love each other because he loved us first. (1 John 4:15-19 NLT)

Jesus has you... he delights in you, he cherishes you, he is your great champion! When you feel alone or confused...he is there.. he is tender.. he hears you and he is faithful to complete what he has started.

The father has you. He is able, he has perfect counsel, he is closer than a brother, he will never fail you he has a plan for you.. for your family... He will be your strength and help.

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38, 39 NLT)

Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm. For love is as strong as death, its jealousy as enduring as the grave. Love flashes like fire, the brightest kind of flame. Many waters cannot quench love, nor can rivers drown it. If a man tried to buy love with all his wealth, his offer would be utterly scorned. (Song of Songs 8:6, 7 NLT)