Category: Bible

My Life as the Bride of Christ – Part 3

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In this series which I’ve titled “My Life as the Bride of Christ,” we’re going to look together at a few things that I believe make the marriage relationship unique and how our relationship with Christ is particularly special because we are His bride.  You can read parts one and two by clicking here.

#3. The marriage relationship is deeply intimate, close and personal.

All relationships involve some level of intimacy, but the relationship between husband and wife goes the deepest of them all.  I fear that this was a great stumbling block for me in seeing God as my husband.  For me, marital intimacy was intricately tied to the physical, sexual union between a man and his wife, and because of past sin on my part, I could not see intimacy with God in any other way.  Yet, as the Lord has peeled back these layers in the past year, I see now that true, pure intimacy is not dirty or corrupt.

In the beginning of time, when God made a “helper fit for” Adam since it was not good for man to be alone, God created Eve out of Adam’s side.  We are told that “the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” (Genesis 2:25)

Adam and Eve had nothing to hide from one another.  They were one flesh, with nothing to separate them.

As a married woman, I should have nothing to fear in bearing my heart and soul to my husband, because he is bound to me in a way that no other relationship is.  Other people (maybe even some of you) might grow sick and tired of me, especially as you get to know the “real me” and you might move on to find nicer, easier people to deal with, but not my husband.  He can’t. He knows my numerous flaws, and yet, he remains by my side – in spite of them.

A dear friend and fellow church member reminded me in the van on the long trip back from our mission trip to Reynosa, Mexico last month, that our love for our husbands grows all the deeper as they demonstrate faithfulness toward us in a way that new lovers are unable to appreciate.  In that way, our love for our spouse is magnified as their commitment to us is proven true through the years and decades.

And yet, for as well as my husband knows me, I can still hide things from him.  But, God….  He knows a word before it’s on my lips.  I cannot hide anything from Him; I cannot hide any thought, word or action from Him.  Even the darkness is as light to Him.  I cannot flee from Him.

Mediate on how deeply God knows and loves us according to Psalm 139:1-4, 11-12 “O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether. … If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.”

As the bride of Christ, I have nothing to fear in bearing my heart and soul to Him, because I can have full confidence in his steadfast love and faithfulness.  I can cast all of my cares on Him, because I know that He fully cares for me (1 Peter 5:7).  It reminds me of Stephanie’s talk yesterday, that we can pour out of cries of lament, knowing that God has given us in the psalms this model of real, genuine, authentic relationship with Him.

In Hosea 6:6, we are told that the Lord desires “steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”  God wants our hearts, our souls, our minds – with all of our everything.  He wants us to know Him and trust Him deeply and personally.  He wants more than just to “be known about” and studied and served.  He wants to be known.

SO WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR US….  How does the fact that The marriage relationship is deeply intimate, close and personal impact our lives?

God wants our time with him to be transparent and real.  He is not fooled by any false pretense.  God detests hypocrisy and deceit.  We can bear our true souls to Him without fear or shame.

I can confess ALL my sin to Him – agreeing with Him about my need for salvation and deliverance.  I can cry to Him all day long without worrying that He will grow tired of me.  I can share my every joy with Him without fear that He doesn’t care.  I can talk to God without ceasing, in everything giving thanks, trusting that this, too, is God’s will for me in Christ Jesus.  I don’t have to hide from Him.  Ever.

Stay tuned for the final installment “Part Four: The marriage relationship is devoted, and sacrificial.”

My Life as the Bride of Christ – part 2

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In this series which I’ve titled “My Life as the Bride of Christ,” we’re going to look together at a few things that I believe make the marriage relationship unique and how our relationship with Christ is particularly special because we are His bride. (You can read Part 1 by clicking here)

#2. The marriage relationship is designed to be ‘til death do we part.

The Lord is described over and over again throughout scripture as steadfast and faithful, promising to NEVER leave us or forsake us.  His love toward us is eternal.  We were never designed “grow up and move out” like a child with their parents.

This is one reason I am so certain that we cannot lose our salvation and also one reason why I’m certain that God hates divorce.  When God places His seal upon us and fills us with His holy spirit, He will never break that covenant with us.  We are bound to Him eternally.

As Ephesians 5:31-32 says “’Therefore, a man shall leave [Greek: kataleipo – leave behind, to depart from, leave, forsake] his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.’  This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.”  Wow.

See, our children are designed to grow up and leave us, that they may become one flesh with their mate, and so are we to be ONE FLESH with Christ.  We are His bride, and He is our bridegroom.

SO WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR US….  How does the fact that our relationship with Christ is eternal impact our lives?

We can demonstrate our love for Christ, by remaining certain of His love for us while we’re in the midst of trials.

I have been through some hard times in the last 23 years since I bowed my knee to Jesus, and I have been tempted countless times to doubt His love and power, and yet, God has proven Himself faithful to me over and over again.  By remaining faithful in my love toward Him, and certain of His love for me, I commit my life into His hands until my last breath.

Stay tuned for “Part Three: The marriage relationship is deeply intimate, close and personal...”

My Life as the Bride of Christ (a new series – part #1)

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I recently had the opportunity to share this talk with my women’s study hour class at church.  When I read over my notes now, I am so disappointed that I didn’t record our conversations.  God showed up and took my meager offerings and multiplied them hundred-fold as the other women in the room shared their thoughts and questions.  It was a beautiful time.  I pray that God would once again take these meager offerings and multiply them in your own mind as you meditate on these truths.

In this series which I’ve titled “My Life as the Bride of Christ,” we’re going to look together at a few things that I believe make the marriage relationship unique and how our relationship with Christ is particularly special because we are His bride.#1. The marriage relationship is exclusive:

We can have a dozen coworkers, a dozen children and a dozen friends.  But we can only have ONE husband and He can only have ONE bride.  God will not share us with other gods and our husband will not share us with other men.

It is not enough for us to make God the biggest God in our life, or the best idol that we have.  He can’t be our “favorite” husband, the one who gets to share our house and our bed.  He wants to be our ONLY husband, our ONE thing.  He wants ALL of our heart, soul, mind and strength, our everything.

As Hosea 1:2 reads, “When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.”

What had the Israelites done that made them whores, adulterers?  They had forsaken the Lord.  They had turned their back on Him and chased after false gods, idols.  They had given their allegiance to things OTHER than the one true God.  They were not loving Him with ALL their heart, soul, mind and strength.  God despises adultery of all forms, especially adultery toward Him.  God wants our whole heart.  He will not share His glory with another.

SO WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR US….  How does the fact that The marriage relationship is exclusive impact our lives?

Well, for one, we can demonstrate our love for Christ, by being a good steward of all that He has entrusted to us: our time, talent, treasure and testimony,

  • by rising early in the morning to spend time with Him when we’d rather sleep in,
  • by using our gifts and talents to serve Him and His kingdom, rather than our own pursuits,
  • by using the possessions and money that He has given to us for His glory rather than selfish passions,
  • by speaking of His unfailing love to both strangers and friends, rather than turning a blind eye to their needs, or being ashamed of our “first love.”

We can demonstrate our love for Christ by giving Him our first and our best, rather than the scraps and leftovers.

Stay tuned for “Part Two: The marriage relationship is ‘til death do we part.” 

A Child of Promise – Kindle Version free (Limited Time Offer)

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In honor of Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness day (October 15), the Kindle version of my first book, A Child of Promise: A Bible Study for Parents Facing a Poor or Fatal Prognosis for their Unborn Child, is FREE. (Limited time offer).

You are also invited to visit the A Child of Promise website here.

Please share!

Forgiven Times Three

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“And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: ‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.'” Romans 4:5-8

At first glance, Paul/David is merely reiterating how greatly blessed we are when we are forgiven by our Holy God – that we are forgiven, forgiven, forgiven.

But, as I looked deeper into this passage, I studied the three ways in which we are specifically forgiven. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds/sins are:

  1. FORGIVEN – aphiemi – let go, left, sent away (as in divorced, 1 Corinthians 7:11-13)
  2. COVERED – epikalypto – covered, hidden, veiled
  3. (not) COUNTED – logizomai – reckoned, counted, imputed, numbered among, to account (as in Romans 4:3 – “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”)

These are three specific ways our sins are forgiven us in Christ.

  1. Christ takes our sin away from us – casting it away, separating it from us – like our record of sin being thrown away into an out-of-sight trash bin. Like Psalm 103:12 “As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.”
  2. Christ covers over our sin by His blood, hiding our record of sin from the sight of the Father.
  3. Christ takes our sin off our account, placing it onto His own, imputing onto our account His righteousness, in place of our own sinfulness.

How is it, specifically, according to David in Psalm 32, that we receive this abundant tri-fold forgiveness? Without question this is by faith, by believing God, by following Jesus in the obedience of faith, like Abraham rather than by any good work because as sinful people we are unable to deserve, merit or earn righteousness. This is evident from Romans 3:20.

Yet, true faith will include what David writes in Psalm 32:5:

I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,”
and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.”

The way I see it is this is not merely a situation of us not being forgiven if we sin, but don’t confess it. Rather, as David also wrote in Psalm 66:18, “If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.” We must not hold deceit in our spirit, being like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle as David continues in Psalm 32.

By faith we turn to Christ, agreeing with Him of the gravity of our sin, casting these burdens on Him and by faith trusting Him to forgive our sin, covering it by His blood and imputing Christ’s righteousness onto our account. Thank You, Jesus, for forgiving me and justifying me by your grace as a gift. I’m not worthy, but YOU ARE!

TWIG

One Thing – Remember, Repent & Return

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This is an excerpt from a talk my dear friend (Diane Drees) and I shared on our church’s ONE THING retreat this fall.  You can listen to the complete audio from the talk here:

—

When we finished our study of Hosea this spring, I was led to study next the book of Jeremiah.  They are very similar books, really.  Both Hosea and Jeremiah were warning the people (Hosea to the nation of Israel and Jeremiah to the nation of Judah) to return to the one true God from chasing after idols.

Look with me at Jeremiah chapter 2:1-2 and verses 11-13

The word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the LORD, “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. …

Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the LORD, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

God’s people had forgotten the devotion of their youth and their love as a bride.

They had committed two evils: (1) they had forsaken God – they had left Him, abandoned Him, deserted Him, turned their back on Him and they had (2) dug their own broken cisterns.

Basically, a cistern is a way to hold water of any kind to accumulate and store water for future use.  It could be used to catch rainwater or water from a well or stream.  Ancient cisterns could be huge and used for a whole community, or small for a household.  God’s people were getting their water from cisterns of their own creation, and turning their back on God, rather than going to Him, the living well, the eternal spring.

Which reminds me of the word picture of a tabletop waterfall fountain that I described on the spring retreat.  We are only able to love others as we are filled up to overflowing with God’s love.  We love others because He first loved us.

And what was God’s encouragement to his people in Jeremiah 3:22a “Return, O faithless sons; I will heal your faithlessness.”

God had been warning His people in the Old Testament, over 500 years before Christ’s time on earth, but what about after Christ’s coming, did His people still turn their backs on Him?

In the book of Revelation, the final book of the Bible, the apostle John was inspired by God to write letters to seven different churches.  The first letter he wrote was to the church in Ephesus which is found in Revelation, chapter 2.  Here John writes a nice “grace sandwich” to this church, beginning with verses 2 and 3, “I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false.  I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake and you have not grown weary.”  I believe that those words might be spoken of our church today.

But John follows that encouragement with some hard-to-hear words in verses 4-5, “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.  (Sounds like Jeremiah 2:2, doesn’t it?)  Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.  If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.”  And I’m afraid that these words might be spoken of us as well.

What did God have against this church?  They had abandoned the love that they had at first.

And now what do they need to do:

  • Remember – They needed to remember where they used to be. They needed to remember their FIRST love, Jesus, and the love that they once had for Him.
  • Repent – They needed to turn away from their sin, turn away from the things that have held them captive, turn away from the idols and distractions of life and turn toward God. They needed to do an about face.
  • Return – They needed to return to their first love and to those works that they did at first.

Let me add one little aside here, the prefix RE- means AGAIN, it indicates repetition, going back to something.  RE-member, RE-pent, RE-turn all these words indicate going back to something you once had and doing it again – thinking of it again, turning away from where you were and going back the other way, turning again to where you once were.  You can only RE-turn to something if you had it at first.  You cannot RETURN to a place you’ve never been; you can’t RETURN a book you never checked out in the first place.  If God has never been your first love, you cannot RETURN to Him.

God invites you even now to come to Him as your first love, the well of living water, your Savior, Deliverer and the Lord of your life.

Remember your first love.  Repent of your wayward heart.  Return to your God.

Total Eclipse of the Heart

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In looking forward to the solar eclipse tomorrow, I began praying for what lesson the Lord would have me to learn from this physical phenomenon.  Here it is:  God wants my whole heart.

Living in the Memphis area, I found out online that I could stay home and experience a 93% eclipse and I thought, “Great!  93% is awesome!  Why would I drive 3 ½ hours to get a total eclipse?  That is not worth the trouble!”

Well, read what Dan, an eclipse chaser, had to share on the Eclipse 2017 website in response to a woman who wanted to know if it was worth driving to get to totality, rather than staying at the 98%:

“I know you are not wanting to do the move, but there’s really no way I can in good conscience tell you that the experience of a 98% partial eclipse will be remotely comparable to being in the path. Seeing the corona, experiencing that last second extinguishing of the light, seeing stars in the middle of the day, and the overall impression of totality, are not things that it is possible to describe.

If you see a 98% partial eclipse, then the maximum coverage the Sun will get is about the same as what someone in the path will see about 2 minutes before totality. The crescent won’t shrink, you won’t see Baily’s Beads, it won’t get really really dark. The best I could say is that you will get a feeling of some eerieness of the light, and the temperature may drop a couple of degrees. Your shadows on the ground will get a bit sharper. The real thrill of a total eclipse, outside of totality itself, is those last 5-10 seconds when the Sun completely disappears. People literally lose it when they experience that, and that experience will not be yours even 5 miles outside the path. 98% sounds like a lot, but it’s kind of like being at a restaurant – if you’re just outside the door, it SMELLS really good… but only the folks INSIDE are actually eating. …

Totality is awe-inspiring – literally the most wonderful thing your eyes can see. I know it sounds like evangelizing, and I can’t make the decision for you, but I will tell you that if you go (and the weather is good), you will not in any way be disappointed.”

As a follower of Jesus Christ, I fear that I’m too often content with giving Jesus my 93%, or my 98%.  It is not worth the trouble, the loss of comfort, to give Him my all.  It reminds me of a song my kids learned when they were little that goes like this: “Do you have a whole heart, a half heart or no heart at all, to give to the King when you hear him call?”

If God is not Lord of ALL, He is not Lord AT all.

He doesn’t want to be one of many gods. He will not share His glory with another.  He wants it all and He deserves it all.

He wants my whole heart.  He wants to have full, total, preeminent significance, power and prominence in my life (type in “eclipse definition” in Google and check out the definition of eclipse).

He wants to eclipse my whole life.

Which reminds me of our ONE THING women’s retreat coming up September 22-23.  I’d love you to come!  Click here for more information.

TWIG

Love more than sacrifice

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There are too numerous things to count that I’ve learned about God specifically through being a mom. One of the most breathtaking is the idea that God desires love more than sacrifice, and the knowledge of Him more than burnt offerings (Hosea 6:6).

 

I have trained my children to obey me. Ever since they could speak (or in my youngest son Daniel’s case, before they could speak), I have taught obedience as rule #1 in the Endraske house. The first Bible verse my kids learned was “Obey your parents in the Lord for this is right, Ephesians 6:1.” I taught them to obey promptly and fully, without complaining, arguing or questioning. (I’m not saying they did this … I’m merely saying this is what I taught them.)

Now that  my two oldest are young adults, I’m finding myself in a trap here. If I ask them to run an errand for me, or do a chore around  the house, or even say have lunch with me …. I don’t want them to do this out of a sense of obedience and/or sacrifice. I want them to WANT to. I want my kids to WANT to help, to serve, to give, and I especially want them to want to be with me, to love spending time with me, to value my relationship. And I fear that in all my drilling and discipline on obedience, they missed having the opportunity to choose to demonstrate their “just because” love for me, because it was all about doing as they were told. 

So, when I was recently asked by an unbeliever why God would create mankind when He knew that some would reject Him and suffer the eternal consequences of that choice, it reminded me of my life as a mom, and how I want my kids to want me.

When my kids were younger and they’d pester me to buy them something, or take them somewhere, I’d try to explain to them how they were stealing my joy of giving them a gift, that I wanted to give to them freely, and not under compulsion, being nagged and cajoled into giving them something.

I wonder if God ever feels like that. He loves us, with His incredible love. He demonstrates His love for us in that while we were still sinners, He sent Christ to die for us.  (Romans 5:8)  He does this as a free gift by His Grace through faith and even gifts us that faith in the first place, that none of us can boast or tell Him that He’s “got to give it to us” because it’s our wages due. (Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 4:4-5)  Because, in fact, our due wages is death (Romans 6:23).

God Himself is a cheerful giver, a good Father who loves to give good gifts to His children (Matthew 7:11). If He forced us to love Him, if there were no alternative BUT to love Him, I wonder if that would limit the joy that He receives from our grateful hearts full of thanksgiving to Him for the blessed gift of faith and love.

To the only Worthy One, my Savior and Redeemer and Friend.

TWIG

Sometimes you can’t understand until you’re there

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Today my amazing husband turns 47 years old. Where have the years gone?

20th anniversary – 2004

As I’m aging, I’m beginning to see that though I look older on the outside (only a very, very little bit older), on the inside I’m really the same person — just a little more experienced and wiser, hopefully. (Thank You, Lord!) But as a young person I really couldn’t understand that, even if someone explained it in the simplest of terms.

There are some things you just can’t understand until you’re there. When my kids were little, I had older women tell me repeatedly to enjoy these years because children grow up so quickly. Well, I couldn’t understand. I didn’t think they were growing up quickly. I couldn’t wait for them to sleep through the night, to talk, to be potty trained, to read. And now it’s gone in a flash. Those women were right! Where did my babies go?

It’s like that when I’m trying to explain my faith walk to someone who doesn’t know God. How do I explain how real God is to me? How can I explain how scriptures jump off the page when I read them? How can I explain that I literally hear verses echoing inside my mind at just the moment when I need them? How can I explain that I hear a small, persistent voice calling to me, saying, “This is the way, walk in it”? How can I make someone see something that they can’t see? How can I explain to someone something that was once so foreign to me, too, but now is as normal as taking my next step or my next breath?

God is real. He’s real. He sees me and He knows me and He cares for me and about me. He is with me wherever I go and whatever I do. He walks with me and He talks with me. Though I cannot see Him, I know Him and He has made me His own. His love is as real to me as the air that I breathe. I wish everyone could know Him like that.  Praying.

TWIG