Jesus - Lover of Our Souls

I think that the great majority of the people of our world have at some time witnessed a man and a woman exchanging vows at an altar.  All of the words spoken by them have been beautiful to be sure, even bringing some of the onlookers to tears.  Nevertheless, we need to face the facts; the facts being that words are simply that.  Words are nothing more than words, and by themselves will never hold a marriage together, let alone cause it to be successful.  And so, unless those words that are spoken at a marriage ceremony are accompanied by something else, then the chances of that union surviving would indeed be scarce.  What might that something else be?  It would be nothing other than a strong commitment, that if practiced, will lead to an ever growing love.  Yes, the more that we commit, the more love will grow; then the more love grows, the more we come to know that person.  All of this is what needs to be added to the words that two people once spoke upon an altar.

 But what does it all have to do with the title of the article?  What do the words, Jesus – Lover of Our Souls, have to do with anything that I’ve written up to this point?  I would say that the answer to this question is simple.  Just as the exchange of words alone will never make for a successful marriage union, then in like manner, when we acknowledge that the Son of God has become our true marriage partner, and there is no other, then He is not made glad if the words we have spoken do not confirm a true and a working union with Him.  But if commitment is the reality, then just as with an unfailing marriage between a man and a woman, there will follow an ever growing love for Him; and the more that we commit, the more our love will grow; then the more that love grows, the more we will come to know the One who died for us. 

When it comes right down to it, there is but one thing that will cause us to not commit to the Lord all that we are.  That one thing is called Idols.  There is no sense in trying to identify them all.  If you jumped into bed one night, but before falling asleep you decided to name as many of these as you could, you’d probably still be at it when your alarm goes off in the morning.  And if you really put your mind to it, you would begin to discover that some idols can be rather deceptive, not exactly the kind that would stand tall and strong before you.  If you earnestly and sincerely asked the Lord to reveal these, you may become stunned at the type of things that we give precedence to over our beloved Saviour. 

We who believe are much like our father Abraham – that great father of the faith.  It is written of him that he looked for a city that has foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God.  The book of Revelation speaks of that city.  Can you imagine a city fifteen hundred miles, its length and width and height being equal, and all of this of pure gold?  I think that if we were to behold something like that in our mortal condition, it would do much more than simply boggle the mind.  But being in our glorified state by that time, we will surely be able to take it in.  Yet we shouldn’t get too carried away with the idea of such a city.  As magnificent as it will be, it is going to be viewed as but a small part of what the kingdom of God in its fullness will be then.  At times we may make too much of those beautiful and no doubt towering structures that will go for fifteen hundred miles in every direction.  Yet even with this, it will never be what the kingdom of heaven will be all about.  The kingdom of heaven will for all eternity be about the Son of the Living God – our eternal Partner.  If it wasn’t for His presence there, then that city would stand in darkness.  It is why John writes, And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.

But do we at times make the kingdom of God out to be things that it is not?  In other words, do we feel that we would be perfectly content in that incredible metropolis, while just living among all of our family members and friends, and this throughout eternity?  Or what if Jesus told us that He was going to bid us farewell at some point?  Would we be okay with that, as long as there would be no other changes in our situation?  We should hope not.   And why?  It is because it is He who will be our eternal Friend and Lover of our souls in a union to last forever – our Lord as our Head, and we constituting the members of His body; and this in a kingdom created for Him.  Through all of eternity past has it been the Father’s plan for the Son, to rule and reign over a new creation of which there will be no end- both He and the bride who the Father has called out. 

Is He great? Does He surpass knowledge?  Is He unshakable?  Is He almighty?  Does He exceed even His universe?  The fact of the matter is that He is beyond description.   He is far beyond what words can ever convey.  He has no measures.  And He supercedes all that we can imagine.  This is the One who loves us.  And there is no other prize for the children of God but the One who has laid down His life and has taken it up again.  Forever Reigns The Son!

J. Pecoraro

In His Image

Man is such a complex creature.  And there should be no doubt - at least in the mind of the believer - that he was intentionally formed in this manner by his Maker.  The Almighty Himself is more complex than we will ever know.  Eternity, though it be unbound, will fail to reveal it.  If it were revealed, so that eventually we would see into all the complexities of the Triune God, then what would become of the Mystery?  But mystery must belong to Him for- ever.  It is in fact at the very essence of who He is.  If the day ever arrived when He became as an open book to all, nothing left to be known of Him any longer, then this would be the effect: Gone would be His Holiness.  Gone would be His Glory.  Gone would be the Greatness of the Triune God.  No longer would we worship Him.  No longer would we bow to Him.  No longer would we love Him as we once did - not if we had captured the only Holy God.  But the magnificent mane of the Mighty Lion shall be His crown forever.  For what man is there that can search out His trails?  Do they not all lead to where we cannot go, whether we be men or angels?

No doubt, there is more to the One who the heavens cannot contain than what we will ever understand.  In that wonderful world to come, some will walk more near to Him, and therefore come to know Him more than others, even as it is presently on earth.  But who will ever know Him as He truly is?  Always will He be beyond knowledge.  Yet there is something astounding concerning this matter.  It revolves around the fact that all who have come from the seed of Adam have been created in His image - in the image of the Maker of the heavens and the earth.  No doubt, this is why man is so complex. 

I’m sure that from the beginning men have tried to understand themselves. Yet up to the present day we are still baffled when it comes to the intricate makeup of the human being.  Have we not been made likened unto our Creator?  Whether it be in body, soul or spirit - He also being these three, yet one - the human being is greatly complex, and will we ever know ourselves outside of a union with Him?  I’m sure we will not.  The unbelieving man can study and study the people of the earth; he can study them for a lifetime; he will never reach the satisfaction he seeks for from his findings.  But it is as we walk with Him that we will learn of ourselves, since He knows us through and through.  And truth alone is what He will disclose to the one who abides always with Him.  He sees our duality and desires to reveal the spirit man as well as the earthly, Adam as well as Christ, the first man of the earth, as well as the second from heaven.  If we have an ear to hear, then He has the words to teach us of who we are and what we’re all about - and it will be His delight.

In the first epistle of John we read, Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!  Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.  Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 

One day we will be caught up from this tired old earth.  Then upon a transcendent vision of the glorified Son of God , we ourselves will be translated into the very image that we stand beholding.  We will be made likened unto Him, even as the beloved apostle has written us.  Now there will be no more questions, whether they be who we are and what our purpose will be as a new race, or our makeup as individual members of the King of Kings  and Lord of Lords.  And according to the words of John, our union with the Father, through the Son, will be something even greater than the ties that exist between a parent and their child in the world we know today.  Why doesn’t he further describe this relationship for us?  He couldn’t.  For even as he himself wrote, it has not yet been revealed.  But in that Day, I’m sure we will see how the word oneness will take on a new meaning.  And because of this, all that we will ever desire to have knowledge of will be shown us.  Yet as we embark upon that new age, we will surely know better than to wish to see within the cloak of the King of all the universe, since apart from His creation He must always remain; for He alone is Holy; He alone is Great; and to Him alone is there nothing hidden.  And mystery - it will belong to Him forever. 

J. Pecoraro

Hidden Away

 

To be hidden away isn’t a theme foreign to the scriptures.  But is it a good thing for one to be hidden away, or not so good a thing?  The answer is that it could be wonderful, or it could be dreadful.  In the longest writing in the bible we will find these words from the prophet Isaiah.  In the second chapter it reads…In that day a man will cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which they made, each for himself to worship, to the moles and bats, to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the crags of the rugged rocks, from the terror of the Lord and the glory of His majesty, when He arises to shake the earth mightily… .

Let’s hear what the prophet Jeremiah has to say on the subject.  In the forty-ninth chapter of the book he speaks to the Edomites the Word of the Lord, and this is what he says. … For indeed, I will make you small among nations, despised among men.  Your fierceness has deceived you, the pride of your heart, o you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, who hold the height of the hill!  Though you make your nest as high as the eagle, I will bring you down from there, says the Lord… .

In both cases it is apparent that it is not places of doom such as these that the Father of our spirits will bring His own to, so that we may take refuge there.  Yet there is a refuge, a hideaway for all who have set their hearts on Him, a shelter that is not of this world.  In fact, it could only be found far above the world we know, where Jesus sits at the right hand of God in power.  And in Him alone are discovered the true clefts in the rock, the secret places ordained of the Father, and the only hiding place that will endure when one day His judgment falls upon the earth.  In the writings of the apostle Paul we can read about such places - places found only in the Son of the Living God.  For it is He and He alone who has become every seeker’s sanctuary, where He reigns high above all things.

Listen to Paul in his letter to the Colossians: Col. 3:1- 4.  If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.  Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.  For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

Now hear Solomon in the Song of Solomon: S. of S. 2:10 - 14.  Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.  For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.  The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.  The fig tree puts forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grapes give a good smell.  Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away! O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the cliff, let me see your countenance, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your countenance is lovely.

As sure as Isaiah and Jeremiah describe dread, so do Paul and Solomon speak of the wonders of abiding in Christ.  Both, in the letter to Colosse, and in the Song of Solomon, the hiding places are hallowed, ordained of God, and only for those born of faith.  To be “hidden with Christ in God” as Paul writes to the Colossians, should mean more to the believer than anything else imaginable; nothing that this world can afford should mean more to us than a life hidden away with Christ in God.  Think of it.  None could have said it more powerfully than Martin Luther when he penned the words, “Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also.”  It is why the great apostle of the faith admonished us to have our minds stayed on things above, since we have died to our lives in this world.  So much for being so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good.  The fact of the matter is, that we can never be heavenly minded enough.  Since we will always have our carnal nature to contend with while in this world, I really don’t think we need to worry about exceeding heavenly limits.  But to be truly heavenly minded is to be truly earthly good.  And to in truth be hidden away in Christ, where He is seated at the right hand of God, is to in truth be a beacon for the lost of our world - and while not even being alive in it.  Is He not the God of all ironies?  And do His ways not surpass knowledge? 

“Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away!”  writes Solomon.  “O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the cliff, let me see your countenance, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your countenance is lovely.” 

Now we have come to full stature.  Now we are taken out from Him -  from where we were once hid away, even as was the first woman with the first man.  Now He beholds the beauty of the bride.  Long has He waited to look upon her countenance and to hear her sweet voice.  Now does the bride meet the Lord in the heavens to be with Him forever - on the Day that she goes away with Him, on the Day she is caught up.


-J. Pecoraro