The Marriage

Revelation 20:11-21:8

I wrote this quite a few years ago but it was inspired by this passage.

Picture the scene.

The bride is standing in front of the church with her back to the congregation, but we all know that she is looking radiant as she gazes into the eyes of her loved one. Her black curls fall onto her white dress. The dress is covered with embroidery and pearls. It has a long train. One of the most splendid gowns we have seen.

Beside the bride stands the groom. He looks at the bride with eyes full of adoration as he dreams of the life they will share together, of the hours that they can spend in each other's company. He is wearing a suit of the most brilliant white, whiter than the purest snow, for he is Jesus our Lord and King.

The bride vows that she will love and obey for ever, as they believe in the love that lasts into eternity. They know that they will do anything, go anywhere for each other, even unto death. How they look forward to their future life of mutual devotion.

As we expect the honeymoon is wonderful. Hours spent in each others company, with eyes and cares for nobody or anythingelse. Time with the person they have chosen, an intimate and cozy time. The sky is blue and the sun shines, there is nothing to dim the light of their love.

Returning to their home there are presents, chores and bills waiting for them. The life of roses tends to drift from the fragrant and beautiful blooms to the thorny stem of the bush. Unfortunately she does not realise that the pleasing and the uncomfortable are all part of the same plant. She lets her eyes wonder to other lovers, they all take their share of her emotions.

The presents, although they were the best that their friends could give them are not quite good enough, nor do they satisfy all that society thinks that they ought to have. She is not willing to follow her spouse's time scale with regard to increasing thier possessions. She wants him to provide more for her NOW.

Then along come the children, offspring of the divine and the human. She begins to devote herself more to the little things that grow ostensibly in his name. He wants to name the children Praise, Prayer and Charity but she calls them Good Works, Altar Guild, and Church Bazaar. These children come in the name of the Lord, but insidiously cause the wife to turn her eyes away from spouse.

Above all is the desire to live for herself, to be somebody in her own right grows in importance. She glances back at the time before her decision to give herself to him and sees that the old freedom has gone, there is another person to consider as well as herself. She forgets to look forward to the joy which they anticipated, she forgets to gaze again into his ever-loving eyes.

There is more discord when she wants him to be what he is not, to be a visible and powerful king over the whole earth. He wants to take possession of the earth through the growth of their love.

The time comes when the only way out of the situation is for him to allow himself to be taken prisoner for her debts and to pay the price for her sins in the hope that she will see his look of compassion as he gazes at her from his cross. She might then come to him again in their new life together. This time she might rely on him to help her to find the person that she really is.

We, the church are the bride (Ephesians 5:25). It is wonderful that this marriage takes place every day of our lives. New people turn to Christ and announce their love for him and he is able to look forward to another loving relationship. He enters into the relationship even though he knows that we will not be faithful. But we let him down and wonder away from him. He gives his life for us. We can enter into a new marriage with the resurrected Christ. This one will last for ever as long as we keep glancing back at the cross, knowing that he would go through it all again for us.

He is the perfect marriage partner, very much married 'for better, for worse '.

We are such bad partners when we consider our marriage to Jesus Christ that we ought to view our earthly spouse with a slightly more tolerant attitude than is often the case.

Political Party

Isaiah 9:18-10:4

I want more.

I want the attic to be made into a room and I would rather like a new kitchen and doors between the living room and the front door. And when I have finished this list I shall write another, perhaps that one will be for the garden.

Taxes, the less tax I pay the more money I have to spend and therefore it is easier to complete the work on my lists. Maybe the government, particularly in Belgium might use the tax to subsidise public transport and social healthcare. But not if I am avoiding tax and using the money for my own benefit.

What does God want from me? He wants my all. He wants me to come to Him and to be Him to all I meet. That is his tax. Perhaps paying money is easier.

Did they read the message?

click on pic for blinks

Isaiah 7:10-25

How often does somebody send you a message and then later you ask them a question and they say "Didn't you read the message which I sent to you?" It happened to me only this morning. Sometimes it is the other way round. I send an email, or tell somebody something and later they ask me a question which makes it only too obvious that they had not been listening. This is especially common in families. Husbands and wives (that was this morning), parents and children. I am sure my 'children' could give you many examples of my seeming negligence which was totally unintentional on my part- but does that make it any better. I am sorry, I will try to do better in future.

Isaiah spoke to the Jews, he had a message for them. Later God asked them about the message but there were ignorant of the some of the content, they had not been listening properly. It was not intentional, in fact they thought they had been listening but they had missed what seemed an insignificant line which really was the most important part.

¹⁴ Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

Immanuel means God with us.

God said he was coming and they were not ready. They claimed they did not know how it would happen.

I suppose we need to keep our eyes and eyes open, attentative to God's message however it may come. We do not know who is our Isaiah.

Mansions and MINE

Isaiah 5:8-12,18-23

Isaiah was written approximately 700 years before Jesus' time, that is almost 3000 years ago; and what is he complaining about- of houses larger than necessary for a few at the expense of any house for the increasing homeless, a countryside depleted of hedgerows and over-cropping with the result of a tired land producing few crops; of exotic banquets and late nights drinking without a care for the morrow.

What has changed over these 3000 years? It always amazes me that people were worrying about the size of their house that long ago. I thought all were primitive and living in caves. But it seems as if they had the same cares as we do today. What house can I afford? How can I make the most from my land? How can I increase my income? And God was not absent from their thoughts.

I am sure they thought that they were members of his chosen ones, they were Jews were they not? The fact they had wealth was a sign that God was on their side. Their focus their well-being and enjoyment. They were being presumptuous about God's gifts, not treating them as something precious and temporary. What I have does not belong to me, it is not mine; I am just the carer.

May my focus be Himself.

Growing

Click on the picture to see the flower grow

2 Peter 3:11-18

Peter exhorts us to continue to grow. Children have growth spurts even if their nourishment is constant. Bad food causes improper growth. I suppose we need to watch what we eat- spiritually. Fast food, the general diet of the generation- the apologies for food which we accept because we are in a hurry to run our own life too busy to take time out to prepare a fully nourishing repast.

What is my fast food, how can I feed myself so that I will grow?

My Grapes

Isaiah 4:2-6

This year the only produce we had from our garden were grapes. I am very proud of them, it was a good crop but they wee too bitter to eat and I did not know how to make wine, what I read made it sound very difficult. Idecided to boil the grapes with sugar then maybe I could make wine later or at least I might eventually find something to do with them. I have. Whenever I cook fruit I use the grape juice as a sweetener, I have even had a little grape and raspberry jelly as a by-product of baking some raspberries in grape juice.

God, I hope is equally proud of the produce of his garden - me. He does not want me to 'go bad' before he uses me. He wants to use me whenever he can to enhance other produce from his garden.

Open the window and you see...

Psalm 17

¹⁵ As for me, I will be vindicated and will see your face;
when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness.

Hmm really? When I awake from the stress and busyness of Advent which one could think of as a 'night' will I be happy just to see Jesus. Is he really at the top of my list of 'wants'?

Do I wake every morning and say "I want to see Jesus today"?

Perhaps I am opening a window out of my dark room into the light of Christmas by writing this. Every second during the day that we think on Him allows a shaft of His light to shine in our heart. Therefore I hope I keep dwelling on his forthcoming presence.

Note: the window is supposed to be animated and open.