simple one: faithfulness

Jesus: your Husband

when you believe in Jesus. you become a bride. you have a husband. Jesus. you are not your own master. why try? what does a wife do? follows and serves, loves and obeys. imagine the love a husband gives a wife. protection, care, guidance, grace, trust and security. Jesus loves you like a husband loves a wife. so be a faithful wife...don't be selfish. be His. you are His and He is yours. you are one in a holy union of matrimony. this brings you to God. this matrimony is your salvation. His Spirit is in you. He asks things of you. He asks things of you from scripture. He asks things of you and guides you with His Holy Spirit...all are purely to focus you on Him. He wants you. He wants to be intimate with you, but He needs you to be intimate with Him too. Be intimate with Jesus. He is your faithful husband. welcome to the Bridegroom.

A song to reflect on by Jars of Clay:

"
Only Alive

I'm a fair weather friend
I'm a colorless view but I'm willin' to make a deal
If you think you can make some faith here inside
I'll drive off and marry you

I'm only alive with you
I can't get by and I won't get through
So put me in the river and let me say I do
I'm only alive with you

You're a sight for sore eyes and a newborn cry
In a year where there are so few
If you throw me a line, I'll show you in time
I'm falling in love with you

Though my heart has been torn by loves I have worn
And I'm tempted by them ever still
I tremble inside when you walk in the room
You hold my affections and will

"

i pray that you "get in the river and say 'I do". you are only alive in the bridegroom.

some very inspiring words from the blog of a prophet of truth, lew ross. (www.lewminator.blogspot.com) these words need to be heard. so i am rebroadcasting them here in their entirety:

""Christendom is dead. We western Jesus-followers must start thinking like missionaries in our own world. We can beat, but we can’t revive this thoroughly dead horse. Taking Jesus to the western world is going to require “out of the box” thinking."
-----I read this today in some material from someone.
the who isn't as important as the what. This is an example of the kind of talk that Xian leaders are throwing around the ivory tower circuit. This is mostly bravado. The "thinking" they're talking about usually leads right back into the box.

yeah, Christendom is dead. sounds cool out of a book, but when you live in the ghetto, doors down from 5 church buildings, its confusing, man...

in some classroom that stuff flies around easy and makes for a feeling of excitement. But out here, it means that equippers of the saints must work 2 and 3 jobs to make ends meet for themselves and their guests, and all the saints who cling to them...

you should see what the "death of Christendom" brings out here... more like the "death of Christian generosity". More like the death of Christian fearlessness... As long as the majority of Christian leaders affirm people's convenience-based/consumerist choice paradigms, there will be tremendous confusion in the world about who Jesus is...

I personally have tired of discussing this, so I don't blog so much. Church leaders need to rise up and really let people have it: the Word...
Whatever, man, most of these leader-guys aren't even reading the stuff. They're too busy in meetings and political involvements. Too busy in the box.

We're like Ezekiel 34 where the shepherds get the death threat from God. Any of you seminary guys losing sleep on that? .

"Out of the box Thinking"? What the is that? Do you mean generous? Risky? Holy? Faithful? "Out of the box thinking" has built us a lot of conference attendance. "Out of the box Thinking" has given us a lot of "creative" stuff... But out of the Box isn't "On the Cross". The way of Jesus simply won't affirm our crowds and mammon mentality... We have to realize that following Jesus leads us from riches to poverty.

You know all those people who come off the mission trip and want to move there? They should have, but the church here just doesn't do "move there." they do "visit there" and get "out of the box", as long as you come back to the box.

Move there.
Move to the city.
Move toward the poor.
Move toward high crime.
With your children.
With your wife.

Move there.
move to the bad schools.
move to the gnarly neighbors.

Move there.
get shot.

Move there.
get mugged.

Move there.
feel the heat.
and the pollution.

There is where Jesus lives...
put away the charts and graphs and
move there...

Jesus Moved there.
He did.
Will we?

What about obedience and taking up the causes that the Word tells us to?
What about honoring Jesus, corporately...
Ouch. sometimes the things we say... are what we actually thought adn meant...

The apostle Paul said you'd know the real apostles by the power... That from the guy who was meek and timid in appearance, over-focused on the cross (not on "out of the box" thinking), and brought power when he came..."

-------------------------------------------------

Could Lew be right? Could the present Body be like Ezekiel 34?

Ezekiel 34
Shepherds and Sheep 1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 "Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? 3 You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. 4 You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. 5 So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. 6 My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.
7 " 'Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD : 8 As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, because my flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals, and because my shepherds did not search for my flock but cared for themselves rather than for my flock, 9 therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the LORD : 10 This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them.
11 " 'For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. 12 As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. 13 I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. 14 I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign LORD. 16 I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.
17 " 'As for you, my flock, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will judge between one sheep and another, and between rams and goats. 18 Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? 19 Must my flock feed on what you have trampled and drink what you have muddied with your feet?
20 " 'Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says to them: See, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. 21 Because you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your horns until you have driven them away, 22 I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another. 23 I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. 24 I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the LORD have spoken.
25 " 'I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of wild beasts so that they may live in the desert and sleep in the forests in safety. 26 I will bless them and the places surrounding my hill. [a] I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing. 27 The trees of the field will yield their fruit and the ground will yield its crops; the people will be secure in their land. They will know that I am the LORD, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hands of those who enslaved them. 28 They will no longer be plundered by the nations, nor will wild animals devour them. They will live in safety, and no one will make them afraid. 29 I will provide for them a land renowned for its crops, and they will no longer be victims of famine in the land or bear the scorn of the nations. 30 Then they will know that I, the LORD their God, am with them and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, declares the Sovereign LORD. 31 You my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are people, and I am your God, declares the Sovereign LORD.'

Jesus is your faithful Husband...are you returning the love?