Lokin for love

This is a blog written by the wife of christian music artist, Jimmy Needham. I fell upon it yesterday evening looking for tickets to one of his upcoming shows. The blog was written to show people the danger in the statement " I am waiting for God to send me the man/woman He has for me to marry". Under the desire for God's unmerited love, attention, grace, and provision, there seems to be this innate desire to love someone and be loved by someone on this earth. Satan being aware of this desire in the human heart, which is bestowed by God, seeks to pervert our perception of it and how we go about it. Being fallen beings, without discernment from the Holy Spirit we can not detect these perversions of God's precious gift to the human race. This perverted sense of love and our need for it can slip right under our defenses and usurps God's position in our heart. It slips past us because it seems noble or just, but in reality to give anything more value and glory than God is blasphemous and transgression of God's law ( Exodus 20:3). The only way for our perception of love to be rectified is if God is our life, not our number one priority, as if He were something on our to-do list. No, He must be our life Col. 3:3, Gal 2:20-21. Until then our understandings on how to go about God's gifts to man will always be distorted. Enjoy the blog continue to pray for the Needham family as they stand against the secular music industry and use their gifts to exalt the King, rather then profaning His name.

Here is the link to his website, http://jimmyneedham.com/



My Predicament - Part 1

Tuesday, Dec 9th, 2008

As it seems most Christian girls are I was waiting on God to bring me my husband, my perfect man. (Of course he wouldn't be perfect, but just about perfect, at least for me.) A few prospective guys came in and out of my life through high school and college and as they came, I considered them and contemplated if this was the one that I was waiting for. It was usually the same story: I liked the guy, spent time analyzing whether or not he could be the one, had lots of phone conversations with him, and usually went on a few dates. At some point in the relationship (sometimes within a few weeks, sometimes within a few months) I would realize that he could not be the one I was waiting for and then ended the relationship. This cycle was dissatisfying, and disappointing.

Finally, in September of 2005, God revealed the error of my practice of waiting on Him to bring me my husband.

“I am waiting on God to bring me my husband.”

Is there anything wrong with this statement? It might not seem like it. It is good and right to wait on God’s timing concerning marriage and dating instead of trying to do things in our own way. But if that is the ONLY THING that we are waiting on, we have an incorrect perspective.

Picture this: You are at a restaurant and have just ordered a pizza. A friend walks in and sits down with you and asks, “What are you doing?” And you respond with, “I am waiting on the waiter to bring me my pizza.” (Does this sentence structure sound familiar?) In this example, you do not have much regard for the waiter. The waiter is only the vehicle by which you get what you are truly there for: your pizza. You are not expecting the waiter to come and sit down and talk with you, but to simply deliver the pizza.

“I am waiting on God to bring me my husband.”

What are you more excited about: Jesus or your future husband? God was never designed to simply be the means for us to receive things. He was never intended to be our waiter, but to BE OUR EVERYTHING! I had replaced the passionate pursuit of knowing Him with the pursuit of an allegedly more passionate relationship on earth. I had put another “god” before the Lord; I had created an idol.

In Hosea 2:16, God speaks to His people saying, “And it shall be, in that day, says the Lord, "That you will call Me 'My Husband,' And no longer call Me 'My Master.'” One of the most common reasons that we, as Christian women, long for marriage and relationships more than God is because we don’t know how to fall in love with God. We have been taught how to obey and please God (how to call Him ’Master’), but we do not know how to grow in our love for Him and fall deeper in love with the character of our Creator (how to call Him ’Husband’).

Consider this analogy:
David and Jessica have been dating for a few months now and most of their friends comment about how cute a couple they are. They are frequently seen at the local coffee shop or out to eat together on a Friday night. Their favorite spot to frequent is the beach near by at sunset. Here they spend their time walking along the shore, holding hands, and enjoying the sunset in silence. The problem is that Jessica spends this time on the beach thinking about John, a guy in one of her classes. She reminisces about what he said to her that day, the way he looked, and how sweet he was to stay late and help his friend with homework. She’s already thinking about what she’s going to wear tomorrow so that she can look extra special when she sees him. This is not fair to David at all; it is emotional infidelity and emotional lust. It may look like she loves David because she does all the right things to appear in love with him, but her heart is set on someone else. This is exactly what many of us have done in our relationship with God! We know how to appear passionate about God: we talk about Him to others, we read His Word, we attend Bible studies and keep trying harder to learn more about Him, but our hearts are set on something else.

We were created to be in a passionate, consuming, and loving relationship; this is why our hearts long for it. So when we do not experience this fulfilling relationship in God, we naturally look for it in other things: usually in a relationship here on earth. This is a terrible situation, because our GREATEST commandment is to “love the Lord you God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, and all your strength” (Mark 12:29-30)! Not simply to put God first in your daily activities, but LOVE HIM PASSIONATELY! What does it mean to love someone with all your heart? To love someone with all your mental capacity? To love someone with your whole being? With all the strength that you have within you? That is a passionate love! Unfortunately, I have found that the majority of girls I talk to have never experienced this kind of love for God. They know how to please God, how to do the things that He wants them to do, how to look like they are passionate about Him, but their hearts are set on something they perceive to be more passionate. We need to repent and surrender this idol we have made.

Elucidation!

I just want to touch on the title of this page. The verse I based this blog on is Ephesians 4:15- "Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ". Just prior to this verse, Apostle Paul shares some heavy weighted words with his fellow believers in the church of Ephesus. In verses 9-12 he explains to them how God's distribution in His spiritual gifts works. In verse 13 he expounds upon the purpose of it all. it is in verse 14 where a heavy blow comes in. You see Ephesus was Situated on the Aegean Sea at the mouth of the Cayster River, the city was one of the greatest seaports of the ancient world. This means that it was heavily influenced and introduced to various cultures and their religion and philosophies. The Roman's mythology affected the city so greatly that they built an magnificent temple for the goddess Artemis the goddess of the hunt. The temple was so grand that it was considered to be one of 7 wonders of the ancient world! So needless to say it's easy to see how a new born church could struggle with not condoning such a socially acceptable style of life. The church was indeed at times swaying to and fro. Paul saw this with great concern and confronted them, called them out, and reminded them that the main aim is to help each other- all fellow believers- grow in Christ which entails, learning more about HIm in His word, serving one another, becoming holy like He is holy, and speaking the truth to each other in love. That is what Paul did, he knew that calling them out would discourage them, momentarily, and it would be hard on his part to deliver the truth.However, he does not do it to spite them, but because he loves them and that's why he was real with them! We live in a world where agenda trumps truth, and to be honest I think it trumps love as well!!!! We claim that we do not want to be real because it isn't Politically Correct. I think it is because we do not love God or others. Well this page is to do the opposite. I will be posting blogs based on Scripture touching on all aspects of life and the sin and redeemable values in them. IDC!!! if it offends you, because I love you and I don't want the truth to be suppressed any longer!!! I love you all!


GRACE AND PEACE! LOVE GOD, HATE SIN!