A Love Story

It's so funny! everytime i sit down to study something, the Lord is leading me from that place, which is the starting point, and He takes me some place else, but i love it. I am studying things that i never have, seeing things i have never seen. I'm so in love with my Saviour. Not only does He love me, not only did He give Himself for me, He take me on adventures and talks to me along the way. What an awesome Lover, He loves my soul. "Who is man that God would take notice of him?"

I was studying something in Rom 6:5 and came across yet another comment that Bro Swaggart spoke about us and our relationship with Christ, and as i began taking notes on this subject, the Lord seemed to lead me in a different direction. Before i knew it, i was jotting down things i hadn't imagined. Allow me to clarify:

We need to go back the the former studies we have been doing on the Lord's supper, the wine/blood, and the bread/flesh we have eaten and what it means to eat them. By taking communion and discerning the Body of Christ, we are saying the following:

Communion is to fellowship, association, intercourse and intimacy with Him. I thought about how separated we were from God because of sin. We don't understand how awesome it was for Adam and Eve to be One with God. The Word says that the voice of God walked and talked with Adam in the garden (Gen 3:8). This was perfection on earth as anyone could know it, and in ALL TRUTHFULNESS, not based on what one would "feel," He truly had everything back then! Oneness with God is so far from the Christian these days, we don't even know how to imagine such a thing.

When Adam sinned, He was instantaneously separated from God, thus rendering both his physical & spiritual man in a total state of depravity! His physical man and spiritual man were divided at that moment, Adam suddenly has to figure out how to feed his physical body now, and he has no way in which to feed himself spiritually. The Tree of Life in which fueled both physical & spiritual man is no longer made available to him. He is now cast out of the garden of Eden and God had to put Cheribums with swords of fire in order to keep Adam and Eve away from it, for the Tree of Life stands for perfection, Oneness with God, Communion with God, which they cannot eat of now, being in sin. So...from this moment, until Christ died on a tree (what started at a tree, ends at a tree), there was no Way for man to come to God and be in communion with Him.

So now you have God on one side, who is Perfection, Holy, Creator & unable to be in the presence of sin.

Then on the other side, you have man, in total depravity, in need of God, food, home, shelter, covering, apart from all of that, LIFE, because his spiritual man is now dead and his physical man is in a state of slow decay.

There is this huge gap between the two now. Hmmm, if only there were a bridge between the two, a mediator, one that could take away the veil or curtain that is between the two.

Let's just say that from the beginning, God being all knowing, knows the end from the beginning (is 46:10), set in motion a plan to do take away the veil. Veil means curtain or separation between two things. In the Tabernacle of Moses, there was a separation between the room where the candlestick, shewbread, & altar of incense...where the priest could see the Light of the World (candlestick) the shewbread to eat, (Bread of Life), and the Altar of Incense (Prayers & Conversations with God)...and the veil separated them from the Holy of Holies, which was where the actual Spirit of God would come down in the midst and dwell. Only One could go into this room, all others would die. The High Priest was given access one day a year to the presence of God in this place...and he was the only one that was separated enough to encounter God in this fashion (also...Christ is our High Priest...all things a foretelling of Christ and what He would do).

I think we can safely call Christ the Meeting Place for the two. God is a Spirit (Jn 4:24), so He had to take the form of something in order to actually come and dwell here. He chose to do so through the womb of a woman, just like us. Which is perfect, because what started with a man, ended with a man, the man Christ Jesus. It's awesome how it all just fits together!!!

So Christ in all His perfection comes and dwells with us, like us, in order to become ONE with us. He could identify with our humanity, having experienced it. People think that God is this diefied entity that is above all (which He most certainly is), but without compassion, and yet He loved us so much that He came down as we are, to our level. Took off His Perfect White Robe, laid it on the Throne, and Put on flesh, to heal us, to love us, to reach out and to listen, to teach us, to pray for us. (Heb 4:15) That doesn't sound like a disconnected or unconcerned God to me. what do you think?

Note: I know i keep repeating this message over and over again, but the fact is, it's THE message that Paul preached, all of the disciples did for that matter, and it is what JESUS preached, most importantly. In every way possible, He was trying to relay this simple message to His followers. In fact, it wasn't at all the messages that are being preached today. Not riches, He's not the christ that makes folks rich! he told the rich young man to sell all of his possessions, give it to the poor, having treasure in Heavenand follow after Him. (Matt 19:21-22) That tells me that following Christ won't make me rich in this world, but i'm rich in His Kingdom, because i have Eternal Life, and that is all we need when it is said and done. Proper Perspective is what we need. We're not be conformed to this world, but into Christ. (Rom 12:1-2)

How is this a love story? I'm about to tell you. what is it that a bride wears at a wedding? a veil, right? there's that word again, Veil. what did we say that a veil is, it's what separates the groom from his bride. what is the church said to be? the Bride of Christ. What is Christ, but the Groom. What separates us? the Veil, what is the veil a type of? sinful flesh. What are we trying to prepare for? the Marriage. What is the Marriage? Us, One with Christ Fully, in our new Home, the New Jerusalem. (Jhn 14:2 In my Father's house are many mansions: if [it were] not [so], I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.)

I think the reason that God refers to are being totally reunited as a marriage is because He genuinely is in love with us, and plans to be at One with His highest creation, man.

So, He had the Veil to be rent in twain, meaning: His flesh was afflicted in OUR place, therefore abolishing the sting of sin, which is death, that we may inherit eternal life and become One, in Communion, Intimate, with Him once again.

If you read Song of Solomon 5:1-16, you'll find a love story much like that of us. we are the ones seeking, He is the One to be found and in desperate need of Him. the reason we are found by the watchmen, smitten, wounded....we have been wounded by sin and the veil that is take from us is the proper covering we need. Think back the the garden, what did Adam and Eve do once they knew that they were naked? they didn't seek God to find out how to have a covering...they tried to cover it themselves in their own way, but through Christ, we have what is the proper covering...His Perfect Blood.

Not only did He allow His own Bloodshed, He hung there, being in the most excruciating pain, and plead with the Father, negotiating our forgiveness. Forgiveness means: to give up a debt, to permit what is not permitted, to not hinder, TO ALLOW. In fact, Jesus, was pleading that the Father would ALLOW US back into His presence, back into the garden. Look to the end of the book...Rev 2:7, He gives us to eat of the tree of Life once again.

Anyhow, I know it is a long Love story, but a good one.