Now here is what I am up to in this part of my challenge…
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31 NIV)
Now why did I just add that here? “Love your neighbor as yourself”
So how can I love my neighbor, IF I DON’T EVEN KNOW HOW TO LOVE OTHERS…
I have completed this challenge… Now here is what happened in the last few days…
Day 31 – Love brings unity…
A man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. (Genesis 2:24 NASB)
Now on this topic we knew we should have ended up here at some point… I have looked at this a while ago what I wrote The Vow: What do you say when you get married.
But why is this important? We are all in some point confronted with marriage… I most likely will be as well in the next couple of years… No, I have no girl in my life right now that makes me say this, I have God’s Word… A promise to me…
But what does this scripture mean….
MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS MOTHER AND FATHER…
Does this actually mean when you get married you leave your parents for good?
I do not believe it is in this sense, I do however believe that when you are married, your parents have no more a right to tell you what you should and shouldn’t do… They cannot tell you that you made mistakes… They become someone you can ask marital advice from, instead of trying to guide your life… To what they want it to be like…
… AND BECOME ONE WITH HIS WIFE
Wait it say man becomes one with his wife…
This sort of messes up the idea of homosexuality, if you think about it…But this is just a side note…
What does this represent… Is it to some point the cleaving to the person you chose to be your spouse…
What does it mean to cleave?
“‘Cleaving’ carries the idea of catching someone by pursuit, clinging to them as your new rock of refuge and safety. This man is now the spiritual leader of your new home, tasked with the responsibility of loving you “just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her” (Ephesians 5:25). This woman is now one in union with you, called to “see to it that she respects her husband” (Ephesians 5:33).” – The Love Dare
What would this have as a result if we do this correctly? (From The Love Dare)
- You are able to achieve oneness in your decision making, even when you begin from differing viewpoints.
- You are able to achieve oneness in your priorities, even though you’ve come together from backgrounds that could hardly be more different.
- You are able to achieve oneness in your sexual affections toward each other, even if either or both of you have memories of impurity in your pre-marital past.
When this is not implemented to the extend God planned it, it becomes a source of disunity… Which may also be the cause of the current divorce rate…
God is the Creator of marriage… And who knows better how something works, than the guy who invented it….
Doesn’t this mean God knows best about marriage
May they all be one, as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You. (John 17:21 HCSB)
Day 32 – Love meets sexual needs…
The husband must fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband. (1 Corinthians 7:3 NASB)
As you will know by now, I am not married… This in return means this is the one area I cannot say anything from experience…
In Genesis God made a companion for the man, which is the woman… And they become one flesh… Wait one flesh? How does one become one flesh?
Sex is the way two become one… Yes, that is the reason why sex before marriage is so dangerous…
“This same oneness is a hallmark of every marriage. In the act of romance, we join our hearts to each other in an expression of love that no other form of communication can match. That’s why “the marriage bed is to be undefiled” (Hebrews 13:4). We are not to share this same experience with anyone else.” – The Love Dare
“But we are weak. And when this legitimate need goes unmet—when it’s treated as being selfish and demanding by the other—our hearts are subject to being drawn away from marriage, tempted to fulfill this longing somewhere else, some other way. To counteract this tendency, God established marriage with a “one flesh” mentality. “The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does” (1 Corinthians 7:4).” – The Love Dare
Warning:
“Sex is not to be used as a bargaining chip. It is not something God allows us to withhold without consequence.” – The Love Dare
“So “stop depriving one another,” the Bible warns, “except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control” (1 Corinthians 7:5).” – The Love Dare
Wait this last scripture actually shows something many did miss… The only thing that may replace the act of sex, is prayer… That means that before marriage instead of having sex with every other girl… WE SHOULD RATHER PRAY AND GROW CLOSER TO GOD…
How beautiful and how delightful you are, my love. (Song of Solomon 7:6 NASB)
Day 33 – Love completes each other…
If two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone? (Ecclesiastes 4:11 NASB)
Firstly… MAN and WOMAN IS NOT JUST SPELLED DIFFERENTLY, THEY ARE IN FACT TWO PARTS OF THE SAME COIN…
You just said of the same coin? Why?
God is three, yet He is one…
Meaning the same One has different aspects…
Now when a husband and wife becomes one they complete one another… Two sides of the same coin comes together…
Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up (Ecclesiastes 4:9, 10 NASB)
Wait when a man or a woman is alone for a life-time, they struggle alone… And when they struggle, they have no-one to help them… No one that they can share their up’s and down’s with… Which makes the following make more sense…
The man who finds a wife finds a treasure, and he receives favor from the LORD. (Proverbs 18:22 NLT)
But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion. (1 Corinthians 7:9 NIV)
God says that it is better to be married… but why?
Two is better than one… Alone we normally struggle, in a group we stand stronger… for we can be lifted up…. and married… we know the one lifting us up will never leave us… This is why God said it is better to be married…
Now there are a select few who are chosen to be single forever… but most are not…
Being single should not have an effect of self-hatred connected to it… It should also only have God’s word at the core, not a choice we make…
Put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. (Colossians 3:14 NASB)
Day 34 – Love celebrates godliness…
[Love] does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. (1 Corinthians 13:6 NASB)
Last week it became clear that love encourages…
But where there is encouragement, shouldn’t there also be celebration…
Now love does celebrate… But what?
How much of your day is compiled with what God is about?
I work… Not much time to pray and read bible, especially on dead line….
I watch movies… Very few movies are actually teaching God…
I do research… Not much of the research is about God… (Unless I blog that is)
I walk where I want to be… Not many of the people in this world have a Godly dress-code…
You see, we are surrounded by everything which is not God… In a world where we need to live the life God intended it to be…
In the last few posts you would have seen a few things especially around friends…
Friends have a certain expectation of you…
Some expect you to never make any spelling mistakes…
Some expect you never to hug them…
Some expect you to never make a joke or even to complement them…
Some expect that a mobile friendship should be sufficient…
Some expect you to not tickle them at all…
Now do not get me wrong I know people are different… And I know I am the worst at the being friends thing…
Yet it seems like being myself will never be good enough…
But when we look at what God says the story changes…
God doesn’t give a hoot if you can spell or not… (spelling is good if you are in a environment where needed though)
God will always organize you a hug, when needed (sometimes He hugs you Himself)
God has a major sense of humor… And laughs at any joke…(Now when we talk about jokes, if a joke is against God principles, He might as well also correct you)
He loves complements… It is called praise and thanksgiving…
HE IS ALWAYS PRESENT, meaning mobile He does not do… HE SPEAKS TO YOUR HEART…
And many times He would even tickle you… (Funny I have heard of a few people who said this happened to them)
Now what does love celebrate?
We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, as is only fitting, because your faith is greatly enlarged, and the love of each one of you toward one another grows ever greater; therefore, we ourselves speak proudly of you among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure (2 Thessalonians 1:3–4 NASB)
I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth (3 John 4 NASB)
Wait, celebrating truth? Giving thanks in the midst of persecution?
This sounds so wrong, yet it is so right…
Remember : love does not rejoice in unrighteousness
The report of your obedience has reached to all; therefore I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil (Romans 16:19 NASB)
It celebrates obedience… Rejoices in righteousness…
This means when a man is busy with things of the world, then we should not rejoice….
So if people reject you for being yourself, you do not rejoice with them… You correct them… And If it does not help, you walk away…
If someone swears all day long, you do not laugh with them… You correct them… And If it does not help, you walk away…
If someone boasts in evil, about sleeping with a girl or stealing or such, YOU DO NOT ENCOURAGE HIS BAD ACTIONS AND CONGRATULATE HIM…You correct them… And If it does not help, you walk away…
Listen to me clearly… Sometimes the best thing you can do is to walk away… Even if it is forever…
If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ f they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector. (Matthew 18:15-17 NIV)
A wise man said the following to me…
“If you love someone, let them go… If they do not come back, they were never yours to start with...”
I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart. (Psalm 101:2 NASB)
God bless… There are still 3 posts to go then this challenge will be done…