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Wednesday, October 12, 2011

How Much Are Mandrakes Worth?


Day 20 of the 21 Days of Romance Challenge. 

Desperate people do desperate things. Unloved people do desperate things. I’ve done desperate things before, fallen for deceptions off the lips of a great liar. Poor Leah. She couldn’t help that she was not as beautiful as her sister. Did she have part in her father’s deception? She more than paid for it. She lived the life of a desperate woman, unloved, hated even.

31When the LORD saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. 32And Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben, for she said, "Because the LORD has looked upon my affliction; for now my husband will love me." 33She conceived again and bore a son, and said, "Because the LORD has heard that I am hated, he has given me this son also." And she called his name Simeon. 34Again she conceived and bore a son, and said, "Now this time my husband will be attached to me, because I have borne him three sons." Therefore his name was called Levi.35And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, "This time I will praise the LORD." Therefore she called his name Judah. Then she ceased bearing.
14In the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, "Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes." 15But she said to her, "Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also?" Rachel said, "Then he may lie with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes." 16When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, "You must come in to me, for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes." So he lay with her that night. 17And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son.“

Unloved women become desperate. We sell ourselves for a handful of mandrakes. We cheapen love, settle. And the story continues with their sons. “3Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors. 4But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.” (Genesis 37) Being unloved brings out the worst in us, it makes us desperate. It made Joseph’s brothers desperate enough to kill him. “18They saw him from afar, and before he came near to them they conspired against him to kill him.”
            I’ve been desperate before. I was born in a desperate state. But I’ve never been unloved. And being loved answers: I was chosen. I was chosen to be loved. Colossians 3 “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”
            Romancing my husband starts here. It starts by living each day to tell him he is chosen by me, chosen over ten years ago, chosen today. It starts by knowing that I am chosen, chosen by Him. And this love from Him, this being chosen, is what then binds me to him and to others “together in perfect harmony.” I am not, nor ever was, an unloved woman.                                               
“You have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ… 9But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”                                                                                            
And being chosen gives me the joy of choosing others, joy of choosing Him. In this world of busyness and over-commitment, it gives me the burden of choosing to spend my life, my heart wisely. “41But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10.
Choosing the good portion means sitting at His feet, choosing to know His heart. Choosing the good portion means choosing love, choosing romance over the rush of the day—making time for it: over the tired pull of the sofa, over the desire to choose self. Romancing is simply the art of choosing to love, choosing to speak it, to show someone they are chosen. Real romance comes from knowing we are chosen, comes from a heart filled with Him: choosing the chosen One.
Luke 9:35 And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!"
            Lord, help me to never live desperately, never cheapen what You have paid so greatly for. Help me to live as Your chosen daughter, live loved. Help me to choose others, love them, not to choose myself. Help me not to rely any other love than Yours. Help me to choose daily, “the good portion,” choose daily to demonstrate love to the ones You chose for me.

                                                                                               Chosen-- Loved




 Your love sonnet to me today: loved-- not hated, hand chosen by You.


"We must mirror God's love in the midst of a world full of hatred. We are the mirrors of God's love, so we may show Jesus by our lives"  -Corrie ten Boom

Revelations 7: 14They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful."

Deuteronomy 7:6
"For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

Care to see where we've been on this 21 Days of Romance? (Seeking out romance in His word) You might like to see: 

Day 1: Gestures of affection are beautiful. There were beautiful to Jesus.
Day 2: Jesus teaches: if love amounts to anything, it's worth sacrifice, worth demonstrating.
Day 4: What is love? Comfort. Because He does.
Day 7: He allures us, speaks to us tenderly.
Day 8: Hearts may feel lonely, but we are never really alone. Love never forsakes.
             awaken the heart to see and feel love.
               still feel.  
Day 14: Romance is loving the imperfect, undeserving—and loving wholly. Romance casts no 
               stones.
Day 18: Romance is seeing His heart more clearly, recognizing Love in my midst.
Day 19. Romance serves out of a full, deep desire to give nothing but love.

 
The mandrake or dudaim: know as the passion fruit or love apple.




Posted by Amy Joy Lamson at 4:13 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

When Years Seem Like Days.


Day 19 of the 21 Days of Romance Challenge. 

Why love? I need to know. The motions can choke me. Sometimes loving is so easy, uncontainable, and then I am filled again with the question. Those times, loving hurts. Deep down, love is serving, always in some form-- serving God, or myself. Serving out of love mimics the greatest Love I know, out of emptiness, then I simply build with wood, hay or straw.
                I know of a man who worked fourteen years for his bride. It’s a heart-sighing story of love at first sight. When the woman first came to him, she was unaware. She wasn’t working for his attention. She was working for her father, working for her Lord. In steps the hero. “When Jacob saw Rachel daughter of his uncle Laban, and Laban’s sheep, he went over and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered his uncle’s sheep.” Genesis 29. She might not have been trying to make a good impression, but he was. And he did. He rolled away the stone. He served, and it was just because he wanted to. He wanted to serve her so she would see his love. And it doesn’t end there. When the sheep were watered, he makes his first move. “Then Jacob kissed Rachel and began to weep aloud. He had told Rachel that he was a relative of her father and a son of Rebekah.” Love blossoms. He serves her father, and Laban asks him, “Just because you are a relative of mine, should you work for me for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be.”
                That was easy. Rachel had a lovely figure and was beautiful. Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, “ ‘I’ll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel.’
Laban said, ‘It’s better that I give her to you than to some other man. Stay here with me.’ So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.“ (Genesis 29)
His loving service lasted a long time. He never asked, “Why?” The answer was always before him—because of his love for her. Pure romance—serving for fourteen years (as it ends up being) serving out of a full, deep desire to give nothing but love. I imagine a girl worthy of that love, a girl who brought out cool drinks to him in the field to keep him going, a girl who brought him barley cakes, who offered enough sweet smiles, who held him there by the gaze of her eye. But that is not what is written. We see only his devotion, his service—his joy, his whole hearted love.
It relieves me and pains me that the motives of my heart are only known by Him. If my motives were made visible, how much more would honesty, openess abound? Would the sight draw me closer to Him, closer to those I serve, or would shame and division result?
Joshua 22:5 Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cling to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul."
My fake service is unglorifying. And while I desire to serve Him, it’s much less gratifying to desire to clean toilets and do for someone who makes no attempts to serve back, to serve the thankless. Therein my heart stalls, motives fail. I serve out of stubbornness to do right, not desire to love. I forget to frame my mind, to remember that even these difficult opportunities to serve, are ones He has made, and made me for.  Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
My Lord serves me out of love-- me, who am too often myself thankless, who too often takes His service for granted, me, who fails to reciprocate. I am my own worse enemy, his enemy at the cross, and yet His motives remained pure. He served, served whole heartedly for me.

Mark 2
23 One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. 24And the Pharisees were saying to him, "Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?" 25And he said to them, "Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: 26how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?" 27And he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath."

What love-- that He serves, He meets needs. His serves out of a love that cares about our needs. And promises to meet them. “And a man was there with a withered hand. And they asked him, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"— so that they might accuse him. 11He said to them, "Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 Of how much more value is a man than a sheep!” (Matthew 12)
Jesus never served for his own sake, but for our sake—not for his own praise, but for His Father’s accolade. Romance, in the form of love poured out, is an act of servanthood. Not for my gain, but yours, not for my thanks, but gratitude for Him. Not my pleasure, not my happiness, but I serve for His. “Not my will but Yours be done.” Service, out of an overflow of the heart. Service, out of love for others. Service, because I pledged my love. Service, not dependent on the circumstances, not dependent on the reactions, service because I truly, wholly love. Then 21 days of romance, turn into all my days romance. And all my days romance turns from “What have you done in return? Did you even notice? Did you remember?”…Turns from the “Why love?” And turns into ”because of my love”—always and ever, because of my love, because of His love. 
Lord, help me to live romance through my hands and feet, that they be as Your hands, serving hands. Help me to pen notes of encouragement, rub weary shoulders, pull home cooked dinners from the oven, clean and kiss dirty faces… Help me not to be merely Martha, serving with my hands, but Mary too, serving with my heart. Help me to be as John the Baptist, who lived and died to serve. Help me to be me-- serving with eyes not looking for returns on love, but looking at You.

                                                                                 A world-- full of hearts to serve...

Your love sonnet to me today: the love and service offered my from my sister during these wonderful days at her home.

"Do you understand what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 14If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15For I have given you an example.”
John 13

Galatians 5:13
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

1 Peter 4:11
whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

John 3:20-21 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God."

Care to see where we've been on this 21 Days of Romance? (Seeking out romance in His word) You might like to see: 

Day 1: Gestures of affection are beautiful. There were beautiful to Jesus.
Day 2: Jesus teaches: if love amounts to anything, it's worth sacrifice, worth demonstrating.
Day 4: What is love? Comfort. Because He does.
Day 7: He allures us, speaks to us tenderly.
Day 8: Hearts may feel lonely, but we are never really alone. Love never forsakes.
             awaken the heart to see and feel love.
               still feel.  
Day 14: Romance is loving the imperfect, undeserving—and loving wholly. Romance casts no 
               stones.


Posted by Amy Joy Lamson at 12:12 PM 0 comments

Monday, October 10, 2011

Cinder Days, When Cinderella Doesn't Make it to the Castle.

Day 18 of the 21 Days of Romance Challenge.

There are days with less than romance. And attempted romance… Spitting out the sip of wine in my mouth that a fly had flown into, lighting candles that melted all over the floor, a child’s hand at the doorknob in the night. Non romance threatens my everyday existence: unmade beds, crying children, dirty toilets, sinks full of dishes. There are very many days when Cinderella never made it to the castle, days of cinders.
                Sometimes romance wanes; runs thin. Would it be a lie to admit this of most days? And days pass in functional swirls like waves, and I forget to climb into the crow’s nest, above it all, and be on the lookout for it. Forget to set out my nets to capture it. And when I don’t, I pass it by.
                Jesus returned to His hometown. He was not known. The people were looking for a carpenter’s son, for a poor Jewish brother, an uneducated son of a woman named Mary. They took offense that He was not the man they were looking for. He was much, much greater. He knew more then them, could do more then they could. He could work miracles. They missed out on Him altogether. Matthew pens the outcome: “And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.” (Matthew 13)
                I read these words quietly. I wonder if I’ve stopped God from wooing me, stopped His mighty works in my own life? Lord, have I been looking for a carpenter’s son, and missed the hand of the Son of God in my life? Have I been looking for my own version of the Groom, and of my groom? My own version of love? Have I let my hands soak in the dishwater too long?
                Jesus tells those people gathered round, the unseeing: Luke 4: 24And he said, "Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. 25But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, 26and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian." 28When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. 29And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. 30But passing through their midst, he went away.
                These last words haunt me. He comes to the believing-- He will not come where He is not wanted. Doubt diminishes. Doubt disrespects Love. Disrespect roots out the works of His hand. They never gave Him the respect due His name, never gave Him the praise due His work, never gave Him the honor due His position. He offered them everything until He was rejected. Then He passed through their midst, went away. He chose one widow, chose one leper. He chooses those who recognize Him, respect Him. Over two decades ago a little girl sitting in a tea party in her grandmother's back yard chose Him, chose to daily love Him. Over a decade ago a young teen bride stood next to her groom. She chose him, and he chose her to pour into the mighty work of love.
                If love comes from believing, from faithfulness, than it is uprooted in faithlessness, in doubt, in disrespect. I question when I’ve missed His mighty works because I was looking in the wrong direction, missed His whispers in my ear because I was listening to the sound of my own voice. I wonder how often I’ve disrespected Him by not seeing Him for who He really is, what He has really done for me. I wonder when I’ve denied the romance offered to me in marriage because I was looking for it under a shiny bow. How often have I doubted? How often has disrespect trampled across the delicate garden?
                I picture the bride. Have I expected even the groom to rise as I pass by? My eyes should be fixed only upon Him. He asks of a bride: “that she respects her husband.”  Ephesians 5:33. This isn't asked on behalf of my husband only, it is asked on behalf of Him. And when I’ve lost sight of Him, has He been passing through my midst? When I’ve lost sight of my heart, have I let it weed? Have I lost sight of him too; didn’t know what I was looking for?
Lord, help me to pluck out weeds of disappointment, weeds of bitterness, hurt, and idolizing of it. Help me to stop stereotyping love. Help me to stop looking for a carpenter’s son, and doubting that my proposal has come from a King. Help me to stop uprooting love offered-- by plowing though with doubts of love-- disrespecting it. Lord, help me to pluck out all romance chokers; to love with respect for my groom, for You. Help me to recognize You in every way You reveal Yourself to me. Help me never to diminish Your work in my life because of disbelief, never to diminish my husband’s love for me because of disrespect. Help romance to flourish—romance, the ability to see his heart more clearly, to see Yours most of all; to recognize Love in my midst.




                                                                            Seeing Your love, Seeing Your works


 Your love sonnet to me today: that Your word teaches me how to be a better lover.

Care to see where we've been on this 21 Days of Romance? (Seeking out romance in His word) You might like to see: 


Day 1: Gestures of affection are beautiful. There were beautiful to Jesus.
Day 2: Jesus teaches: if love amounts to anything, it's worth sacrifice, worth demonstrating.
Day 4: What is love? Comfort. Because He does.
Day 7: He allures us, speaks to us tenderly.
Day 8: Hearts may feel lonely, but we are never really alone. Love never forsakes.
              the heart to see and feel love.
                 feel.  
Day 14: Romance is loving the imperfect, undeserving—and loving wholly. Romance casts no 
                stones.
Day 16: Romance is love talking through feelings, through a heart like His, which 
            genuinely feels.
Posted by Amy Joy Lamson at 9:51 AM 0 comments

Friday, October 7, 2011

A GPS-Finding-the-Way-to-My-Heart Romance


Day 17 of the 21 Days of Romance Challenge.

I’m packing, loading for a trip. I, myself and me, planning on taking four children on a near 2,000 mile trek, alone. I wonder as I fold up tiny items of clothing into four open mouthed suitcases: Blue’s Clues, Disney princess, why I am leaving my earthly protector? It is said that absence makes the heart grow fonder, but I’m already feeling fond. And he takes me aside, he has a gift— he places a new pink and black purse fitted over a gps in my hands. I guess he wanted to be sure I could find my way home. This was probably the best gift a girl like me could be given, a girl who knows nothing more then up and down. My last gps, my sadly broken gps, he had felt was inadequate. I need a gps for dummies with commands like, “Your other right.” “Turn left after the light turns green,” and “Turn here- right here, you’re passing your exit!” I felt very loved. It was a good gift. I feel, in a way, that his protection is coming with me on my journey. His heart was to make sure his family would be safe.

God is a good gift giver. He has more than the “five love languages.” His love is tangible. Tangible is concrete—undeniable. Matthew 7:7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”

Ask for strength, and He gives me wings as eagles. Ask for salvation and He gives me His son. Ask for forgiveness and He gives me paradise. He gives good gifts. His gifts come from a heart of love. 

My day 21 of romance has come and gone. While, day 14 was an amazing surprise weekend getaway, day “21” has shown itself in unexpected ways. Yesterday, day 21 was a pillar-of-light-device for me to follow through the wilderness. Yesterday, love was tangible, a good gift. Behind any meaningful gift are well planned thoughts. Giving well requires study. I must seek to know the receiver’s heart, know their likes, dislikes—know their passions. And the intimacy of knowing and being known is romance.

When my new husband was deployed to Japan, he sent me a box of gifts. One of these “treasures” (note sarcasm,  : ) was a stuffed frog. No, not a cute little stuffed animal, but a real frog which had been skinned and lined, and been sewed to a purse handle. Thankfully our dog chewed it up a few weeks later, because frog skinned purses aren’t, nor ever will be, on the cutting edge of fashion, or on my wish list. (The freshwater pearls also included were however.)   

My Jesus knows me. He knows me so well that He emboldens verses in my readings that press deeply into my heart. Daily He reveals His beauty in the created world to me. My Jesus sees me—His gaze knows me so well. Ivy says to us from her buckled seat, “Don’t you think it’s scary that God can see us all the time?”
                We are quiet. Melanie answers, “Wouldn’t it be scarier if He didn’t?”
                My Jesus doesn’t miss a thing, He is intimately involved in my life.

                My longing lies in being known truly. A gift isn’t about expense, show, or occasion. It can be a handmade card penned with kindness. Romance is demonstrated in careful choosing, a gift that proves knowing well, and loving truly. Our I AM knows us better than we know ourselves. He has given the greatest gift of all. How can a Creator not know His handiwork, down to the last detail? He tells me I am worth knowing. Aren’t all of His creations worth knowing, worth loving? For they are our gifts from Him too.

James 1:17
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

                Lord, may I know you intimately through Your word. May it be a two way conversation, and may I listen with both ears. May I seek to give to You what You desire. May I seek out what pleases You. May I demonstrate Your love to others through eyes that see ways to bless, ears that hear and meet needs, and a heart to know and love. I couldn’t ask for a better Father. I couldn’t ask for a better gift than what You’ve given. 


My love sonnet from Him today are the ones He has given me to love.

Care to see where we've been on this 21 Days of Romance? (Seeking out romance in His word) You might like to see: 

Day 1: Gestures of affection are beautiful. There were beautiful to Jesus.
Day 2: Jesus teaches: if love amounts to anything, it's worth sacrifice, worth demonstrating.
Day 4: What is love? Comfort. Because He does.
Day 7: He allures us, speaks to us tenderly.
Day 8: Hearts may feel lonely, but we are never really alone. Love never forsakes.
Day 14: Romance is loving the imperfect, undeserving—and loving wholly. Romance casts no stones.



Posted by Amy Joy Lamson at 8:59 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

We have His Valentine: It Reads: Will You Be Mine?

Day 16 of the 21 Days of Romance Challenge. 

I come from a family of relational women, relational and emotional. And this is not a bad thing, but I sometimes shy away from tears. I sometimes feel as if I cried them all out when things were bad and have no more left to shed. And I have these moments when I feel mean not to cry, when everyone else is. I feel tears that do not come. I have a good cry about once a year-- once a year too often my husband says.  :)
 And I have moments where I just want to laugh. I come from a long line of laughers too. My dad was one of the worst. We could really get our Sunday pew shaking with stifled laughter… Like when an older gentlemen at our church would repeatedly fall asleep on the other side of the isle. And as he would, his Bible would drop off his lap. He’d wake and bend down to pick it up and clunk his head on the pew in front of him, then pick up his bible and fall asleep again, only to repeat the process a few minutes later. And then there was the time that a friend was playing a saxophone music special, only her younger brother had stuffed a whole plastic tablecloth into her instrument, and she was turning purple just to get a few duck-squawks out of the thing. Oh, how our pew shook. My dad was sentimental. He cried easy and laughed easy. There was the family wedding where the officiator, my uncle, very solemnly asked the groom, “Do you have the finger?” My Aunt Mary dug in her purse for a long time to hide her wobbling, laughing shoulders.
                Emotions are messy and beautiful. They seem to tell the world, “I’m alive here. I live, I breathe, I feel.” Emotions are our way of relating with life. Because life is relational. Our lives are in each moment a relationship between us and our Maker, whether we run from those moments or not.
                I am never surprised to feel emotions in my relationship with my Jesus, to feel it in my heart. I feel awe, love, fear, wonder, sorrow (at my own sin), joy, excitement, passion. But it takes me back that our God has feelings too.

Ezekiel 6:9 “And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall lothe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.”

The word for broken is: shâbar: broken hearted, crushed, or hurt.

I am capable of hurting God’s feelings, breaking His heart. I am in a relationship with a passionate God, a God who can be pleased, angered, sorrowed-- who can rejoice, have joy, --a God who can also be hurt.

Hosea 11:8 How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? mine heart [Labe: a form of the heart; also used very widely for the feelings] is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together.
 
In 1839 Professor Finney writes:
 “He [God] must feel, or he is not virtuous. Virtue cannot consist in the mere abstractions of the intellect, but belongs to the heart. And an intellect without moral feeling cannot be virtuous.”
“…His grace manifested in the Atonement, is the highest possible demonstration that he has all the feelings ascribed to him in the Bible, and in an infinite degree. Did he not really love sinners, could he make so great a sacrifice to save them? Were he not angry at sin--were he not infinitely just and inflexible in maintaining the principles of his government, could he have given his Son to die as their substitute, rather than pardon them without an Atonement? We certainly should consider it the highest possible evidence of love in a human being to give himself or his son to die for us.”

As humbling as it is, I know that God desires a relationship with me. And I know that this relationship, like in any romance, is a two way interaction. Only, while I am very capable of hurting Him-- He will never hurt me. It was by His perfect design that we in turn desire relationships with one another,  that we yearn for deep, meaningful relationships, especially with our spouse.

Romance has been argued to be a poor word choice for what are a series of obedience actions in marriage. It is argued that a husband may never feel like being loving, yet he will because he knows he ought to. And while the heart, and its emotions, can follow the habits of actions, how can love be heartless? How can it be so uninvolving when we were created to love with all our heart, soul and mind? God doesn’t want anything half-hearted. He searches the world, to and fro, looking for whole heartedness. 2 Chronicles 16:9 “For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” Jeremiah 29:13 “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” And so romance must be genuine, must be poured from the mind, but also the heart and soul. God doesn’t go for middle of the road nonsense ,“So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” We don’t fall for it either, or rather we do.-- We see it in fallen marriages crumbling all around us. Romance expects more, because romances seeks the whole heart.

"You are made for romance, and the only one who can offer it to you consistently and deeply is Jesus." – John and Staci Eldridge

Romance is a relationship: between me and the Lord, between me and my spouse, and between me and anyone that I extend Christ’s love to. Romance is love talking through feelings, through a heart like His, which genuinely feels.

Lord, may I seek to strengthen the relationships You’ve given me, strengthen the cords of my marriage through genuine, heart-feeling love. May I never grow cold, the fire never go out, its red coals protected through the night, fanned to flame each day. Lord, may I be whole hearted in loving You. May I keep our relationship sacred, never again hurt You as deeply as when my sins nailed You on the cross. May I be ever seeking You, seeking out our relationship, so that it grows and is fruit bearing. May I be walking down the isle as Your bride, ever nearing the altar. 

Brotherly and Sisterly love...

My love sonnet from Him today: that He feels love for me as I do for Him, only much, much greater.  I am in a relationship with a God who desires my heart.

 Care to see where we've been on this 21 Days of Romance? (Seeking out romance in His word) You might like to see: 

Day 1: Gestures of affection are beautiful. There were beautiful to Jesus.
Day 2: Jesus teaches: if love amounts to anything, it's worth sacrifice, worth demonstrating.
Day 4: What is love? Comfort. Because He does.
Day 5: God created us for romance. Will I choose it?
Day 7: He allures us, speaks to us tenderly.
Day 8: Hearts may feel lonely, but we are never really alone. Love never forsakes.
Day 13: Romance is a pearl of great price, worth investing in. 
Day 14: Romance is loving the imperfect, undeserving—and loving wholly. Romance casts no stones.
Day 15: Romance draws out beauty because being loved deeply radiates.
Posted by Amy Joy Lamson at 11:19 PM 1 comments

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Romance Draws Out Beauty.

Day 15 of the 21 Days of Romance Challenge. 

Love has a transforming power. Love transforms cold, sin-hardened hearts into scarlet red hearts, warm and alive. Love transforms bitterness into forgiveness. Love transforms shame into assurance, anger into gentleness.

“Biblical love is efficacious. They [men] are to love their wives, knowing that this is going to have an effect in the realm of the spirit. As a wife cultivates a gentle and quiet spirit, she becomes increasingly beautiful. He treats her in the way of Christ in all things, both great and little. She grows in beauty, and this beauty is alluring to her husband.” –Douglas Wilson

I wonder that Christ can love me as His bride with such a beautifying love.

He says it is so:
“and you shall be called by a new name
   that the mouth of the LORD will give.
3You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD,
   and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
4 You shall no more be termed Forsaken,
   and your land shall no more be termed Desolate,
 but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her,
   and your land Married;
for the LORD delights in you,
   and your land shall be married.
5For as a young man marries a young woman,
   so shall your sons marry you,
and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,
   so shall your God rejoice over you.” –Isaiah 62:2-5

There is no question that God’s love transforms beauty from my sin-caved heart. God’s love makes all things beautiful. His love transforms leprous hands into clean ones, restores the fevered body to health, turns the tempest into stillness, the fearful into peaceful. Jesus’ love transforms paralytic legs to dance, converts cheaters into companions. He makes beautiful the woman who bled, who is restored, changes death into mere resting, brings seeing beauty to once blind eyes. He gives words to the mute, stretches out the withered hands, fills empty stomachs with bread and fish, changes death sentences to eternal hope. Jesus’ love does nothing but make us more beautiful if we partake of Him.

“What more, you may ask, do we want? … We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words—to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.” —C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

How do we pass into this realm of  beauty? Through His enveloping love. But His love doesn’t end there, for when we believe in Him, abide in Him, then we live in His love and begin to love others deeply. And being loved deeply radiates. Someone once said, "You don't love a woman because she's beautiful; she is beautiful because you love her." Romance draws out beauty, because right love always makes us lovelier.

Beauty is defined in the dictionary as the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind. Here, beauty doesn’t radiate from the heart. True beauty is in the mind, in the perception, and comes from the true knowledge that we are deeply and passionately loved—first and greatest by God. David Taylor speaks of beauty this way, “But always, the effect of beauty upon us will be the same—to evoke longing for the Source of all beauties.” When we reflect even a glimmer of His beauty into others, this beauty serves no other purpose but the glorify Him and draw others closer to His love. This is beautiful.

Macduff Everton said, “There is a difference between pretty and beautiful.  Beauty can astonish us. Inspire us.  Make us dance.  Make us weep.  Beauty can be magical.  Beauty can transform us.  Beauty lets our soul sing.  Beauty can have such depth that you don’t even notice at first, or ever.” 

This beauty, coming from the One who is worshiped, coming from the One who is the most beautiful of all, coming from the One who created it, cannot be denied. Beauty is His essence. And if I am called to be ever drawing near, striving to be an imitator of Him, how can I undervalue this beauty rubbing off on me?  Why do I seek to cover it with thick garments of “character”? Beauty is a garment of its own, and true beauty holds no need for covering. Jesus words say it best, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me.” And when I reflect beauty back to the Beautiful, my life is a fragrant offering, a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to Him. I am humbled that He can find any beauty in me it all. But He sees beauty, He sees the “imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit,” which He says is very precious in His sight.

God’s love not only beautifies, but it asks me to love and be loved, to share His essence with others. It allows me to reflect it back to Him. In Exodus we see seven chapters filled with our God’s design plan for His tabernacle. He calls people by name, specifically imparts abilities in them to create beauty for Him. And He has given us all our own abilities too, abilities which when done for Him, are our own offerings of beauty for His glory. He gives us all the ability to love, because He has commanded it of us all. And in loving, beauty is grown.  

Solomon, one of the greatest lovers of all, captures this beautifying love:

 “8Prize her highly, and she will exalt you;
   she will honor you if you embrace her.
9She will place on your head a graceful garland;
   she will bestow on you a beautiful crown."- Proverbs 4:8-10


In romance, the more we are loved, the more we bestow loveliness. The more we love, the more we are made beautiful through our actions, the more we bring beauty to others. True romance brings beauty. For true love is but a pale picture of the love between Christ and His bride.

Ephesians 5:25-29
“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church…”

Lord, help me to love deeply. Help me to believe wholly, believe in Your love. Help me to live beautiful; for though I am ashes, You turn them into beauty. I praise You, Lord for You are the Beautiful One. May Your beauty be all I seek. Lord, there is no other name that I want, than to be called, “My Delight Is in Her.”

                               reflections of His beauty





               living beautifully


 My love sonnet today is in Your transforming love, in Your words that say You are making something beautiful of me. 

Care to see where we've been on this 21 Days of Romance? (Seeking out romance in His word) You might like to see: 

Day 1: Gestures of affection are beautiful. There were beautiful to Jesus.
Day 2: Jesus teaches: if love amounts to anything, it's worth sacrifice, worth demonstrating.
Day 4: What is love? Comfort. Because He does.
Day 5: God created us for romance. Will I choose it?
Day 7: He allures us, speaks to us tenderly.
Day 8: Hearts may feel lonely, but we are never really alone. Love never forsakes.
Day 13: Romance is a pearl of great price, worth investing in. 
Day 14: Romance is loving the imperfect, undeserving—and loving wholly. Romance casts no stones.
Posted by Amy Joy Lamson at 10:59 PM 0 comments
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