Love, how I believe God intended

Love, how I believe God intended

Taken from – Sex (Part 3): Wilderness – Matt Chandler

Raya is the Hebrew word for companionship, and it’s not just like buddies, but it’s this: that I know you and you know me. It’s not that I just know your pretty stuff, but it’s that I know your junk, ok? That I have seen the wicked parts of you, you have seen the wicked parts of me, and yet still we’ve decided to try to work on this relationship. So, the foundational element of love and sex for the Hebrew mind and their idea of love, was this word, raya, which means that I know you and you know me and I really know you and you really know me. So, raya never occurs on a first date. It never occurs on a second date. Raya can never take place until that first time you watch the person you’re dating or the person you’re married to do something that makes you go, “Oh, no.” ok? And then, in that moment, raya occurs if you say, “I’m going to keep going.” Now, if you go, “I’m done”, then you’re done. But raya is this getting to know each other in such a way that I know you, all of you, and you know me, all of me. And we continue to walk together. And raya leads into ahava.

Ahava is a love of the will. The best way to say ahava is this, “I am not going anywhere.” And that word, that love of the will, it does not carry romantic connotations with it. It carries a very aggressive tone, and it basically is this: Your spouse, your girlfriend, your boyfriend – they want to kill you, and then in that moment when there is such conflict and there is such difficulty, there’s still within you this: “I am not going anywhere.” And so what happens is raya (or me getting to know you and you getting to know me – my good stuff, my bad stuff, your good stuff, your bad stuff) it leads to this moment, or this period of time where, I guess there’s this moment of epiphany? That’s how it was for me where I’m just going, “This is the woman I want to fight with for the rest of my life.” Now, you say that and you go, “I’ve got that. There’s still no sex.” Ok? There’s still no sex yet. There’s all this work (the only people that think that deep relationships aren’t hard work are the people that don’t have them, ok? haha). There’s all this hard work, there’s all this stuff that has to be weighted through, there’s all this baggage. And you’re like, “Why is she so heavy? Oh, baggage.” You’re like, “Why is he so hard to train? Oh, baggage.” Ok? And so you’ve got to walk through all that. You’ve got to sort the dirty laundry. You’ve got to figure out how to wash it. Now, you move from there into ahava and then comes sweet dod, baby!

Dod is not the Hebrew word for sex. It is the Hebrew word for sex when ahava and raya are present. If we have raya and we have ahava, then sex isn’t just two bodies together, it’s two persons. And it’s in there, in that moment that all the intimacy and love that we crave is found. It’s why we are so over-sexed and still so lonely. Cuz, we’ve divorced it, we’ve divorced it from raya and ahava, ok? We’ve exalted sex to be the end all of everything, and sex requires very little work. And so when you’ve divorced it from the real foundational weight and beauty of it, then all you’re left with is technique and trying to work on your technique. So we’ve really become a very lonely, miserable, oversexed people.

I would totally encourage you and urge you to go to iTunes and get The Village’s free podcast. Listen to Sex (Part 1, 2, & 3). I’m telling you, man, this is really weighty, good, varsity stuff that is often never preached from some pulpits. And it’s really too bad, cuz it’s one of the main things that our culture and friends and own selves deal with and struggle with understanding on a large level. Thanks for reading this. Go listen!

[Borrowed from: http://kelseyschneider.blogspot.com/2008/10/raya-ahava-and-dod.html]

Straight off the press - pro-life

Dear Friends,

Just moments ago, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a over $1 Trillion Dollar Health Care Reform package. The pro-life amendment to the bill was passed earlier in the night after months of House leaders refusing to allow it to be voted on.

The good news: Leaders realized today that in order to pass this highly controversial bill they had to make sure the bill didn't use government money to fund abortions.

This is a HUGE victory for the pro-life movement. Planned Parenthood is fuming right now!

Thank you for your calls, e-mails, and visits to the Congress.

The bad news: The package still contains troubling pro-rationing provisions in it and is especially concerning to parents of special-needs children, like myself.

Now, on to the Senate where we must make sure any health care reform that passes DOES NOT include abortion and pro-rationing provisions.

Look forward to many more updates from me on this issue.

For Life,
Kristan Hawkins

Well represented

How is holiness like the crusades?

I suppose in a few ways, but the way I had been thinking of is that the people involved can often mis-represent God.

Doing things in the Name of God can often be bad promotion for the Body of Christ. Zeal is great, but missinformed zeal can be harmful. I know so many that are 'young' in their faith who are so alive in Christ and that is so inspirational, I love being around these people, but they quite often put their foot in it since there is so much to learn about the All Powerful.

There are even a few more mature 'Christians' that I have heard to claim to be 'holy' and therefore claiming to represent accurately the character of God - these people I have often found lacking in the Fruit of the Spirit and often causing hurt in other people's lives.

Does our lives represent God's character?

I know many people who represent the characture of God well, but I've never heard these people claim to be holy or sanctified, but they live out a life that Jesus was and just do it rather than tell everyone how holy they are.

I'd rather be integral in the way I live to accurately represent Christ rather than spray meaningless words of my achievements and my self-righteous perfection - What it all comes down to is how we are seen in God's eyes, I'd rather please Him than impress man.

God is good and wants us to be perfected in His eyes - He want's you to be holy - come to Him and He will perfect you if you allow Him to do a good work in your life

"³I thank my God every time I remember you. ⁴In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy ⁵because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, ⁶being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

Philippians 1:3-6

Function

When something doesn't fulfil it's function, then it's not whole or complete, but broken.

God has told us to be holy, if we are not holy then we are not fulfilling our function as humanity. We need to remember that this is not just an individual thing either, we are to be holy as a community.

Start living a holy life today if you haven't already. It's your destiny :)

"But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life."

Romans 6:22

Heaven - Pastoral Letter from the General

As you are most likely aware, the General of The Salvation Army writes letters to the Army regularly. His latest letter has just been released on the topic of Heaven;

PASTORAL LETTER SIXTEEN

HEAVEN

Dear Fellow Salvationists,

I send warmest greetings in Christ to my fellow believers across the globe and especially to my fellow Salvationists in the 118 lands into which God has led us.

Thank you for your fidelity to the cause of the gospel. We remember you daily in prayer. Thank you for your faithful prayers for me and for Commissioner Helen Clifton. We need these prayers. They sustain us powerfully. I request that you intercede on my behalf for ongoing wisdom in all matters touching the worldwide Army.

We are all on our way to Heaven. The theme of this 16th Pastoral Letter is Heaven.

Recently we were privileged to be with our fellow Salvationists in Zambia and Zimbabwe. In both places we witnessed Salvationists marching past in vast numbers. Each and every marcher offered the Army salute, the right index finger pointed Heavenward. How happy we were to return these salutes! It did not seem to matter that our right arms grew tired as the cohorts of Salvationists paraded, for we were comrades together, bonded deeply by sacred ties, and in exchanging salutes we signalled that we were all on our way to Heaven by the grace of God.

The people of Jesus Christ in the Army are marching to Glory. Salvation Army soldiers are said to be ‘promoted to Glory’ when they take their final breath. We deck our flags with white ribbon for the funeral of a Salvationist, a powerful sign that though we feel keenly the pain of loss we do not wallow in despair for we know about Heaven.

Since taking office as the General in April 2006 my father, Major Albert Clifton, has been promoted to Glory and so too have Commissioner Helen’s parents, my father-in-law Bandmaster Donald Ashman and my mother-in-law Betty Ashman. We know our parents are safe in Heaven. How do we know? The answer to that question is simple: Jesus has told us so. Just turn in your Bible to John 14. See there the rock-solid promises of Jesus about the life to come.

The Lord Jesus Christ offers deep and lasting assurance. He knows the natural fears and uncertainties of the human heart when the end of life is contemplated. That is why he offers special words of emphasis and comfort: ‘… if it were not so, I would have told you.’

He has made ready. All things are planned and prepared. He has told us all we can take in for now. There remains only the need to trust him for our loved ones and one day for ourselves. He is trustworthy.

In Romans 6:4 we are taught that ‘just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.’ Paul goes on to say in verse 5 that we ‘will certainly also be united with him (Christ) in his resurrection.’ This is another reliable promise from God.

So let us each live in a way that testifies to our sure hope of Heaven.

As I pen these few words, I see in my imagination the Army saints who have gone on before us to Heaven. I picture them gathered from time to time and leaning over the battlements of Heaven as the Lord affords them a glimpse of what the Army is doing today. They are cheering us on!

I thank God for each of you as we travel to Glory together. Until the Lord calls us Home let us journey with a real consciousness of Heaven as our final destination. Our journey thus has profound meaning and purpose.

I commit you each to the perfect love of Christ.

Yours in Jesus,

Shaw Clifton
General

Holiness, the best thing since..

Holiness is a big part of the movement of The Salvation Army, in fact our foundations are set on it!

Many people we have been talking to, many have been with The Army for many years and have said that we haven't had teaching on holiness for ages. Well now it's making it's come back.

This years session at Training College for 2009-2010 are called the "Ambassadors of Holiness" and I am one of them. We have had much teaching on holiness this year and even in my private life I have been searching this out since I haven't had 'teaching' as such in the past, but it is the best thing even before sliced bread!!

Holiness has been taught in The Salvation Army since it's beginings, but in more recent days we haven't used the term 'holiness' as much as previously, we may have used words such as 'Christ likeness' or blameless or even in all teachings of putting sin behind us and becoming blameless before God.

One quote we use around the College a heap is 'holiness is the solution to every problem' and I think it just might be the case.

Be holy.. cos God told you to!! I know we don't like taking orders, even from God, but it's something that when tasted, you will want more, just like a juicy peach in summer with the juice running down your chin.. ok, enough dreaming of summer.

Holiness, it's the way of the past and IS the way of the future - eternal future!!

"Who among the gods is like you, O LORD ? Who is like you— majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?"

Exodus 15:11

The Future

Today field changes came out for Officers of The Salvation Army. This is where appointments can be changed and the unseen future for the coming year becomes clearer, well apart from the second year Cadets, they still don't know, but much speculation is happening :)

There was some talk even of the first year Cadet's placement for next year at the end of tea. I had some ideas in my head that I'd love to experience during this time, while still in training and was hoping to have some say in it, but it appears that is not the case this time round.

Very frustrated, I decided to run it out and sprinted around the Zoo at the back of the College and came back and had a long(ish) shower. As I was getting out, my ipod changed to the song that I haven't heard for a while now - "I'm in His hands" [Phil Laeger version] - God makes me laugh hard sometimes!!

After a day of letting a few things get the better of me, God gave me a good wake up slap and reminded me gently; what am I worried about.. I'm in His hands!!!! I trust God with my future, sometimes I struggle with this, but after tonight, I'm still feeling slightly unsettled, but I have His assurance going into tomorrow that He'll be with me and walking beside me all the way.

"I"m in His hands, I'm in His hands

Whate'ver the future holds, I'm in His hands

The days I cannot see, have all been planned for me

His way is best you see, I'm in His hands"

Words by Stanley E. Ditmer