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