Up Close and Personal!

The local Christian radio station that I listen to each morning, has a daily contest where married couples can submit their anniversary dates, get their names read on the air and then have the opportunity to win a meal at a local Tulsa restaurant.  I always enjoy hearing how long couples have been married and often times will think back to special events or milestones that Piper and I enjoyed together when the various years married are announced.

And as it turns out, I have found myself of late, studying various scriptures in both the Old and New Testaments that talk about the marriage relationship… and in particular of the act of intimacy between the husband and his wife.  At first, I was a little surprised at how many times the writers of the books of the Bible (under the influence of the holy Spirit) directly compare the interactions involved with this activity with the interactions of the Christian in their personal relationship with God. 

But then, the more I studied on this subject and also remembered some of the things that the Lord spoke to my heart through His Word, when Piper and I were first beginning to understand what was happening to her with the early onset of Alzheimer’s... the impact of this comparison suddenly made a lot more sense to me!

Proverbs 5:18-19 tells the husband to,

“Bless your fresh-flowing fountain! Enjoy the wife you married as a young man!  Lovely as an angel, beautiful as a rose— don't ever quit taking delight in her body. Never take her love for granted!” (The Message) 

Now hold on… Your initial reaction may be “How in the world does this have anything to do with my personal relationship with my heavenly Father?”  But, just follow along and you’ll see.  And even though this particular scripture is written to instruct the husband, in our discussion… it has value and direction for both men and women.

Firstly, you’ll need to see the picture of the wife as described in this verse with that of God, in the context of your personal interactions with Him… and notate along the way, that the ideas and processes spoken of in this verse, fall in line with how you and I can have a more meaningful and enjoyable relationship with God!  Got it?  Okay… Here we go!

If I learned one thing from my interactions with my beautiful wife over the years, it was to NOT RUSH INTO ANYTHING!  The key was to slow down and enjoy the sights and sounds along the way! 

In the same fashion, another example would be why I enjoyed hiking in the Sierras in northeastern California, more than I did in the Redwood groves on the northwestern coast of the state.  Don’t get me wrong… the Redwoods are majestic and gorgeous, but the actual terrain does not have a lot of variety to it (at least in the parks we frequented).  In the Sierra’s, one never knew what was going to be unveiled before your eyes around the next bend in the trail!

As in our scripture, hiking there was a continual and ever-changing feast of “fresh-flowing fountains” of adventures.  As we meandered along the trails, I loved to slow down and soak in the thrills of the scenery, to enjoy the various contours of the land, and to experience the different textures, sights, sounds and natural fragrances that availed themselves to all my senses… and of course, to go through rolls and rolls of film as I pointed my Canon SLR and its telephoto zoom in a 360° arc, in order to notate the scene unfolding before me!

Like I said previously, it is not something that one would want to rush through and miss any of the delights and pleasures of the experience.  Well… the same can be said for the way that I believe the Lord is telling us that we can… and should… experience our adventurous hikes into the trails located throughout the beauty of His Word.

As my interactions with my wife were almost always a fresh, new and exciting adventure of discovery, my interactions with the Lord in my daily Bible study mirror such regular times of fulfillment and joy.  In continuing on with our comparison, the King James Version closes Proverbs 5:19 by admonishes the husband to “be thou RAVISHED always with her love.” 

Brown-Driver-Briggs’ Hebrew Definitions defines the word “RAVISHED” as “to swerve, meander, reel, roll, and/or be intoxicated.”  To me, that is a perfect way to look at one’s personal study of the Word of God.  When I open my Bible in the morning, I come equipped to hike whatever types of terrain that comes along my way.  With pencil and paper in hand so as to notate what I see that day, along with my favorite commentaries and Greek/Hebrew dictionaries (all available for free online), I hit the trail with a burning sense of awe and excitement. 

And I love to take it nice and easy and meander along as the Holy Spirit leads me… all the while enjoying and/or being intoxicated by the varied terrain, the sights and sounds, and the overwhelming beauty of God found His Word.  In Ephesians 3:19, the Apostle Paul encourages us to “to KNOW the love of Christ…”* with the word “KNOW” defined in the original Greek as the “Jewish idiom for sexual intercourse between a man and a woman.”**

You see… God is jealous over us and desires us to have and maintain a close and personal, adventurous and enjoyable relationship with Him. (See: 2 Corinthians 11:2)  It is the same type of unique and special relationship that I had with my wife… that you most likely have with your spouse, and the exact kind that God jealously desires to have and maintain with each of us!

Isn’t God Good!

Have a great weekend, enjoy the fall weather, and in everything you do… Keep EXPECTING God’s BEST in your life!

 

*King James Version

**Thayer’s Greek Definitions