Friday, April 26, 2013

Wedding, This morning, and True devotion

God was gracious for me when I was a guest at two weddings by giving me two verses.
 
For one girl I wrote this verse
 
Set me as a seal upon your heart,
    as a seal upon your arm,
for love is strong as death,
    jealousy is fierce as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
    the very flame of the Lord.
 
For another who waited two years for her husband I wrote this
 
for behold, the winter is past;
    the rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth,
    the time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtledove
    is heard in our land.
The fig tree ripens its figs,
    and the vines are in blossom;
    they give forth fragrance.
 
Today I was reading
 
And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.
 
"And in that day I will answer, declares the Lord,
    I will answer the heavens,
    and they shall answer the earth,
and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil,
    and they shall answer Jezreel,
and I will sow her for myself in the land.
And I will have mercy on No Mercy,
    and I will say to Not My People, 'You are my people';
    and he shall say, 'You are my God.'"
 
It is a portion of a scripture that I come back to because I am prone to wander and be distracted away from my God.
 
In the portion of Romans this is what stood out
 
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

So this is what I got from all of the scripture I have thinking about today. We are bought and paid for sealed to be the bride of Christ. On the day of salvation and each day afterwards throughout eternity of God calls to us betrothing us to himself in his splendour of Holiness. He is a God who abounds in mercy and steadfast love. We are justified by faith in Him, in the work of Christ. Even though we are unlovable He loves not because of anything we did, but because of who God is. Does it not make you want to praise God, worship God, serve God, and love God.

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