Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Your banner over me is love

He brought me into the banquet hall, and he looked at me lovingly.
Lead me to the dinner hall. Let your banner of love be lifted high above me.
Let him lead me to the banquet hall, and let his banner over me be love.
He leads me into a banquet room and looks at me with love.
He brought me to the banquet hall and his glance at me signaled love.
“He has brought me to his banquet hall, And his banner over me is love.
He brings me to the banquet hall, and everyone can see how much he loves me.     Song of Songs 2:4



What if I were to  really believe this???




how would it be if I really lived in this reality?

your banner over me

is love





She is loved

not because
she is worthy

not because
 she deserves it

not because
 she has achieved

not because
 she has _________

not because
 she is anything
   in herself

But because I AM LOVE

and my love is enough for all

my love is for all

for any and for all
 willing to receive it

Jesus makes this relationship of love possible

He is worthy
He has done
He is
He laid down his perfect life
to take my fallen and broken one

to take away my failings and shortcomings
and all that I sense is just not enough




because it is not dependent on me

I cannot break it or undo it


As I just believe Him and  receive this love
it lifts up a banner that shows for all to see

She is complete in me

She is mine

I love her

I will be with her always

I will never leave her not forsake her

She is my beloved

I know her faults, weaknesses, even outright sins
better than you ever will

And yet because of my perfect Son

I can draw her close to me

in tenderness and affection

I have made a way for her to be near to me forever

never to have to leave or go away

I am her Father

I am her Refuge

I am her Sanctuary

I am her Safe Haven

I am her Protector

I am her Teacher and Guide

I am her Wonderful Counselor

I am her Peace

and through her
I wish to bring all others around her
 to know how much I love them as well

How I am their deepest longing and hope

I am their deepest comfort and joy

I AM


Is this what the banner over me for all to see and read says most days.......???



The reason I don't live in this reality is that it conflicts
 it conflicts with what I feel inside
 it conflicts with what I am experiencing
 it definitely conflicts
with what I feel others think and see about me


 most days the banner over my head says

"frustrated, overwhelmed, worried, exhausted, afraid, sad


even 
 angry, bitter, feeling shameful and unloved


and sometimes even
 feeling undesired, rejected, isolated and despairing


but this conflict between what I feel and experience
 is really a forced crossroads of the heart

what will I choose to believe?
your love or what I feel
your truth or what I think is true
you over what I want others to be to me


the identity I have in Christ
or what others view me as
even what I view myself as

The Way Up is the Way OUT

an audience of one
only one's smile that I need

ONLY YOU

to hear you say, "Well done good and faithful servant.  Enter into the joy of your Lord"

His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful and trustworthy over a little, I will put you in charge of many things; share in the joy of your master.’

the work of God is for you to believe

John 6:29J.B. Phillips New Testament (PHILLIPS)

29 “The work of God for you,” replied Jesus, “is to believe in the one whom he has sent to you.”

this is the message to all of us:

you are beloved
not because of you at all
but because of HIM

He makes it possible

therefore it is possible for all

for all willing to trust and believe
not that they are great in and of themselves
but that you are love

Romans 3:23-26J.B. Phillips New Testament (PHILLIPS)

God’s new plan—righteousness by faith, not through the Law

21-26 But now we are seeing the righteousness of God declared quite apart from the Law (though amply testified to by both Law and Prophets)—it is a righteousness imparted to, and operating in, all who have faith in Jesus Christ. (For there is no distinction to be made anywhere: everyone has sinned, everyone falls short of the beauty of God’s plan.) Under this divine system a man who has faith is now freely acquitted in the eyes of God by his generous dealing in the redemptive act of Jesus Christ.

Romans 3:23-24Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

23 For all have sinned and fall short of the[a] glory of God. 24 They are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Romans 3:23-24The Message (MSG)

God Has Set Things Right

21-24 But in our time something new has been added. What Moses and the prophets witnessed to all those years has happened. The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him. For there is no difference between us and them in this. Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.
all fall short

all can be recovered by Jesus

to knowing YOU and being loved by YOU

there is enough  for all

no one is better than any one else before God

no exclusiveness
no zero sum game

You are what we all need

Praise you Lord

You are beautiful and awesome

The Solution Is Life on God’s Terms ] With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.
Romans 8:1-2 MSG

7-10 Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people—free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.

Ephesians 1:7-10 The Message

He placed me at his banquet table, for everyone to see that his banner over me declares his love.
He brings me to the banquet hall, and everyone can see how much he loves me.

Song of Songs 2:4



No comments:

Post a Comment