Good morning, ladies I’ve missed you!

It has been a long couple of weeks since I took Christmas break. Garry and I refinished our 109-year-old floors over the break. This put us into a tiny house position. We packed all our belongings into three rooms, which I would not have ever believed it to be possible, and we moved into our bedroom and bathroom with a dog and two cats. We are still here beginning our third week today! Quiet times have been challenging to say the least, but my heart has been filled with Psalm 34 and Song of Solomon.

As you know, Murray has started a new series on the Bride of Christ. He has entitled it “Becoming the Most Beautiful Bride”.

I want to attempt to help us all meditate on what it means to be the “Bride of Christ” in order to “Become the Most Beautiful Bride”.

So, let’s go!

When I think of the Bride of Christ, I think of the Hymn by Ann Ross Cousins “Immanuel’s Land”. The hymn is also known by it’s first line “The Sands of Time Are Sinking”. It was first published in 1857. The Hymn is based on the “Letters of Samuel Rutherford” (1600 – 1661). The nineteen verses of this poem are based largely off these letters, and they give us a glimpse into the heart of Samuel Rutherford.

Verse 5 Immanuel’s Land

“Oh! Christ He is the fountain,
The deep sweet well of Love!
The streams on earth I’ve tasted,
More deep I’ll drink above:
There, to an ocean fullness,
His mercy doth expand,
And glory—glory dwelleth
In Immanuel’s land.”

Do you think of Christ this way, “the fountain, the deep sweet well of love”? In Song 2:3 NKJV the Shulamite says, “I sat down in his shade with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.” She takes great care to maintain His companionship, to remain in communion with Him. He is her all in all Eph 1:23. He is her exceeding great reward Gen 15:1. She delights in Him alone. She knows that she must have Him or she has nothing. Do you delight in Christ? Do you recognize what a great pearl of price you have you have in Him? John Owen says “When once the soul of a believer has obtained sweet and real communion with Christ, it looks about him, watches all temptations, all ways whereby sin might approach, to disturb him in his enjoyment of his dear Lord and Savior, his rest and desire. A believer that has gotten Christ in his arms is like one that has found great spoils, or a pearl of price. He looks about him every way, and fears everything that my deprive him of it.” [i]  Is this you, dear believer? It is pure joy to be here in this place, isn’t it?

The Shulamite cries out for Him to set her as a seal upon His heart. Song 8:6” [The Shulamite to Her Beloved] “Set me as a seal upon your heart”. She is not satisfied with just thoughts of Christ she must have Him. Are you satisfied with just thoughts of Christ, or do you want to be set as a seal upon His heart? Do you rest in His love for you and His meritorious works on your behalf? Or are you still working to earn His love?

I have shared with you my wilderness experience before but it’s worth thinking about again. I let my heart grow cold and distant from God and for me to see what I had done He left me to myself.  The absence of Christ is the darkest place a believer will find herself. Listen to the Shulamite when she realized she had lost her Beloved Song 3:1-3 NKJV 1 “[The Shulamite] By night on my bed I sought the one I love; I sought him, but I did not find him. 2 “I will rise now,” I said, “And go about the city; In the streets and in the squares I will seek the one I love.” I sought him, but I did not find him. 3 The watchmen who go about the city found me; I said, “Have you seen the one I love?”

Verse 8 Immanuel’s Land

But flowers need night’s cool darkness,
The moonlight and the dew;
So Christ, from one who loved it,
His shining oft withdrew;
And then, for cause of absence,
My troubled soul I scann’d—
But glory, shadeless, shineth
In Immanuel’s land.

There is no rest in the absence of Christ! Are you restless today beloved? Has the world crept in and crowded out the heart? Have you been wandering after other lovers? I had. This is where I found myself in Ezekiel 16:15, 26-27, 32, 34 NKJV 15 “But you trusted in your own beauty, played the harlot because of your fame, and poured out your harlotry on everyone passing by who would have it. … 26 “You also committed harlotry with the Egyptians, your very fleshly neighbors, and increased your acts of harlotry to provoke Me to anger. 27 “Behold, therefore, I stretched out My hand against you, diminished your allotment, and gave you up to the will of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behavior. … 32 “You are an adulterous wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband. … 34 “You are the opposite of other women in your harlotry, because no one solicited you to be a harlot. In that you gave payment, but no payment was given you, therefore you are the opposite.”

This is a dark, dark place to find yourself. Once I found myself here, and sometimes that takes a long time and unfortunately must need be afflictions 1Peter 1:6 NKJV “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials.” Once I found myself here, I had to ask some hard questions. Where had I been wondering after other lovers? What have I done to cost myself my beloved? What will I do? I remember telling Murray and Garry, “I must have Christ or I will die”. I felt as if I would die. Murray said to me, “that is a good place to be”.

The Shulamite woman found herself looking for Christ and the watchmen found her Song 3:3. These watchmen of the city of God are the leaders of the Church and in her case, they persecuted her Song 5:7 “The watchmen who went about the city found me. They struck me, they wounded me; The keepers of the walls took my veil away from me.”

In my case I had patient, faithful, wise watchmen to come along side of me. Garry and Murray both were there to help me through these dark days.

The leaders at Grace are there for you! Do you need help? Cry out, please. The Elders care deeply for your soul. Paula and I want to help you grow. How did they help me? What did that look like for me? This is where I will stop today, I will pick back up and we will follow the Shulamite woman on her journey, and I will continue to share mine with you.

I hope you have a blessed day in the Lord, and I pray you will give much thought to your communion with the Triune God and what it means to be “A More Beautiful Bride of Christ”.

I love you, Sisters in Christ!

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[i] John Owen, edited by Kelly M. Kapic and Justin Taylor, Communion with the Triune God,(Wheaton Illinois: Crossway, 2007), 238 – 239.