Drench me in Your sweet perfume

"Take me away with you - let us hurry! Let the king bring me into his chambers." Song of Songs 1:4.

Beauty

written in 2005

I listened as a man told a story on the radio about him and his wife on their honeymoon. His wife had just gotten out of the shower in the morning and as she looked at herself in the mirror she began to point out parts of her that were unattractive. Her husband walked up to her and placed his arms around her and faced her towards himself. He told her that she was insulting his wife; he would not have that. Then he gently said, “Look into my eyes.” She looked into his eyes; it was obvious in his eyes that there was no woman more beautiful. As she looked at him he said, “Let my eyes be your mirror.” He would go on to tell her that throughout their marriage.

After hearing this story, I could hear Christ saying, “Look into my eyes, Let my eyes be your mirror.” I thought about this and I questioned whether or not I wanted this. I don’t want to just be told that I am loved. I want to face my sin. I want to have victory over it. I do not just want to be told that I am wonderful and still be left in my sin. Then I thought about Jesus’ gaze, the gaze that penetrates the deepest parts of the heart, leaving nothing unsearched. How it is stern and loving. Jesus says, “Look into my eyes.” I realized that His gaze not only searches the inmost being, but it also purifies the deepest sin.

As we look into His eyes we see such great love, as He holds us in His arms and tells us that we are lovely. How could this be? A gaze so piercing and yet it contains such an enravished and gentle love, one drop being more than all the poems could contain. One drop bringing healing to our hurting heart. Such a love that makes you forget about yourself and abandon all as you are enraptured in romance of the Beloved. Now, all that matters is being with Him.

I also came to realize, if our eyes are on Jesus then we will be doing what Jesus is doing as Jesus did what the Father was doing. When we trust Him fully with our hearts we will go where He goes. Romance is at the heart of sanctification and holiness.

So let us, look into His eyes and let Him be are mirror. “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” This is not a gaze into our idea or concept of who Jesus is. But it is the gaze of a broken and contrite heart that trembles at God’s word and allows His truth to run wild and rule as a lion, without compromise. It is a humble walk before our Creator and Lord. It is a gaze that lets Christ be who He is and a gaze that allows us to be who He is creating us to be.


“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His Marvelous light . . .” 1 Peter 2:9

the Groom

Written September 2006

-----I have picked up an odd habit, or maybe not so odd, I do not know. At weddings, the music plays its interlude, and the doors are opened, and the bride comes into view and begins to walk down the aisle. --- I like the verse in Song of Songs, “Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?” --- Everyone stands up to behold this bride walking toward the groom in her wedding dress full of beauty, her eyes excited, and her heart ready to become the wife of the man standing waiting for her. When this happens, I stand up with everyone, but my gaze is not toward the bride coming in beauty, but instead it is toward the groom. I love to see his face as he watches her coming toward him. His eyes full of passion and love. He is totally ravished by this women coming toward him. His delight is her. (Song of Songs 4:9) I look to the groom because I want to get a glimpse of what I know I will one day see in Christ as He comes for His bride. He too will have exhilaration and love in His eyes and will be fully ravished by His bride and be taken back by her beauty. God being taken back in awe of the beauty of His bride!
-----Have ever watched a father look at his child in his arms or at play? I think it is one of the wonders of the world. Can it compare to a sunset, a dew drop on a bloom, or a waterfall? What song could recount the melody? And yet I like what Jesus said when he called the fathers that have shown us love, wicked. In all its beauty it falls short of the love that the Father has for His children. His gaze of love is beyond description and fills our heart more than all the beauty of the world. And as a father’s heart is taken by his child, so His heart is taken by us. God delights in us! How can this be?


“I have loved you with everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving kindness.”


“ For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith: that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height – to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be the glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.”
--- Ephesians 3:14-21

The Romance

Written 2004 or 2005

-----In life group (I am sending this to others outside of life group as well), I said that the Romance of God is greater than the romance story often told. As I have been meditating on God’s act of salvation, I have been amazed at the beauty and wonder of the tale. I hope, by God’s grace to give a glimpse into the enravished heart of God. (I have not even come close in this letter to what God is showing me nor have I abundantly filled it with Scriptures, but here it is:) The story is often told of God rescuing us from the throws of the devil, as a prince rescues a princes held captive in a castle. Though there is some truth in this, the tale of the adventure of God is greater and the act of love more breathtaking.
-----The tale begins before the foundation of the world. His love for His bride is deep, existing before the foundations of the world. History is the tale of Jesus pursuing His bride. He loved her, knowing her fully. Knowing she would reject Him. Knowing the depth of her depravity, He still loved her, for He determined that before time began. He had chosen her as His bride.In love, He created mankind and began the story of His bride. Soon after her creation, her heart quickly became hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, to which she gave her will and her desires becoming ensnared by its lusts and evil desires, enslaved and mastered by sin. Not only was she ensnared, but she gave her love to sin and desired it above all else, longing after it. And even though she could not be satisfied by it, in her spiritual madness, she abandoned herself to its desires, which were now her own as well. She hated the Beloved, and even though it was evident that His love was true, she suppressed this truth, and determined to be His enemy. Her heart became stone, she died, hating God, hating her Beloved, so much that when He came she crucified Him.
-----You see God did not come to rescue a beautiful princess captured by sin or the devil, He came to rescue one who was an enemy, one who hated Him and had chosen to hate Him. Nor did He risk His love for her hoping she would choose Him, she had already made her choice, she despised Him and murdered Him. No instead, He came in grace and power and extravagantly determined love. He gave everything for a bride whom He loved and found a way to rescue her, to change her heart of stone to flesh, to give her life from the dead.We were slaves to sin and enemies of God with hearts of stone, hardened by sin, dead. When Christ’s blood touched our hearts, our hearts became flesh and we were able to love God, so much so that the Scripture says Jesus can hardly handle a glimpse from His Bride, the Church, she is so beautiful to Him. He broke the spell that held us captive to which we had given our will and made us beautiful. God is not timid he is a passionate lover in pursuit of our hearts, the hounds of Heaven, not allowing sin or death to keep Him away from His love or keep us away from Him.
-----It is a tale not of a prince loving a princes, but a tale of a prince loving an adulteress woman, and making her a princes.Picture a princess held in castle, well what seems a castle to her, but is truly a prison. She is held their by her own choosing because she loves the men in the castle and gives her love to all who ask. She has become lovers with the enemies of the King, and despises Him in the deepest parts of her heart. She is overcome by the spell of sin. The prince, who loved her before she was born and had chosen her to be His bride, knows there is only one way the spell can be broken. When He comes to her she spits on Him and ridicules Him, but He loves her and allows her to crucify Him, so He can take upon himself the destruction, that the King has decreed. As He dies, His blood purchases her, when it touches her heart the spell is broken and His blood washes her, transforms her heart of stone to flesh, and opens her blind eyes, so she can love Him in return. And as He lives again, she too comes from death to life into a passionate Romance. And they live happily ever after.
-----God’s work of salvation is greater than any tale we could tell, a mere glimpse of it, is the Song of Songs is the greatest of all songs. This tale is a tale that comes from the imagination of the Almighty, and from the romance of the Beloved. If it were a tale we could fathom, it would not be His own, and it would not satisfy our hearts, but it is a tale that He invites us to become intimately involved in. And one day we will see our Beloved face to face and know Him, as we are known.

Here are a few scriptures:

And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach-- Colossians 1:21,22

and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high -- Hebrews 1:318

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, 25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. – Romans 1:18-2528

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, 30 backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; 32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them. - Romans 1:28-3210

As it is written:
“ There is none righteous, no, not one;
11 There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God.
12 They have all turned aside;
They have together become unprofitable;
There is none who does good, no, not one.”
13 “ Their throat is an open tomb;
With their tongues they have practiced deceit”;
“ The poison of asps is under their lips”;
14 “ Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”
15 “ Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 Destruction and misery are in their ways;
17 And the way of peace they have not known.”
18 “ There is no fear of God before their eyes.”- Romans 3:10-18

4just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him In love 5He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight – Ephesians 1:4-7

1And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience . . . . 4But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. – Ephesians 2:1-10