Archive for February, 2023
Join the Search for the Groom’s Bride
Genesis 24
Jesus Christ is depicted as “the Bridegroom” in Scripture. Those who come to Him in faith are complementarity called “the bride of Christ.”
Many historical Old Testament narrative are also beautiful illustrations of New Testament truths. One such is recorded in Genesis 24. It is the story of Abraham sending his faithful servant to find a bride for his son, Isaac. It is a true story of Old Testament era romance and an illustration of New Testament evangelism. Evangelism is every Christian’s job. In light of so many doing so little we need to pray:
“Set us afire, Lord. Stir us we pray.
While the world perishes we go our way.
Purposeless, passionless, day by day.
Set us afire, Lord. Stir us we pray.”
The late evangelist, Dr. Nettleton, ask as of himself a question we should each pose to our self. “What will I wish I had done with my life thousands of years hence?”
Dr. Lyman Beecher on his death bed gave insight into what should be our priority when asked, “…what is the greatest thing of all? He replied, “It is not theology, it is not controversy; it is to save souls.”
Based on this truth we should place our selves at the disposal of our Master saying, “Master, make me, with all my handicaps and disabilities, a fisher of men.” His response would surely once more be: “Follow Me and I will make you a fisher of men.”
“I” the subject does the work of the verb, “will make,” on the object, “you.”
One of the most complimentary depictions of a person coming to Christ is that of a groom receiving his bride.
“…that you may be married to another, even to Him who was raised from the dead” (Romans 7:4).
A dramatic parallel of this is found in the story of Abraham sending his faithful servant, Eliezer, to find a bride for Isaac.
I. HIS ATTITUDE
A. Born of other parents he resided in the house of Abraham.
He the servant of Abraham he was as though adopted. Soul-winners must themselves be born again in the Master’s household.
B. His entire life he was yielded to the service of the one he represented. Is yours.
Our modern “What’s in it for me” mentality has caused us to loose our perspective of what is our responsibility?
Occult groups sit around reading the writings of their “master,” committing them to memory, meditating on them and trying at great personal cost to comply with them.
We laugh at Moonies standing in the rain selling roses. When was the last time you went visiting in the rain to share Christ with a lost person?
Bill Bright, co-founder of Campus Crusade for Christ,” was responsible for personally leading and training people to lead souls to Christ. He died recently. He chose to have three words on the tombstone some day to be shared with his wife: “SLAVES FOR CHRIST.”
II. HIS ASSIGNMENT
A. Abraham revealed his purpose for him. He was to find a bride for Isaac. “…take a wife for my son Isaac” (Vs. 4c).
Our beloved Lord has given us an assignment.
B. He was given specific instructions as to where to go.
“You shall go to my country and to my kindred, (Vs. 4b).
He was also told where not to go. “You will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites” (Vs. 3).
His journey to his defined destination took him north through the Jordan Valley, past Damascus, around the fertile crescent, into “the eye of the East,” until at last crossing the Euphrates he reached his destination. He wasn’t deterred.
C. He was robbed of all honor and freed of all responsibility. An enabling angel preceded him.
The Holy Spirit is the equivalent of the angel who precedes every witness. The Archbishop of Canterbury said years ago, “A successful witnessing experience is sharing Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the result to God.” This robs you of all honor and frees you from all responsibility.
III. HIS ACTION
A. He proposed an alternate plan: “Let Isaac go” (Vs. 5b).
B. He did not underestimate the difficulty. He knew what glory there was in store for the bride but he knew she didn’t know. It was up to him to convince her of the advantage of responding to the groom. He was simply responsible for delivering the message.
C. He depended on the angel but did not cut the nerve of his own responsibility.
D. He subordinated his own interests and comfort to those of his Master.
IV. HIS APPROACH
A. He prayed (vss. 12, 13)
B. He proposed a plan to determine he was acting properly. He predetermined he would ask certain questions. As women came to the well he would ask for a drink of water. The one who offered it to him and additionally offered to draw water for his camel would be the one. Rebekah did so. He had ten camels and each camel could drink five gallons of water.
C. He did not use undue pressure (Vss. 57, 58)
He presented the simple truths and left the response to Rebekah. His mission was fulfilled now the decision was hers.
D. He delivered his message simply and clearly (Vss. 34 – 38)
[Show people how to mark their Bible for the Roman Road.]
First, Rebekah learned of Isaac. The servant could have told her of Isaacs trip to Mount Moriah, that he was the heir of all things of the father, that actually every mile of the road they would travel was his.
Next, she longed for Isaac. The more she learned of Isaac the more she longed for him. We must disciple new believers to increase their longing for Christ.
Ultimately, she started looking for Isaac. She learned her groom would be coming for her. “Who is this man walking in the field to meet us?” (Vs. 65).
“Behold, the Bridegroom cometh!” (Matthew 25: 6)
The Language of Love – Part Four
“My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” I John 3: 18
Little known is the story of faith expressed nonverbally by oppressed persons to their oppressors.
It came about among people who didn’t even speak the same language, but one of the groups spoke the language of love fluently.
In the saga of the Cherokee People’s Trail of Tears, the Cherokee nation, trying to keep peace and maintain self-pride, reluctantly agreed to move from North Georgia and North Carolina to the Oklahoma Indian Territory. Grief-filled stories of injustices and brutality against these Native Americans along with disease and starvation left graves all along the trail causing it to be called the “trail of tears.”
The soldiers assigned to guard and guide them on this grueling trail didn’t remain unmoved by the faith of these simple people. Every single soldier was converted to Christianity along the trail. The language of love demonstrated by the Cherokees was interpreted by the song they sang along the trail. The title of the song contains all the words of the song they sang repetitiously: “What Can We Do For You Jesus? What Can We Do For You?”
As told by Dr. Henry Raddle, Waco Texas District Superintendent, reported by Billy D. Strayhorn, Arlington, Texas, as found in “Parables,” Volume 14, Number 5, page 5, July 1994.
I have been fortunate through the years to have people say to me that they love me. Among the many who said it have been some who did not mean it. Many have communicated it most clearly, one so distinctly. A lady called my attention to my shoe being untied posing a risk of falling. She said it. Then she showed it laying aside all semblance of dignity she spontaneously knelt down and tied it.
I entered the home where there was a young man with severe limitations. He could only make sounds and gestures. He kept pulling on my coat for reasons I did not understand until his dad explained his action. He was trying to communicate that he wanted me to take off my coat and stay awhile. Thus, he spoke the language of love clearly.
If we all would seek how to communicate love as aggressively as he our world would be a better place. Evaluate your communication skills in light of this:
“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (I Corinthians 13: 4 – 7)
You will find persons all along their trail of tears needing your visual and verbal love.
The Language of Love – Part Three
“My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” I John 3: 18
Jesus was the “Word … full of grace and truth.” The Bible tells us to “speak the truth in love.” Sometimes this mandates verbal communication. Sometimes it involves visual love. Do you know how to communicate the language of love.
Linus asks Lucy: “Why are you always so anxious to criticize me?”
Lucy: “I just think I have a knack for seeing other people’s faults.”
Linus: “What about your own faults?”
Lucy: “I have a knack for overlooking them….”
We speak the language of love when we reverse that and overlook the faults of others while working on our own.
Often the spoken word is intended to deceive while contrary action is planned. Jeremiah 9: 8 describes this: “Their tongue is an arrow shot out: It speaks deceit; One speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, But in his heart he sets his ambush.” Speak the truth in love.
“I love you,” can be one of the most encouraging and motivating expressions uttered.
“I love you,” can be one of the most deceptive and damnable lies spoken. As a lie it is a plea and ploy to lower the drawbridge of our heart to allow a traitor entrance.
“A flattering mouth….” (Proverbs 26: 28)
Many problems in life are caused by the tongue. There is no easier way to sin than with speech. The tongue is in a moist place and can slip easily.
Communication involves listening. You speak the language of love every time you are willing to listen to a friend who needs an attentive ear. Few speak as well as those who silently listen. For five years, the adult education department of Minneapolis Public Schools offered two courses in speech and one in the art of listening each term. The speech courses were always filled. The listening courses were never held because in those five years only two students wanted the course. Everyone wanted to learn how to speak and no one wanted to learn how to listen.
Parents listen to your children. Husbands and wives listen to your spouses.
Swiss psychologist, Dr. Paul Tournier, once observed, “How beautiful, how grand and liberating this experience is, when people learn to hear each other. It is impossible to overemphasize the immense need humans have to be really listened to.”
Comic Lily Tomlin did a spoof in which she posed as an old fashioned phone operator. The popular line was, “Have I reached the person to whom I am speaking?” May love prompt you to listen in love and reach the person.
The Language of Love – Part Two
“My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” I John 3: 18
Jesus is called the “Word.” His very actions were the expression of the heart of God the Father. In essence, our actions are a language. What we do is what people hear. What people see is what they hear.
Love is a language which the blind can read and the deaf can understand.
You speak the language of love without opening your mouth when you write a note of encouragement, help someone perform a difficult task, bake a cake or cookies, open a door, give a cool drink on a hot day or a warm drink on a cold day, share a mutual sorrow, or give a love offering to meet a spiritual need.
A kind look, a thoughtful act, or a warm smile can be ammunition for a friend fighting his unseen battle.
Observers of speech estimate that approximately 75% or more of our message is communicated nonverbally or in the tone of our voice.
The language of love is a sign language.
Circumstances can make life a burden or a blessing. Circumstances can make life a burden or a blessing. Our works and words can help make it a blessing for others.
Jesus, the Word, was full of “grace and truth.” Every grace act and every truthful utterance is spoken in the language of love.
Grace is God’s kindness and favor shown to people who don’t deserve it. Are you willing to do kind deeds and bestow favor on persons you know don’t deserve it?
Kind words are the music of the soul. They have a power which seems to be beyond nature, as if they were some angel’s song that found its way to earth. No person has ever been helped or corrected by sarcasm — crushed yes, if the sarcasm is clever enough, but never drawn nearer God.
One of the greatest things you can do in the name of your Heavenly Father is to be kind to some of His other children.
Visual grace needs to be complimented by verbal grace. Do you know how to speak the language of love with grace? So many people don’t know how to pay a compliment without including in it a barb. Others don’t know how to comment without having a cut in it.
A new language can be learned. To become a model of love, begin by evaluating your words and actions and making an honest evaluation. Are you visually and verbally speaking the language of love?
The Language of Love – Part One
“My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” I John 3: 18
Jesus said, “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13: 35)
This was His litmus test for love.
The Bible or New Testament has been translated into all of the world’s major languages. The entire Bible is translated into a total of 293 languages spoken by 90% of the world’s population. The New Testament is available in another 618 languages. Currently 3,000 Bible translators are working on 1,400 translation projects.
However, there is a strategic translation that needs to be made by you which only your friends will read. At the funeral of a man who had the good fortune of living all of his life in the North Georgia mountains. Also participating was a retired minister who had lived as the neighbor of the deceased for years. He commented of his friend and neighbor: “He lived next door to me for 31 years and never once told me he loved me.”
After only a momentary pause he continued, “But, I never doubted he loved me for he showed it in so many ways by the things he did.” Then he quoted: “…let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” (I John 3: 18)
Let that reverberate in the echo chamber of your heart.
“A light that doesn’t glow,
A spring that doesn’t flow,
A seed that doesn’t grow,
All are analogies of a faith that doesn’t show.
The Bible says, “God is love.” That might have been doubted until “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (John 1: 14) That was show and tell time. Jesus told us of the love of God and then went to Calvary and showed us the love of God. Like Jesus we must combine words and deeds.
“In this is the love of God manifested toward us, that God sent His Son into the world, that we might live through Him.” (I John 4: 9)
The language of love isn’t always verbal. Often it is communicated by physical actions and attitudes. Ideally love should be show and tell love.
“Let love be without dissimulation.” (Romans 12: 9) Dissimulation means to hide or disguise one’s thoughts or feelings. It is hypocrisy. Let love be without hypocrisy. Hypocrisy isn’t real love at all. Bogus love that masquerades as “love” is laced with hypocrisy. Avoid it while exercising the language of authentic love.