Maturing Faith Hope

The Faith the Just live by

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The GOAL or “end game” of a Christian’s faith is to be matured into the likeness of Christ. This is also stated by Paul as being our great hope in the faith. These two things being true – having and maintaining an ongoing and active trust in God, that He will mature you into the image of Jesus Christ is the primary expression of faith for a believer. In fact, all other expressions of faith MUST support this primary goal!

Believers often make the mistake of taking earthly hopes, wishes and dreams into the “hope” the scriptures are talking about. This is a monstrous substitution which tends only towards thwarting spiritual growth, affirming things which Christ died to free us from and can in the most severe of cases shipwreck one’s faith.

All expressions of trust in God must have this as its central focus and underpinning – it keeps faith relational, it doesn’t lose sight that true faith originates from and in placed in God, it makes faith God focused rather than focusing on our flesh and it works towards the purpose of God in the believer’s life which is to form Christ in us!

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The Admiration, Dreams & Fears of the Shulamite

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Chapter 2 of Song of Solomon starts off with the Lily of the Valley and the Rose of Sharon which contrary to its use in modern Christian circles is actually in reference to the Shulamite, Solomon’s bride, and is therefore representative of the church rather than Christ. Also, these flowers are not outstanding in beauty nor is the “rose” an actual rose – they were common wild crocus and meadow-saffron. In fact, it was due to their humble and common beauty that they were used as an illustration!

As the chapter progresses, it moves chiastically between the actual wedding feast, back to the time of their betrothal and finishes with Solomon coming to retrieve his bride for their celebratory wedding feast.

Like most of the Song of Solomon, nearly the entire chapter is from the Shulamite’s perspective. She moves from the heights of amorous admiration for her newly wed husband, to the celebration of their union in their wedding feast, to her dreams and fears during the “winter” of their separation during their betrothal to the excitement of the coming of her groom and his clear delight in her.

All of this so perfectly illustrates the various times, events and aspects of our union with Christ. There is much to learn and reconcile our hearts to in relation to the intimacy of this union, that it rejoices the heart as much as it challenges our understanding of “piety”.

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Hope Maintained

Maintaining the expectation of His return

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This week the Lord surprised me by dropping two verses in my heart just before church which I knew He was pressing me to make the center of the message for today. It was on topic to what we were going to cover, only coming from an entirely different approach.

The passages were found in 1 John 3:1-3 & Romans 2.

This placed the focus of our teaching on maintaining the hope of Jesus’ return within our hearts which works to the purification of our souls. This is 100% in step with the direction our teachings have taken the past two weeks regarding all our expressions of hope in God needing to align with the overall Hope we have been given in Him which is Christ being formed in us.

As it is, I had no notes to teach from and so on our website, I have very little in terms of an associated article as we typically do.

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Solomon Songs

Let the Love Songs begin!

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Now before we get started tonight, I want you to remember a few of the things we covered in our overview of this book.

First off, there are 5 players on the field:
• The Beloved who we believe to be Solomon
• The Shulamite who is his lover/bride
• The maidens/bride’s maids
• The family, friends and valiant men of Solomon and
• The brothers of the Shulamite bride.

There will be shifts in the dialogue from one speaker to another throughout. These will be announced. These lead-ins are NOT original to the text and are therefore not inspired NOR authoritative. A good 90%+ of them are, however, agreed upon by most people. This is because the content makes it rather clear.

This book is NOT for the faint of heart. It uses very blatant and clear sexual references in which both lovers express their longings and desires without shame.

As we read, it will be important – imperative really – that we do not lose sight of what this love story is illustrative of. This is inspired by God to reveal through human marital love, what Jesus desires with His bride.

The narrative in this book is characterized by a conversational style that alternates between dialogues and poetic reflections.

Also remember that this book is NOT in chronological order which will become immediately apparent in the first 7 verses alone.

Finally, the development of the Song of Solomon follows the Chiastic structure I explained last week.

As the curtain opens on this book, we begin with the couple already married and therefore the setting is Solomon’s palace – as it is throughout the entire book.

By the time we reach verse 5, the Shulamite woman is remembering a particularly frustrating portion of her courtship to Solomon when she still did not know his
true identity as king. She was overly tanned due to working the family vineyard and is talking about this to her maidens.

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