No Greater Love

Okay, today's main course is a serious reflection on making your relationship with God the focus of your life instead of focusing on having the perfect marriage. After all, didn't Jesus tell us, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things (that you need) will be added unto you?" This letter is not my own writing, but was written by Mary Love to her husband, Christopher Love who was martyred in the 1600's. This letter made a huge impact on me when I heard it read by Frances Chan at the Focus on Marriage simulcast February 27th, 2010. Read it and weep. Weep, not only for this too-soon parted couple that possessed a stronger commitment than anyone I have ever known in our era, but for Christian's of 21st century America and our weak faith and misplaced devotions.

My Dear Heart,

July 14, 1651

Before I write a word further, I beseech thee think not that it is thy wife but a friend now that writes to thee. I hope thou hast freely given up thy wife and children to God, who had said in Jeremiah 49:11, "Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive, and let thy widow trust in me." Thy Maker will be my husband, and a Father to thy children. O that the Lord would keep thee from having one troubled thought for thy relations. I desire freely to give thee up into thy Father's hands, and not only look upon it as a crown of glory for thee to die for Christ, but as an honor to me that I should have a husband to leave for Christ.
I dare not speak to thee, nor have a thought within my own heart of my unspeakable loss, but wholly keep my eye fixed upon thy inexpressible and inconceivable gain. Thou leavest but a sinful, mortal wife to be everlastingly married to the Lord of glory. Thou leavest but children, brothers, and sisters to go to the Lord Jesus, thy eldest Brother. Thou leavest friends on earth to go to the enjoyment of saints and angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect in glory. Thou dost but leave earth for heaven and changest a prison for a palace. And if natural affections should begin to arise, I hope that spirit of grace that is within thee will quiet them, knowing that all things here below are but dung and dross in comparison to those things that are above. I know thou keepest thine eye fixed on the hope of glory, which makes thy feet trample on the loss of earth.
My dear, I know God hath not only prepared glory for thee, and thee for it, but I am persuaded that He will sweeten the way for thee to come to the enjoyment of it. When thou art putting on they clothes that morning, O think, "I am now putting on my wedding garments to go to be everlastingly married to my Redeemer."
When the messenger of death comes to thee, let him not seem dreadful to thee, but look on him as a messenger that brings thee tidings of eternal life. When thou goest up the scaffold, think (as thou saidst to me) that it is but thy fiery chariot to carry thee up to thy Father's house.
And when thou layest down thy precious head to receive thy Father's stroke, remember that thou saidst to me: Though thy head was severed from the body, yet in a moment thy soul should be united to thy Head, the Lord Jesus, in heaven. And though it may seem something bitter, that by the hands of men we are parted a little sooner than otherwise we might have been, yet let us consider that it is the decree and will of our Father, and it will not be long ere we shall enjoy one another in heaven again.
Let us comfort one another with these sayings. Be comforted, my dear heart. It is but a little stroke and thou shalt be there where the weary shall be at rest and where the wicked shall cease from troubling. Remember that thou mayest eat thy dinner with bitter herbs, yet thou shalt have a sweet supper with Christ that night. My dear, by what I write unto thee, I do not hereby undertake to teach thee; for these comforts I have received from the Lord by thee. I will write no more, nor trouble thee any further, but commit thee into the arms of God with whom ere long thee and I shall be.
Farewell, my dear. I shall never see thy face more till we both behold the face of the Lord Jesus at that great day.
Mary Love

Taken from "Benjamin Brook's Lives of the Puritans" Chapter 1, pages 1 to 3

A day of new beginnings!

Have you ever had a ball of string that you simply could not find the end of? What an irritation! It is so tangled that you could spend the rest of your life trying to sort it out! Well, life can get that way some times, as mine has! I've made promises I couldn't keep, said things that I couldn't retract, made commitments I regretted and lost opportunities that I will never see again! The more I try to sort things up, the more I get bound up into the ball of string that I'm trying to get straightened out!

This morning I was looking through an old children's book and came across the story of Alexander the Great and the Gordian knot. Well, I guess it is time that I followed Alex's example and "cut the knot" instead of trying to untangle it. So, today is a day of new beginnings. Today I am closing down my advertising business, saying "no" to an ongoing volunteer position that I've no longer time for, cutting up my credit cards, starting a new writing course, and starting a new diet! The only way I could more thoroughly cut the knot would be to go into the witness protection program!

Well, I hate to cut this short, but I'd better get busy on my new ball of rope!