Category Archives: Taste and See

The Love Story of a Passionate God and His Bride -Part 2-

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©Katie Lloyd Photography

 

You took some of your garments and made for yourself colorful shrines, and on them played the whore. The like has never been, nor ever shall be. You also took your beautiful jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself images of men, and with them played the whore. And you took your embroidered garments to cover them, and set my oil and my incense before them. Also my bread that I gave you—I fed you with fine flour and oil and honey—you set before them for a pleasing aroma; and so it was, declares the Lord God. And you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your whorings so small a matter that you slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering by fire to them? And in all your abominations and your whorings you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your blood.

“And after all your wickedness (woe, woe to you! declares the Lord God), you built yourself a vaulted chamber and made yourself a lofty place in every square. At the head of every street you built your lofty place and made your beauty an abomination, offering yourself to any passerby and multiplying your whoring. You also played the whore with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, multiplying your whoring, to provoke me to anger. Behold, therefore, I stretched out my hand against you and diminished your allotted portion and delivered you to the greed of your enemies, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behavior. You played the whore also with the Assyrians, because you were not satisfied; yes, you played the whore with them, and still you were not satisfied. You multiplied your whoring also with the trading land of Chaldea, and even with this you were not satisfied.

“How sick is your heart, declares the Lord God, because you did all these things, the deeds of a brazen prostitute, building your vaulted chamber at the head of every street, and making your lofty place in every square. Yet you were not like a prostitute, because you scorned payment. Adulterous wife, who receives strangers instead of her husband! Men give gifts to all prostitutes, but you gave your gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from every side with your whorings. So you were different from other women in your whorings. No one solicited you to play the whore, and you gave payment, while no payment was given to you; therefore you were different.

“Therefore, O prostitute, hear the word of the Lord: Thus says the Lord God, Because your lust was poured out and your nakedness uncovered in your whorings with your lovers, and with all your abominable idols, and because of the blood of your children that you gave to them, therefore, behold, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved and all those you hated. I will gather them against you from every side and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness.

Ezekiel 16: 13-37

John Piper says,

“There’s the picture of the faithless Israel. Her idolatry -her turning from the Lord God to foreign gods- is pictured as the work of a whore. And I say again...God created us with sexual passion so that there would be a language to describe what it means to cleave to him in love and what it means to turn away from him to others.”

God’s judgement is then pronounced (v35-37) and Piper makes us consider this,

“It may look as though God has finally finished with Israel. Judgement had fallen. The wife was put away. But that is not the last word. God hates divorce. Therefore, though he judge and separate, he will not finally forsake his covenant people -his wife. He will make with her a new covenant and bring her back to himself at the cost of his Son and by the power of his Spirit:”

 

“For thus says the Lord God: I will deal with you as you have done, you who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant, yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant. Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you take your sisters, both your elder and your younger, and I give them to you as daughters, but not on account of the covenant with you. I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the Lord, that you may remember and be confounded, and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I atone for you for all that you have done, declares the Lord God.” Ezekiel 16: 59-63

 

“The end of the story is that God, after giving up his faithless wife into the hands of brutal lovers, will not only take her back, and not only make with her a new and everlasting covenant, but will himself pay for all her sins. Are there debts this prostitute owes? This husband will pay them. “When I atone for… all that you have done, declares the Lord.” Indeed he will pay with the life of his own Son.” J.Piper

Praise God for His Passionate love for his Bride , for His irresistible Grace, for His coming to us!

Alleluia!

Becky

Note: This excerpt has been taken from the book Sex and the Supremacy of Christ (p.29-30).

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The Love Story of A Passionate God and His Bride -Part 1-

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@Katie Lloyd Photography

“Again the word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations, and say, Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth are of the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. And as for your birth, on the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you out of compassion for you, but you were cast out on the open field, for you were abhorred, on the day that you were born.

“And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’I made you flourish like a plant of the field. And you grew up and became tall and arrived at full adornment. Your breasts were formed, and your hair had grown; yet you were naked and bare.

“When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord God, and you became mine. Then I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil. I clothed you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk. And I adorned you with ornaments and put bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck. And I put a ring on your nose and earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour and honey and oil. You grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty. And your renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed on you, declares the Lord God.”

Ezekiel 16: 4-14

John Pipers says,

“That’s a picture of God’s utterly free and undeserved mercy. That is how Israel was chosen. That’s how you were brought from death to life and from darkness to light and from unbelief to faith, if you are a believer. “I said to you,’Live!’ and made you flourish. I married you. You are mine.” That’s how Israel began. That’s how the Christian life begins. The mighty mercy of God.” (Sex and the Supremacy of Christ)

May we never, not for a second, forget where we were when He found us.

Becky

A Lesson on Praying Earnestly and Unexpected Miracles

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If you were my child, by this time you would have heard me saying a million of times how wonderful (and important) it is to read the Bible stories as if you had never read them before. Be expectant, read the drama, pay attention, be engaged with the characters in the narrative. Get excited. Love the story. See Jesus. Things like these I tell my children over and over again.

Today I would like to convince you to do the same. Read in Acts 12 the story of Peter’s imprisonment and how he was rescued by an angel. Read it aloud. Get excited. Be engaged. Read it as if you had never read it before.
The Liberation of St. Peter by Sebastiano Ricci, 1722

Herod is killing Christians and when he sees that the Jews are happy about it, he decides to keep on the persecution, so he arrests Peter. Peter is now asleep in the prison and an angel appears and strikes him on the side. Just imagine that, waking up in a dark, nasty cell surrounded by a bright light and an angel striking you. Not the kind of an angel apparition that many would like to have. That would have been scary. Now add to the fact that the words that the angel speaks are not sweet and soft. The angel woke up Peter telling him, “Get up, quickly.” The chains fell from Peter hands and the next thing he hears is the angel telling him “Dress yourself and put on your sandals.” The angel appeared in a fantastic way, now he surrounds Peter with a bright light, strikes him, breaks his chains and asks him to dress up quickly. Without much thought, they pass by two soldiers and find themselves in the street. Peter in now all by himself, the angel has departed and just then he realizes that this had not been a dream. This is how things work when you are in the business of preaching the gospel. You either get the beatings from men or the striking from angels whom God sends to break chains and open doors.

Now keep on reading and see the wonderful lesson in the story. In one of Peter’s friends’ house many saints had gather together to pray for Peter’s deliverance as soon as they had heard the news of his arrest. These saints prayed earnestly (v.5), and no one would have dared to doubt their faith. The answer to their prayer came when they were praying earnestly -but expecting nothing: the Lord sent his angel and Peter was out in the streets walking towards his friend’s house where they were all gathered. The saints were still praying earnestly. God’s answer to their prayers knocks at the door and they don’t believe the miracle. They even scolded Rhoda, the servant girl who first recognized Peter’s voice -and believed the miracle- with harsh words saying, “You are out of your mind.” Talk about being in the spirit and all of a sudden acting in the flesh? Here you have a good example.  But Rhoda, and I just love that her name is here for us to remember, kept insisting, It is Peter, it is him. He is here! But the men who had been praying earnestly did not believe her. They thought it was easier to have an angel knocking at the door than Peter himself (I guess they had to listen from Peter how angels open doors and strike people, and not necessarily knock at doors).

This story has taught me an enormous lesson:  God hears and answers our earnest prayers, not because of our faith, as if our faith had power in itself to change things, but because He is full of grace. He answers the prayers of his own in spite of our unbelief because He is our Heavenly Father.

We pray not to change God’s will, we pray because we have been commanded by God to pray. The saints in this story prayed earnestly and God’s will happened even though their faith was little. What an encouragement! Let us pray earnestly, without ceasing. Let us get together with our family and with our friends to pray. God will sure hear us, and His will will be done on earth as it is done in Heaven. Our prayers avail much not because of our own merits, but because the God who hears us has mercy on us. He moves us to pray and to pray earnestly. Let us keep praying, friends, soon an expected-unexpected miracle will knock at our door.

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

 

Becky

Jesus’ Prayer to the Father

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Grace Foretold by Makoto Fujimura

 

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said,
“Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you,
since you have given him authority over all flesh,
to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
And this is eternal life,
that they know you the only true God,
and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
I glorified you on earth,
having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.
And now, Father,
glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you
before the world existed.

 

 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world.
Yours they were,
and you gave them to me,
and they have kept your word.
Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you.
For I have given them the words that you gave me,
and they have received them
and have come to know in truth that I came from you;
and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them.
I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me,
for they are yours.
All mine are yours, and yours are mine,
and I am glorified in them.
And I am no longer in the world,
but they are in the world,
and I am coming to you.
Holy Father,
keep them in your name,
which you have given me,
that they may be one,
 even as we are one.
While I was with them,
I kept them in your name,
which you have given me.
I have guarded them,
and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction,
that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
But now I am coming to you,
and these things I speak in the world,
that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
I have given them your word,
and the world has hated them because they are not of the world,
just as I am not of the world.
I do not ask that you take them out of the world,
but that you keep them from the evil one.
They are not of the world,
just as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them in the truth;
your word is truth.
As you sent me into the world,
so I have sent them into the world.
And for their sake I consecrate myself,
that they also may be sanctified in truth.

 

“I do not ask for these only,
but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
that they may all be one,
just as you,
Father, are in me,
and I in you,
that they also may be in us,
so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
The glory that you have given me I have given to them,
that they may be one even as we are one,
I in them and you in me,
that they may become perfectly one,
so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
Father, I desire that they also,
whom you have given me, may be with me where I am,
to see my glory that you have given me
because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
O Righteous Father,
even though the world does not know you,
I know you, and these know that you have sent me.
I made known to them your name,
and I will continue to make it known,
that the love with which you have loved me may be in them,
and I in them.”
 John 17:1-26



Father, O Righteous and Holy Father, I thank you for Jesus, for his prayers, for his unceasing intercession for us.


I love you, Abba Father.

Amen.

Becky

The Greatest Temptation in the Wilderness

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Jan Havicksz c.1660

These are some reflections I gleaned this morning while reading Psalm 78 (especially verses 18-24 ).

We are just like Israel, whose greatest temptation in the desert land was to test God. We are like them when we are led by the Spirit to the wilderness and found ourselves starting to demand from Him food,  pleasures, and the same kind of satisfactions that the world, in which we were once enslaved, offers us. It is that longing in our heart, deep within, that rebels in the quiet, and speaks against God saying, “Can God spread a table in the wilderness?” that reveals our sin.

See what is there? We doubt God’s goodness, His sovereignty, His promises. We start craving for the world because the satisfaction it offers is immediate. We forget that even in the wilderness He sustains his own. We forget that He has said that we are engraved in the palm of His hand, and that we are the apple of His eye.

How can we forget  that He has already provided Jesus, the Living Water, so that we won’t thirst anymore? Our Lord Jesus was struck on the cross just as the rock in the desert and life, living water,  gushed out and streams overflowed. Why do we long to drink water from broken cisterns, from poisoned rivers?

How can we forget that Jesus himself said that He is the Bread of Life? How can we long for something else? Only He has words of eternal life. Only when we come to Him and eat at his table is that we will be truly satisfied. Only and only then.

How easily it is for us to stop believing in God and in His saving power. He will never, never, never let His people die in the wilderness. Never.

The Lord is our Shepherd,
we shall not want.

The Lord is our Father,
we shall never be abandoned.

The Lord is our Life,
we shall not die.

The Lord is our Hope,
we shall not despair.

The Lord is our Refuge,
we shall not fear.

Come to the table, grab your bible, read it, mediate on it, pray over it. It is food to your soul, medicine to your bones. Goodness and life. It is Living Water, come drink, my friend, and thirst no more.

 

Becky

Hope in the Midst of the Consequences of Our Sin

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Annie Pliego Photography

My children and I are reading together Ezra after lunch and most of the times, with a bowl of ice cream out in our back yard.

Yesterday we came to Ezra 9, this is the passage in which Ezra gets the news that “The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with their abominations, from the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. For they have taken some of their daughters to be wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands.”

Ezra’s response to the sin of his people was like the one Jesus talked about on the Sermon of the Mountain, “Blessed are those who mourn…”  Ezra tore his cloak and even pulled hair from his head and beard in great distress. Ezra fasted as he mourned, and when the evening came, he fell on his knees and prayed spreading out his hands to God.

The faithlessness of the people, their sin had been great, and Ezra knew it. He confessed their great sin before a Holy God. No excuses, nothing else to add, it was but the cry of a repentant heart. A mourner.

“O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens. From the days of our fathers to this day we have been in great guilt.”

Ezra keeps crying on his knees to God, he knows that all the affliction that has come upon them has been a consequence of their great sin. And then these words come out of his mouth, and it was here where I found myself reading aloud with a lump on my throat:

“For we are slaves. Yet our God has not forsaken us in our slavery, but has extended to us his steadfast love before the kings of Persia, to grant us some reviving to set up the house of our God, to repair its ruins, and to give us protection in Judea and Jerusalem.”

Even in the midst of the terrible consequences of our sin, we can find hope. Even there we find His grace. His grace towards his people never ceases. His mercies are new every morning. His steadfast love reaches to His own even when we have sinned.  He repairs what we have torn down. He revives our broken hearts. He frees us from the slavery. He protects us.

“And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, seeing that you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserved and have given us such a remnant as this, shall we break your commandments again and intermarry with the peoples who practice these abominations? Would you not be angry with us until you consumed us, so that there should be no remnant, nor any to escape? O Lord, the God of Israel, you are just, for we are left a remnant that has escaped, as it is today. Behold, we are before you in our guilt, for none can stand before you because of this.””

Ezra did not see the end of the story then. Jesus came and took our guilt, our punishment on his body on the cross. All the suffering that we deserved he bore in our place.

David knew this as well when he said,

“He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.” Psalm 103:10

“Behold, we are before you in our guilt, for none can stand before you because of this.” Certainly we cannot stand before a holy God if we have not seen our desperate need for Him and have not repented from our great sins. We do not have hope to stand before God and not be consumed, apart from Jesus who came and died and rose again, and is now sited at the right hand of God interceding for us. He is the Way, the Truth, the Life.

Because of His great love towards His people, we have eternal hope even in the midst of the consequences of our great sins: We will indeed be comforted. The night will be gone and the day will arise. Our tears will be dried out, the fighting will be over. He will give us “beauty instead of ashes, oil of gladness instead of mourning, a garment of praise instead of a faint spirit” (Is. 61)

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

Becky