Promise to His Betrothed

Back in December, I published a poem entitled “The Glory of My Sovereign”.  In subsequent comments, I told of possibly a sequel or two.   I since have posted the first one, entitled “The Bride Responds”.  I had a third conceptually in my head but struggled with words to put it on paper.  It seems to be a epidemic with me these days (struggling with words, that is).  Now, a month and a half later, these words come spilling out of me like a river that’s been dammed up for too long.  Though other words perhaps fail me, I trust these won’t.  It’s entitled “Promise to His Betrothed”, hence the title of the post. :)

 

 

Come to Me and I will embrace you

My embrace heals; it breaks bondage

The truth of My love clears away the lies

My love buys back; it can not fail

Come to Me and I will mold you

 

I will make you again the jewel of My crown

I will restore the destruction your old life caused

I too have a great and awesome plan

You will be a weapon in My mighty hand

In you I will work a still Greater Humiliation

 

As the bought one reflects her purchaser

Like a perfect mirror reflects My face

The life I laid down will be the life you’ll live

Because I still live, though I died

You also will live the new life I give

 

 Written 1/25/09 by JA Menter

 

Names

There has always been something significant about the names of the Bible.  Many people had their name changed as their character changed or they met God.  The couple I’ve read a bit about lately is Abram and Sarai.  God changed their names to Abraham and Sarah because of His promise to them that He would make them the parents of nations.  Still others had their name changed in the Bible either by God or by pagans.  Jacob’s name was changed to Israel after he wrestled with God.  Joshua’s name wasn’t always Joshua but Hoshea, a change that Moses made as Hoshea served him. His name meant “Salvation” at first, but Moses changed it to “The Lord Saves”. Solomon’s name was changed by God to Jedidiah “Beloved of God”.  Daniel and his three friends had their names changed by the pagan King Nebuchadnezzer of Babylon, in an attempt to steal their Jewish identity from them and make them pagan.  It didn’t work because Daniel and his friends knew the meaning of Daniel: “God is my Judge”.

Even characters in the New Testament experienced new names.  Simon was called Peter by Christ, A change from “He who hears” to “Rock”.  Saul was called Paul, from “death” to “small”.  I wonder if he thought about that as he wrote his epistles about living Christ’s life and becoming nothing that Christ might be made manifest.

So then, what does all this matter?  My name is Joshua Aaron.  It means “The Lord saves the mountain of strength.”  I believe there is a reason that is my name, and perhaps Mom can help me with the story on this.  Aaron means mountain of strength, yet the Aaron of the Bible was weak and easily swayed by the people.  Even the strong need saving.  Truly, my name is a promise.  Even when I feel strong, I still need saving.  God promises to save.  Zepheniah 3:17 starts by saying, “The Lord your God is in your midst.  The Mighty One will save.” I think we all know the rest of the verse.  I’m at a time where I feel weak, even unto death, and wonder why I can’t sense God in my midst.  Yet, even now, the Mighty One is in my midst and He will save.  The Lord saves the mountain of strength even when he is Saul.

Been a While

The last time I posted, I was in the middle of finals about three weeks ago.  The last two entries were poems I wrote during a week that was hard on me mentally.  I’ve made it plain that finals week was a mental war of attrition for me, one I don’t know if I won.  It was a week I had much more on my mind than just the four tests and a paper I had to somehow find energy to complete that week. More than the anxiety of having a weekend afterward to go see my Grandpa, who’d been in the hospital for ten days. He’s still in assisted care, but doing much better.  Days away from Christmas having never entered a store to shop for gifts. Battling thoughts that zoom through my head day and night that make sleep difficult at best.  For about two months, I’ve jolted wide awake every morning at almost exactly 3, only to find that sleep doesn’t come before 4:30 and 6:30 comes after opening my eyes perhaps 3 more times between.  Even on nights that I’m worn out and turn off my light at 9:30, sleep doesn’t come until midnight or later and then the cycle of restless sleep repeats.  There was only one night in the past two months that I’ve slept 6 hours straight.

After finals week and the four days with my grandparents that followed, I tried to concentrate on writing my story, since that’s why I was looking forward to school being done in the first place.  For the first time in my entire short life, I am having difficulty concentrating on something I enjoy very much.  Whenever I have been able to concentrate on it, the story doesn’t flow out of me like it used to.

On Christmas Eve, I took a moment and was still, trying to listen.  All I heard was my ears popping and my heart throbbing.  In other times and places, I would be able to catch myself thinking things, if only for a second before some other thought stole through my mind.  That day, though, nothing.  I was too exhausted to think.

A new year, whatever does it mean?  Years mean little when life is taken one slow day at a time.  I feel like I’ve been grinding it out for much too long.  Someone once asked, “Are you living life or is life living you?”  To be painfully honest, in many aspects of the past few months, life has been living me.  Often times, it’s thrown me away, to drag me back in when things slow down a very little. 

It has been hard, harder than I could ever have imagined, and sometimes I wish these months of days would just end.  Yet, many things have encouraged me in these times.  With a grain of salt, it hasn’t been all thorns and daggers.  December 31st, I read the last chapters of the Bible about the last wedding feast of the Lamb.  We who’ve made the Lamb our Lord are all invited; It will be more amazing than anything yet seen.  With the last amen I read, I accomplished my only resolution for 2008.  Jason challenged me to read through the Bible in 2008 and i did.  There were times that I made myself too busy or lost focus on the Lamb who was slain, but He was always there to remind me of His goodness and His perfect faithfulness.  This last year, I’ve done many things that I’d never done before, good and bad, but the one thing I can say with absolute confidence is the hours I spent reading the Bible were the best spent hours of my entire life.  The Word of God is the most addicting book you’ll ever read. I’m going to read it again, anyone care to take up the challenge?