Yes Jesus Loves Me

…For the Bible tells me so.

This journey as a woman is quite the adventure. I love it when I am known well enough where someone else can speak on my behalf. Today, I speak. Not just on my behalf, but on behalf of my better half… (tongue in cheek).

_____ Lives Matter

I was explaining a dating experience to a friend and ended with... “This is what women have to go through out here in these streets“. To which he responded, “Kim, men go through that stuff too”.

I paused and replied, “I never excluded men‘s experiences, I just spoke as and for a woman because that is the perspective I know and was sharing. But your response to me is analogous of someone saying ’Black Lives Matter‘ and the retort to be ‘All Lives Matter’😔🤦🏽‍♀️🤷🏽‍♀️🙄

We can go toe to toe day after day battling over our differences. But that is explicit division and depletion (subtraction). Love is not supposed to be a battlefield, Pat Benatar! It is supposed to be safe space and common ground. Love is a place where we get to put down our weapons, stop swinging, taking cheap shots and live harmoniously. How do I know, because God is Love.

HERE IN THE GARDEN

Life was perfect in Genesis 1 and 2. Things flipped upside down in chapter 3. Due to that we live in a fallen cursed world and sadly ascribe to fallen ideology. There is a danger especially when we mix ideology with theology. And then we have the nerve to wonder why the world rejects Christian marriage….

God issued curses in Genesis 3. But Redemption and Salvation came in John 3. Galatians 3:13 says "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us…"

Check out this Genesis (Curse) vs John (Redemption) parallel.

Genesis 3:14 And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

John 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: LIGHT The Curse Casts Down BUT Redemption Lifts Up

Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

John 3:15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

LIGHT What will you believe? "All your life you have to fight!" Or "life is worth living because Jesus lives".

Genesis 3:16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

LIGHT Woman (and man) Redeemed From the Genesis Curse

Genesis 3:17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

John 3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.Man (and woman) Redeemed From the Genesis Curse

Labor to Enter into This Rest

To Love anyone or anything, true Love cannot be accomplished outside of God (is Love ). So in the framework of marriage, as men and women live within their assignment, those roles are performed thru God (is Love). As prescribed in Ephesians 5, man and woman submits to God. The woman submits to her husband and a husband loves his wife as Christ loves the church and gives himself for her. Furthermore he loves his wife as he loves himself….

This God connection is critical, because a woman will suffer submitted to the wrong man. And a man will suffer giving himself to the wrong woman. And so we pray for Kingdom marriage(s).

This is a NEW TESTAMENT (John 3) way of thinking that is in juxtaposition to the Genesis "Rule Over Thee" curse. That doesn't sound much like Love (is God). It was a just penalty.

Also this is not a role reversal either. Since the Ephesians 5 husband is to love his wife as Christ loves the church, that is neither a change of rulership where the woman "rules over the man". Remember that marriage is the mysterious picture of Christ marrying His Bride (the Church). They rule together throughout eternity and operate in dominion; not as minions.

Marriage is service not "served" (where 1 side gets served). We are to render service to one another but are to SERVE God with gladness and come before His presence with singing!

SING!!!

Look, let's first go back to the song… "Yes Jesus Loves Me (Repeat 2 more times ) for the Bible tells me so". To live that Genesis 3:16 & 3:17 way, doesn't feel like Love at all for real, for real. I feels harsh and laborious and is… For it is the sin penalty! But read and compare the text above and see the reflection of the LIGHT of truth shining in the text as God's expression of Love …. JESUS's Love redeems and saves!!!!

As a woman, I am Loved and feel Loved knowing God has given me free will! SELAH In return, I Love God back by keeping His commandments. Freely I receive and freely I give… In the context of marriage, I give my submission to my husband and operate as a help to him. Not a contrary hinderance. Both parties complete as individuals and capable of independent living decisively uniting as 1. This is untraditional bliss submitted to this NEW TESTAMENT Ephesians 5 husband.

Though not a man, I can imagine that some men would think it laborious to "have to" love a woman and give himself FOR her as Christ did the church.

But listen to this true story. There was this girl that had a high school crush on my brother… Years later I saw her in a store. She had her teenage daughter with her. She introduced me and proceeded to tell me that her daughter was a product of rape. I can't remember much more of what she said after that. For I felt the horror that her daughter must have felt, for this story came with the greeting. Not to say the daughter wasn't Loved, but the story she often heard was not one of that lead with Love.

For a man to see his Ephesians 5 Loved for his wife as laborious is like the OMG of the story above. God gives a man a woman to Love… Like the man is Loved…. Like the man knows God Loves Him. Like the man who has found and received the redemption of John 3:17 which overrides the curse of Genesis 3:17. HALLELUJAH!!!!

HERE COMES THE BRIDE?

Now there is a lot of unlearning and mind renewal that is necessary for and in the body of Christ.

We have a wedding to get ready for!!!

Christ is returning for His bride, without spot or wrinkle. We are to address the dress!!!!

To continue living relationships where the help mate is seen as a help maid, lorded over and in her place is not what God called for or created (Genesis 1 & 2). A Genesis 3 spouse with a Genesis 3 spouse is not winning. Neither is a Genesis 3 spouse with a John 3 spouse; there is still strife. The submitted and redeemed John 3, Ephesians 5 husband and wife is the winning team. You know, the 2 that puts 10,000 to flight. This team has victory in Jesus. It is Fruitfulness and Multiplication that comes in the jurisdiction of the Kingdom of God.

To know this life is to know God's Love for and through you. Oh HOW He Loves us. Can you say that? Can you say, "Jesus Loves me". Yes! Jesus Loves me, for the Bible tells me so.

How do I know this?

I believe this is a yoke breaking revelation. I write this for I am a wife. Divorce has turned into "a light affliction" to me. For I see the far exceeding glory. I operate in my life, not as a single person, but as a wife. For I grow in preparation for a physical man as God as/is my husband (Isaiah 54:5). Our Husband… who art in heaven!

Kingdom Lives Matter!