Thought for the Week - 18th February

Pastor Diana Rutherford

Song of Songs 1: 2

…for thy love is better than wine.

Wine in the bible is used a symbol of joy and life. An example would be in Mark 2:22 where we read of the new wine bursting out of old wine skins because it produced much more life.

Unlike the wine of the world, with God’s wine – His love – we can drink as much as we want. There is no limit to how much you can come and take, and drink, of the love of God. The love of God is abundant and infinite. We have potential to drink as much as we can of that amazing love of God. Indeed, in Songs of Songs 5:1 we read: “drink abundantly, O beloved”.

In Isaiah 55:1 we read: “come, buy wine and milk without money and without price”. The love of God is free! We can buy the wine of God and drink without money or price! The love of God is the freest thing in the world! It’s abundant like an ocean, and we can freely come to drink. We can just take abundantly. It is the highest delight of all who know Christ. It should be the thing that we love doing the most; tasting of the love of God.

In Song of Songs 8:7 we read: “if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.” We can’t make God give us that love. Sometimes we strive to know the love of God. If we could give all we have, we couldn’t receive the love of God; we can’t bargain. We cannot bribe God or make Him give us anything. We can surrender all, and pray that He might reveal to us His love.

The love of Christ is perfect! There is no flaw in it. There’s always a flaw in human love. But the love of Christ has no flaw and no fault. There is nothing impure in it and there is nothing unsatisfactory. It is perfect.

In Song of Songs 5:16 we read: “His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.” The words that come from His mouth are love! The description of Christ in Song of Songs is beautiful. His mouth is most sweet – what comes forth from His lips is perfect. It’s sweet, it’s lovely, and it’s gentle yet forceful.

There is a lovely sweetness to Christ. Christ is the very Word of God, the words that come from His lips, and the very expression of what He is. He is altogether sweet and beautiful inside. As He gives us His words and speaks into our hearts that is the very expression of what He is. Christ is the Word of God and the expression of the Father. Therefore the Father is sweetness and loveliness.

That love of God is perfect. When you come to find it, and receive it, and when we come to drink it abundantly, it’s perfect.

How wonderful when Christ gives us His love! We are workers in His vineyard with Him. We go forth with Him into the work. We need to seek that love, look for it, and not become so busy in our lives that we lose those moments with the altogether lovely one.

Unlike the wine of the world, which can ferment into vinegar, Christ’s love never goes off or never turns sour. It never changes or alters. It produces no ill effects. Christ’s love almost has the opposite effect of too much wine. While alcohol brings lack of clarity and inhibitions, the love of Christ brings a sharpened mind. He gives to you the right words at right time. Instead of a memory dulled, all facets of Christ are sharpened. Instead of falling asleep, Christ makes you alive, awake and full of energy! Instead of a hangover, with Christ you feel wonderful! Think what it’ll be like in eternity when that love is poured out on us all the time!

We can be inebriated by the presence of God, like in Acts 2. When the Spirit of God is on us, we don’t care who is watching or who sees us! We’re so aware of God’s presence. It lifts the soul into a clear atmosphere, elevates the spirit into clarity, and into communion with the living God.

In Deuteronomy 33:28 we read:

Israel then shall dwell in safety alone:
the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine;
also his heavens shall drop down dew.
This is what God is bringing us into. The corn speaks to us of souls being saved, and the harvest. The wine speaks to us of the Holy Spirit.

In Deuteronomy 7:13 we read:

And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee:
will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land,
thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil,
the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep,
in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee.
This is the abundance of God! As we learn to abide in the love of God, and as we feed from that love of God, then we will transmit love. God takes us as we are and uses us as we are.

Love has to be supreme. We must love souls, even in their imperfections and even in their error. We need to love every soul through to eternity. We must drink of His perfection and love, so that we have enough in us to pour out upon others. He will love us, bless us and multiply us.

Ecclesiastes 9:7-8

Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart;
for God now accepteth thy works.
Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head lack no ointment.
Amen.

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