After the party and the cleanup, what’s next?
Thanks to everyone who helped us, Jubilee, celebrate our fortieth birthday on Sunday. The day was messy and magnificent, as our Beloved came with His friends into our garden of spices. Worship, the testimonies of Jesus, old and new friends, the impartation of authority and wisdom through the laying on of hands by those who have walked with the Lord for forty years, and the Luau.
We had technical issues with the Livestream on Sunday but were able to record the entire service. To Watch Now on Demand, click here.
I have come to my garden, my sister, my spouse; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, O friends! Drink, yes, drink deeply, O beloved ones! Song of Solomon 5:1
The party is over, now what? New adventures await us after we clean up and rest, for our Beloved comes calling.
I sleep, but my heart is awake; it is the voice of my beloved! He knocks, saying, “Open for me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one; For my head is covered with dew, my locks with the drops of the night.” Song of Solomon 5:2
Here is where our Beloved woos us into our next adventure in love. He is calling, but we are still recovering from the last messy garden party and are not sure we can give him access and so we say.
I have taken off my robe; How can I put it on again? I have washed my feet; How can I defile them? Song of Solomon 5:3
Don’t worry, He will persuade us again and again and again, and we will rise to meet him.
My beloved put his hand by the latch of the door, and my heart yearned for him. I arose to open for my beloved and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh on the handles of the lock. Song of Solomon 5:4, 5
New discoveries are before us. Old ways are no longer His new ways, new things springing forth; will we not know them? Yes, we will, but we must seek Him, encounter resistance, and even questioning, “What is the big deal of our beloved.” And then we will praise Him, declare to others who our beloved is. When we do, we will know Him in this new place and bring others with us.
I opened for my beloved, but my beloved had turned away and was gone. My heart leaped up when he spoke. I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him; but he gave me no answer. The watchmen who went about the city found me. They struck me and wounded me; the keepers of the walls took my veil away from me. I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you tell him I am lovesick! What is your beloved more than another beloved, O fairest among women? What is your beloved more than another beloved, that you so charge us? Song of Solomon 5:9
My beloved is…. Song of Solomon 5: 10-16; 6:1-3
It is time for each of us to finish these words.