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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2013-07-18, Page 12PAGE 12. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JULY 18, 2013. By Rev. Mark Royall Huron Chapel Evangelical Missionary Church To whom in your life do you say the words, “I love you”? Is it your closest friend? Your parents? Your spouse? Your children? I know ‘love’ is a word that has become common, but to who in your life does the word, “love” mean everything to you? We have to be careful here. It is good to love, but love for a person can become a “small g” god when we put our ultimate hope and security in that person instead of the one true God. More people than you realize have, or are looking for a relationship to save them, complete them, make them happy and give them security. And our culture supports this idea with the movies we watch, the books we read and the music we listen to. A lot of songs paint romantic love as the ultimate human experience we can know. How about this lyric from a famous song? “I can’t live if living is without you...” Wow! Imagine not being able to live without a particular person in your life. Again, we are placing a great weight of responsibility upon that person. I like to sing this one to my wife, “You are so beautiful to me, Can’t you see, You’re everything I hoped for, You’re everything I need...” My wife is beautiful and I love her a lot but it isn’t fair to expect her to be everything I need. Only God can be this for me. Now I am not a country and western music fan but I know a lot of you are. So, in all fairness I checked out some of the lyrics on country and western songs too. It has reaffirmed my aversion for this music though it did make me laugh. Here are some of lines from country and western love songs: “How Can I Miss You If You Won’t Go Away?” “I Changed Her Oil, She Changed My Life.” “I’ve Got The Hungries For Your Love And I’m Waiting In Your Welfare Line.” “My John Deere Was Breaking Your Field, While Your Dear John Was Breaking My Heart.” and my favourite one.... “My Wife Ran Off With My Best Friend, And I Sure Do Miss Him.” I rest my case. In Genesis 29, there is a story that is kind of like a country and western love song. It is a love story you would expect to see on one of those old television soap operas but not in the Scriptures. It all begins when Abraham’s grandson Jacob falls in love with a young woman named Rachel. The Bible describes her this way, “Rachel had a beautiful figure and a lovely face.” Rachel had an older sister named Leah who wasn’t as desirable. The Bible says, “She had no sparkle in her eyes.” Jacob makes a deal with Rachel’s dad that he will work for him for seven years and when he finished, he can marry her. When the seven years were up wedding plans were made. We read in Genesis 29:22-23 & 25, “So Laban invited everyone in the neighborhood and prepared a wedding feast. But that night, when it was dark, Laban took Leah to Jacob, and he slept with her...when Jacob woke up in the morning—it was Leah!” Jacob woke up expecting to find he had married Rachel the one with the beautiful figure and a lovely face, and found Leah, the one who had no sparkle in her eyes! He was outraged at the father for tricking him. If you keep reading in the story eventually Jacob marries Rachel as well. Leah loves her husband Jacob and wants more than anything else for him to love her back. But he’s really not that interested because Rachel is the one he loves. And it is a sad story because Leah spends her life hoping and dreaming of the day she will feel love from her husband. About the only thing Leah had going for her was that she was able to have children, while her sister Rachel had trouble conceiving. Now having children was a big deal in that culture. So with every child Leah gives birth to... she thinks, maybe now my husband will notice me. Maybe now he will love me. Genesis 29:32-34 tells us that she gave birth to three sons for Jacob. Notice the meaning of the names she gives her boys. “So Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, for she said, “The Lord has noticed my misery, and now my husband will love me.” She soon became pregnant again and gave birth to another son. She named him Simeon, for she said, “The Lord heard that I was unloved and has given me another son.” Then she became pregnant a third time and gave birth to another son.” She named him Levi, for she said, “Surely this time my husband will feel affection for me, since I have given him three sons!” Every time a child comes along she says, “Finally he’ll love me. Finally we can have a real marriage. “What she wanted more than anything else was love. It had become the god she worshipped above all else in her life. And the Bible tells this story and we tell it again today because people will still look to someone else in their life to complete them when only God alone can fulfill this role. The problem is not so much the person we love but that we have come to worship the idea of love. As children we read books that end with “and they lived happily ever after.” And we end up putting that dream on the altar and bowing down to it. Now don’t misunderstand, these relationships are often beautiful gifts from God. The problem comes when those relationships replace Him. The problem is when we think someone will complete us the way only God can do in our life. Ultimately nothing is more destructive to our love life than to put romantic love on the throne instead of God. It puts incredible pressure on the relationship because we are saying to the person, I want you to do for me what God alone can do for me. That’s a lot of pressure! Not only that....it is impossible. And given enough time and pressure the relationship will start to crack. Leah was desperate to find satisfaction from the god of romantic love. Every time she gave birth to a child she thought, maybe now my husband will notice me – maybe now he will love me. But it just never happened. Then we read this in verse 35: “She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, "This time I will praise the LORD." So she named him Judah.” She finally made God the focus of her life and not her husband. She finally stopped looking to her husband for those things that only God can give and she turned to God and said, "This time I will praise the Lord," And she named her son Judah, which sounds like the Hebrew word for Praise. We read about Judah years later in the New Testament where Matthew Judah giving us the lineage of Jesus. Matthew 1:2 says Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac was the father of Jacob, and Jacob was the father of Judah…Leah’s fourth son. God had a good plan for this marriage. When Leah made the decision see God as her source of fulfillment and hope in him, He was able to use that by ushering in His Saviour for the world through that trust and hope. What could God do through you for your family and in your life when you put Him in the greatest place of honour in your heart? Worship Service & Sunday School at 11 a.m. CORNER OF DINSLEY & MILL STREETS MINISTER Rev. Gary Clark, BA, M. Div. All Welcome MUSIC DIRECTOR Floyd Herman, BA, M. Ed.OFFICE: 519-523-4224 NEW START TIME FOR WORSHIP IS 10 AM ALL WELCOME Worship Service & Sunday School at 10 a.m. You’re Invited To Join Us In Worship SUNDAYS Morning Service 10:00 am Evening Service 7:30 pm BLYTH CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH Hwy. 4, Blyth 519-523-4743 www.blythcrc.ca Minister: Pastor Gary Van Leeuwen We welcome all to our Outdoor Service and Potluck Picnic on Sunday, July 21 at 10:00 am at the Blyth Lions Park BRUSSELS Sandra Cable, Pastor ~ Church Office 519-887-6259 E-mail - beunitedchurch@gmail.com Celebrating our Christian Faith together in worship United Church Church is closed for the month of July You are welcome to worship at Blyth United or Melville Presbyterian, Brussels Youre Invited to come worship with us Sunday, July 21 Brussels Business & Cultural Centre at 10:30 a.m. Sunday School for children 4 to 11 years of age at 9:30 a.m. 6:30 p.m. service at various locations for July and August. Childcare provided for infants and preschoolers during the sermon. Coffee & cookies after the morning service For additional details please contact Pastor Andrew Versteeg 519.887.8621 Steve Klumpenhower 519.887.8651 Rick Packer 519.527.0173 MELVILLE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH BRUSSELS Rev. Elwin Garland SUNDAY, JULY 21 Wheelchair accessible ~ Nursery care available 519-887-9017 10:00 am - Sunday Morning Worship - Sunday School getlivingwater.org Living Water Christian Fellowship 10:30 a.m. ~ Worship & Sunday School at 308 Blyth Rd. (former Church of God) Pastor: Ernest Dow ~ 519-523-4848 July 21: Lk. 12:32ff Evangelical Missionary Church “The Heart’s Treasure, the Servant’s Alertness” 250 Princess St., Brussels 519-887-6388 www.bmfchurch.com Pastor Jim Whitehead Guests Welcome Jesus Is Lord! Brussels Mennonite Fellowship Worship Service 10:00 am Coffee & Fellowship From the Minister’s StudyPut your relationship with God above all else Start Building A Better Life This Sunday @ Huron Chapel 10:30 am every Sunday - www. huronchapel.com tS Building A t art Building A Buildin gA T uSsih @yadn oruH@ ahCno lepa 1 T vema03:01 uSsih yadnuSyrev @yadn h.www-y oruH@ epahcnoru ahCno moc.l lepa