God sure is a GREAT husband

“I declare that this place is HOLY- that God WON this place when He died. That Jesus triumphs over Satan even in what seems like the darkest of places”
 
Last night, these are the words that continuously spewed out of my mouth—loudly, on Bangla road. More than ever, the darkness was obvious and I, like others, had a difficult time with seeing lust.
 
At one of the first bars we stopped at last night, a movie with Adrien Brody appeared on the screen. I LOVE film, so of course, I watched…only to see a full sex scene with him and an alien, an evil alien. What was disturbing to me (apart from something like this being shown in a public place) was that this alien was tied down and tortured. She was stuck and disgusted. EVERYONE in the bar (customers and employees alike) were FIXATED on the screen.
I couldn’t stop their fascination, I couldn’t stop them from glaring, and through that I understood more of the mindset of this city. The situation here has such parallels to the film. These women are stuck and these men are lustful, just as the film showed. Yet in both situations, it wasn’t portrayed as evil, but rather as glamorous and okay.
 
After this bar, I felt that God showed me more of what breaks His heart, especially in seeing expressed lust towards our group. Last night was particularly difficult in that for me. Lately God has been giving me the word “beauty” and I see its constant significance. When boys would motion certain things or say certain things, or even quickly caress my arm as they walk by, I saw that this “beauty” (that we all have) became something that I began to hate. I felt guilt for causing others to lust in this way.
 
A few words of wisdom were spoken to me: What the men were noticing was not as much our physical beauty (the kind of beauty praised in society), but the beauty of His Spirit. Some may not recognize WHAT this is and mistake it for something to lust over. They may see a difference in us and react in a way out of habit.
But what is different and what is making us glow is the love of God!
 
What a blessing to have God’s love inside of me.
 
Something I have been learning more about is that God IS Love. It is His essence- Something He ALWAYS is…He can’t help it!
 
So if God is love, and the Spirit inside of us is God, then the Spirit is LOVE. Love is rushing through us…not our own love, but Christ’s! and THAT is the love that these men are noticing—because this love is like a bright light. We’re glowing! And it is with THIS love that is from God that I would like to see the men of this city.
 
And I feel like an extent of this could happen. After all, God is love and has SO much love that by His strength, and prayers (please be praying), maybe I could begin to see these people through His eyes and love for them.
 
To conclude, I wanted to share with you something that has given me a cool picture of how much God loves.
Our group has been casually talking about love languages with boys- How we give and receive love. There are the languages of gifts, words of affirmation, physical touch, personal time, and acts of service.
 
As I stood in the water of a beautiful beach this weekend, I began to look at the ocean as a gift from God, and I began to revel in how God satisfied that love language. Thinking about it, I reveled in how He satisfies all of them.
 
If your love language is gifts, God gives you the trees, the tops of the mountains, the waves of the oceans. He places the biggest diamonds on earth just in case you see them. He gives us spiritual gifts, as He gifted me with speaking in tongues last Friday. He makes the stars SHINE for you!
 
If your love language is words of affirmation, God tells you that you are worthy of love, that you are perfect in Him. He declares that He LOVE you! He has more good things to say about you than there are grains of sand.
 
If your love language is touch, God definitely did not forget about you. He doesn’t just hug you or hold your hand, He lives INSIDE of you and touches your heart!
 
If your love language is personal time, God is omnipresent! He is ALWAYS with you. There is not one second of your life that God doesn’t want to be RIGHT next to you for. He wants to spend more time with us than we even have, so He made it so we have all the time in the world…He made it so we have Eternity with Him!
 
And Finally, if your love language is acts of service, God- the most Holy Jesus- came to this disgusting world. As if that weren’t enough, He healed people, and heals people today. He washed us clean and HE DIED FOR US. What greater act of service is there? He loved us so much that He died for us.
 
So if we are the bride of Christ, we are the luckiest bride of all time and in all the universe…
Because our God doesn’t half-ass love
 
The AGAPE IS FLOWIN! He LOVES!