'The Old Rugged Cross"

"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of GOD." I Corinthians 1:18

The Old Rugged Cross by George Bernard

On a hill faraway stood an old rugged cross, The emblem of suffering and shame;
And I love that old cross, where the dearest and best, For a world of lost sinners was slain.

O the old rugged cross, so despised by the world, Has a wondrous attraction for me;
For the dear LAMB of GOD left HIS glory above to bear it to dark Calvary.

In the old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine, A wondrous beauty I see;
For 'twas on that old cross JESUS suffered and died to pardon and sanctify me.

To the old rugged cross I will every be true; Its shame and reproach gladly bear.
Then HE'll call me someday to my home far away Where HIS glory forever I'll share.

Chorus:
So I'll cherish the old rugged cross, till my trophies at last I lay down
I will cling to the old rugged cross, and exchange it someday for a crown.

Dear Praying Friends and Family,

Ten years ago, this Easter Sunday, I left my husband and my two children who were 9 and 7 at the time, and boarded an airplane for Dallas, Texas. I wasn't sure how long i would be gone, i had hoped no longer than a couple of weeks, but it turned into six and a half weeks before i would see my babies again. I had reached the point of desperation in my struggle with my health issues, and tried doctor after doctor after doctor with little or no help and often the treatment i received made me worse. I didn't know what was wrong with me, I had been sick for 9 years, since John Mac was 8 months old, with pain that began in my back and gradually migrated all over my body, not to mention it felt like my back muscles had shrunk and were a couple of sizes to small for me, allergic reactions to medicine that sent me to the emergency room for the first time in my life, twice, actually, and left me with searing burning pain throughout my body for months. I had to eat constantly and huge amounts to stay full, was a nervous wreck, and had reached the point that i could not walk unless i took IV's. I was 36 years old, and i was a mess. It was humbling to say the least after being a college athlete, becoming an RN, a pastor's wife, and one who like to do things for myself. My lessons in dependence really stung my pride that i couldn't even take care of myself hardly, much less do a good job caring for my family.

When i boarded the plane for Dallas, it was with the hopes that the doctor out there, Dr. William Rea, who have founded the Environmental Health Clinic,(www.ehcd.com) would be able to help me where no other doctor seemed to have the answers to my issues. After i arrived in Dallas at the apartment complex i was staying in for Dr. Rea's patients, i drug my suitcase up the steps to the second floor late at night and knocked on the door. The door opened and a man let me inside the apartment. There was nothing inside the room except a wire patio table and chairs, and a park bench a lady was sitting on watching TV hooked up to an Oxygen mask. I thought to myself, "Wow, I've got a sick one (for a roommate). Little did i know, that i would be taking oxygen myself in just a few days and a lot of it. I found my room, and it was just as bleak as the den area, it was empty except for a couple of metal frames with cotton bedding and sheets on them, with a lamp and clock on a metal table beside the bed. Talk about culture shock -it was depressing. I had been warned it would be this way, by the new patient coordinator i had talked with on the phone earlier, but nothing could prepare me for this. It was sparsely furnished like this because by the time most of Dr. Rea's patients find their way to him, they are allergic to everything whether they know it or not, and i was about to find out, i was one of those who was allergic to everything. Except for my desperate health situation...i would have turned around and left. As i opened my suitcase to hang up my clothes in the large closet in my bedroom, i saw several signs that Hannah Beth had colored for me in her 7 year old handwriting on construction paper saying she loved me and would miss me, and had drawn pictures on them. I put them up in the bathroom and they made me cry as i missed my family and i sure was scared and lonely. I'm crying even now as i think about how lonesome, scared, and yet hopeful i was that this doctor could help me. That was 10 years ago this Easter Sunday that i left for Dallas and how very grateful i am for the LORD JESUS showing me HIS love and me to my doctors in Dallas whom GOD has used to restore my health.

The way that my doctors practice medicine is often looked at as "foolishness" by those who practice traditional medicine...until one of those doctor's who practice traditional medicine gets sick from chemicals, and comes to Dallas for healing...GOD has a way of using suffering in their own lives to change their minds. In order to prepare my doctors to be able to bring others out of their bondage of sickness from chemicals and mold, GOD allowed them to suffer from similar issues as their patients, while they were practicing medicine...I'm sure it wasn't a welcome interruption in their busy lives at first...crosses never are welcome at first. Dealing with their own sicknesses, while they were trying to care for others must have been very difficult. I know it was very difficult for me when i just had my family i was trying to care for while i was sick. There has been a cost to them as they both left practices that made much more money, Dr. Rea as a cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon, and Dr. Henry as an Internal Medicine Doctor with her own family practice...to practice Environmental Medicine where the insurance doesn't always pay so well, and they do their best to keep the costs down for their patients. There have been other costly battles legal battles along the way...and how thankful i am for the boldness and courage GOD has given them to fight for their patients. Through their "cross," GOD has brought healing to thousands, who had nowhere else to turn. Life out of death, the message of the cross, and so much healing has been borne out of my doctors "deaths" to their own plans and purposes . Through their "crosses" GOD has granted hope and healing to thousands of patients like me who were lost in a wilderness of suffering and couldn't find our way out. How thankful I am for the plan that GOD already had in place to deliver me from my sickness...there were times i thought nobody could relate to what was wrong with me, and GOD had it all under control. The LOVE of GOD had already prepared my doctors through their "cross" so they could deliver me and countless others from our desperate health situations.

For a glimpse of the wealth of knowledge concerning how chemicals affect our health and the humility that GOD has built into Dr. Rea's life through "his cross," click on: http://progressive.uvault.com/pd1005/AEM073/05Rea/player.htm.



This is a most special time of the year for me for another reason as it was in April of 1982 that the LORD JESUS delivered me from my sin that HE had already paid for two thousand years ago on the cross. "For HE delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of HIS beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."

I had wrestled with my sin throughout my teenage years as i was in a dating relationship that was not pleasing to the LORD. CHRIST would not let me go, and gently continued to convict me of my sins, and drew me to HIM. After surrendering my life to HIM at a youth revival, something was really different this time... I had prayed before and tried to live right, but this time i had a joy, I'd never known, i felt like a huge burden had been lifted from me, and a hunger and thirst for GOD, HIS WORD, and HIS people like I'd never had before. THIS was HIS doing, not mine own. I also had a huge desire to be obedient to the LORD and my parents. I was changed and no one could do that but JESUS CHRIST who gave HIMself for me on the Cross "At Calvary." I was baptized on Easter Sunday, April 11, 1982, as an outward sign of what CHRIST had done in my life inwardly. "Therefore we have been buried with HIM through baptism into death, in order that as CHRIST was raised from the dead through the glory of the FATHER, so we too might walk in newness of life." Romans 6:4

That has been 27 years ago, if my math is correct, that JESUS CHRIST led me out of the bondage of my sin...Praise the LORD, and as i shared last week, "the longer i serve HIM the sweeter HE grows." The more I "gaze at the cross," as my friend Ashlie Clay shared with me last week, the more I realize how very much my SAVIOR loves me. I continue to sin, everyday, and will in this life, but CHRIST has forgiven me for all of them, and HE has given me a desire to be holy and more like HIM. HE has given me the power through HIS HOLY SPIRIT to overcome the sin in my life and sin doesn't have the power over me that it once did..."My chains are gone, I've been set free."

JESUS, the Lamb of GOD, was crucified on an old rugged Cross, as GOD's perfect plan for our redemption. GOD sent HIS SON from heaven to pay for our sins, to deliver us from the bondage of sin, because our sin had to be paid for in order for us to be justified before our holy GOD..."oh the LOVE that drew salvation's plan, and oh the grace that brought it down to man, oh the gulf that GOD did span at Calvary." This awful day, and it was awful, yet glorious for us, as the precious Lamb of GOD was beaten beyond recognition, HIS muscles lacerated by the whips that had sharp pieces of metal woven into them, and finally he was nailed to a wooden cross, naked, to be the Passover Lamb, so that HIS blood could be shed, and cover all of our sins. "For GOD so loved the world that HE gave HIS only Son that whosoever believes in HIM should not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16.

In the Old Testament, when GOD was delivering the Hebrew children from the bondage of being in slavery to the Egyptians, he told Moses to tell the Hebrews to take a lamb, a lamb without blemish, and keep it until the 14th day of the same month. I have read where these lambs became like pets to the Hebrews, and they were loved, while they kept them in their homes. I have thought of that often since we have a little Maltipoo now that stays in the house..."Troy" reminds me of a lamb, and how painful it would be to have to kill him as a sacrifice for our sins. On the 14th day of the month they were to kill the lamb at twilight, and take some of the blood and put it on the doorposts of the houses where they ate...when the LORD passed through the land of Egypt and struck the firstborn dead, those who had the blood on their doorpost like the LORD commanded would be saved from their firstborn being killed. "Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD throughout your generations." Exodus 12:13-14

Several years ago, our Sunday School class at Elkmont Baptist, when through a Bible study of the 7 Feasts of Israel. It was at that time that i understood for the first time, that JESUS the dear precious Lamb of GOD who takes away the sin of the world, was crucified on Passover, to be the fulfillment of the Passover Lamb. "Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even CHRIST our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (I Corinthians 5:7-8).


Sadly, to many in our world today, GOD's plan for salvation- " The Message of the Cross is Foolishness..."

"that CHRIST died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that HE was buried, and that HE was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, ...and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the twelve and after that HE appeared to more than five hundred brethern at one time."I Corinthians 15:3-6

...but to us who are being saved it is the power of GOD. For it is written:
"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate."
Where now is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not GOD made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of GOD, the world through its wisdom did not know what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach CHRIST crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom GOD has called, both Jews and Greeks, CHRIST the power of GOD and the wisdom of GOD." I Corinthians 1:18-24.

I am very grateful for the cross that HE has allowed in my life through my sickness, though at times it has looked very foolish to me. HE has taught me and my family so much through it, and used my"cross" in many ways to draw me closer to HIM and be able to identify with HIS sufferings on the cross. So many of these emails i write are "borne" out of the cross that CHRIST in HIS perfect love for me, has allowed me to carry for HIM.

In this week's April 8 Streams in the Desert I read this comforting and challenging words...words that I can only obtain to through the cross that JESUS died on for me and you:

Here is the secret of Divine all-sufficiency, to come to the end of everything in ourselves and in our circumstances. When we reach this place, we will stop asking for sympathy because of our hard situation or bad treatment, for we will recognize these things as the very conditions of our blessing, and we will turn from them to God and find in them a claim upon Him. --A. B. Simpson
George Matheson, the well-known blind preacher of Scotland, who recently went to be with the Lord, said: "My God, I have never thanked Thee for my thorn. I have thanked Thee a thousand times for my roses, but not once for my thorn. I have been looking forward to a world where I shall get compensation for my cross; but I have never thought of my cross as itself a present glory.
"Teach me the glory of my cross; teach me the value of my thorn. Show me that I have climbed to Thee by the path of pain. Show me that my tears have made my rainbows."


My hope and prayer for you my dear friends and family is this Easter you will know the salvation that is ours in CHRIST JESUS...GOD loves you so much and doesn't want anyone to be "Left Behind," to go through the terrible, terrible days of the Tribulation...Rev. 6-19. HE sent HIS SON to save us from those days and eternal damnation for our sins. I believe with all my heart that HE is going to return soon for HIS bride and take us to heaven - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5PfFMy6-n0 .
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"For if we believe that JESUS died and rose again, even so GOD will bring with HIM those who have fallen asleep in JESUS...For the LORD HIMself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of GOD; and the dead in CHRIST shall rise first.Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the LORD in the air, and thus we shall always be with the LORD. Therefore comfort one another with these words." I Thess.5:14-18

Those who have studied prophecy in the Scriptures much more than I have sure do say the signs are pointing to HIS imminent return. Dr. Thomas Ice of the Pre-Tribulation Research Center http://www.pre-trib.org/index.php shared on a recent blog how Scripture is being fulfilled to bring about the end times- http://bible-prophecy-today.blogspot.com/2009/03/prophecy-on-fast-forward.html This Easter you can know GOD's love and HIS plan for salvation by simply trusting in what CHRIST did for us on the cross and repenting from your sins...HE has done the rest "On the Old Rugged Cross."

You are very dear to me and I thank GOD for your love for us. Thank you so much for your dear prayers for me and my family...through all these years GOD has led us. HE has been so faithful and encouraged us and cheered us on by your love and friendship, your wisdom, and tender loving care for us. How i praise HIM for HIS wonderful love and plan of salvation for you and me... through "The Old Rugged Cross."

Happy Easter,
Mitzi



Please pray for Johnny who had carpel tunnel surgery this week on his wrist.

"Love Letters"

"Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth."-Song of Solomon 1:2

Dear Friends,

A few nights ago, i was up in the attic, rummaging around searching for some special treasures. I wasn't sure they were up there, but I had a hunch so I started looking through a few old boxes that had my first pair of Nike basketball shoes that my husband had bought me in the 10th grade. We met when I was 14 and he was 19. They were white leather high tops with a black Nike swoosh...i loved those shoes and i imagined they made me run faster and jump higher on the basketball court. I saw a scrapbook that had a picture of yellow roses that Johnny sent me for Valentines one year we were dating and in that scrapbook is still the red cellophane wrapper from a box of heartshape chocolates he gave me when we were dating. There was an old high school annual, trophies from softball and volleyball, a pair of blue knee pads from my college basketball days, and a book of poems i had written during high school containing some of my deepest emotions from those days. The LORD didn't disappoint me in my search, and there in one of the boxes was "exceeding abundantly beyond all i ask or thought." I found some "love letters" that my husband had written me before we got married. We dated for 4 years during my high school and junior college years. Not only was Johnny pursuing me during those years, but the "Lover of My Soul," was also pursuing me, and CHRIST captured me to be HIS bride, the end of my sophomore year in college. I stopped dating Johnny then because he wasn't a CHRISTian and the HOLY SPIRIT was teaching me from GOD's WORD that i wasn't supposed to be dating someone who wasn't a CHRISTian. II Cor. 6:14 Little did I know, a month after i became a CHRISTian that GOD would save Johnny, when he was all alone down in his basement reading through the gospel of John. GOD broke his heart over his sins. That summer we dated a little but after going to a Bill Gothard conference together i really felt the LORD was leading me not to date him anymore, and it broke his heart. Later that summer, i went off to school at the University of Montevallo, and he stayed home and worked for General Motors. He was back home praying as hard as he could the LORD would change my heart, and wrote me "love letters," while i was at Montevallo. I had forgotten about these letters to be honest, when i was looking for his "love letters," to me,(i was looking for cards he'd written me since we have been married) but, oh, what precious memories these letters brought back, as i felt the tender emotion that my husband (my wanna be husband then), had written them with. They rekindled a new passion in my heart for my dear husband after i read his "love letters," and I gained an understanding of the difficult time that was for him as he walked in faith, praying the LORD would open my heart to him. It was so sweet to read in them about Johnny's growth in the LORD as a young CHRISTian. He wrote about how he was reading the WORD, spending time in prayer, going to church, and being encouraged by some older men in CHRIST. He wrote about the desires CHRIST was putting into his heart about the future, possibly about going back to school and becoming a medical doctor and going to the foreign mission field, and he wrote about his love for me. He did go back to school, but didn't go the medical school route. Instead he finished in business and psychology and went on to seminary and got his Master's in Theology preparing for the foreign mission field. After i got sick, our foreign mission field became our home town, and that's where the LORD has kept us the past 16 plus years. As i read, he wrote about how he was trusting GOD in our relationship before he won me over and he wrote how he couldn't believe how quickly the LORD changed my heart after he'd won me over and he was so happy. He said some other really tender things that are so dear to my heart. After the LORD won me over through Johnny's unconditional love, we went out once after we had been broken up for several months, and he proposed to me. I said "yes," Thanksgiving weekend 1982, and we were married the following May 28. I am so thankful i did say, "yes," and my husband has kept his promises to me for the past 26 years and loved me as CHRIST loves HIS bride, the Church. GOD has allowed our journey of marriage to take many twists and turns, and we've experienced good times, bad times, sad times, and joyful times and how i thank the LORD for my dear husband who has stood by me, "for better or for worse, for richer or for poor, in sickness and in health, til death do us part." When he got home from work night after i had read those letters he wanted to know what was up with me... he could tell I was really glad to see him, my welcome home kiss to him was a little more enthusiastic than usual. Hannah Beth told him i had just gotten through reading some of his "love letters," to me. Well, 26 years later, i can say GOD used those letters to "woo" my heart to my husband then, and he's still using them to "woo" my heart to him.

I recently the biography of John Newton's life and what a sweet, sweet love story his life was...that of JESUS CHRIST "wooing" him and loving him unconditionally through years of John Newton being a reprobate, turning his back on the LORD, becoming an atheist through the influence of false teaching, blaspheming the LORD, and doing all he could to persuade others to turn their backs on CHRIST. I know i mentioned him several times in my emails in recent weeks as the one who wrote the great hymn "Amazing Grace," but after i read his biography i have such a greater appreciation of just why he wrote "Amazing Grace." John Newton you remember, was greatly influenced by John Wesley, who was saved when he was 35 after being very legalistic and thought he was a CHRISTian for years, and George Whitefield, the Great Awakening preacher. John Newton's mom, was a Dissenter from the Church of England, which meant that she didn't believe in the formal ritualistic teaching of the church of England, but being saved by grace alone through JESUS CHRIST. She was a godly mother and she taught John how to read the Scriptures by the time he was four and he could read Latin at age six. He was only 7 years old when his beloved Mother who prayed that he would become a pastor one day, died. John's Dad remarried, and John resented his stepmother, and never felt like she loved him and did not have a good relationship with his Dad. He became a bitter and angry young man, and was very rebellious. Except for a brief period in his young teens when he became "reformed," John became a true reprobate...carousing with the women, swearing, disobedient, lying to his Dad, undependable, and a real trouble maker on the ships he worked on. In the biography it tells over and over of times that GOD intervened in John Newton's life to either save him from death, break him of his stubborn and rebellious pride, direct his paths to people who helped him, and finally to lead him to a saving faith in the LORD JESUS CHRIST when he went through a terrible storm and the ship he was on almost sunk.
One of the sweet themes throughout the book is the supernatural and enduring love God gave him for his wife...they had such a sweet and intimate relationship. He met her when he was 17 and she was 14 and he loved her throughout all the trials and struggles and separations he went through being on slave ships for years. He begged her to write him, while he was away...and to wait for him to marry her. Though she didn't return his love very much during those years, he continued to love her through all the obstacles he had to endure to win her heart. He was kidnapped by a "Press Gang," and made to join the Enlish Navy. On one of the ships John was on, he would read the Bible so he could make fun of GOD to those on the ship. Eventually, GOD used HIS word from HIS "love letters," to break John's heart over his sin. Many,many months and trials later, he made it back to England, a new creature in CHRIST. The girl he loved so much, and wrote love letters to was still not married, and GOD gave John Newton the desire of his heart, and she became his Bride. GOD in HIS sweet love for John Newton, though such a reprobate and blasphemer, saved him, not because he deserved it, but because of GOD's amazing love for him. GOD replaced John's anger and bitterness with HIS love and he went on to become a pastor as his Mother had prayed, a hymnwriter, and beloved husband. GOD use John Newton so mightily in England and around the world as he was instrumental in the slave trade being abolished. He was the one who because of his background in the slave trade, was able to influence William Wilberforce, a Christian and member of Parliament to fight against the slave trade, and to stay in politics to make a difference for CHRIST. What an inspiring story of GOD's "wooing" and redeeming love in the life of John Newton. Now, when i sing "Amazing Grace," i have a much greater appreciation of the amazing love that CHRIST had for John Newton and for me and you to "woo" us to HIM through HIS unfathamable love for you and me.

I have been thinking so much recently of GOD's "love letters" to me and how much JESUS loves me...how much HE pursued me as a teenager, when i was walking in sin and the paths of the world. JESUS just kept loving me and pursuing me and never let me go. HE won my heart, captured it , one March night in 1982, and i have been HIS bride ever since. HE has kept loving me and "wooing," me through this journey of life and truly "the longer i serve HIM, the sweeter HE grows." I have read through HIS "love letters," many times through the years, and each year, HIS "love letters," become more and more dear to me, as HE helps me understand more and more how much HE loves me. HE truly is the "Lover of our Soul," and is our Husband, and pursues us, and cares for us so very tenderly. When HE saved me from my sins, HE instantly gave me a supernatural love for HIS "Love Letters,", and opened my eyes to understand HIS WORD in a way that i never had before. Thankfully, HE has kept that supernatural thirst in my heart for HIS "love letters" and in it HE :


- "Woos" me to HIM through HIS HOLY SPIRIT:

"No one can come to ME unless the FATHER who sent ME draws him..." John 6:44
The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn thee." Jeremiah 31:3.

- He shows me HIS path to salvation:

"that CHRIST died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that HE was buried, and that HE rose again the third day according to the Scriptures."
I Corinthians 15:3-4, "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the LORD JESUS, and shalt believe in thine heart that GOD hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Romans 10:9
"But GOD, who is rich in mercy, for HIS great love wherewith HE loved us,even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with CHRIST, (by grace ye are saved;) Ephesians 2:4,

-Keeps me from sin:

"Thy WORD have i hid in my heart that i might not sin against THEE." Psalm 119:11

He reminds me over and over and over how very much HE loves me and you:

"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." John 3:16

"And I will betroth thee unto ME forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto ME in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies." Hosea 2:19

"He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth ME: and he that loveth ME shall be loved of my FATHER, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." John 14:21-oh the sweet, sweet kisses of JESUS that manifests HIMself to us.

"But of HIM you are in CHRIST JESUS, who became for us wisdom from GOD-and righteousness and sanctification and redemption-that, as it is written, "He who glories, let him glory in the LORD."I Corinthians 1:30

I could go on and on and on and on and on, and not began to touch the surface of the depth of love that our JESUS, our Bridegroom, our Redeemer shares with us in HIS "love letters," to me and to you...you're just going to have to read HIS "love letters," yourself and find out how very sweet HIS kisses are, and how very much HE loves you and me.

Charles Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, knew the deep, deep intimacy of the love of JESUS . He knew what the kisses of JESUS felt like, tasted like, and he shared that sweet and intimate love to all who would listen. In his April 1 Morning and Evening devotion book, he writes:


"Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth."
--Song of Solomon 1:2
For several days we have been dwelling upon the Saviour's passion, and for some little time to come we shall linger there. In beginning a new month, let us seek the same desires after our Lord as those which glowed in the heart of the elect spouse. See how she leaps at once to Him; there are no prefatory words; she does not even mention His name; she is in the heart of her theme at once, for she speaks of Him who was the only Him in the world to her. How bold is her love! It was much condescension which permitted the weeping penitent to anoint His feet with spikenard--it was rich love which allowed the gentle Mary to sit at His feet and learn of Him--but here, love, strong, fervent love, aspires to higher tokens of regard, and closer signs of fellowship. Esther trembled in the presence of Ahasuerus, but the spouse in joyful liberty of perfect love knows no fear. If we have received the same free spirit, we also may ask the like. By kisses we suppose to be intended those varied manifestations of affection by which the believer is made to enjoy the love of Jesus. The kiss of reconciliation we enjoyed at our conversion, and it was sweet as honey dropping from the comb.
The kiss of acceptance is still warm on our brow, as we know that He hath accepted our persons and our works through rich grace. The kiss of daily, present communion, is that which we pant after to be repeated day after day, till it is changed into the kiss of reception, which removes the soul from earth, and the kiss of consummation which fills it with the joy of heaven. Faith is our walk, but fellowship sensibly felt is our rest. Faith is the road, but communion with Jesus is the well from which the pilgrim drinks.
O Lover of our Souls, be not strange to us; let the lips of Thy blessing meet the lips of our asking; let the lips of Thy fulness touch the lips of our need, and straightway the kiss will be effected."


I have to confess, after reading those "love letters" from my husband sure did warm my heart towards him, and just reminded me how he loved me and pursued me, and wanted me, above all others to be his bride. What an honor and a privilege! JESUS wants you and me, above all others, to be HIS Bride. He has elected and chosen us and HE paid the price for our sins to redeem us from our sins, that we might be HIS forever and ever:

"Blessed be the GOD and FATHER of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in CHRIST, just as HE chose us in HIM before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before HIM in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by JESUS CHRIST to HIMself, according to the good pleasure of HIS will, to the praise of the glory of HIS grace, by which HE made us accepted in the BELOVED." Ephesians 1:3-6

HE wants us to spend time with HIM growing in our intimacy with HIM and letting "HIM kiss us with the kisses of HIS mouth." HE longs for us to spend time with HIM each morning, reading HIS "love letters," before the day begins. HE loves us, encourages us, gives us direction, wisdom, peace, assurance that HE is with us and "will never leave us or forsake us." HE gives us HIS strength for the day to obey HIM and serve HIM. HIS mercies are new every morning, and "all i have needed Thy hand hath provided, GREAT is THY Faithfulness, LORD unto me"...the Lover of My Soul.

Taranda Greene, www.thegreenesgospel.com sings a beautiful song that Dottie Rambo wrote called "Love Letters," on their "Far Down the Road," CD. Dottie Rambo went home to be with the LORD last year after much suffering in this life and now she is in the presence of the "Lover of her Soul," JESUS CHRIST. I wish i could share a recording of Taranda singing this song with you because she sings it with such tender emotion. It goes straight to your heart of the depth of love JESUS has for us, as HE reminds us how much HE loves us, and wants to "name us and claim us as HIS own..."
JESUS is still "wooing" today, those who don't know HIM as LORD and SAVIOR yet. HE wants "to claim you and name you HIS own." Surrender your life to HIM today, the LOVER of YOUR SOUL, before it is too late. Let HIM who gave HIS life for me and you, "kiss us with the kisses of HIS mouth." May we drink deeply of our SAVIOR's love and feast on HIS "love letters," written to HIS BRIDE, you and me.

With all HIS love,
mitzi


"Love Letters" by Dottie Rambo

"I was going through memories and treasures today
Found YOUR love letters I'd hidden away
There was tender emotion with each stroke of YOUR pen
I opened the letters and read them again.

Then I counted the gifts YOU had given so free
YOU never stopped giving with no word from me
They were wrapped with silk ribbons with notes marked in red
I turned through the pages, here's what YOU said

Chorus:
Remember I love you with a love I have loved you
I'd like to claim you, name you my own
Remember I love you with a love I have loved you
When you doubt that I do count the tears scattered through
MY love letters to you

By the light of the candle I picked up my pen
Words don't come easy how do I begin
Oh I pray I've not waited to long to reply
Angel bear my letter to my love in the sky

Just read your answer with tears in my eyes
And YOU tell me that the stage has been set for the GROOM and the BRIDE
Oh i shutter to think just how sad life would be
If I had never read YOUR love letters to me.