My dear friend,
Back on February, 20th 2021, I posted a letter for you titled, “Our Shelter.” You may recall that in that letter I was explaining to you the great paradox that I found myself in, and how I was not able to reconcile the choice between laying down my life for you or for my wife (in a manner of speaking). I said:
“If I had two lives to give, I would gladly give them both so that God’s love would be made real to you and to her. It is a great conflict to my soul! … but in truth, I have never actually had a choice in the matter.”
Ultimately, I finished by proclaiming that “she will not accept it!” I said that she would not accept the perfect love of God that I had attempted to give her for so many years! I even went on to add that, “She will gladly accept my carnal love, but she will not accept God’s true and perfect love.” It was a very harsh thing for me to say, and I certainly heard about it! Especially, from my mother!
I rejoice in my great God and Savior that I have been proven wrong this day! For this day, I have come to understand that I did not rightly understand the situation.
Yet, before I explain the reason why, I really should more clearly define what I mean by carnal love.
According to the on-line Merriam-Webster dictionary the primary meaning of the word “carnal” is: a) relating to or given to crude bodily pleasures and appetites, b) marked by sexuality. This definition is a problem; because, that is not at all what I mean when I use the word. If we look at the very last definition by Merriam-Webster, it states that the word can mean: a) temporal, b) worldly (such as, a carnal mind). This is a little better definition, but it still falls well short of full meaning. Looking at my old Webster’s dictionary on my desk from 1996, one of the definitions is: “not spiritual.” That is a much better definition, but it is still lacking.
When I use the word carnal, I am almost always using it in the same way that Paul the Apostle uses it in his many epistles. Therefore, let me give you the definition out of my old Unger’s Bible Dictionary, from 1966:
“Carnal (from Greek, sarx, flesh), having the nature of flesh, i.e., under the control of the animal appetites (Romans 7:14); governed by mere human nature, not by the Spirit of God (1st Corinthians 3:1,3 “fleshly”). It is mere human nature, the earthly nature of man apart from divine influence, and therefore prone to sin and opposed to God (Romans 8:7; compare Galatians 5:19, sequentia, where the works of “the flesh” are given).
Another sense is pertaining to the body, of things needed for the sustenance of the body (Romans 15:27; 1st Corinthians 9:11). The ceremonial parts of the Mosaic dispensation were carnal, relating the bodies of men and beasts (Hebrews 7:16; 9:10). The Christian’s weapons are not carnal, i.e., not of human origin, not directed by human wisdom (2nd Corinthians 10:4).”
This is an excellent definition. It is precisely what I mean.
When I speak of “carnal love,” I am speaking of the love of the world. It is a love that is founded in psychological human need. There is no spirituality attached to it whatsoever. It is not a love that is centered in or around God or the things of God. It does include sensual love, but that is just a small part of all that it includes.
Therefore, when I stated that my wife, “will gladly accept my carnal love, but she will not accept God’s true and perfect love.” What I meant by that is when I attempt to impart to her or nurture her in spiritual matters, she will not readily receive my offerings. After twenty years of this, I eventually came to the conclusion that she had absolutely no interest in spiritual matters, whatsoever!
It turns out that I was seriously mistaken. She is simply such a private person, that she keeps such matter as her relationship to Jesus very close to her chest, and she would never let me see her true feelings. Now, here I am telling the whole world about her private matters! But what else can I do? I must set the record straight! I expect that some day she will be reading all of this, and she is certainly going to have a very difficult time with all that been said. Yet, now the truth has been made clear.
When that day arrives, perhaps, she may never find it in her heart to forgive me in this lifetime. If so, I suppose that I really could not hold her to blame for that, but I trust that in time, she will forgive. When we get to Heaven, however, God will show us all things, and then it will all make sense.
Although, right now … I am in a new state of perplexity. I find myself faced with a different paradox. My love for my wife has been reborn. I understand now that my love for her truly can continue to grow, and it sincerely is my desire that my love for her does continue to grow. Hence, how can I leave her and lay down my life for another soul? This is a very difficult problem to face, but it is not a problem that never has been faced before.
God called Moses out of the land of Midian to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt into the promise land, and it is clear from the scripture that his wife and his family were not always with Moses during that time. There was a fairly lengthy period of time where they were back in Midian while Moses was leading the Israelites.
Then, of course, there is Paul the Apostle. Apparently, Paul had a wife and a son, but the scripture never makes it clear what happened to his wife. All we know is that God sent Paul out all over the Roman Empire for years on end, and his wife certainly did not go with him. Moreover, there were many disciples of Jesus that went with Paul for extended periods of time. It is reasonable to assume that some of those disciples also had wives and families that they left behind. Once more, we have this passage out of the Gospel of Mark, where Peter is speaking on behalf of the twelve apostles:
“28Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee. 29And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, 30But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.”
Mark 10:28-30 KJV
So … what does this all mean?
This is the love of God. God knows that I love my wife, yet God is asking me to leave her company for however many years to come, in order to circumnavigate the Earth for the purpose of proving His love for you. He is asking me to make that sacrifice, because of my love for Him, my love for Jesus. Yet, He promises that He will reward me for my sacrifice, and I trust that He will reward my wife for her sacrifice, as well.
When God delivers me from this affliction, it will put me in a position that I have not been in for twenty years. I will be in a state heath that will enable me to enjoy life with my wife as we did twenty years ago. That is an extremely difficult thing to walk away from, but God is not delivering me from this affliction for that purpose. He is delivering me from this affliction so that I am able to carry out the errand that He has given me. If I were to stay home with my wife, I would be in direct disobedience to God’s will for my life. Just as I stated back in my previous post, “I Believe!,” I do not want to follow the example of Jonah and end up in the belly of a fish, or any other similar predicament.
God has taught me to love as He loves. It is His pure love. He has showed me to love you with His perfect spiritual love, and He has shown to me how there will be so very many other lives that will, in turn, be touched by His great love through this endeavor. Many of those lives are also souls that I love and care for.
When God asks one of His faithful servants to leave those that they love to seek out and minister to others, it is a model of what Jesus did when He came to this Earth and died on the Cross for our sins. Jesus left the Father’s side from the splendor and glory of Heaven and He descended to Earth to take on our own infirmities. Jesus, by His own prerogative, set aside His deity and became a man, just as human you and I are. Yet being a man with the same frailty and infirmities as you and I have, He lived a perfect and sinless life here on Earth.
That is why He was able to redeem us from our sin. Only Jesus was able to present Himself as a aperfect sacrifice for you and I on the cross. It was the only sacrifice that God could ever accept to truly forgive us of our sin. Jesus took all of our sin upon Himself and nailed it to the cross. All that God asks you and I to do is to believe that Jesus’s work on the cross is that one acceptable payment for our sin. Jesus has already made the payment for our sin. All you and I have to do is to believe it … simply believe in the name of Jesus.
“10He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. 11And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. 13These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”
1st John 5:10-13 KJV
Love Always,
Dale 😊
a. All the thousands upon thousands of sacrifices of bulls, goats, lambs, etc. that the Israelites performed from the time of Moses until Jesus died on the cross were never sufficient to redeem anyone of their sin. The only purpose of all those sacrifices was to point to the sacrifice of the Messiah, to point to the sacrifice that Jesus would one day perform on the cross.
“For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.”
Hebrews 10:4 KJV
