Forever Home in the Eternal Family of God

A Daily Devotional by Kenton Cheek

1 June 2024

Reading From The Song of Solomon 1-8

“Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest
    is my beloved among the young men.
I delight to sit in his shade,
    and his fruit is sweet to my taste.
Let him lead me to the banquet hall,
    and let his banner over me be love.”

–Song of Solomon 2:3-4

     The Song of Solomon celebrates the intimate, covenantal, sexual relationship between a husband and wife and on a deeper level, describes the intimate, covenantal, spiritual relationship between Jesus Christ and His people.  In the New Testament, the Church universal is described as the Bride of Christ. 

Ephesians 5:25-27 says, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” Man and wife become one flesh in the act of holy matrimony and after the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, He and His Bride will become one. This unity has in fact already begun as born-again believers are united to each other and with God through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

     From the moment we are born again until we are called home to Heaven, we are on a journey to become more and more like Jesus.  He is cleansing us of all unrighteousness and making us holy in a process of sanctification.  One day we will meet Him face to face and He will welcome His Bride to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.  We will finally be one with Him, in perfect unity with God.  This is our destiny as children of God in His eternal family.  ^“Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:

“Hallelujah!
    For our Lord God Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and be glad
    and give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
    and his bride has made herself ready.
Fine linen, bright and clean,
    was given her to wear.”

(Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.)

Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.”[1]

     God is love and nothing that we can ever do or say or any outside force can separate us from His love.  God does not keep His love hidden, He declares it openly like a banner in the ultimate act of love: His death on the cross providing us with victory over sin and breaking forth from the tomb providing us with victory over death.  Through faith in His atonement, Jesus gives human beings the opportunity to become part of His eternal family, sealed to Him forever by the Holy Spirit.  Ephesians 1:13-14 reveals, “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.”

“Lord, the depth of Your love for me is beyond tracing out.  No one loves as perfectly and completely as You.  Thank You for loving me just as I am.  Help me as I walk with You on the highway of holiness on my way to Heaven.  I look forward to the Day when I will know fully even as I am fully known and we will live together in perfect unity and harmony forever.  Amen.”

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.  In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

–I John 4:7-12

---

[1] Revelation 19:6-9