Why Was I Born? The human heart is passionately romantic. And in its passion it seeks the magic and courtly love of the virtuous and honorable chivalric knights that emerged toward the end of the crusades; the charm and elegance of the European Renaissance (14th – 17th centuries): and the social graces of the beloved Queen Victoria and her Prince Albert of the Victorian Age – (1837-1901). These romantic eras are untarnished legacies we have embraced with hope and cling to with dreams. In a world and a time when it appeared that real love had taken a holiday, when the Roman Catholic Church showed heavy boots and a sword to the world, without love and without mercy, carrying their threats and their strong-arm tyranny even into the royal courts of Europe, there was only fear of family, fear of neighbors, fear of strangers, and for the elders, fear of the ambitions of their own children. It was basically a politically unstable, mercenary and loveless era until chivalry poked its head out of Camelot and awakened the maidens and the fair lads of the land. When love at last had appeared again, it was as a tiny seed of love, daring to trust again, and daring to believe, and it was upon this awakening the Lord began to pour out His own love into the hearts of a people struggling just to survive in lands controlled by the Roman Church. Once God’s love awakened the hungry hearts of the people, once the freedom and beauty of love began to pour into their enlightened souls again, the Renaissance was born. And out of the Renaissance came two beautiful love stories: (1) Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and (2) Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning… Literature is filled with historical loves and tragedies of loves and we read- and re-read, weep and grieve, and look for such love in this modern world. Many of us are moved by the gentle heart of Elizabeth Barrett Browning while others are moved by the words of Robert Browning, her husband. They spent much of their courtship geographically separated, writing poetic letters to one another, expressing depths of love incomparable to other star-crossed couples, including Romeo and Juliet. The plight of Romeo and Juliet was the creation of Shakespeare’s romantic imagination whereas Robert and Elizabeth Browning were real people, the proof of their having lived thoroughly recorded. The love they shared was real, their marriage and their years together were real, and they wait in real graves for the real resurrection that is to come. Where do such depths of love come from? They are woven into the root of our soul. They may have lain there dark and dormant for many years or they may have been the spark we entertained in our youth. In truth, these grand depths were fashioned by the breath of God, the pure and perfect essence of His own gracious immortality. They are the original wonder of a forever kind of love in the greatest love story ever told... And yet, for the many who do not yet know or understand, the question remains, “Why was I born? Why am I here?” To answer simply, you and I were created in the image of God while in our mother’s womb - meaning - we were created and born to love others as surely and as unconditionally as God loves us… “Oh, no”, you say, “That isn’t true of everyone. I’m the child of a violent rape.” Or - “There was no love – I am the survivor of an attempted abortion.” Or - “My parents never wanted children. I was a responsibility they accepted but they never really loved me. There was no affection, no bonding, and there was never any real relationship.” Oh, but we all have a story we could tell of wounds inflicted in childhood, in high school or college and even in marriage and our “know better” adulthood. Our stories may be different, with different turns in the road and different outcomes, but they were nonetheless painful to experience and at one time were too painful to remember. My wounded friends, what I am saying is this…we were, each of us, chosen to receive the gift of life by the life giver. And if that were not enough, we were chosen to BE a gift to this world. He gave to each of us an immortal soul breathed out of His most tender love, sprinkled with this wondrous desire that the Creator should have fellowship with the created. We are in this world to fill this world with our expression of His love, but first we have to learn how to receive it and how to give it, and sometimes it takes half a lifetime for the wounds of rejection to heal and the shackles of hate to break and for the love that seeks to saturate our innermost frame to come pouring through. But, when we have fallen in love with Jesus, within the grip of His acceptance (“How could He love me so much?”), we will know why we were born… Let me be quick to say there is no love of one man for one woman more precious or lasting than the love Jesus has given us. The romantic loves of history can never outshine the love of God the Father and God the Son, rather, it is the love of the Father living within a man that enables him to love with the same intensity and depth that took Jesus to the Cross. Parents experience this kind of love for their children. Soldiers experience this kind of love for their comrades. It is a type of love, a depth of love, perhaps the Creator love that one cannot explain. It cannot be quantified or qualified because it is so rare in this world it sets its own precedent. It is different from romantic love, it is the love shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, it is the very life of love that gives light to all in the house… Godly love and human love are two different kinds of love and two different pains of love. Earthly love can give all and it can destroy all. It is not always the source of understanding – or forgiving – and it does not always endure with long-suffering the faults and failures of another. Godly love never fails. It is filled with mercy. It forgives the pain and opens its arms… On earth, children are born through the union of one man and one woman. But In the course of time, these same children may become children of heaven as well. You yourself may never give birth to children on the earth, yet you may offer the new birth to hundreds, who offer it to thousands, who offer it to millions of children already on the earth that will become the eternal children of God. It was and is forever the love of Jesus Christ that moves a man into the only immortal, immutable and eternal future that matters. We were born to make this journey, with or without repentance, with or without Christ, with or without the love that was poured out through the torment of His Cross. We were born to pick up that Cross, the blood-stained Cross the Roman guards threw down after Jesus died, and we are to carry it through this world with His love still pouring out of it. There is no shortage of that love, it can still break a man’s heart and quicken his soul. There is no shortage of the blood that flowed on that Friday for it still flows and, mingled with His love, it is the power of heaven that changes a man from a sinner to a saint forever… It is God’s desire that all men be saved. But since men are hard headed and hard hearted, stubborn and stiff-necked, selfish, greedy and full of lust, it will please the Father to save to the utmost only those that pick up the Cross. He will obligingly give the arrogant what they want – total and complete separation from God forever. And since they wanted no part of the sacrifice, the love, the forgiveness and the shed blood of the Son of God, they will pay for their own sins in the prepared confines of hell. It is not God’s will – it is God’s compliance to man’s demand… We were born to stand alongside the Holy Ghost and command Satan to take his filthy hands off our children. We were born to stand alongside the Savior and command the forces of hell cease and desist in their operations against our family, our neighbors and our friends. We were born to cancel the assignments of the enemy, and loose the warriors of heaven to take up the battle with us as we cover the victims and this land with the blood of Jesus, dry up the waters of the enemy, cut off the generational curses of witchcraft and blow up the demonic fortresses in high places. This is what Jesus means when He tells us to take up our Cross and follow Him. He went into the regions of hell for us, we can do no less when we enter the spiritual realm in faith to fight the battles of today. These forces are real, they are ugly and they are persistent. But speak the name of Jesus or mention the blood of Jesus and they will scream and flee very quickly. It is a daily battle – some days are worse than others, harder than others, more intense and more severe than others, but we were born to be warriors and the pastor that does not teach his flock to war against the spiritual enemy of their souls, is failing the flock, he is failing Christ, and he is failing the kingdom of heaven. Today the battle is fierce. The strongmen that rule the nations from heavenly places have called out the reserves and Satan roars his hatred- and his threats - from the tongue of Iran’s Ahmadinejad. In this country we hear echoes of Satan’s mockery from our own Democratic Congress and senators. Even former president Jimmy Carter scorns the state of Israel, and the President currently sitting in the Oval Office seeks to divide Jerusalem. In Israel, Prime Minister Olmert is negotiating to concede the Golan Heights to Syria in exchange for a promise of peace. These are satanic maneuvers by men and women who are under the thumb of our greatest enemy. And America will not escape the consequences of these maneuvers. Satan has to destroy America in order to destroy Israel. And our own leaders are helping him to do it. The Word of God was given to the world that no man or woman can say, “I didn’t know, I never heard and I never read…” There will be no excuses for those that ignored or rejected the Word of God with indifference. We were born to choose sides - and the side we choose will be the side we spend eternity with. We choose the everlasting love of God or we choose the fickle love of this world. We give our bones to the decay of the grave, or we choose the sweet presence of the Holy Ghost in our tomb. He was in the tomb of Elisha whose bones were so saturated with the oil of his anointing they raised a dead man to life even a year after Elisha was buried. Those bones will not decay for the Holy Ghost is still in residence in those bones. God is no respecter of persons. If the anointing of the Holy Ghost keeps the bones of Elisha, they will keep my bones as well, for it is a promise: He will never leave us nor forsake us, (“never” means - even through the grave). It will be the power and anointing of the Holy Ghost that raises Elisha’s new body – and yours and mine - on that great and grand day of the resurrection of the saints. It is alright for a saint of the Most-High God to pray for a romantic love, especially if it is tied with the blue ribbons of marital responsibility. I believe Abraham and Sarah had a romantic marriage (Genesis 18:12 – “After I am grown old shall I have pleasure, my husband being old also?”). I believe Jacob and Rachel were romantics. It is no secret that Ruth and Boaz fell deeply in love and I am sure the Lord blessed Mary and Joseph with a romantic love. So it isn’t romance the Lord is opposed to – He Himself has an insatiable incurable love for His bride. It is the impatience for romantic love that causes problems for so many, so the only way to avoid catastrophe is to seek the Lord’s will and special counsel before saying “I do.” Now we know why we were born and we can be ever so grateful for the love that has been bequeathed into our hearts, preparing us for intimate fellowship with the Father and a glorious honeymoon with the Savior. Those of us that watch and wait, loving His appearing, will understand… Joan Krempel |