In the Old Testament, The Song Of Songs or The Song Of Solomon is a brief book of only 8 chapters. The great message of The Song Of Songs is the beauty of love between a man and a woman as experienced in the relationship of marriage. In its beautiful language, the song praises the mutual love which husband and wife feel toward each other in this highest of all human relationships.

In spite of its brevity, it has a complicated structure that sometimes confuses the reader. For example, there are several different characters or personalities have speaking parts within this long lyrical poem. The 3 main parties with speaking parts in this long poem are: [1] the groom, king Solomon [2] the bride, a woman referred to as 'the Shulamite' ( maid of Shulam ) [3] the 'daughters of Jerusalem.'

These women of Jerusalem may have been royal servants who served as attendants to Solomon's Shulamite bride. In this love song, they serve as a chorus to echo the sentiments of the Shulamite, emphasizing her love and affection for Solomon. In addition, to these main personalities, the brothers of the Shulamite bride are also mentioned in the poem. -8:8-9 - These may have been her step-brothers. The poem indicates she worked under their command as 'the keeper of the vineyards.' - 1:6 -

This beautiful love song falls naturally into 2 major sections of about equal length - the beginning of love - chapter 1 to 4 - and the broadening of love. - chapter 5 to 8 -

In the first section, the Shulamite tells about Solomon's visit to her home in the country in the spring time. - 2:8-17 - She also recalls the many happy experiences of their courtship when she visited Solomon in his palace in Jerusalem. 2:4-7 - She thinks about the painful separations from his love during this time - 3:1-5 - as well as the joyous wedding procession to Jerusalem to become the king's bride. - 3:6-11 - King Solomon also praises his bride-to-be in a beautiful poem on the magic and wonder of love. - chapter 4 -

In the second section of the book, Shulamite and Solomon for each other continues to deepen after their marriage. She has a troubled dream when he seems distant and unconcerned. - 5:2-8 - But Solomon assures her of his love and praises her beauty. 6:4-7:9 - Longing to visit her country home - 7:10-8:4 - she finally makes the trip with Solomon; and their love grows even stronger. - 8:5-7 - The song closes with an assurance of each to the other that they will always remain close in their love.

Traditionally, authorship of the Song Of Songs has been assigned to Solomon, since the book itself makes this claim. "The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's." - 1:1 - Solomon is mentioned by name several times in the song - 1:1,5, 3:7,9,11, 8:11-12 - and he is specifically identified as the groom. The book also gives evidence of wealth, luxury, and exotic imported goods - 3:6-11 - a characteristic of his administration. The groom of the song also assures the Shulamite bride that she is "the only one" - 6:9 - probably a reference by Solomon to his royal harem. At the height of his power and influence, Solomon was known to have 700 wives and 300 concubines. - 1 Kin. 11:3 -

This strong internal evidence clearly supports the traditional view that Solomon himself wrote this song that bears his name. It must have been written early in his reign, probably about 965 B.C.

With his large harem, how could king Solomon write such a beautiful love song to one specific wife? Perhaps, his union with the Shulamite woman was the only authentic marriage relationship which Solomon ever knew. Most of his marriage were political arrangements, designed to seal treaties and trade agreements with other nations. In contrast, the Shulamite woman was not a cultured princess but a lowly vineyard keeper whose skin had been darkened by her long exposure to the sun. - 1:6 - Yet, she was the bride to whom Solomon declared: "What spells lie in your love, my sister, my promised bride! How delicious is your love, more delicious than wine! How fragrant your perfumes, more fragrant than all other spices!" - 4:10 -

This has a real message about the nature of true love. Authentic love is much more than a surface relationship; it extends to the very core of one's being. love like this cannot be bought and sold like some commodity on the open market. Solomon had many wives but the Shulamite may have been the only one with whom he enjoyed a warm, enriching relationship.

The exact meaning of the phrase 'the Shulamite' which has come to be used as a title for the bride in this song are not certain because no city or region known as Shulam has been identified in Palestine or any of the surrounding territories, and also because the poem makes several references to Lebanon. Thus, it is believe she came from this mountainous territory along the Mediterranean coast in northwestern Palestine. - 3:9; 4:8,11,15; 5:15; 7:4 -

The sexual and physical side of marriage is a natural and proper part of God's plan, reflecting His purpose and desire for the human race. This is the same truth so evident at the beginning of time in the Creation itself. God created man and woman and brought them together to serve as companions and to share their lives with one another. - Gen. 2:24 - Like the Book of Genesis, the Song of Songs say a bold yes to the beauty and sanctity of married love.

It also points beyond human love to the great Author of love. Genuine or authentic love is possible in the world because God brought love into being and planted that emotion in the hearts of His people. Even husbands and wives should remember that the love which they share for one another is not a product of their human goodness or kindness. We are able to love because the love of God is working in our lives.

This is the love I mean: not our love for God, but God's love for us when he sent his Son to be sacrifice that takes our sins away. My dear people, since God has loved us so much, we too should love one another. - 1 John 4:10 -11 -

What the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible passages emphasizes was the truth that God's ideal is for the marriage to be permanent. It is never meant to be provisional.

Marriage ( Sacrament of Holy Matrimony ) is 'Never' meant to be 'Provisional.' Marriage, from the beginning, is always meant to be 'Permanent.'

** Marriage refers to the union of a man and a woman as husband and wife, which becomes the foundation for a home and family.
                                                                       
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Faith . Hope . Love - Welcome donation. Thank You. God bless. 

By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.

HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -

The Song of Songs or The Song Of Solomon is an Old Testament book written in the form of a lyric love song. It is believe this song speaks symbolically of the love of God for the nation of Israel and also as a healthy expression of romantic love between a man and a woman. The Song Of Songs or The Song Of Solomon is certainly one of the most unusual book in the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible. The Song Of Songs implies it was the loveliest and best known of all the songs of Solomon. -1:1 -

Marriage refers to the union of a man and a woman as husband and wife, which becomes the foundation for a home and family. In other words, It is the physical and spiritual union of a man and a woman, in which God created. - Gen. 2:21-24 - The origin of marriage was instituted by God when He declared: 'It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helpmate.' - Gen. 2:18 -

So Yahweh God made the man fall into deep sleep. And while he slept, he took one of his ribs and enclosed it in flesh. Yahweh God built the rib he had taken from the man into a woman, and brought her to the man. The man exclaimed:
                                                           'This at last is bone from my bones,
                                                            and flesh from my flesh!
                                                            This is to be called woman,
                                                            for this was taken from man.'
This is why a man leaves his father and mother and joins himself to his wife, and they become one body. - Gen. 2:21-24 -

What the passages emphasizes was the truth that God's ideal is for the marriage to be permanent.

In the Old Testament, God's desire for His people was that they marry within the body of believers. Marriages between Israelites were directed by law, and all incestuous relationships were outlawed. -Lev. 18:6-8, 20:19-21 - The prohibition of adultery is written in the Ten Commandments. - Ex. 20:14; Deut. 5:16 -

Let them be for yourself alone,
not for strangers at the same time.
And may your fountain-head be blessed!

Find joy with the wife you married in your youth,
fair as a hind, graceful as a fawn,
Let hers be the company you keep,
hers the breasts that that ever fill you with delight,
hers the love that ever holds you captive.
Why be seduced, my son, by an alien woman,
and fondle the breast of a woman who is a stranger?

For the eyes of Yahweh observe a man's ways
and survey all his paths.
The wicked man is snared in his own misdeeds,
is caught in the meshes of his own sin,
For want of discipline, he dies,
and is lost through his own excessive folly. - Pro. 5:17-23 -

Anyone who commit adultery is sinning against God. Marriage, therefore, became the metaphor with which to explain the relationship between God and Israel. - Hosea 3 - The married couple (a man and a woman) was expected to build and develop a bond of mutual love and respect, which they, in turn would pass on to their children.

The New Testament does not contradict the doctrines and teachings about marriage in the Old Testament. Most marriage teaching in the New Testament comes from the Lord Jesus Christ and the apostle Paul's. Jesus' first miracle occurred in Cana in Galilee when He and His disciples were attending a wedding. Our Lord Jesus Christ gave His blessing and sanction to the institution of marriage. ( The Sacrament of Holy Matrimony ) On another occasion, when Jesus was asked about marriage and divorce, He quoted Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible, two passages from the book of Genesis.

Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female' and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one body or flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let not man separate.' Not only did God acknowledge the marriage; He also joined the couple/them. ( a man and a woman ) - Gen. 1:27, 2:24, 5:2; Matt. 19:4-6; Eph. 5:31 -

You know, surely, that your bodies are members making up the body of Christ; do you think I can take parts of Christ's body and join them to the body of a prostitute? Never! As you know, a man who goes with a prostitute is one body with her, since the two, as it is said, become one flesh. But anyone who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.

Keep away from fornication. All the other sins are committed outside the body; but to fornicate is to sin against your own body. Your body, you know, is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you since you received him from God. You are not your own property; you have been bought and paid for. That is why you should use your body for the glory of God. - 1 Cor. 6:15-20 -

Authentic love is much more than a surface relationship; it extends to the very core of one's being. Love like this cannot be bought and sold like some commodity on the open market.

In the Old Testament, The Song Of Songs or The Song Of Solomon is a brief book of only 8 chapters. The great message of The Song Of Songs is the beauty of love between a man and a woman as experienced in the relationship of marriage. In its beautiful......

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Faith . Hope . Love - Welcome donation. Thank You. God bless. 

By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.

HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -

Deaconess refers to a female faithful and believer serving in the office of "Deacon" in a church.

The office of deaconess became a regular feature of church organization as early as the first part of the 2nd century. Notably, in the A.D. 112, Pliny the Younger, governor of Bithynia, wrote a letter to the emperor Trajan of Rome, indicating that in his investigation of Christians he had tortured two Christian maidens who were called deaconesses.

The office of deaconess in the eastern Church continued down to the 12th century. The widows of clergyman who were not permitted to remarry, often served as deaconesses. Perhaps, Saint Paul's standards for deaconesses in 1 Timothy 5:3-16 - were applied to these deaconesses. No qualifications for the office of deaconesses are specifically given in the New Testament. But tradition indicates that she must not be a lover for money and power, but piety, faith and love of the Lord Jesus Christ, and experience were required of deaconesses.

Be considerate to widows; I mean those who are truly widows. If a widow has children or grandchildren, they are to learn first of all to do their duty to their own families and repay their debt to their parents, because this is what pleases God. But a woman who is really widowed and left without anybody can give herself up to God and consecrate all her days and nights to petitions and prayer. The one who thinks only of pleasure is already dead while she is still alive: remind them of all this, too, so that their lives may be blameless. Anyone who does not look after his own relations, especially if they are living with him, has rejected the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

Enrolment as a widow is permissible only for a woman at least sixty years old who has had only one husband. She must be a woman known for her good works and for the way in which she has brought up her children, shown hospitality to strangers and washed the saints' feet, helped people who are in trouble and have been active in all kinds of good work.

Do not accept young widows because if their natural desires get stronger than their dedication to Christ, they want to marry again, and then people condemn them for being unfaithful to their original promise. Besides, they learn how to be idle and go round from house to house; and then, not merely idle, they learn to gossips and meddlers in other people's affairs, and to chatter when they would be better keeping quite. I think it is best for young widows to marry again and have children and a home to look after, and not give the enemy any chance to raise a scandal about them; there are already some who have left us to follow Satan.

If a Christian woman has widowed relatives, she should support then and not make the Church bear the expense but enable it to support those who are genuinely widows. - 1 Tim. 5:3-16 -

Any woman wanted to be called or carried the title of a deaconess, firstly, the woman must not be a lover for money and power. Instead, the women must be respectable, not gossips but sober and quite reliable. - 1 Tim. 3:11 -

The New Testament reference to deaconess as a church office is apostle Paul's description of Phoebe as a deaconess of the Church in Cenchreae. The Greek word translated as deaconess in this passage is, perhaps, rendered as deacon and servant. In fact, the office of deaconess was similar to the office of deacon. Their spiritual responsibility was essentially the same, except that deaconesses probably rendered a ministry exclusively to women, particularly in the early years of the Church.

I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deaconess of the church at Cenchreae. Give her in union with the Lord, a welcome worthy of saints, and help with anything she needs: she has looked after a great many people, my self included. - Rom. 16:1-2 -

While controversy has centered around the ordination of women through the centuries, deaconesses apparently were installed in their office by the 'Laying On Of Hands' just like deacons. However, there is no account of a deaconess ordination in the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible.

In early centuries, deaconesses were especially called on to serve women in situations where custom forbade the ministry of the deacon. Deaconesses instructed female candidates for Church membership, ministered to women who were sick and in prison, and assisted at their baptism, especially in the act of anointing. Through the years deaconesses have been assigned various types of educational, charitable, and social service work in their churches and communities.

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Faith . Hope . Love - Welcome donation. Thank You. God bless. 

By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.

HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -