Romancing The Stone - Part 3
Writer Author Jerry Lee Kay Sr.
Christian Article
:
Christianity
- Fiction No
The breath of God is the breath of amazement, it is what Poppa calls the "Kiss of Life" Another word for breath is "inspire" - to breathe into....Sometimes others stimulate, arouse, motivate, or inspire us, when they impart their own "kiss of life", often times without realizing what they are doing. Many times such a "Kiss of Life" will come at a time when we least expect it.
When I first was married I became concerned about loving my wife so much she became an idol for me, and I was afraid I had crossed the line so I went to my spiritual mentor John Wolf. He asked me, " Do you love her more than Jesus loves the church, my answer was I don't think so, John said, Eph.5:25 tells us as men we should love our wives even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it"... He then said, "Son it has only been a couple of months that she came to me about the same subject. What you have is something that many do not find in their lifetime, and whatever you need to do to protect this relationship, this love between you two, do it." Matthew 19:6 says, "Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder" Then he told me to take that very scripture and go get in the Spirit and ask Him to reveal the depth of it. He said, " it goes so much farther than the natural mind can go, you must be in the Spirit to comprehend it.".....I couldn't go anywhere, the Holy Ghost hit me so hard I went to my knees and John was right there with me. POW! I knew how much I loved my woman, and the Holy Spirit opened up the windows of heaven and at that very moment I received the revelation of just how much my Master loves His Church. And to what extremes He will go to, to protect His relationship with those that are His Love....And to what extremes we as His Love must go to, to protect our Love and relationship with Him......Come on and say Amen!..Poppa fixin to preach about "Romancing the Stone."
Poppa is known in the family as the hugger and kisser. Makes no difference where I see any of my family I am going to give them a big hug and a kiss, and that includes the ladies. The first time I met my daughter-in-law my son had already warned her about Poppa. He told her you best be getting ready to pucker up! So she grabbed me first and hugged me and kissed me. I knew right away she was a keeper!..Can you say Amen?..Do you remember your “first kiss?” Your “first kiss” was doled out when you were way too small to recall. Babies are snuggled, cuddled, and kissed by their parents and relatives and sometimes, even complete strangers. Is it any wonder that snuggling, cuddling, and kissing are the first behaviors we learn to do by ourselves? It was that “first kiss” that initiated you into the uniqueness of being human. It was your first kiss that connected you to the universe of relationships. “Kiss and tell” was the watchword of the first century church. The “kiss” was the “holy kiss” that Paul urged the Corinthian Christians to greet each other with. The “tell” was both what the kiss communicated about that community and what that community had to tell to the world — the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
In the Old Testament the kiss was given at welcomes and farewells, and was also a sign of reconciliation (Jacob and Esau) and friendship (David and Jonathan). In Judaism, the kiss had no religious/ritual function. But in Christianity, it had almost a sacramental function from the start.
It is hard for us to appreciate how totally unusual this kissing was. In ancient cultures the familial kiss was both a right and an expectation, but limited to blood relationship or marriage. From the time of Paul Christians began referring to each other as “brothers and sisters,” and kissed each other to generate a new kind of family formed not out of biological relationship but by a kinship of faith. Whereas “kissing” was customarily used to delineate an “in” and an “out” group, a group of “others” you did not kiss, Christians were indiscriminate kissers who used kissing as a symbol of inclusion, not exclusion: kissing between unmarried men and women, kissing of slave and free, rich and poor, clean and unclean.
Kissing for us is a metaphor of souls touching and hearts embracing: “Think not that the kiss ranks with those given in public by common friends. It is not such: this kiss blends souls one with another, and solicit for them entire forgiveness. Therefore this kiss is the sign that our souls are mingled together, and have banished all wrongs. . . The kiss therefore is reconciliation, and for this reason holy: as the blessed Paul has in his Epistles urged: Greet ye one another with a holy kiss; and Peter, with a kiss of charity.”
Jesus inaugurated a “kissing culture.” He accepted kisses and touches from all sorts of disreputable characters. He drew dirty, sticky children into his lap and kissed and held them. He welcomed the kisses he received from his disciples. He scolded Simon the Pharisee for not offering him a kiss (Luke 7:45). He was betrayed by Judas’ kiss in the garden of Gethsemane....You might call Jesus a Serial Kisser.
But then Jesus came from a touchy-feely, “kissing” family. The kiss of creation came when God kissed “adam” and breathed into him the breath of life. He became the living man Adam only when God breathed the spirit (“pneuma”) of life into him (Genesis 2:7).
If it was God’s kiss that brought about the creation of humanity, it was also God’s kiss that brought the salvation for fallen humanity. God’s kiss to “adam” created life. God’s kiss to the world, to the fallen state of humanity, was born in Bethlehem — “a Savior, ‘tis Christ the Lord.” God’s kiss to the world was Jesus himself. The “God of love” Paul proclaimed could not bear to watch the people of the earth live without hope, redemption, and love. God’s kiss, the kiss of love that all good parents bestow upon their children, took the form of the Last Adam, Jesus the Christ.
Jesus, is the kiss of God to this world, “He preached and prayed, healed and held, suffered and died...all in order to “kiss and tell” the love of God for this world. That is why 1st Peter said, "Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded."
Yes dear friend, He truly is the Foundation, the Stone of our Hope!
What Jesus “told” was the message of redemption, the message of forgiveness, the message of amazing grace and endless love. Even as his apostle Paul continued to “encourage,” or “exhort” cantankerous congregations such as these Corinthians, Jesus kept chipping away at the hard-shell of humanity in order to find a soft cheek to kiss.
Consider the story Jesus told of the “prodigal son,” which literary scholars have called “the greatest short story ever told.” There is very little to condone enthusiasm for this disrespectful, take-the-money-and-run, party-boy. Yet, when the beaten down sinner shows up at the family gate, the father responds with joy. The father responds, amazingly and unpredictably: “He ran and put his arms around him and kissed him” (Luke 15:20). The father of the “prodigal son” shows no hesitation. He wants more than anything to “kiss and tell.” It is “kiss-and-telling” that brings forgiveness, redemption, and promise of new life. God’s kiss to a soured, scornful, sinful earth was the gift of Jesus. To kiss back was the way back to a restored, redeemed relationship with God.
But Jesus had his own kiss. After a ministry of healing and helping, the resurrected Jesus had a final kiss to bestow. In John 20:21-22 Jesus “breathed” on his resurrection witnesses and invited them to “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Jesus’ “kiss” to his followers — those in the first century and, through the power of Pentecost, every generation since was the life-giving kiss of the Holy Spirit.
If God’s kiss to the world is Jesus, and Jesus’ kiss to his disciples (from the first to the twenty-first centuries) is the Holy Spirit, then what is the “holy kiss” the body of Christ is commanded to exchange and express whenever they are gathered to “greet” each other?
The church’s “kiss” to the world is nothing less than the tale and touch of this trifecta of triumph that is available to all who will embrace truth. The church testifies with its life and its lips the “grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit.”
Christianity is not about theology. It is about kissology. It is about kissmetrics: the ability and facility of the Body of Christ to offer the “first kiss” of salvation to a world that is desperately in need of divine embrace: the touch of love, the touch of faith, the touch of hope. As disciples of Christ we have the calling and capability to offer a “first kiss” to everyone we meet. But first we have to be willing to ask ourselves, "How long has it been since I held His hand and showered Him with my Kisses and spent quality time telling the Master how much I love Him" How long has it been since we spent real time "Romancing the Stone." .....continued.
God Bless You
Poppa
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