David Stoop - Just Us: Finding Intimacy With God and With Each Other

2003 Jan and David Stoop.
Published in association with the literary agency of Alive Communications, Inc., 7680 Goddard Street, Suite 200, Colorado Springs, CO 80920.

Published by Revell
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.revellbooks.com

Revell edition published 2014

ISBN 978-1-4412-2588-7

Previously published by Regal Books

Originally published by Servant Publications as Ten Minutes Together with God.

Ebook edition originally created 2011

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Other versions used are:

NIV Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

NKJV Scripture taken from the New King James Version . Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

TLB Scripture quotations marked ( TLB ) are taken from The Living Bible , copyright 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189. All rights reserved.

While the stories in this book are based on real events, they are composites. All the names and identifying details have been changed to protect the identities of the people involved.

CONTENTS

And when I passed by and saw you again, you were old enough to be married. So I wrapped my cloak around you to cover your nakedness and declared my marriage vows. I made a covenant with you, says the Sovereign Lord, and you became mine.

EZEKIEL 16:8

Is marriage a contract or a covenant? When we look at how these two words are defined in the dictionary, the first definition for each word is the same: an agreement between two or more persons to do or not do something specified. The other definitions offered by the dictionary dont give us much help in seeing how they differ.

Yet if we look back to Genesis 15, when God made his covenant with Abram, we can get a better picture of what constitutes a covenant. Gods covenant with Abram seems very one-sided. God makes all the promises: to give Abram a multitude of descendents and to give him the land. Nothing is expected of Abram in return except that he be faithful.

On the other hand, a contract typically is a this-for-that kind of arrangement. The language of a contract states that if you do this, then I will do thatit is conditional. Furthermore, the two things exchanged are assumed to be somewhat equal in value.

Marriage is typically seen in our culture as a contractual arrangementa this-for-that. If one person doesnt keep his or her part of the bargain, then there is a problem and the contract can be broken. For many, the marriage as contract has become very conditional. In other words, I as a spouse will do this for you, but in return you as my partner have to do that for me.

In our country, some states are trying to lower their divorce rate by offering two types of marriages: contract and covenant. If you choose the marriage as contract option, it can be broken, but the covenant marriage is for life and is taken much more seriously. Thats the way God intended marriage to befor life. His idea for marriage has always been that it is a covenant, where promises are made and kept unconditionally. Furthermore, if one side breaks a promise, God intends for us to be like Him and renew the covenant.

In Jeremiah, God expands on the meaning of covenant when we are told, the day will come, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors... But this is the new covenant... I will put my laws in their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people (Jer. 31:31,33). A covenant marriage is a matter of the mind and the heart, not just a matter of the law.

Many couples havent thought about whether their marriage is a contract or a covenant. Talk about your thoughts concerning this. If you do consider your marriage to be a covenant, how has that impacted your marriage?

Loving God, thank You for the covenant You have made with us as Your adopted children. We pray that You will enrich our relationship as we meet with You each day. Help us to give to each other unconditionally as You have given Yourself to us. Write deeply within our minds and our hearts the commitment we have made to each other.
Amen.

The next day Jesus mother was a guest at a wedding celebration in the village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the celebration.

JOHN 2:1 - 2

Isnt it interesting that the first miracle of Jesus took place at a wedding? After Jesus turned the water into wine, the apostle John tells us, this miraculous sign at Cana in Galilee was Jesus first display of his glory (John 2:11). We all love a wedding, probably because it is a celebration of the love between two people and it is an event where everyone can enjoy themselves. Yet, many times the bride and groom are too exhausted to enjoy the celebration. They may enjoy their wedding more later as they relive the celebration through photographs or a videotape.

Jan and I were married before the days when videotaping was common, so we relied on a good still photographer to give us a record of that beautiful day. However, we found we had hired a photographer who was not as experienced as he claimed to be. Halfway through the photos, he dropped his camera. He quickly checked it, but obviously didnt check it carefully enough, because none of the pictures came out. We were devastated, to say the least. So our wedding album is made up of snapshots that friends and family took. We are thankful that we have something we can look at to remind us of that day. Today, when we look at those pictures, we realize it isnt the quality of the pictures that is important; it is the memories those pictures stir up within us.