Heightening her Emotions
How does the greatest king, shepherd, friend and tutor heighten the brides love thus drawing her closer to himself where she is happiest?
How does he draw her closer? By the “strength” 8:6 and superlative “delightfulness” 1:6 of his love.
Love is an emotion, an affection of the heart.
Sometimes we are more aware of the emotion than at other times.
Sometimes it is higher and greater and sometimes longer or shorter and the degree of understand is variable as well but all in all when the soul partakes of the Nature of God, from one level to another is by beholding his Glory in the face of any type and the coming Anti-type. I say coming Anti-type because the bride in the song would of had some knowledge of the coming Anti-type by the prophecies, the temple and Solomon’s unmeasurable wisdom and life as a king, prophet, shepherd and husband. Now I think I got a little of track. I was getting to explain how it was that the bride’s affections kept increasing all the way to 2:6 til she passes out and is faint with love.
How did the bride get to feeling that way? The Bride speaks in the first person so in order for us to fully know what she was feeling we have to know….Who she is. Who he is. Learn the context and whats going on. And then share with her the experience of the unquenchable love of the greatest type of Christ to his most lovely bride. But skipping a lot of context I would rather focus more on the ascending nature of their love for each other on the first date.
How was love shown to her over and over again to the point that she faints in his arms?
The goal is for you to try to get a sense of what it would feel like to be her!!
I think I should put that in BOLD FACE AND UNDERLINE IT!!
The goal is for you to try to get a sense of what it would feel like to be her!!
As she tells us how her king, shepherd, friend and suitor loved her and wooed her closer by his/His love notice that her subjective growing feelings are based on truth and the current better and better, closer and closer union being formed.
From bondage to freedom. From misery to true happiness. From meaninglessness to purpose. From a heavy burden to a yoke that is easy. From complete neglect of her duties in 1:6 to having love and a blossoming vineyard! From being his enemy to being his friend. From being a single girl to being wooed by the most desirable man alive!
The point of the Song is for us to get a sense of how it would feel to be her experiencing the Love of God through her union and sweet communion with the king, the greatest type of Christ alive!! Any true union she has with Solomon the type of Christ is also a union with the True coming Christ, for you can’t just be one with one and not the other. By Song 8:6 she recognizes her complete oneness with her beloved in true holy love.
She goes from being a righteously hated slave to a servant of the most high king in Song 1:2-4
Even though she looks like a Gentile enemy due to her sunburn the daughters of Jerusalem learn to not stare at her and accept her. She becomes one with God’s king in Song 1:2-4 and she becomes one with his people as well in Song 1:5 and Song 6:9.
She meets the one her heart loves for the first time. Love was at first site at his anointing but now she talks to him for they both are shepherd’s and she want to shepherd next to him in the shade away from the hot sun as a slave girl. Now at this point if he didn’t like her he wouldn’t woo her closer. But by now she has captivated both his eyes and his heart. She is absolutely beautiful, the most beautiful woman and he lets her know it. The one her heart fell in love with because of his superlative reputation, name and love talks to her and his lips drop precious myrrh, sweet word after sweet word, like music drawing her irresistibly closer by the sweetness of his love which was stronger than death. And she couldn’t buy his love for she had nothing and needed redemption from her slavery.
Don’t you always try to remember the sweet things you lover has said. Her she tells us why his mouth was sweetness itself when he answered her request thus giving her information as to where he would be and where she could find green shady pasture for her young goats, and get out from under the sun and be right there with the other’s next to his sheep fold. Thus she will be able to find true peace and rest for the first time in her life!
Sensing her love to him he sweetly answers her with words that delight her heart and shatter all fear for he recognized her beauty and loveliness and fitness for her purpose and said,
“If you do not know most beautiful of women, follow the tracks of the sheep and rest your young goats by the shepherd tents.”
Her emotion are not only palpable, they are increasing in proportion to her desire for him, which gets more and more intense every verse all the way to 2:6 when she is so overwhelmed by the increasing experience of his love that her body can’t handle it, she gets faint with love as his precious left “hand supports” her head and his solid “gold right hand set with beryl” “embraces her” so she doesn’t fall. Song 2:6, Song 5:14
She is now left there in his arms until she desires otherwise. And charge is give for the daughters of Jerusalem to not arouse or awaken her out of her souls delight as she drinks up his love to her over and over again in her mind.
Now I jumped ahead again to fast. So lets go back what sweetness drops from his lips after he told her she was the most beautiful woman. He compliments her character. She is pursing him without fear and that is noble and praiseworthy for she looks like a sunburnt enemy slave on the outside but is acting like a true Jew on the inside due to her fearless pursuit of him, God’s beloved son, Jedidiah, Solomon, king of peace, greatest type of Chris alive! It was right and noble for her to pursue him for he was the most desirable man alive and she didn’t fear being put back in the slave vineyards but had been told she could find true peace and experience rest in shady green pastures next to the one she loves.
The mare in battle that he compares her to in Song 1:9 is not only fearless, but swift. She didn’t waste any time in her pursuit of a closer more intimate relationship with him for she says “Let us hurry“. Now remember the courtship and marriage in the Songs of Songs is no ordinary marriage and the courtship is not ordinary either otherwise we would have and ordinary Song but this is the Song of Songs that illustrates love better than any other love Song Solomon wrote, therefore a superlative love is here for us to behold and sense!
After the bride is praised for her character the shepherd she loves praises her cheeks and neck with their adornments. She is the most beautiful of women and now upon meeting her his eyes were focused on the beauty of her cheeks and neck. Not only is she beautiful but she is also a virgin worthy of being decked with expensive jewelry so all who had a hand in beautifying the bride promise to make her earrings of gold studded with silver.
From bondage to freedom. From misery to true happiness. From meaninglessness to purpose. From the heavy burden of slavery to a yoke that is easy. From complete neglect of her duties in 1:6 to having love and a blossoming vineyard! From being his enemy to being his friend 1:7-8. From being a single girl to being wooed by the most desirable man alive! 1:8 to being praised by him! 1:9 Then he woo’s her closer by letting her know what beauties he is specifically drawn to at the moment as he praised her. 1:10.
Then the first promise is given to her. She would be beautified with objects of great value!! She went from being a broke sunburnt slave girl to being promised to be adorned for her wedding with the most desirable man alive!
This whole time thus far the main feeling she is getting is that she only wants to please him! Her character and matchless beauty greatly pleased him. While he was around she only wanted to please him in as many ways as possible so she also has a bundle of myrrh around her neck that spread its fragrance when her beloved king was around.
Everything he says, does and promises her is absolutely lovely to her and he is altogether lovely so she compares him to “a cluster of henna blossom from the vineyards of Engedi.” First she see’s all that is lovely about him then she knows his inestimable value and basically says she is willing to give her life to him in order to have him close to her heart all night. She feels he is priceless and stays humble with a high view of him as he praised her.
And the emotions keep getting higher and more intense as their doves eyes meet for the first time. They meet eye to eye and his focus is now off her cheeks and neck and onto her eyes that ravish his heart due to the sincere love behind them.
Imagine a first date with the best man alive and everything gets better and better!!
The love in her eyes is evident as he looks into them for the first time and says,
“How beautiful you are, my darling,
How beautiful you are!
Your eyes are like doves.“
Imagine two lovers for the first time going back and forth admiring one another with the sweetest words that will forever be in Scripture! We get to know what happened in the most intimate times of her courtship and marriage, when she sensed the superlative sweetness of his love over and over again!
After he admires her eyes she admires his overall loveliness and says to him as he is still looking at her and she is looking into his eyes and getting the feeling you get when you look at two doves by streams of water. Having that feeling she communes sweetly with him saying,
“How handsome you are, my beloved,
And so pleasant!“
Then she has a high view of their pleasant, green and luxurious resting and dwelling place. So not only is the date and conversation out of this world but also the location is the most glorious as well. The perfect first date in the most luxurious surroundings.
From adoring one another in a luxurious shady green pasture they enter the most beautiful garden that has the most loveliest rose in it. The bride notices the rose and she thinks of herself and it is an appropriate comparison. Staying humble knowing her beauty was not of herself but of “a Master Craftsman” 7:1 she says of herself,
“I am a Rose of Sharon, a lily of the valley.” 2:1
Now I know this never happens in real life but his words keep dropping honey word after word. He draws her even closer to himself by his loving words and observance of her beautiful character under trials and says,
“Like a lily among thorns is my true love”
After a walk through the garden of paradise together they are resting in the heat of the day under an apple tree and she makes a comparison between her beloved and the finest tree saying,
“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.”
To make a long expiation short, “Everything is perfect about him, they are a perfect match made in heaven literally.”
And it just gets better, how much more could the most blessed woman ask for on a first date!? He know takes her to a banquet hall filled with people and a special sweet gift is there waiting for her. Here is how she says what happens in her own words…
“He hath brought me in unto a house of wine, And his banner over me is love,”
Metaphorically he is giving her the biggest kiss so far. In full view of everyone he announces his love to her. Just earlier in the day she was a sunburnt miserably burdened slave girl and now the king of Israel is proclaiming to everyone that he loves her!! He has completely swooned her, she is about to be swept off her feet. Her body gets weak and she needs some strength, in desperation she asks for something that will strengthen her feeling of being faint with love. She’s about to pass out and asks,
“Strengthen me with raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love.”
But before she was fully aware of it she noticed herself fainting in his arms for the support she not gets from him enables her to be the closest she has been to his thus far and not sin. The love he has shown her is overwhelming and her feet can’t hold her anymore, she losses support and finds absolute peace and rest in his arms as she notices,
“His left arm is under my head, and his right arm embraces me.”
Thoughts of his love to her are dancing sweetly in her mind as he supports her head with one hand and the other embraces her so she is to not fall. Sort of like a dip in a dance. She is drunk with love and can’t stand on her own!! With the most delightful thoughts of her beloved in her mind and a joy unspeakable in her heart a charge is given for no one to arouse or awaken her from his sweet embrace until mother nature desires she is ready.
“I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the does of the field, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases.” Solomon’s Song of Songs 2:7
The next scene they are apart and he is coming to propose.
LORD willing you got a sense of what it felt like to be drawn closer and loved!
Categories
Uncategorized
mostsublimesong View All
Saved in 2000 at age 27. Nearly immediately I fell in love with the Song and grew very fast the first two years memorizing large portions of scripture purifying my mind the started chewing on meat to soon and struggled for 12 years and Christ has me on track like always but I just took the long way around and now I love leading others closer to Christ by seeing His love reflected in Solomons love for an enemy slave girl.
I have experienced God's love to me in the Song in ways that words can't express. There are many portion of the Word where she experiences extra ordinary outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God. If you have a burning desire for a close intimate relationship with God by experiencing His Love to you over and over again at greater and greater heights, depths, lengths and breaths then The Song of Songs is where you need to be.
I can help you with this process of Growing in the experience of God's love. As of 7-23-16 I have experienced everything prior to chapter 8. The Song of Song is progressive in experience. Meaning that if you are mature then you can experience the joys and extraordinary outpourings of God's Love shed abroad in your heart.
If you are not so mature then the delights in the first chapter of the Song will satisfy your thirst for experiencing the Love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Many Christian are living in sin because they do not know how to experience God's love and get hooked on Loving Him. It feels good to be loved and to love Him. His burden is not heavy and His yoke is light, Jesus said in Matt. 10:28
I believe God wants to use me to help beautify His Bride through the Song of Solomon.
If you see the book literally you will not understand nor grasp the Love God has for you. If you see the book and the verses in it relating to Christ's love to you then I would love to show you how to experience this Love to the fullest. I will pray for you daily and guide you every step of the way.
16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
I grew up going to church but was a hypocrite. I lived my life how I chose but went to church on Sunday because my family went.
Mom and Dad divorced when I was about 5.
About this time I was sexually abused by "Bob" a made up name. This incident changed my life for the worst. I had no clue how to deal with it.
As I got older I grew in my hatred for Bob. I didn't blame anyone of my family because I was to young to know any better. Some of what happened during the abuse was in a bathroom. So overtime I would use the bathroom and look at my private parts that night would replay in my mind. My hatred for Bob would continue to grow each time.
Now I know this only happened to me one night. I can't image the pain other's go through who have had this happen to them over and over. Even as I write this now I cry with many tears for those hurting. God love you even though you may not know it or feel it. Go to Him in your time of need.
I was a really bad teenager. I only cared about myself and not even my family. I always came first in my mind. Even at the expense of hurting others. I was growing in my hatred for God by now.
I was going to church and was learned that God was in control. I thought well, if God was in control then He must have let me be sexually abused. I didn't understand this, How could a good and loving God allow this. I hated Him for it. My hatred for Bob grew as well. I was still using the bathroom and memories kept coming back. My heart grew even harder for Bob and God. As far as I was concerned God would have nothing to do with my life so I lived even worse. I thought I would be in jail or dead and I really didn't care, I thought it could be much worse than reliving your painful past over and over again. Little did I know that God's plan later would be to use these events to give me a burning passion for the closest most intimate love relationship with Himself through Christ mainly through the love poem in the Song of Songs in the Bible.
I remember hating Bob so much that the only thing that would relieve my pain was actually thinking he would suffer forever for what he did. I grew so much in my hatred for him that I had to continue to think that he would get even worse than what I imaged before. After some time I would only be relieved of hatred for him unless I thought he would burn in a hotter and hotter hell for all the suffering he put me through.
I never told my mom or family what happened, although I think some of them knew something had happened.
I grew up quite rebellious and even went to jail at the age of 20. I was living the fast life pursuing all my sinful desires and wanting more. It never seemed to be enough. I was quite happy in my sin but I just wanted more of it.
I lived life thinking I would die at a young age, riding motorcycle and living on the edge put me in the hospital many times and I should have been dead.
California at age 26.
I moved to California for a job opportunity at the age of 27. While trying to figure out what radio stations to program in my car, I ran across a RC Sproul talking about "people who have the faith that saves and people who only say that have faith" only the people who have the faith that saves will go to heaven. I thought "I don't think I have the faith that saves because my life was so bad." I searched the scriptures to try to get this faith. I found a church and thought people there could help me get this faith that saves. All along God kept showing me how sinful I was and that I deserved punishment from Him for living my life hating Him.
One weekend I read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John desperately trying to find out how to get this faith that saves. By now I knew that if you had the faith that saves that Jesus would be saving you from a life of sin. I still liked my sin and Jesus sure wasn't saving me from a life of sin, so I rightly concluded that I didn't have the faith that saves.
By the time I got to John, I saw "believe" everywhere. John 3:16 and other verses and wow the whole book was written so that you may believe. John 20:31 "these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." So at night I would pray "I believe Jesus died for me, I believe, I believe. This was just an intellectual belief. I knew that in history and the Bible that Jesus died for everyone, so I believed it. But this belief did not change my life.
I would go on night after night saying the same prayer only to wake up the next day wanting to fulfill my sinful desires. The prayer wasn't working so I started to word it different each time hoping some prayer would work. After about 2 weeks of this I was fed up with it all, nothing was happening. I still was living in my sin and wanted more of it. A Christian hates their sin and does something about it, and certainly they don't continue to make plans to sin. The prayers weren't working so I gave up. I thought to myself "God, I tried with all my might, I searched the Scriptures, went to church, read the Bible and prayed all to no avail. If Im going to be saved your going to have to do it because I tried."
So I quit praying but still the Bible kept calling me so I read more. 3 Days later I was laying in a tanning bed and God convicted me really hard that I had offended Him by the life I was living. I was so scared of God, where could I run. You can't hide from God. It seemed like forever that I was under these terrors of being punished by a Holy Angry God. This lasted about 10 minutes then this is how I understood it. God let me understand that all that anger that He had for me for all my sin should come my way but He had poured that anger out on Jesus 2,000 years ago. I immediately started weeping an couldn't stop for about 20 minutes. All the sins that I could think of I confessed for that 20 minutes one after another after another, I was so sorrowful and grieved it physically hurt inside.
After I stopped crying I thought that was the weirdest thing that ever happened. I walked out of the tanning salon and stood outside and everything seemed so beautiful, the tree's, the birds, even the air seemed pleasant. Now I was really wondering what was going on.
I pondered all of this as I drove to work that day. I brought my Bible to work and was thinking what am I doing, I want to take my Bible to work so I can read it. As soon as I got to work I started reading my Bible. I couldn't believe what I was reading!! It all was so wonderful. It felt so good to just read my Bible. My client showed up and as I was training them the only thing I could think about was getting back to my Bible. I read all night and slept about 2 hours and was reading again.
I had sinful things in my apartment and I rounded everything evil up and threw it in the garbage. It was weird I was thinking but it felt good so I left it all in the garbage. I called my girlfriend to break it up and she thought I had another girl, I said no, I just think this is wrong we shouldn't be sleeping together. She didn't understand so I told her I was a Christian now and she still thought I had another girlfriend. She said "Im glad your a Christian, so am I" I thought to myself, "I have a strong conviction that sleeping together is wrong and she thought it was okay" I wondered how she could think that. Anyway we broke up.
I kept reading my bible and repenting, there was so much to repent of and I had lived a very sinful life. I was a thief for some part of my life and all the people I stole from kept coming to mind. I owed so much money. I was instantly in debt about $80,000. As I could I paid them back. As of 7-18-2016 I still owe about $25,000 but it sure is a joy to be paying them back.
The first week of being saved a car just about ran me over, they hit me but I wasn't hurt at all. The guy in the car felt so bad. I just looked at him and said "God bless you and have a great day, I am okay" smiled at him and moved on. Now I was really wondering what was going on because I normally would have cussed him out left and right and instead of cussing I blessed him. That was so weird. But again it felt good. I learned to do good by what my conscience told me was good and that it felt good. I got hooked on this feeling good by doing good and did it more often.
About two weeks after being saved I thought of Bob. I immediately prayed for him, something like "Lord help him.." then I stopped praying and said out loud "What am I doing?" I'm praying for a man that I hated my whole life, but it feels good and right, so I did it again. I stopped again midway in the prayer and started pacing around. I was trying to make sense of what was going on and couldn't figure it out. But again it made me happy to pray for him so I did. Bob would often come to mind when I went to the bathroom and each time I would pray for Him. The more I did this the less weird it got. And the greater my love grew for him.
I started memorizing large portions of scripture and this was wonderful because it felt like the words were cleaning my mind and as Proverbs 2:10 "For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul." I wanted more and more of this pleasantness. So I memorized even more and the joy got more and more.
Then this life changing advice came:
A friend from church told me to find a book of the Bible and really understand it. Read through the Bible and pick one and read it over and over and study it and really get it. So I started in Genesis and read through. When I got to Proverbs I really liked it so I thought that would be the book. I started by memorizing all of Proverbs chapter 3. After that I thought maybe there is a better book than Proverbs. So I read on. Then I came to Song of Solomon. I read it with quite some confusion. It wasn't as good as the other books, I didn't know why. So I bought a commentary on it. George Burrowes commentary on the Song of Solomon.
In the commentary I found that George and other saw the book as illustrating God's love to the Church. And not only illustrating it but displaying the Love of Christ better than any other book. This caught my attention big time, because I was having a burning desire for a closer relationship with God and desperately learning about His Love so that I could Love God. You see I had hated Him for so long that God used that old hard heart to spur me on in loving Him. I so much did not want to hate God anymore that I was on fire to learn to Love Him as much and as fast as possible. So here was a book that would help me do that. So I landed on the Song of Solomon. I committed to learning as much of this book as possible.
I memorized the first chapter and would repeat it often throughout the day. I didn't know much of what I was repeating but it sure made me happier and on fire for God. I grew so fast repeating the first chapter over and over again all day, like a dozen times a day at least. It felt so good and I never found any other book that caused me to weep so much. I would often weep everyday just reading it. I was to immature to know what was going on. Even though it hurt to weep so much, I felt like my heart was being cleansed from the filth that was in it by repeating it over and over again so I did. As I read the commentary I understood more and more. What God was doing in me through the Song was greater and faster than any other portion of Scripture so I tended to stay there often. I was so excited about God that I thought it funny that other's in church weren't the same way. Some where happy but it seemed most of them didn't seem to care much about God. They would talk about work, football the weather. The only thing I wanted to talk about was Jesus and God and how can I grow closer to Him.
About this time there was a mission trip to Ireland.
I started to have convictions that I should try to find Bob and witness to him. I kept praying for him but how could he be saved if he hadn't heard the Gospel that has power unto salvation. So I asked family if they had any information. Like me before, my family hated him and thought he deserved hell. After some time I got his name but no location or phone number. Either they didn't know where he was or didn't want to tell me. I prayed some more and then started to get stronger convictions to do something about finding Bob.
So I went on the internet and typed in "his name and child molestation sex offender court" thinking that some court record would have some info leading to where I may find him" I even talked to a private eye and he couldn't help. So I googled some key words and spent hours each day looking through each page. I believed it was God's will for me to witness to Bob. I wanted him to be saved. Really bad. So much so that I thought God would save Bob if I were to witness to him. So I didn't stop searching for him. I kept my computer on each day and went page by page. It took two years to go through about 15,000 pages but I found someone who matched his name in a prison for molesting his grandchildren. I wrote the prison and he wrote back. All kinds of emotions went through my body when I saw his letter from the jail. I didn't open it right away but two hours later God gave me enough courage to face my fears again and I opened the letter. He admitted to being the one who molested me. We wrote back and forth I told him I was angry before but now I was saved and that I loved him and believed God wanted me to talk to him. He read my letters over and over again. I shared the gospel in each one.
I got mad at Bob 2x. Once he said that he love me. I got really angry with him. He didn't love me. That night it was hard to love Bob, I had to call a friend to pray for me to repent, after he prayed I felt greater love for Bob. Then I wrote him back saying "I'm sorry but you can't say that you loved me. You did not love me you lusted after me." He admitted he didn't love as he should have and admitted that it was lust and sinful. Finally some conviction. Yet I only thought he was saying that because I was being nice to him. All his family had left him and he said I was the only "friend" he had.
Wether or not it was true Bob said that he had cancer in his arm and that the help the prison gives was not enough and if he had money he could see a different doctor and get help. I sent him some money and since I was in jail before I knew what it was like to be in there without money, so I sent him money.
About 4-5 months in the economy went down, it was 2008. Work was hard. I still sent him money and I had to work harder. This was a really good lesson for me because I had to "work hard for the benefit of someone who did not deserve it." This was one of the greatest blessing ever because I realized with great certainty that Jesus was in me. This is what Jesus did. Jesus worked his whole life for me and I didn't deserve it!! Christ was in me! This was one of the best feelings ever and it put me in worship for months.
Then a mission trip to Croatia.
Each time I had to leave my business and amazing as it is I was completely okay each time. I am a self employed personal trainer and it is normally absurd to just leave and start over, but each time I had enough work within 2 weeks of coming back. This is a flat out miracle. I trusted God to provide and he did. How many people can start up a business in 2 weeks. Only with the help of God. God was teaching me early on in my walk that as long as I did what He wanted me to do then I had nothing to worry about.
About 3 years saved now.
I Taught the 4 year old's at church Sunday morning for 10 years.
Left my business 2x for mission trips and God miraculously provided when I came back.
I taught 5 x a week plus held a job.
Sunday morning to the kids.
Sunday night with the 5th graders
Friday afternoons at Good News Clubs. Sponsored by Child Evangelism Fellowship.
Friday Nights with the Kids teaching through Pilgrims Progress, I did this 2x
Teaching Monday afternoons at a nursing home. I taught through the Song of Songs once then John, then Romans then back to the Song again! I love the Song of Songs.
I grew up hating God for what happened to me, and now I love Him because He first loved me. My passion is for children to grow up loving God and not hating Him.
My other passion which has become ever greater is to help others see the Love of Christ to His Church in the Song of Songs!!
I would love to help you, just let me know and I will lead you and pray for you.
God demonstrates His love to us in sending His one and only Son to suffer in our place, taking our sins upon Himself so that whoever believes they get to heaven because of what He did for us will not perish but have everlasting life.