Dining – Boldly For Him

I don’t have to close my eyes to re-live one of my most cherished memories. Captured in my thoughts and stored in my heart, it is a beautiful scene that I often revisit.

It’s a chilly winter night, and the intimate “table for two” is set against a quaint brick wall in the small dining room of a cozy restaurant in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. The ambiance creates an atmosphere of expectancy, igniting questions of hopeful love to swirl through my thoughts and dance through my heart! Is this “The One?” I wonder, My Knight in Shining Armor? The man that God has called to be my husband?

Song Of Solomon 2:4 (AMPC);

“He brought me to the banqueting house, and His banner over me was love [for love waved as a protecting and comforting banner over my head when I was near Him].”

Through the flickering candlelight, I can see in Mark’s eyes the “Protecting Presence of God’s Banner of Love” waving over my heart. His beautiful blue eyes reflect an inviting Peace that is both comforting and intimidating to me at the same time. As a fairly new Believer, I wonder, How could this handsome and Godly man be interested in me? At moments I feel like I am in the midst of the most beautiful dream that I never want to end!

For once in my life, the “Cinderella Shoe” fits and I’m wearing it!

It has been several years since the concert in Dover, Delaware. My best friend growing up begs me to go with her; at first, I’m not interested since I’m not a big fan of “rock music” and had never heard the term “Christian Rock” before. Besides, I have not been feeling well, and it’s going to take us a few hours to get to our destination from where we live.

Several phone calls later and a promise that we will stop to get something to eat finds me on the road to Dover! As we journey along, my friend, who has previously dated the bands’ drummer, realizes that we are running late and decides to forego the food. After all, there is no time to waste!

Getting to the Church where the concert is taking place catches me by surprise, where is everybody?

As people begin to filter in, the lights dim, and the atmosphere begins to shift, dry ice adds to the mystique of the moment. Suddenly, the spotlight highlights a guy blindfolded in a plexiglass phone booth-shaped box, wearing a red shirt. From an opening in the top of the box, there is a key hanging from a string dangling in front of him.

As the music starts, the guy in the box grabs the key takes the blindfold off, swings the door wide open, steps out, and confronts another guy dressed as a demon. As they go through the motions of a staged fight between good and evil, I am intrigued by what I am witnessing.

This “staged” fight seems a lot like the life that I am currently living. I am a reasonably new Believer in Jesus Christ, yet the ties to my past are strong, and I am having a difficult time “Breaking Free” from a very toxic relationship in my life. I find out later that this is one reason my friend has asked me to accompany her to the concert.

By now, the guy in the box has won his fight against the force of evil, and the band comes out in full force. The guy in red is singing a song that he wrote entitled, “I Surrender.” With tears stinging my eyes and rolling down my cheeks, God uses every lyric he sings to fully open the eyes of my heart and break me free from the “soul ties” of my past.

For the first time in my life, I am not afraid to Dine with Father God at His “Table for Two.”

Revelation 3:20 (TPT);

“Behold, I’m standing at the door, knocking. If your heart is open to hear my voice and you open the door within, I will come into you and feast with you, and you will feast with me.”

Feasting with God at His “Table for Two,” created a “Holy Hunger” within me, a True Divine Appetite. Yes, “I Surrendered” to God’s Perfect Will for my life that night, and I am so glad I did!

Many years later, I can testify that the beauty of my relationship with Mark, (the guy who was in the box that night) is that WE BOTH LOVE GOD MORE THAN WE LOVE EACH OTHER! We have learned to continually dine at Father God’s, “Table for Two,” developing our intimacy with Him individually through His Word before communing as husband and wife.

Why?……because anything less would be idolatry!

Deuteronomy 5:7 (AMPC);

“You shall have no other gods before Me or besides Me.”

Idolatry is the antithesis of intimacy with God.

Idolatry is the devil’s playground.

Idolatry is the force behind “crimes of passion!”

Idolatry is the trap that the enemy will use to destroy your intimacy with God and kill the relationships in your life, spirit, soul, and body!

Merriam Webster Dictionary:

IDOLATRY = The worship of a physical object as a God.

ANTITHESIS = The Direct Opposite.

My friend, when you and I choose to love someone, something, or even our desires more than God, that person or thing becomes an “object of our worship.” our god! By desecrating our hearts in this manner, we sit and dine at the tables of “foreign gods,” feasting on the carnality of our fleshly desires. This heart action works in “The Direct Opposite” to developing True Intimacy with God, at His Holy, “Table for Two.”

The danger in all of this, “idol worship,” is that our true soul satisfaction can never come from any source outside of the “One True Source,” Jesus Christ!

John 4:13-14 (TPT);

“Jesus answered, If you drink from Jacob’s well, you’ll be thirsty again and again,” “but if anyone drinks the Living Water I give them, they will never thirst again and will be forever satisfied! For when you drink the water I give you, it becomes a gushing fountain of The Holy Spirit, springing up and flooding you with endless life!”

To drink from the well of human efforts will bring disappointment, and leave us spiritually dry, brittle, and thirsty “again and again. “However, drinking the “Living Water” of Jesus Christ will fill our souls to the Brim with Him! We become a “Gusher” of Holy Spirit Power as He “Springs up and Floods us with Endless Life!”

Whose dining table are you sitting at, my friend?

Have you chosen to dine at the table of foreign gods?

Have you answered God’s RSVP for Eternity?

I am so grateful that God, “Who Is,” “Love Himself,” offers His Love to us in all of the “Right Places.” My journey with Mark began at The Most Important “Table For Two” FIRST. The Table of Intimacy With God, Dining on His Word and Feasting on His Presence!

When I reflect, my heart’s deepest desire was to meet and marry a man who LOVED GOD MORE THAN HE LOVED ME! In Mark, I have found that “Dream Come True!”

Luke 12:37 (TPT):

“What great joy is ahead for The Awakened Ones who are for The Master’s return. He Himself will become their servant and wait on them at His Table as He passes by.”

Be Strong and Live Free…………..Boldly For Him!

Photo: Raissa Lara Lutolf ( -Fasel )