Holy Eros
Your holy fire brings holy desire
Stripping away all blackened lust
With sweet humility I’m set free
You’ve won my heart’s only trust
Lost in You my mind is made new
I taste Your Beauty from within
It cleans my soul making me whole
Making me feel youthful again
Your glory smiles all the while
Infinite wealth of joy is mine
Done with the race seeing your face
Our Beauty will forever shine
Christ is Everything
I need Him
He is everything you need
Believe Him
Life is a Person
Recieve Him
Open up your heart & sing
Open yourself to the New Creation
Open yourself to the joy of change
What a kind intention
What abounding grace
How our God came down to earth
To join the human race
anon
With You My Love
When I’m with you I feel brand new
As wonder and joy fill my heart
In this romance we sing and dance
Intertwined never shall we part
As beauty flows my heart only knows
True love is what I have found
Your sweetest kiss brings heavens bliss
As music of the stars shines down
With you as my own I’m never alone
Secure within your loving arms
My heart’s set free with high ecstasy
Inside your world of lovely charms
Hymn 510
SUBJECT: EXPERIENCE OF CHRIST-AS EVERYTHING
METER: 8.6.8.6.
AUTHOR: Witness Lee
COMPOSER: May Chenevix-Trench
1 I’ve found the One of peerless worth,
My heart doth sing for joy;
And sing I must, for Christ I have:
Oh, what a Christ have I!
2 My Christ, He is the Lamb of God,
Who full salvation brings;
He is the Sun of Righteousness,
With healing in His wings.
3 My Christ, He is the Tree of Life
With fruit abundant, sweet;
My hunger He doth satisfy;
Of Him I daily eat.
4 My Christ, He is the smitten Rock
Whence living waters burst;
He is the fountain in my heart
Which quenches all my thirst.
5 Christ is my life, my light, my way,
My comfort and my health,
My peace, my rest, my joy, my hope,
My glory and my wealth.
6 Christ is my wisdom and my pow’r,
My boast and righteousness,
My vict’ry and redemption sure,
My truth and holiness.
7 Christ is my Savior, Shepherd, Lord,
My Advocate above,
My Counsellor, my Father, God,
My Brother, Friend, and Love.
8 Christ is my Captain and my Guard,
My Teacher and my Guide,
My Bridegroom, Master and my Head;
In me doth He reside.
9 Christ is my Prophet, Priest, and King;
My Prophet full of sight;
My Priest that stands ‘twixt me and God,
My King that rules with might.
10 Christ is the Author of my faith,
And its Perfecter too,
My Mediator, Guarantee,
And faithful Witness true.
11 Christ is my everlasting home,
My all-sufficient land;
My fortress, tower, hiding-place,
And my eternal stand.
12 Christ is my sabbath and new moon,
My morning and my day,
My age and my eternity
That ne’er will pass away.
13 Christ is my trust and my desire,
In comeliness replete,
My satisfaction and delight,
Who all my need doth meet.
14 My Christ, the all-inclusive One,
My Christ what shall I call?
He is the first, He is the last,
My Christ is All in all.
15 Since such a treasure I possess,
My heart doth sing for joy;
And I must sing, and sing again;
Oh, what a Christ have I!
Thank you St. Michael. You have indeed expressed holy eros.
And Origen, you have made a good attempt at expression Christ as the personification of agape.
Thanks Paidion. Here’s Phil Wickham
Here’s an article on falling in love with your baby. You people are stupid to have never heard of this. It has nothing to do with sex.
To learn more about Holy Eros here’s a good book on the subject called “Holy Eros: Pathways to a Passionate God”
Evelyn Eaton Whitehead is a developmental psychologist (Ph.D., University of Chicago) whose work focuses on spiritual development in adult life. James D. Whitehead is a theologian (Ph.D., Harvard University) who studies the interplay of religion and culture. In their shared career spanning forty-five years and fifteen books, the Whiteheads continue to explore the vital themes emerging in contemporary Christian spirituality.
A few quotes from the book:
Eros is most often associated with sexual arousal, but essayist Noelle Oxenhandler recognizes it’s presence in the midst of parenting. She describes the overwhelming delight of caring for her baby daughter. “I remember how palpably I experienced her too-muchness. It was a shudder in my body, an energy I had to soften, reign in, lest I squeeze her too hard, startle her with too exuberant a kiss.” She adds, “It is this feeling I want to call the eros of parenthood: an upswelling of tenderness, often with a tinge of amazement” ~~ Holy Eros, Pathways to a Passionate God, page 16 by Whitehead
From the chapter “Eros of Compassion”
Jesus told the story of a wayward son who returned to the father he had sorely wronged. The son’s homecoming took a surprising turn when his father did not respond in anger or withhold his welcome until after he had received an apology. He seemed uninterested in pointing out the error of his son’s ways or in ensuring that he had learned his lesson. Instead, the father rushed out to meet his son, overjoyed at his return. Sensing the boy’s humiliation and despair, his father treated him as an honored guest and planned a great celebration. Jesus tells us this is what God is like. God receives us not as judge but Abba, an extravagantly loving parent who wants our care for one another to show the same abundant concern. The lives of the godly will be marked not so much by the conspicuous good deeds of the righteous as by the humble compassion of those who to the world’s needs. Compassion is an experience of eros. Ordinarily we think of compassion as commiseration, as feeling the suffering of another person, but compassion has a more expansive meaning.
Bundle of Wonder
Little bundle of wonder
How glorious is your love
Little bundle of wonder
Sent from heaven above
New hopes are born
New dreams are birthed
The days have just begun
Little bundle of wonder
Let’s travel into the heart of the Son
Cole
Again, it’s the longing for closeness. A desire for closeness. Wonder, joy, amazement. You can have this without sex.
Alvin Plantinga recognizes this in Warranted Christian Belief. Eros can be found in sex but isn’t limited to sex. It’s a passionate longing. A desire for closeness and intimacy with God without sex.
It is a longing filled with desire and yearning…It is erotic, and one of the closest analogues would be with sexual eros. There is a powerful desire for union with God, the oneness Christ refers to in John 17. Another perhaps equally close analogue would be love between parent and small child; and this kind of love too is often employed in scripture as a figure for love of God - both God’s love for us and our love for Him. Here too there is longing, yearning, desire for closeness ~~ Alvin Plantinga
There’s nothing abnormal about being in love with ones little child. You can be in love and not have a sexual desire.
Here’s holy eros in a Christian song. The word eros isn’t used but the elements are there (panting after God, longing after God and the heart’s desire for God culminating in worship and loving and wanting God more than anything). This song is taken from the scriptures
As the deer panteth for the water
So my soul longs after You
You alone are my hearts desire
And I long to worship You.
You alone are my strength, my shield
To You alone may my spirit yield
You alone are my hearts desire
And I long to worship You.
I want you more than gold or silver
Only You can satisfy
You alone are the real joy giver
And the apple of my eye.
You alone are my strength, my shield
To You alone may my spirit yield
You alone are my hearts desire
And I long to worship You.
You’re my friend and You’re my brother
Even though you are a King
I love You more than any other
So much more than anything.
You alone are my strength, my shield
To You alone may my spirit yield
You alone are my hearts desire
And I long to worship You.
It’s a deep intimacy with Christ the Bridegroom. Here’s the Christian artist KB singing a song to his baby daughter about falling in love with her. He doesn’t have sex with her though and never has had sex with her.
You might be the favorite part of me
You’re my season, Summer, Autumn, Spring
I won’t hold back you get all of me, oh
I’ll come running when you call on me
Over mountains, underneath the sea
Bet your bottom dollar I will be here
I’m going through pictures in my phone of you
I can’t wait to get home to you
[Hook] (x2)
Good morning to you baby
When I fall, I fall in love with you
[Verse 2]
I’m watching you sprout right in front of me
Wonder what your life will come to be
When you look back I will be behind you
And when I’m old I pray that you will find
Daddy left you all you needed
I love you with my soul, now baby you go
Oh, I hate being gone from you
Caught a red eye to get home to you
So I could sing…
[Hook] (x2)
Good morning to you baby
When I fall, I fall in love with you
Not only does the Eastern Orthodox church and Alvin Plantinga teach this but it is the type of love in John Piper’s “Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist.” The love is an admixture of agape and eros
From Desiring God, the footnote on page 124:
Historically, ethicists have tended to distinguish these two forms of love as agape and eros, or benevolence and complacency. Not only is their no linguistic basis for such a distinction, but conceptually both resolve into one kind of love at the root.
God’s agape does not transcend His eros, but expresses it. God’s redeeming, sacrificial love for His sinful people is described in Hosea in erotic terms…God’s eros longs for and delights in the eternal and holy joy of His people.
Experience the Lifelong Pleasures of Knowing God!
Satisfaction…Happiness…Joy. According to John Piper, the pursuit of pleasure in God is not only permissible, it’s essential .
Desiring God is a paradigm-shattering work that dramatically alters common perspectives on relating to God. Piper reveals that there really is no need to choose between duty and delight in the Christian life. In fact, for the follower of Jesus, delight is the duty as Christ is most magnified in His people when they are most satisfied in Him.
Constantly drawing on Scripture to build his case, Piper shows why pursuing maximum joy is essential to glorifying God. He discusses the implications of this for conversion, worship, love, Scripture, prayer, money, marriage, missions, and suffering.
Piper beckons us to approach God with the hedonist’s abandon. Finally, we are freed to enjoy Jesus—not only as our Lord and Savior, but also as our all-surpassing, soul-satisfying Treasure.
Desiring God may turn your Christian world upside down. And that will be a good thing, for the glory of God, and for your deepest joy.
Two excellent quotes from Joyce Meyer and Joel Osteen that speak this truth:
Don’t just love Him. Be in love with Him ~~ Joyce Meyer
The desire is a bond. Like one has between parent/child, husband/wife. You people are stupid.
So, Hollytree. You affirm that one can have non-sexual eros. Would it be correct to call that “erotic”?
It is erotic. Holy eros. Human sex is just one place that points to it. It is also found in the joy of parenthood or writing poetry etc. etc. These things point to Holy Eros. Holiness when applied to God refers to everything that separates Him from His creation and His creatures. Holy eros is God’s passionate desire (longing) for His children. It’s like the love a Father has for His baby. How you aren’t aware of this is just retarded. Love has emotion. It’s a bond. An emotional bond between God and His children. People that don’t have emotional bonds in love are called psychopaths. This is what you are because you don’t believe love has delight or joy or anger. From the book “Poetic Medicine: The Healing Art of Poem Making”:
Poem making helps put your attention in the present moment. Line by Line, breath by breath, moment by moment, you allow creative rhythms, sounds, feelings and insights to come. You learn to distinguish between fresh insight and an old conclusion when considering an answer to a problem you face. The openness to the moment which poem-making encourages can help you discover answers you had no idea were there. ~~ pages 261-262
When we lose our self-conscious shame and fears we get in the NOW. Psychologists call it flow athletes call it being in the zone. It’s an ecstatic beauty where everything connects and flows. Here’s the description below. This is the state I’ve been in. This is the psychology of poem making.
Flow is a term used in psychology to mean the mental state of a person completely immersed in an activity. It is an altered state of consciousness. The person is fully focused, performing actively and successfully. The situation is widely recognised by phrases like in the zone ,[1] in the bubble , on the ball , in the moment , wired in , in the groove . The performer almost loses touch with their surroundings: phrases like “lost to the world” reflect this mental absorption.
The term flow was given to this experience by a psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. He said it was completely focused motivation. The hallmark of flow is a feeling of spontaneous joy, even rapture, while performing a task.[2] Flow is also described as a deep focus on nothing but the activity – not even oneself or one’s emotions.
This is the joy and ecstasy I speak of when one loses his self-conscious shame and fears. It’s being in the present moment in worship. It’s desire, ecstasy, joy.
I even brought this up to my counselor. She said you all are ignorant. She is in love with her grandchildren and doesn’t have sex with them. The leading Philosopher of Religion (Alvin Plantinga) even recognizes this. You are not spiritual at all.
You don’t believe love has emotion. That makes you a psychopath.
Attachment is the emotional bond that typically forms between infant and caregiver
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/attachment
To sit here and tell me I’m wrong because I have a deep emotional bond with my friends and family is nothing but abuse. Not falling for it again. I’m better now. No one can be happy in heaven while those they are connected to (bond) are in eternal torture. Love includes desire and emotion.
Who is it that you say doesn’t believe love had emotion? I haven’t encountered anyone on this thread that affirms such a thing.
You say it along with others here. You can search it. God is love. Love feels, and desires, and yearns, and longs. If He didn’t He would be a psychopath. According to the philosopher Alvin Plantinga:
Now a widely shared traditional view of God has been that he is impassible, without desire or feeling or passion, unable to feel sorrow at the sad condition of his world and the suffering of his children, and equally unable to feel joy, delight, longing, or yearning. The reason for so thinking, roughly, is that in the tradition originating in Greek philosophy, passions were thought of (naturally enough) as passive, something that happens to you, something you undergo, rather than something you actively do. You are subject to anger, love, joy, and all the rest. God, however, is pure act; he doesn’t ‘undergo’ anything at all; he acts, and is never merely passive; and he isn’t subject to anything. As far as eros is concerned, furthermore, there is an additional reason for thinking that it isn’t part of God’s life: longing and yearning signify need and incompleteness. One who yearns for something doesn’t yet have it, and needs it, or at any rate thinks he needs it; God is of course paradigmatically complete and needs nothing beyond himself. How, then, could he be subject to eros? God’s love, according to this tradition, is exclusively agape, benevolence, a completely other-regarding, magnanimous love in which there is mercy but no element of desire. God loves us, but there is nothing we can do for him; he wishes nothing from us.
On this particular point I think we must take leave of the tradition; this is one of those places where it has paid too much attention to Greek philosophy and too little to the Bible. I believe God can and does suffer; his capacity for suffering exceeds ours in the same measure that his knowledge exceeds ours. Christ’s suffering was no charade; he was prepared to endure the agonies of the cross and of hell itself (“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). God the Father was prepared to endure the anguish of seeing his Son, the second person of the trinity, consigned to the bitterly cruel and shameful death of the cross. And isn’t the same true for other passions? “There is more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent” (Luke 15:7); is God himself to be excluded from this rejoicing?
Similarly for eros: “As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you” (Isaiah 62:5). The bridegroom rejoicing over his bride doesn’t love her with a merely agapeic love. He isn’t like her benevolent elder brother (although Christ is also said to be our elder brother). He desires and longs for something outside himself, namely union with his beloved. The church is the bride of Christ, not his little sister. He is not her benevolent elder brother, but her husband, lover. These scriptural images imply that God isn’t impassive, and that his love for us is not exclusively agapeic. They suggest that God’s love for his people involves an erotic element of desire: he desires the right kind of response from us, and union with us, just as we desire union with him. ~~ Warranted Christian Belief (online)
