"Young Woman"

"The upright love thee. I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon. Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me: my mother's children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept. Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy champions?" (S.O.S. 1:4c -7)

  Maybe it might be a lot to take in; but, when God takes us in, we can be made assured that He will not let go of us, if we can just stay focused upon His Word! That does not mean He might let us go if we don't; that actually means that we might end up going astray, but He still will not let go: we are bought and paid for, and we are His for ever more!
  Not too long after I was born again, I felt sure that my life had changed forever; as a matter of fact, the things that I had previously placed in my life that I knew were bad, I had privately made to be the things I could no longer partake in. Little did I know, there was some things that I liked a little too much. Once you cross that line, you know that you have, no doubt about it; the power to overcome the temptation seems to become overruled by the lust of the mind, and the desire to fulfill what the flesh wants, in that particular moment.
  I seriously do not need to go into too much detail, because I am pretty sure that most everyone has been taken off guard by temptation and sin. Seriously, that is the whole point! We are taken off guard, and that is when we fail to be armed and ready! Not that we have any sort of power in the flesh, because it is those times, in the fleshly power, that is, the times when we think this power is our's, that we find our weakness revealed.
  There was a message I had listened to earlier in the week; it was just a brief part of it that I caught, but it was still something to pay close attention to, especially if we are looking for the times to be vigilant in keeping your guard. The message was about Noah, "the man that found grace in the eyes of the LORD." (Genesis 6:8) For a period much longer than most of us live, Noah faced opposition and persecution from those that were wicked, as wickedness ruled the earth. Then, after God flooded the earth, then Noah spent over a year on the boat, he and his sons had built.
  Now, imagine what that might have been like, if you can: over a year of feeding and cleaning up after all of those animals; let alone all the smell, add to that, being on the water, it had to be enough to make most anyone feel sick. After all, this was a maiden voyage, for everyone and everything onboard that ship! Don't get me wrong, I am sure that they appreciated being alive; after all, they were the only living things that had breath which survived.
  After taking such a long journey, Noah settled on dry land; his boat building days behind him, and his caring for animals done, he began to plant a vineyard; and he sure made some pretty good wine...

"Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all of this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give ourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right. And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:19-23) NLT