Let us celebrate, let us rejoice, let us give Him the glory! The Marriage of the Lamb has come; His Wife has made herself ready. She was given a bridal gown of bright and shining linen. The linen is the righteousness of the saints. (Rev 19:7-8)
PART I - WILL THE REAL BRIDE OF CHRIST STEP FORWARD
Will the real bride of Christ step forward?
God has a remnant bride living in the earth today! One who has not soiled her garments, one who has not bowed her knees to the modern Baals (1 Kings 19:18) and one who has not committed fornication or adultery with the world nor in friendship with it (James 4:4)! Like Esther of old, she is in the King's palace (God's presence), under custody of "Hegai" (the Holy Ghost) in the process of purification and preparation for marriage. There is a bride that is getting ready!
Ephesians 5:25:27 says,"...Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, that He might present the church to Himself in glorious splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such things [that she might be holy and faultless]." That is the Bride that is going to the marriage supper of the Lamb! Without spot or wrinkle or any such thing!
Yet there remains also a bride, who once has been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb and have tasted the goodness of the Holy Ghost, now drowning in the sea of the world's filth and trash! Reminds me of a popular 2010 election campaign jingle, "Nakaligo ka na ba sa dagat ng basura?" (Have you taken a dip in a sea of trash?). This bride has. God in His infinite mercy is sounding the shofar (trumpet), and through the voices of His modern day prophets, is calling out this bride, sending His last minute lifeboat to the rescue. This bride has a form of godliness but has denied its power (2 Timothy 3:5). This bride has become religious. This bride has become a pleaser of men. But this bride is still loved, and is being called to return to her first love (Revelation 2:4-5). This bride has hung her heart's harp and has lost her song and joy in her heart...
"By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!" How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land?" (Psalm 137:1-4)
She finds herself in a foreign land, she finds herself in a sea of mire. She is sitting and weeping for she remembers what it was like to be in the arms of her true Lover, the joy, the peace, the glory of His presence. Now she is just going through the motions and emotions and notions of church, but she has lost her Midas touch (golden touch)! But in her heart there is still an ember and the Holy Ghost is about to fan that ember back to flames!
It just might be better for her to die, so the Lord of glory can bring her back to life again! She is about to be airlifted, she is about to be rewashed, she is about to have a heart transplant, she is about to be brought to her fitting room for her new outfit! Her hair redone, her engagement ring restored and her feet wearing brand new shoes of the gospel of peace! If this bride once bowed to the fattened calf, the fattened calf is being roasted for her feast of celebration (Luke 15:23, 27)! This bride is coming back! This princess is getting her sensitivity back for her glorious King!
Reminds me of a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen:
"There was once a prince, and he wanted a princess, but then she must be a real Princess. He travelled right around the world to find one, but there was always something wrong. There were plenty of princesses, but whether they were real princesses he had great difficulty in discovering; there was always something which was not quite right about them. So at last he had come home again, and he was very sad because he wanted a real princess so badly.
One evening there was a terrible storm; it thundered and lightninged and the rain poured down in torrents; indeed it was a fearful night.
In the middle of the storm somebody knocked at the town gate, and the old King himself sent to open it.
It was a princess who stood outside, but she was in a terrible state from the rain and the storm. The water streamed out of her hair and her clothes; it ran in at the top of her shoes and out at the heel, but she said that she was a real princess.
‘Well we shall soon see if that is true,’ thought the old Queen, but she said nothing. She went into the bedroom, took all the bed clothes off and laid a pea on the bedstead: then she took twenty mattresses and piled them on top of the pea, and then twenty feather beds on top of the mattresses. This was where the princess was to sleep that night. In the morning they asked her how she slept.
‘Oh terribly bad!’ said the princess. ‘I have hardly closed my eyes the whole night! Heaven knows what was in the bed. I seemed to be lying upon some hard thing, and my whole body is black and blue this morning. It is terrible!’
They saw at once that she must be a real princess when she had felt the pea through twenty mattresses and twenty feather beds. Nobody but a real princess could have such a delicate skin.
So the prince took her to be his wife, for now he was sure that he had found a real princess, and the pea was put into the Museum, where it may still be seen if no one has stolen it.
Now this is a true story."
Now here is an analogy in the story: the pea is the Word of God. That bride, that princess, the church might be "...in a terrible state from the rain and the storm (trials and tribulations)...the water streamed out of her hair and her clothes, it ran in at the top of her shoes and out at the heel..." but in her heart she still knows she's a princess. That princess, that bride will have a sensitivity again that will respond to the Word of God. The real bride will be devoid of rest nor sleep if she doesn't respond to the plea of the pea!
"As you come to him, the living Stone--rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him-- you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame." Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone," and, "A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the message--which is also what they were destined for. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul." (1Peter 2:4-11)
Like the princess in our story, will the real bride of Christ step forward?
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