God wants a Bride, not a Maid

My friend, Aletha Hinthorn, sends a daily devotional email. She wrote this morning that God is looking for worshippers, not workers. He wants His Bride to be a bride to Him. He wants us to spend time with Him. Take delight in Him.

As I read those words, the thought came to me, "God wants a bride. Not a maid." 

We are created for relationship, a divine marriage relationship, and it's precious beyond all belief. 

As I've mentioned before, I'm currently writing an in-depth study on Hosea. It's entirely too big a project for me. It means long hours at my computer, many hours studying Scripture, and reading more commentaries than I thought possible. 

It's hard work.

It's also glorious work, and I'm so grateful to be doing it. 

When I sit down with the book of Hosea, I pray for fresh eyes to see it the way God wants it seen. When I begin to type, I pray to have God's words and not my own. It's a precious time because He actually gives me fresh eyes and His words. It's hard to comprehend how miraculous that is. Truly miraculous.

My relationship with God is never sweeter than when I write for Him.

Yesterday, I finished editing the first chapter on the Hosea story, read through it again, and saved it as a draft on the new blog. When the Bible study participants make it through this, they'll have done an amazing bit of work. I'm so proud of them, I thought, and I began to weep. 

I wept for the people who would participate and how God would touch and change their lives, for the wonder that God would use someone like me to do a job like this.

Being the bride of God Himself is more amazing than we realize. He has greater plans for us, bigger adventures in which we can participate, than we can ever imagine. 

Being a bride instead of a maid means we do things together, as brides and grooms do. When I write, I write with Him. When I do good deeds in His name, I do them as a team of two. 

Today, let's pause long enough to reflect on the wonder of the Divine Marriage and our role in it. 

As the bride of Christ, work in tandem today, heart to Heart with our Bridegroom, the Lover of Our Souls.

"And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me 'My Husband'... Hosea 2:16 esv

"And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness. Then you will know the Lord." Hosea 2:20 nasb

"For your husband is your Maker, whose name is the Lord of hosts; and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, who is called the God of all the earth." Isaiah 54:5 nasb

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#brideofChrist #faith #Jesus #linesfromleanna

Waiting well: Waiting for the Bridegroom

A Jewish wedding in Jesus' time was not like our modern weddings. The marriage was arranged, and a period of betrothal followed. During this time, both the bride and groom prepared themselves for the marriage. The bride made her wedding garments and purified herself. The groom prepared a place for her in his father's house. He would build an addition (insula) onto the father's house where the two would live. 

Only the groom's father could decide when the addition was ready. When he gave the groom the happy news, he and his groomsmen would go for his bride. The marriage would be consummated and a week-long celebratory feast would follow. 

His servants would be on the alert, waiting for the groom (their master) to return with his bride. It was a time of great rejoicing. Because the bride would be coming to her new home for the first time, everyone present wanted the preparations to be complete to welcome her. The servants would be charged with staying ready.

In that same way, Our Lord Jesus has gone to His Father's house to prepare a place for us. Only our Heavenly Father can say when the preparations are complete, but when He does, Jesus will return for His bride. When he returns, there will be no delays. He will be ready, and we must be, too.

We are to be alert, waiting for our Lord, Jesus, with joyful expectation. Our waiting is to be as servants waiting for their master. There's no way to know when he will come, but we must be ready, preparations complete. We can be confident that, at the end of our waiting, there will be great rejoicing. 

All the preparation, all the waiting will be worth it when Jesus appears.

The amazing, inscrutable part of this is that we wait as servants but the bride for whom Jesus comes is the church. We're not just waiting for our Master. We're waiting for our bridegroom.

We aren't waiting for a destination (heaven). We're waiting for a person with whom we have a precious relationship. Jesus. 

He's coming again. Be ready.

"Be dressed in readiness, and keep your lamps lit. Be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast, so that they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes; truly I say to you, that he will gird himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and will come up and wait on them. Whether he comes in the second watch, or even in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves. But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be broken into. You, too, be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect." (Luke 12: 35-40 NASB)

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Our Father in Heaven, Thank you for the preparations being made for the bride of Christ. Thank you that Jesus will return for His own. Help me to prepare for His return and to stay ready for Him. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Our Waiting Well series began a with a post on serving faithfully. Yesterday, we looked at the issue of keeping our lamps lit. 

The Bridegroom is Ready (Luke 5:34,35)

And Jesus said to them, "You cannot make the attendants of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you? But the days will come; and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days." (Luke 5:34, 35 NASB)

According to bible.ca, ancient Jewish weddings consisted of three stages. The first was "ketubbah"and was basically the time of arranging the marriage and making the contract. It was binding, but the couple did not live together as man and wife until later. The husband-to-be could not have his bride until he had made provision for her. 

The second stage was the "chuppah". At this point, the groom had fulfilled all the conditions set out in the contract, and all the arrangements for the care of his new bride were made. He and his companions would go to claim his bride at her home, where her companions also waited. There was much joy, and the couple could then consummate their marriage. When the "proof of consummation" (blood was shed) was done, the next phase was the celebration and feast. 

Jesus was describing his time with the disciples as "chuppah" time, during which He and His disciples were like the groom and his attendants coming to claim his bride. That's exactly what Jesus had done. He had come to claim His bride the church with much joy. Why would they consider fasting at such an exciting time?

Even more exciting is that WE are the bride of Christ! The bride he was coming to receive was His church - you and me. It's an amazing thought, isn't it? Right there, with the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus was claiming us and defending us. When the time for shedding of blood came to prove the relationship, Jesus would shed it Himself. THIS is the "match made in heaven".  

As we pray for our loved ones today, remember that the Bridegroom came to seek and to save those who are lost, including those we love. Pray that the seeking will not end until the chuppah finding is accomplished and the celebration can begin.