The Bride

How to I explain how amazing the Lord is? How can one describe His wonderful works, the way He extends His hand to us, opens our eyes, fills our hearts?

I am increasingly amazed as He shows me my place in The Church, what it means to be The Church, how He loves her (The Church), and what that says about Him.

Do you know that the Gospel is more than just a story of Jesus dying on the cross for our sins? Oh it's beautifully more.

Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is head of the wife as also Christ is head of the church.  He is the Savior of the body.  Now as the church submits to Christ, so wives should submit to their husbands in everything.  Husbands, love your wives, just as also Christ loves the church and gave Himself for her, to make her holy, cleansing her in the washing of water by the word.  He did this to present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and blameless.  In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.  He who loves his wife loves himself.  For no one ever hates his own flesh, but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, since we are members of His body.

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two will become one flesh.

This mystery is profound, but I am talking about Christ and the church.

Ephesians 5:22-32

 See, when many read this, all they see is a command for wives to submit to their husbands and husbands to love their wives.  But it is SO. MUCH. MORE.

We (collectively) are The Church, which is referred to as "she", likened unto a wife. Christ gave Himself for us, His bride. He makes us holy, cleanses us.  Why?  To present The Church to Himself in splendor, like a beautiful, pure bride.

Just think about that for a second.  As my husband and I lay in bed discussing some of this last night (through the wee hours of this morning), I thought about how protective my husband is of me.  When someone wounds me, hurts me, offends me- it is like someone is attacking, wounding, and offending him.  He loves me fiercely and protects me fiercely because we are as one flesh.

My husband often calls me his "trophy wife", but The Church, in a very real sense, is Christ's trophy wife.  She is His inheritance.  He passionately loves her.  We are united with Him, one flesh with Him.

At least, that is my understanding so far.  God is still working it out in me, still showing me new and wonderful things in His Word.  I love how His Word is always fresh and alive.  He desires more than head knowledge, but heart knowledge- wisdom that digs beyond the intellect and into the soul and spirit, and that's what I want as well.

 

 

Easter voiced- my thoughts exactly

I really loved this post from Jen Hatmaker because, well, this is very similar to the journey my family and I have been on these last few years.  

It’s Easter.
Between ages 0-32, I celebrated Easter the fun way: with bunnies, baskets, and expensive clothes. What better way to say “Jesus reigns” than dressing my preschooler in a $45 dress to show her off in the church lobby? (You’re welcome, Jesus. Be blessed.)
Now, let’s be clear, if you had asked me what my Easter priorities were as I stood all fancy in the lobby, I’d become grave and mention the resurrection. For crying out loud, I’m a Christian. But truthfully, between the outfit shopping, the Easter baskets, the egg ______ (dying, stuffing, hiding, hunting), the pictures, the lunch menu, and the gift buying, Jesus was flat last. I started thinking about him as the band started at church, and I thought about him for a whole hour.

That’s just true.

But for the last three years, Jesus has messed with me. Frankly, he’s hijacked all my holiday endeavors. I’ve always celebrated holidays with a Cultural Major and a Spiritual Minor. Take Christmas, for example. I endlessly spent on garbage no one needed and worked myself into a December frenzy and oh well. La de da. Now I’m overwhelmed by the poor and the disgusting consumerism cycle and the heinous neglect of Jesus and the appalling nature of it all.

Then we got to Easter, or as God called it, Passover. “Easter” is a little name picked up from the Anglo-Saxon fertility goddess of spring, ‘Eostre’, who saved a frozen bird from the harsh winter by turning it into a magical rabbit who could lay eggs. Hence: ‘Easter’, bunnies, and eggs. Why are elements of a pagan religion associated with the highest holy day of the Christian faith? (Oh bother. Can’t we just carry on and dye our Eostre eggs in peace?)

Assessing the typical American Easter, on one side I see Jesus on the cross, humiliated and mutilated, bearing the failures of every person past and present, rescuing humanity through an astonishing miracle of divine redemption, splitting history in two and transforming the human experience for eternity. On the other side, I see us celebrating this monumental heroism with chocolate bunnies and boiled eggs, with Jesus as an afterthought. It doesn’t make sense. (Insert some of you tossing this book in the garbage. Don’t mess with my Easter fun, you hippie chick.)

Read the rest of her post HERE. (Link opens in new window.)

Go Make Disciples

Loved this video I saw on The Sheepfold. Don't go to church. Be the church.

Christ in Every Day Life

Body life is only as good as your individual life with Christ. Don’t make the mistake of substituting relationships with people for a relationship with Christ.  (T. Stanley)

Fellowship is important. To say otherwise would be a lie, but too often, we put all our focus on fellowship, and we forget about Christ. While we certainly can (and should) worship, pray, praise, learn and grow as a group, it's important to understand that our relationship with Christ is very personal. Our relationship with the Lord must be nourished outside of a fellowship group setting.

A friend of ours used to say (and probably still does), "Revival starts in the home."  People often want to see revival in their churches, but they seem to forget that revival starts within the individual. People want to see revival in their church, but they neglect their families. It starts with you, it spreads to your family, fills the church and floods out into the community.

I've been in groups who believe that it is their fellowship which saves. They don't have a solid relationship with the Lord Jesus, but they have a great relationship with their church community. They don't seek His truth and hold what they hear in their gatherings against the light of Scripture.  They base their whole belief system off a group or gathering or way of gathering rather than Christ alone. It is great to have a "brotherhood", but we must remember:

Just because a group has the "spirit of brotherhood" does not mean they have the Spirit of Christ.

Many groups have a spirit of brotherhood. My cousin onced explained that, as a marine, there is a spirit of brotherhood and unity among other marines.  I have been to gatherings of women where there is a spirit of "sisterhood" in that we are all mothers and have all experienced the trials of labor, birth, and babies.  We are united and have much to share with one another.

So many people believe because they have felt the spirit of brotherhood and have built relationships within a religious atmosphere that they somehow have built a relationship with Christ.  Unfortunately, most of the people who have done this are blind to it, and it will take a revelation of God to open their eyes.

Many have built their fellowship and their idea of salvation around another man's misinterpretation of the bible, and because they do not seek out the truth of the bible and are accustomed to reading the bible through a false filter, they continue to believe falsehoods.

Our relationship with the Lord is our own. If we don't seek Him, praise Him, and spend time with him (which means listening, speaking, and just "being" with Him), we aren't nourishing our relationship.

There may be times in our life when we are not able to fellowship with others for some reason or another.  Will we be starved because we have not built a real relationship with the Lord and do not know how to feed ourselves in Christ from the Scriptures without someone preaching it to us?

Do we only sing songs of praise and worship and really focus on the Lord when we are in a group setting, or do we have these moments when we are alone with God? Do we do this as a family, or do we reserve it only for "church"?  Or, do you not even do such a thing in "church"? I have been to "churches" where they do not understand or know what it is to praise and worship as a group, nevermind as individuals!

What does our personal relationship with Christ look like?  Do we seek Him out, meditate on His Word, sing of His glory and majesty, long for His direction and correction, and allow ourselves to just bask in Him when we go about every day life?

As much as I love to fellowship with others, I should really cherish my one-on-one time with the Lord. This is something I definitely have had to work at through the years since my conversion from "religious" to Christ-follower.

Some years ago, I found myself looking upon some of my Christian friends with envy. I desired to have a relationship with the Lord that they seemed to have.  I would later realize that my relationship with the Lord usually depended on how often I sought Him and poured my time into Him. It's amazing how we often get to thinking that we can have a great, flourishing relationship with the Lord but neglect Him in our personal, every day lives.

Calling All Churches! Return to the Word!

I just finished reading The Sufficiency of Scripture (by Joseph Stephen). It's a great book, one that allows the scripture to speak for itself, and I am definitely adding it to my list of recommended readings.

If you've been around my husband and I for any amount of time, then you likely know that we're pretty passionate about churches boldly living and proclaiming the Word of God, not conforming their methodology and message in order to bring in more people.  Today's church is fighting the same battles we see in the pages of Scripture, which is why the apostle Paul spends a lot of time exhorting, rebuking, and encouraging the churches of his day.

In his book, Stephen writes, "It is very wrong of us to bring the elements of the world into our worship and remembrance service. When we do so, we rob God of His rightful glory. It is very wrong to change our operation to accommodate unbelievers. After all, we are setting an example to them and not them to us. Our evangelism and explanation of worship and remembrance must be done outside of this time as this time is the Lord's. If one comes into our meeting off the street and sees our manner of worship, that person will know of a truth that God is among us. By accommodating the world in our manner of worship, we are proclaiming that the world's ways and idols are acceptable.  Some of the idols that rob God during this time are entertaining music, rousing speeches to whip up emotion, self-centered songs that talk about 'me', etc.  It is clear from Scripture that Paul never used cunning devices to proclaim truth. He spoke with simplicity and only used God's Word."

So many churches today cater to the lost.  Church has become a place of entertainment, centered around the people rather than focusing on worshiping God.  Many people have stood in disagreement with us when we have said, "Church is not for the lost."  Biblically speaking, the Church is Lord Jesus' bride. We are His people.  When gathering together to worship and praise Him, our Lord should be our focus- this is not a time of evangelism.  This is not to say that the church should not gather for the intent of evangelizing the lost, but one who is lost is not capable of worshiping "in spirit and in truth" as we are commanded to do.  They are not to take part in this "ceremony" nor are they to take part in communion. This is not to say there won't be lost people present from time to time, but that certainly doesn't mean we need to water down our message or sprinkle in entertainment for them so we can keep their attention. No, the lost would benefit from sitting through bold, biblical worship and praise (which includes teaching and preaching).  Hopefully it will stir their heart to conviction, godly grief, and repentance!

Unfortunately, today's churches want to cram all they can into one day.  Therefore, each Sunday they attempt to pack worship, praise, teaching, encouragement, and evangelism into just an hour or two.  Correction and rebuke are often left out because it's just too "offensive".

People today today have gathered themselves teachers and preachers who will coo into their itching ears what they want to hear. [2 Timothy 4:3]  And, these teachers and preachers are happy to do it, because it brings them more members, more money, and more earthly honor.

The church has adopted many of the world's ways and does not even realize it. Instead of digging into the Word of God to see what God desires of and from the church, we look to those around us.  We adopt the ways of other successful pastor and churches, mimicking them instead of Scripture.

It's time to get back into the Word and truly seek out God's direction for ourselves, our families, and our churches- which all should work together and not contradict one another.

Here's a video Paul Washer posted some time ago that goes along with this subject: