Archive for April, 2012
THE BRIDE OF CHRIST HAS MADE HERSELF READY!
Wednesday, April 11th, 2012
WRITTEN BY AUTHOR/ PASTOR MIKE HENDERSON
The Bible teaches of an upcoming Wedding Day that the Church should be on cloud nine over!! Rev. 19:7-9 states:Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’ “ And he said to me, “These are the true sayings of God.” The passage above speaks of two distinct events, the Marriage of the Lamb and the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Both of these events are reminiscent of the ancient Jewish wedding ceremony where the Bride would become betrothed to her Groom and he would go away to build her a home. In the meantime she would wait anxiously for his return with shouts from his wedding party of “The Bridegroom Comes!” When the shouts were heard she would run out to meet him and they would share each others love in the wedding chamber then proceed to a banquet that would last for up to seven days. He would then take her to her new home. The one caveat is the timing of the grooms return to her. For he could never return until the home he built met the approval of the his father. Jesus used this wedding ceremony imagery often in His Parables. Some of the passages where it is used can be found in Matthew 24-25, Rev. 19 and in John 14:1-3. In John He stated:
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
I love the Scripture because it is so revealing about God and His amazing plans for those who love Him! The Wedding Ceremony takes place in Heaven after He has come from heaven with a shout1Thess. 4:13-18; 1Cor. 15:51-57. After the Church has gone up to meet with Christ we stand before Him in judgment to receive the reward that He has promised to all believers. This is not a judgment of condemnation, because the church is never condemned, but rather a judgment of obedience. God has called us all to be His ambassadors on this earth and as such we are rewarded for our acts of obedience, 1 Cor. 3:9-15; Rom. 14:10; 2 Cor. 5:10.
MY WEAKNESS – HIS STRENGTH – UNBEATABLE!
Wednesday, April 11th, 2012
The great classic author Charles Dickens began “A Tale of Two Cities” with this – “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”! Dickens lived in the Victorian age of proper living among the upper class, but poverty and despair among the masses. Yet, the hoi polloi(or the many) looked up and almost worshiped Queen Victoria of England.Mortal man always has to have something or somebody to look up to fix our adoration because God has put His Law in our hearts and the desire to worship something, we think is better than us. You and I know, that object of our worship and total commitment is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. But over the last 150 years or so, the total depravity of man has shown itself in the way he has lied to many millions, under the power of another god, in order to make him and not God the center of that worship.
Another CD from England – Charles Darwin let something out of a bottle which continues to twist the minds of many. While Darwin may have meant it as a theory, his evolution writings became the basis of Hitler’s extermination of six million Jews. His devotee Margaret Sanger and her Planned Parenthood, now protected by governments, have killed almost ten times what Hitler did, through abortion. Karl Marx and his satanic studies and philosophy led to Socialism and marxist dictatorships which have killed over 100 million in the past century….and the oppression of countless others, still in progress…..these are the WORST of times, alright!