The Bride

In the land of England a common young woman accepts the proposal of her handsome prince. She quickly realizes that nothing will ever be the same for her again. No longer a commoner. Her name will change. Her thinking will need to change and the way she speaks will be changed. Her coaches will ensure that she has a very strong impression on the importance of representing the family she now finds herself belonging to. She is to be a princess, perhaps even a queen.

Now think about this... how long was she the bride? Was she not the fiancee as long as she was engaged to the young prince. Was she not his wife the moment the vows were exchanged? She was his bride for only a day. She had weeks, months of preparation to know how to behave and how to address the media and how to speak. She was to become a princess. The moment those vows were over, she turned around and she was a princess, facing her people in attendance.

Who are you? The Bride of Christ. You are engaged to the King. The King has sent out the invitations. The table is set. The bells are ringing. Are you ready to meet the Bridegroom? For indeed the hour is at hand.

Our young English example, had expectations to meet, and you can rest assured that if she was not cooperative with her teachers, or could careless about what was expected of her, the family would have some very strong words with the young man, who would soon be king.

The point I am trying to make is simple. If you knew that your Prince was coming soon, would you not do what is needful to show yourself ready for being taken into this family. We have such a finite view of such an eternal purpose. Heaven is not the end of things. It is the beginning. But even before any notion you have about Heaven becomes a reality for you, there is this little thing called a millennium, which is right before us. Standing at the very threshold of our time.

The Bride of Christ is the Church. Yet the term church, within out culture today has lost all its power, honor and influence. So tainted is it now in the eyes of so many here in our society. Therefore I often will say we are having family reunions every week! Feels better to me.

Back to the Bride. We are engaged to the King. Remember the preparation Ester went through before she could even be presented to the King. Six months or more. I would like the 'church' to recognize that she is the 'bride' to be. Engaged. Let the teaching and solemness of this realization to sink in deep. Will you sit back and chill out waiting for the Prince to show up? Or will you stop and realize that just like our young English example, we too, need to get an education on how to think, how to speak and what it will mean to be in His family.

Young Catherine had to be prepared to be a wife. For she was a bride for only a day, and the purpose of being a bride is only to transition into being a wife. A co-ruler with her husband. Are you starting to see what I am getting at. She needed to know how to rule. How to reign. How to govern over the people of her land.

You are the bride. A bride with a purpose to rule and reign with Christ. You will reign and govern. You will need to know how to speak on behalf of the family you now represent. Think right. Talk right.

This is what we are to be doing now. The hour is at hand. Like Simeon and Anna from Luke chapter two we are on the verge of a shift in time... the old is passing away and the new is at hand. They were witnesses to the messsiah. The close of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New. An age of grace brought in by the sacrifice of the One on the cross. Now here we are, almost two thousand years after His death (28AD), witnessing a world and an age that is closing. The forces of this world will have their day, but it is a short time, to play out the final scenes.

The time for the ruling and reigning of Jesus and His Bride is at hand. The parables Jesus taught about the master who goes away leaving his servants with valuable assets to manage, only to return to find some that were faithful and one that was lazy. What does this speak to you? They were all servants. They were members of the household. Yet he was apparently not to pleased with the lazy servant. Take it for what it is, I didn't write the parable. He did. But I do think it gives pause for thought.

Here, think about this.