The Beautiful Bride Prepares Herself

The Global Church is described in the New Testament as “the Bride of Christ.” So, why is the church considered “the Bride?” The bride is a beautiful woman who is getting ready to be married! She will marry her groom, the one that she loves at their wedding. The bridegroom in the Bible is Jesus. He sacrificed His life for His bride, the church, because He loves her. As part of the church, the bride of Christ, if you know Him personally, Are you ready? The beautiful bride prepares herself.

Myself, As A Bride

As I look back 31 years ago when I was a bride, I looked forward to the day that I would be united in marriage with my groom. Dressing up in a beautiful white gown that I picked out, was something I couldn’t wait to wear! I wanted to look as beautiful as possible for my groom.

What would it be like though, if I did NOT care about how I looked? If I did NOT care about the day that we were to get married? Does that sound normal? No, it really does not! How about if I did not care if my family was part of that day and we did not take any pictures? It would not seem like a normal wedding. The beautiful bride prepares herself.

What if we didn’t buy rings yet or go get our marriage license so that we were legally married? Wow, that would not be good, would it? It would not be “official.” Once again, the beautiful bride prepares herself.

The Beautiful Bride, The Church, Prepares Herself

Looking today at how the church is the bride of Christ, what comparisons can we make? What can we do to please our groom, Christ Himself? We have to get ready! We have to prepare ourselves! Revelation 19:7 says “Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come and his wife hath made herself ready…”

Truthfully, we don’t have much time before our “wedding day,” from what I see in the Bible. We can look at signs and characteristics of how things will be at the “end” before Christ comes to get His bride.

The church that my husband and I belong to, has a great goal. It is is simply “Grace River Church exists to “help others meet, know and follow Jesus.” graceriver.cc I personally love this statement or goal. Some questions that we can ask are:

1. What is our individual goal and what is it that we desire to help others do?
2. As we prepare for the coming of Christ, do we go out and find others to bring to Christ?
3. Do we know and want others to know Christ more and have a close relationship with Him?
4. Are we following Him as well and teach others to follow Him?

Jesus did this with His disciples. Jesus told us when He left the earth, to “Go and make disciples.” Matt 28:19-20.

Prepare While You Have Time

As long as Christ has us here on earth, He wants us to work. Work at what, you may ask?

John 9:4 states that “As long as it is day, we must do the works of Him who sent me. Night is coming, when no man can work.” As long as we have the opportunity and are on the earth, we need to serve Him. We need to seek opportunities to seek Him. I think that some people when they retire think that they don’t need to do anything else, just sit at home or go have fun.

If we are believers in Christ though, we need to as we are able, to do all we can to serve Him. We don’t need to go away and hide because we are all done serving the Lord if we served Him in a ministry for several years. Continue to look for every opportunity to reach people, love them and bring them to Christ. Then disciple them and teach them to follow Jesus as we hopefully are doing ourselves. Ephesians 5:16 also tells us”making use of every opportunity, because the days are evil.”

The Bride Prepares Herself To Meet Expectations

Ephesians 5, explains in the entire chapter, what Christ expects of us, His bride. The expectations of the bride and groom are explained. The bride(wife) must respect her groom(her husband) and the bridegroom(husband) must love His bride(wife). He even must give of himself for her. Do you remember how Christ laid down His life for us? He demonstrated His love as the bridegroom, laying down His life for us, His church! Ephesians 5:27 states that He did this “to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”

Matthew 25:1-18 speaks also of ten virgins, 5 of them were prepared to meet their groom and 5 were NOT prepared to meet their groom. The ones who were not prepared asked and expected the ones who were ready, to give them what they had(oil) so that they could meet their groom. Is this right to do? No, it is not! God expects us to be ready when He returns for His bride.

Before The Bridegroom Returns, The Bride Prepares By Seeing These Things!

Let us take a look now and see some of the events, situations that will happen just before the Lord returns. Matthew 24:5-8 explains that:

• Many deceived, people will claim that “they are the Christ.”

• You will hear of wars and rumors of wars(does that sound familiar?)

• Nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom

• Famines and earthquakes in various places, and other natural disasters

These things are only the beginning of birth pains, the end has still to come! 2 Timothy 3:2-5 describes how people will act. I see this more and more! Social media especially displays this type of behavior.

“People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³ without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, ⁴ treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— ⁵ having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.“

2 Timothy 3:2-5

Additional events, comments and Scriptures are found at:

https://www.gotquestions.org/signs-end-times.html.

When He Comes

Again, we don’t know when! 1 Thessalonians 5:1-4 and 2 Peter 3:10, describe what it will be like when He does come.

1 Corinthians 15:52 states also, “in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”

Revelation 22:20

The Bride Prepares Herself By Saying “Amen, Come, Lord Jesus.”

“He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen, Come, Lord Jesus!”

Revelation 22:20

https://heartshare.blog/2019/12/10/consider-the-temporary-and-the-eternal/

Consider The Temporary and the Eternal