Isaiah 62:5 For as a young man marries a virgin, so your sons will marry you. As a bridegroom rejoices over a bride, so your God will rejoice over you.
Revelation 19:7-8 Let us be glad and rejoice and we will give glory to Him. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has prepared herself. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white. For the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints.
Revelation 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come.
The last and most intimate metaphor for Messiah’s relationship with us is as Bridegroom to Bride. For some, the Lord’s intention to marry will be the most significant and wondrous purpose in all of Creation. The preparation for the wedding will be the most meticulous and profound of all historical processes, orchestrated by His Holy Spirit in cooperation with every devoted and expectant saint who ever lived.
Ancient wedding customs provide insight illustrating our preparation for the divine wedding ahead. In ancient times, acquiring a bride involved a transaction; a bride-price and a dowry were set and agreed upon in the betrothal of a young couple. Following this agreement, the bridegroom returned to His Father’s house to build a domicile for his expectant bride while she anticipated her husband’s return by preparing her wedding garments.
In parallel, our betrothal to our holy Lord, the beginning of our preparation for marriage, required the offering of His cleansing blood on our behalf. And before returning to his Father’s house following his death and resurrection, Yeshua told his disciples, “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 unto myself.” [John 14:2-3]
It is clear that Yeshua expected his followers to understand the parallel to betrothal and marriage customs within their own culture and to apply that understanding to their own relationship with him. This applies to us as well. Anticipating our Bridegroom’s return will awaken a deep excitement stimulating an intense desire to be prepared for him.
Your love for your Bridegroom will be expressed in your desire to be like him. That preparation is the work of the Holy Spirit within you, cleansing and transforming you through faith, good works, obedience, and prayer, the “fabric” of your wedding garment. Your joyful anticipation of his soon return will inspire the abiding, which prepares you for the heavenly announcement you’ve waited for all your life.
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]Colonel G.W. Goethals, the man responsible for the completion of the Panama Canal, had major problems with the climate and the geography as it was being built. If that wasn’t enough to deal with, he had an even bigger problem. It was the growing criticism back home from those who predicted he’d never finish the project and had opinions about how to do it better.
While on the road to Damascus, Jesus appeared to Saul, blinded him and directed him to go to Damascus. There, God spoke to Ananias of Saul and told to lay hands on this troubled man. Ananias did as he commanded and Saul was filled with the Holy Spirit, healed of his blindness and immediately baptized.
Shortly after WWI, Lawrence of Arabia was entertaining some of his Arab friends in Paris. He showed them the sights of the city: the Arc d’Triomph, the Louvre, the Champs Elysees. It was a remarkable irony to Lawrence that these amazing sights were not what most impressed his Arab friends — but rather the bathtub faucet of their hotel room. They were completely astonished that someone could turn a handle…and get all the water he wanted.
In this prophetic passage the critical question is immediately followed by the powerfully convicting answer. Joel prophesies the Day of the Lord, and asks, “Who can endure it?” The next word “therefore”, is followed by the prophet’s urgent counsel: “Turn to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping and with mourning!”
The Lord gave us His promise to send us a helper -- the Holy Spirit. The word for "helper" in the NT Greek is "paraclete". This word has more meaning then simply "helper" -- it was also an ancient term used in warfare. When Greek warriors went onto the battle field, they went out in pairs, so when the enemy attacked they could stand back-to-back, covering each other's blind side. The battle partner in Greek was called a "paraclete" -- he was there to watch your back!
When I was younger I used to take an ax and cut up firewood from the woods behind our house. The one thing I always did was sharpen my axe! A dull axe meant harder work chopping through fallen trees. The sharper the ax the less effort and energy required for the task. So I learned early on to sharpen my ax before venturing into the woods, and I saved myself a lot of time and energy. (Besides I was a small kid, growing up, so I needed all the help I could get! 😉 )
One of His greatest promises to us is that nothing can separate us from the love of God. No tribulation or distress we might ever suffer can obliterate the power of His love to carry us through!