Revelation 19:7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
Since my wife and I just celebrated our 7,000-day wedding anniversary, it reminded me of when my wife and I were initially married in Jerusalem -- before our major wedding in the States.
During that special evening in Jerusalem, my wife elaborately prepared for our wedding. It was just a small gathering at her father's house, but it was so sweet. Her dad prepared beautiful and delicious Israeli delicacies. We built a chuppah (Jewish wedding canopy) from her great grandfather's tallit (Jewish prayer shawl). A Paul Wilbur CD played softly in the background, and about a hundred candles lit the living room. My soon-to-be wife had spent hours bathing and doing her hair and getting beautiful for the occasion, and finally, out she came. It all was so romantic, well planned, and wonderfully prepared.
We are our Lord's bride! And in the same way, we have a responsibility to prepare for His return! We have some work to do, don't we?
Let's examine our hearts today and lay it all out before Him. Let's give Him the first fruits of our day in worship and study and prayer and allow Him to refine and cleanse us -- that we may be found a bride without wrinkle or spot – that we would be found a holy and righteous and beautiful bride for Him and our celebration together would be glorious!
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]If you look at the ant you will find that they dwell in colonies. Each colony consists of approximately 60,000 – 90,000 ants — they really can’t prosper on their own. They need each other. How does a colony of that many ants to work together? The only reason it works is that they operate in unity. Each ant shares the same purpose, the same goal, and the same aim.
The third great awakening took place during the late 1850s into the beginning of the 1900s. It was during this era that the wave of revivals sweeping America began spreading throughout the world. The era saw the abolition of slavery, women’s right to vote, and the end of child labor in factories.
In Israel, cell phones are all the rage. You wouldn’t believe it but parents even buy cell phones for their kids and send them to school with them in their schoolbags. I’m talking about six and seven-year-old kids! While it is true that part of the reason for this cell phone craze stems from the fact that violence goes on here daily and people want to be able to contact one another in the event of an emergency, I would still say that it’s somewhat excessive.
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