Bride of Christ

John 3:29 KJV
He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled .
Revelation 18:23 KJV

And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived .

Revelation 21:2 KJV
And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Revelation 21:9 KJV
And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying , Come hither , I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.

Revelation 22:17 KJV
And the Spirit and the bride say , Come . And let him that heareth say , Come . And let him that is athirst come . And whosoever will , let him take the water of life freely.

What we forget as israel is apple of gods eye, Jesus loves his church and gave himself for it , from one who desperatly wants to get married
I could write reams and reams of things that is wrong with the church as I see streams of apostasy until we realise that Jesus loves Israel as much as his church
The verse that has been a thorn in my flesh
Sometimes we forget when we at each others throats over doctrine that god is as angry at those who hate both Israel aswell as the church
If there is going to be a pure and spotless bride of Christ, it is he Christ who will make the bride pure and spotless
I have been asking as the love between believers was what drew the non Christians
Have we forgotten Jesus the real biblical one
One who heart is agonising over the holy spirit and a future spouse
When tears flow like a river or like ocean waves for lost souls
When you have no fellowship is the fellowship of any believers better than none
Even thou I know I struggle with how does Christ love me or love the church in a practical way
It is ok having that theology but what does it mean I struggle with the concept of Jesus love
When your are alone in church and no one has given you a hug or like when I was younger going through a terrible illness and not knowing that I will ever walk again or how does Jesus loves those who have a terminal cancer or those Christians who are persecuted and go through daily torture or the pain of having no money, food , cancer
Peoples problems are reaching epidemic proportions and I struggle god how do you love the church in a practical way
To me I know the verse but I sometimes question where is the reality of Jesus loving the church
Jeremiah in his book talks about his couch being wet with tears
All I know how to do is cry

Mark 9:24 KJV
And straightway the father of the child cried out , and said with tears, Lord, I believe ; help thou mine unbelief.
Luke 7:38 KJV
And stood at his feet behind him weeping , and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.
Luke 7:44 KJV
And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.
Acts 20:19 KJV
Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews:
Acts 20:31 KJV
Therefore watch , and remember , that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.
2 Corinthians 2:4 KJV
For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved , but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you.
2 Timothy 1:4 KJV
Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy;
Hebrews 5:7 KJV
Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;
Hebrews 12:17 KJV
For ye know how that afterward , when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected : for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.
Revelation 7:17 KJV
For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
24 Results
2 Kings 20:5 KJV
Turn again , and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD.
Esther 8:3 KJV
And Esther spake yet again before the king, and fell down at his feet, and besought him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite, and his device that he had devised against the Jews.
Job 16:20 KJV
My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God.
Psalm 6:6 KJV
I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim ; I water my couch with my tears.
Psalm 39:12 KJV
Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.
Psalm 42:3 KJV
My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?
Psalm 56:8 KJV
Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?
Psalm 80:5 KJV
Thou feedest them with the bread of tears; and givest them tears to drink in great measure.
Psalm 116:8 KJV
For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.
Psalm 126:5 KJV
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
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deltadom

"What we forget as israel is apple of gods eye, Jesus loves his church and gave himself for it , from one who desperatly wants to get married I could write reams and reams of things that is wrong with the church as I see streams of apostasy until we realise that Jesus loves Israel as much as his church"

It surprises me this topic hasn't sparked comments although oddly enough, I find myself being surprised more and more these days by both Christians and non Christians. I'm prompted by curiosity to ask a couple of questions. In your opinion, what constitutes the church? Secondly how is it possible Jesus can love Israel as much as his church?

Deutronomy 32
9 For the LORD'S portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. 10 He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about , he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.

Luke 23:38 KJV
And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

Jesus is born Jewish, God created that nation and he is forever in a Jewish body, how can he not love a nation even thou he is still of him, the bible states that all of israel will be saved

Romans 11:26 KJV
And so all Israel shall be saved : as it is written , There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer , and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

I am amazed that I have not had people at my throat aswell

To define the church is a difficult

Matthew 16:18 KJV
And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it

To put it mildly the church is not simply a group or organisation per see as in some theology books it is defined as the church

Acts 20:28 KJV
Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

I would say the church is any visible believer that trusts in God by Faith alone and grace alone and has general orthodox beliefs that do not deny the fundementals of the faith

Even i struggle with this question?

@deltadom I think you have defined the "true church" pretty well. Basically, it is made up of all true believers who accept what I refer to as the pure gospel. ie God [Jesus Christ] came in the flesh, was crucified according to scripture, buried, resurrected and ascended to heaven. His shed blood made atonement for all sin and redeemed those who confess their sin, repent, ask for forgiveness and follow him through faith alone and not of personal works. Apart from this "pure gospel" ALL other doctrine becomes secondary to salvation. This being said, there are true believers in various Christian denominations which will become part of the bride and in fact constitute the one true church. I understand there are those who dislike the term "denomination", but it is, what it is. This sets foundation for the second question concerning His love for Israel.

Certainly, Israel was/is His chosen people and for His own perfect reasons and plan He loves them dearly. We know and perhaps agree scripture teaches and sets forth guidelines [His laws] concerning our earthly marriages based on His relationship to His Bride. Agreed? One of those laws teaches we are to forsake all others and cling to our spouse, [bride]. If we do not, we in fact commit sin which could be conceived as adultery. Can He commit sin? Another thought which comes to mind is, Christ made the ultimate sacrifice for those who believe upon Him [the church as previously defined]. In context, scripture tells us of many of those of the House of Israel, [Jews] who died without Christ. Scripture also teaches to die without Christ is to spend eternity in hell. That includes Jews and gentiles alike. Do the Jews who have died in that state get a second chance? I think not. So to state all "Israel [Jews] will be saved" must be qualified, do you not agree?
Just sorting some things here.

Israel needs the gospel else it is not israel

I too am extremely perplexed at the statements regarding Israel on this forum. To say that Israel is loved more than the bride of Christ is.....well, let me just say hard to believe.

Please people, try to look at this topic objectively. Read your Bibles. What does Ephesians say about breaking down the wall between Jew and Gentile?

The church in America is determined to rebuild that wall.

I don't have time to write as much as I want right now, but it is very important to search the scriptures on this matter.

Remember it does no one any good to be combative. but discuss this with a purpose to know truth. Remember truth is only strengthened when questioned.

May God give us His wisdom,
Tim

Scripture clearly establishes God, for whatever reasons and, in His infinite wisdom chose to reveal Himself to man via the Jewish people. We must realize chosen doesn't equal or mean without need of salvation. It also teaches there are lost or nonbelievers among these chosen people. As there in

Matthew 10:6 (KJV)
6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

where Jesus instructs them to go first to the Jew and also in

Matthew 15:24 (KJV)
24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

The special status also appears in OT passages such as

Deuteronomy 7:6 (KJV)
6 For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.

We also see in Acts the gospel being first offered to the Jew in

Acts 13:46 (KJV)
46 Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the
Gentiles.

Acts 26:20 (KJV)
20 But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.

All are familiar with

John 14:6 (KJV)
6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

"No man" must include any, chosen or otherwise. To claim the Jew has no need of the Gospel would appear a major contradiction to the words of Jesus and overall biblical context. However to deny their chosen or special status with God would be equally contradicting and a grave mistake.