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alamb Mar 22, 2016

I received an email from a Christian friend of mine that had a paragraph in it that bothered me. It referred to the Bride of Christ spoken about in the new testament. I will quote the paragraph I want you to consider.

"We don't have the luxury anymore of remaining on the sidelines. We have sailed this luxury liner of democracy into oblivion. Unless there is immediate repentance to turn from our wicked ways, starting with you and me, the Lord will understandably increasingly impose His Judgements on this nation to awaken His sleeping Bride. If we continue to resist His call to repent in every nation, we will be plunged into icy waters globally."

If those of us who will be included in His True Church, (the Bride), does that mean we are currently asleep (deceived, I guess) and unaware of His coming? Would this be a reference to His parable in Matt 25:1-13 ?

When I read the paragraph in the email, I felt a little wrench in my gut and it scared me. Not only that, but 30 years ago I had a very real and clear vision of a sleeping bride that I still haven't received the full revelation of. (Some other parts of the vision are clear to me).
Any insight you may have will be most appreciated!

In Him..alamb

P.S. I have prayed and waited at least a week before deciding to make this post

J

JFW Mar 22, 2016

Sister Judy,

Forgive me for saying this as I don't mean to derail this thread but,...

I thought we (gentile believers) were the body?

With Israel being the bride....

With that being said, I do believe as the body we can become "sidelined"
or rendered ineffective by concerning ourselves with the cares of this world and such and not advancing/seeking the kingdom through acting as His body/walking in the spirit.

Personally I find it has less to do with repentance and more to do with maturing- ie; Hebrews 6

Hope that helps:)
And I don't mean to confuse things

A

alamb Mar 22, 2016

Thank you so much for your response. I think I thought all this time that the "Bride" and "The Church" were interchangeable words; but what you had to say makes better sense to me. Reading Hebrews 6 after reading your comment was like reading it again with new eyes. Wonderful! Thank you again!

In Him (which is clearly the body and Jesus the Head)..

judy

sermonindex Mar 22, 2016

Sister,
you need to be careful with visions.
You need to find the balance and stand firm on God's word and find all the verse that tell you that you are safe in the Lord's hand, fear not... the Lord is my shepherd, etc. Re-discover that "Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchase of God, Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood..." May you find peace in Him again.

sermonindex Mar 22, 2016

Fletcher respectfully Ephesians 5:25-33 makes the reference that the church is the bride of Christ. Ephesians 5 25-27 says

....... Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having watched her by the washing of water with the word. But he might present to Himself the church in all her glory having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that she would be holy and blameless.......

Paul also says in Ephesians 5:32,

....... The mystery is great but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.......

The church is both described as the body of Christ and as the bride of Christ. I have never heard teaching that said Israel is the bride of Christ and the church is the body. If anything the New Testament teaches that the church is composed of both Jew and Gentile in Christ Jesus. Paul wrote in Galatians 3:28,

....... there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.......

Brother respectfully my understanding is that the church is both the body and the bride of Christ consisting of both Jew and Gentile.

Simply my thiughts.

Bro Blaine

sermonindex Mar 22, 2016

Jody the scriptures tell us that we have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. Paul writes this in 2nd Timothy 1:7.

Sister if the bride is asleep. And probably so in America. Then we pray Ephesians 5:14,

.......Awake, sleeper. And arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.......

Good prayer to pray for a sleeping Church. Particularly since these versus come out of Ephesians which speak of the bride of Christ.

I would agree with the brother's exhortation do not put your hope on visions but on the word of God. Jeremiah writes,

....... The prophet who has a dream may relate his dream but let him who has my word speak my word and truth. Is not my word like fire declares the Lord and like a hammer with shadows a rock.......

Sister simply my thoughts. I hope this helps.

Brother Blaine

A

alamb Mar 23, 2016

To Markuskiwi,

Thank you for addressing the fear aspect. You are correct in that I do experience a lot of fear about a lot of things; but most of my fear is that Jesus will get angry with me and I will loose my salvation. A man at my church gave me a book about how you can loose your salvation a few years ago and now I stay confused about that subject. I read Psalm 91 a lot and hope, hope, hope that the words are for me.
Peace would be a wonderful thing! :)

sermonindex Mar 23, 2016

Bill McLeod in his sermons recounting the Canadian revival mentioned that in the Old Testament it was God who was (in a manner of speaking) - asleep. Several references to believers crying out for the Lord to awake. Of course the Lord never sleeps but I get what he was saying. But in the New Testament there are various references for believers to awake from sleep. The conclusion he made was that generally speaking it is the church who gradually goes back to sleep and it is revival that wakes her up. In this sense the church/bride of Christ is asleep across the world, in various states of slumber.

A

alamb Mar 23, 2016

Bearmaster,
Thank you for your thoughts also. It helps a lot to be comforted by His Word if even for a little while. Sometimes reading His Word and feeling the Truth of it in me are two different things. I still struggle especially when I'm going through hard trials. I forget at times that I am not my feelings. Feelings are fleeting emotions...:)

Judy

J

JFW Mar 23, 2016

Brother Blaine,

Yes dear brother I was taught and believed that to be the case per the same scripture (Eph 5), though while studying out a dif subject I kept noticing the OT referenced Israel to be "the bride" so to speak of God and how it seemed to progressively developed this theme throughout it OT...
Then while studying (again yet a dif subject) Romans 11 it occurred to me that there was more to this than I had previously imagined, as it made (to my mind) more sense with (the yet to believe in Jesus) Israel as the bride and found it more symmetrical with the development of this theme in the OT.
Then I got to thinkin,... if we are His body and His bride that would make for a very interesting wedding ceremony;)
So I dug around more in scripture tho this time trying to disprove this theory and as yet have been unable to.
Now when I read Eph 5, vs 30 jumps out...
30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

In any case this is non-salvific and so hopefully we can maintain fellowship tho we may have dif understandings on this.

I'll submit for your consideration, the work and findings of a far greater scholar than myself. Not to prove a point but for your consideration as I open to learn:)

https://www.bereanbiblesociety.org/the-bride-of-christ/

sermonindex Mar 23, 2016

Hey Fkether brothrr:)

Hey bro like he said. This is non salvation. But yeah;). Should make for an interesting wedding. :-)

But anyway bro. We know one way or the other at some point we are going to be with Jesus. :-)

Let us keep our dear sister Jody in our prayers.

Bro Blaine

A

alamb Mar 24, 2016

I really thank each one of you who replied to my question. I got excellent advice from every answer. To Fletcher, I wish to say that you are tooo funny! I got a great laugh out of the wedding remark! Also, the Berean article was very good and I bookmarked the site to read more.

I can truly say that I am not bothered by the vision now. It is like all of you showed me that it's irrelevant to the whole miracle of salvation. Salvation and His Glory are the main point of EVERYTHING!

For all of you who prayed for me, I humbly thank you. We all need prayer and I have a propensity of not asking for it.

We are all a work in progress. I am grateful for His Word that says "being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." (Philippians 1:6)

In Him..
Judy :)