May 18, 2005

• Last night at Bible study, someone asked a question. They heard a teaching on TV where the person speaking said that we are not the Bride of Christ, but the Body of Christ and that anyone teaching that we are the Bride of Christ was in Biblical error.

  
  

  Pastor Don told us, in answer that we have to understand God in context of space and time. Who is God speaking to in space and time.

  
  

  Revelation 19:11 – on: Christ is making his move on the White Horse, there is judgments, and he is making war against the enemy, and the Day of the Lord is set in motion.

  
  

  Revelation 19:20 beast and false prophet sent to lake of fire. There is no mention of the Bride of Jesus in Chapter 19

  
  

  Chapter 20 there is the millennial reign, the book of life is opened, death and hades put in lake of fire.

  
  

  God is closing the book on the history of man. There is now a transition of relationship. Those who did not accept Christ have been cast in the lake of fire, and those who are left are now spiritual beings.

  
  

  The balance has changed from a dominance of physical over spiritual to spiritual over physical.

  
  

  The Eternal is permanent.

  
  

  The Bible is the history of men on Earth. It does not tell us what happened before creation, and what happens after Revelation.

  
  

  Pastor Don said that as a kid he used to try and imagine what life would be like. In Heaven it will not be boring, for it will be beyond anything we can ever imagine.

  
  

  Pastor Don said that he and his friend used to spend time contemplating the vastness of God, something that is so awesome and beyond the scope of our thinking. That God is the eternal now. Now in every aspect of creation.

  
  

  Time was invented for man.

  
  

  Ch. 21 of Revelation, a new heaven and a new earth. New Jerusalem, like a bride adorned for her husband.

  
  

  Ch 21:9 “Come, I will show you that bride…the Lamb’s wife..”

  
  

  Another place in the Bible, the New Jerusalem is described as made of translucent stones, living stones. And we are living stones.

  
  

  Then God will tabernacle with his people, and we are the people, that surrounds the holy of holies, God.

  
  

  The key element of living stones is that they are translucent, and transparent, and we can look through them to the other side. We are trying to live our lives on this earth like living stones. We should be transparent and translucent in our lives so when people look at us they see God.

  
  

  As living stones now, we are being shaped and formed by our circumstances. By the people around us, by the church, by our family and friends.

  
  

  Then Pastor Don talked about how Christ would treat his church, and brought up the Ephesians 5:22 passages, about husbands and wives. He said that not only does this describe the physical marriage, but also the behavior of the body of Christ (which is being formed to be the bride of Christ).

  
  

  Some men in the church think that this passage means that they can dominate all women, but it clearly says “own”: your own wives, not someone else’s wife.

  
  

  And they are to love them the way Christ loved the church, which means being willing to lay their lives down for the wife like Christ laid down his life for the Church.

  
  

  The Bible study went into some aspects of marriage, like talking with your spouse, because the husband is the head of the wife, that does not mean that he doesn’t listen to her, they are two made one, just like Christ and his Bride will be made one. The husband also needs to remember that Christ is the head over him, and that he is to be obedient to Christ as well.

  
  

  Pastor Don talked about how important it is to talk with your spouse, for when you date, you do not really know the spouse, it is only after time of being together and talking that you begin to know your spouse.

  
  

  Wives must respect their husband, often obedience and giving to them is easy, but respect is harder. If you respect your husband, even if you think he is not worthy of respect, your husband will grow to be the person whom you can respect.

  
  

  Because Christ is the head of the church, it signifies that it is part of the Body. Pastor Don made a point of saying he does not consider himself the head of the church, he would like to be like a neck, where the neck muscles adjust to which way the head (Christ) is turning.

  
  

  So in essence we are the body of Christ, being formed into the Bride of Christ. It is like the betrothal of a marriage, in the Hebrew tradition it could be done when a child was a baby, and then the people grew into the role until it was time to be married. We are still babies, growing into the Body, and soon to become the bride.

  
  

  Then someone asked why it seemed that lately their life was shambles, that they are doing their best to get their act together, and one thing after another seemed to go wrong. But they are staying true to the Word of God.

  
  

  Pastor Don said that we need to have a value system according to Christ’s values. Christ will provide for us what we need, but often what we perceive we need is not what Christ (with a far reaching perspective) knows that we need. Sometimes when we are close to a breakthrough, the adversary puts all the guns out and tries to throw us off course. If we keep our focus on Jesus, then we will not be tripped up by satan.

  
  

  He asked us, have you ever noticed that something that seems like a tragedy, can be a stepping stone for one person, and for the other it is a disaster.

  
  

  It depends on your focus. He talked about how at one point he and his wife were so poor they lived in a trailer on cinderblocks, and had to scrape together money to get fuel for the kerosene heater. They did not have a car, so they had to bring it to the trailer on a sled, through about a mile of snow, for they did not have a plow to plow the driveway. Then their pipes broke.
  
  Pastor Don pointed out that he had been rich and he had been poor. Obviously rich is better, but he said that he and his wife were happy when they were poor. It is not finances that lead to happiness. If they did, then there would not be so many suicides and destructive behavior being done by people who were rich.

  
  

  If you are in the Mind of Christ, you can take your disaster and do something bigger and better. If you are not in the mind of Christ, the disaster could be just a disaster.

  
  

  Every bad thing that happens is not sent by God, but God will use what satan meant for bad to bless us, to help us learn what God wants us to learn. He will turn the ashes into roses.

  
  

  He told us to remember, “Your attitude determines your outcome.”

  
  

   

  
  

  Some of this is again new concepts for me, so I have tried to take accurate notes, but if there is an error, it is not Pastor Don, it is my mistake in understanding.

  
  

  Hope you have an awesome day.

  
  

  Heather

  • 7:25 pm
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