Monday, September 12, 2016

September 12, 2016: Waiting for Our Groom

Daily Berry Patch Devotions in 2016 - Day 256  

Devotional Song:  … GO TO THIS LINK …   Please take the time to take in a You Tube video of images from Peter, Paul, and Marry singing … The Wedding Song, often played at weddings to celebrate the presence of God’s Spirit in the joining of two in Christ, which is a picture of Jesus coming again as the Groom for His Bride, the Church.

 
Highlight Passage: Matthew 25:13 [NKJV] …  
13 “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming. …” 
… Jesus exhorts all to be watchful and ready for His return.
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Highlight Context … Matthew 25:1-13 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK 
… Jesus teaches on being ready for His coming again.
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Reference Passage #1 … John 14:1-4 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK 
… Jesus promises His disciples of His return as their Bridegroom.

Reference Passage #2 … 1st Thessalonians 4:13-18 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK 
… We don’t know when, but we do know that our Bridegroom is coming again for His Bride, the Church.

Reference Passage #3 … Revelation 19:6-9 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK 
… God’s revelation of the coming wedding feast of the Lamb of God, coming to wed His Bride, the Church, who has been preparing for the Wedding.

My Journal for Today:  … Our Daily Bread author, Amy Boucher Pye, used a story of a wedding day to illustrate Christ’s coming again as the Bridegroom for His Bride and the Bride’s preparation for the wedding day. She wrote: “I’m hungry,” said my eight-year-old daughter. “I’m sorry,” I said, “I don’t have anything for you. Let’s play tic-tac-toe.” We had been waiting over an hour for the bride to arrive at the church for what was supposed to be a noon wedding. 
As I wondered how much longer it would be, I hoped I could occupy my daughter until the wedding started. As we waited, I felt like we were enacting a parable. … I knew if I went to fetch some crackers, the bride could come at any moment and I would miss her entrance. As I employed many distraction techniques with my hungry daughter, I also thought about Jesus’s parable about the ten virgins (Matt. 25:1–13). 

That parable, and a lot of the New Testament [see Scriptures above], promises and teaches that the Wedding Feast of the Lamb of God is coming, when Jesus, as the Bridegroom will return for His Bride, the Church; and we are admonished to be ready - at any time - for His return.

Please meditate deeply on the Scriptures above, because they charge all Christians, as Christ’s Bride, to be preparing for His return to claim us, the Church, to be with Him at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb and for eternity.

And His question resounds deeply, … “Are you ready?” 

My Prayer Today:  O, Heavenly Father, … I’m ready. Come soon, Lord Jesus!! Amen    

Blogger Note:  Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread, distributed online via email by RBC Ministries.  If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.

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