The Bride

"The church is a place not for the whole but for the broken; not for the healthy but for the sick." But it is not a place of complacency. The sick go to a doctor for medicine, not to stay sick, not to be kept as is but to be healed. The church has become a place of apathy. We come and go and play all the parts were supposed to have but it's an act. A play. A child's game. WAKE UP! Wake up, oh Bride of the Most High God. Awaken and find His power, let Him renew you in His strength. We've waited so long to act and now time is short. Time has always been short. One second can mean the end of this life. One second. Awake, oh Beautiful Love, be redeemed. Your husband calls to you but, harlot, you sleep with all the things of this world. Money, people, numbers. Brag about your size and services but your heart is no more than stone. With each empty promise, every pill, every cut, every picture, every needle in your arm, you become conformed. Church, Bride, Loyal, Loved, Army of the Living God STAND UP! Become who He created you to be! There are never characters In a story without a purpose, nor are you here without reason. The world may hate you but only because you refuse to fit into the "normal", the "status quo". You do not belong to the world and therefore it despises you. When you are attacked, it is because you are a THREAT. A threat to the darkness that battles to overwhelm your soul. If you have claimed the Light of Christ, oh children of the Most High God, that darkness CAN NOT TOUCH YOU!

Oh ye of little faith, why do you doubt? Wake up. My Bride, you were beautiful until you spoiled yourself with the things of this world. I offered you a heart that would burn forever but you'd rather have the fleeting flames of lust. I offered you a life, a new start, a chance to become like Me, but you would rather become like my enemies. I gave you a flowing, sparkling white gown with crystal shoes and a pure golden crown with all your favorite gems strung up in a beautiful necklace. My Bride, you were stunning but on that day you ran, you tore that white dress when the thorns scratched at your legs and your feet were scarred by the roughness of the ground because the shoes I gave you shattered, left behind forever. Your necklace snapped and the gems sank into the mud where they were irretrievably lost. My love, your crown fell, twisted and battered, your beauty marred by anger and fear. You preferred your bitterness to My forgiveness and the lovers who abuse you and make you feel worthless to My love everlasting. But at least you still FELT! As time went on you forgot your first Love, your first Kiss, your first Husband, the One who waits for you still. You forgot Him, forgot ME, and it made all the filth you detested seem bearable, acceptable, tolerable, applaudable. I saw you on the street corner yesterday, darling, looking for another man because you can't remember. When did you last think of Me? When did you last think of how you once loved Me? I called to you but you couldn't hear Me over the rush of hands and kisses, all the voices whispering affection. My Love, do you remember when I gave Myself for you? I know you've heard it again and again so that it has no meaning, but, My Darling, I will tell you again in hope that you might listen.

I prayed to My Father, My God, in the garden that night and My friend betrayed Me. One action led to an unintentional rebellion. My followers left Me, fearful, even though I told them not to fear. I told you the same, I remember. I held your hand when it was still warm and looked into your eyes. "I'll never leave you, never forget you, My Love. I will fight your battles for you, so don't be scared. I love you. I'll protect you." My words were not empty. My passion is still with you. After the ones I loved ran, my enemies came and took Me. I didn't fight. I loved you. It hurt even then, knowing you would leave Me again and again. They beat Me, struck Me, mocked Me, My Bride, and I remember their words. My heart cried to you as their shouts and fists flew, but I knew already that you would not hear. My Beauty, they chained Me to a post so that I couldn't move to either side. Their metal, bone, glass, and leather tore through My flesh and muscle. They shredded My skin so that you did not recognize Me. I saw you then, among the crowd, laughing with a man who played with your hair. I cried out again, in pain and in sorrow, unable to bear the thought of your betrayal. I fell, the wood crushing My blood-covered body. I heard the laugh of the people I loved, I heard you laugh as another man came up behind you and covered your eyes. I heard then all laugh and it stung through My open back where blood poured into the street. I struggled, the pain of the wounds and of your dead, decaying love unbearable. I felt the dirt spray into My wounds as children played in the streets. Women wept and their tears fell into My wounds. I wished they were yours. I wished you would weep over Me like you used to. I heard your voice among the mockery. "You fool, You will never have my love." Your words hurt as much as the rocks beneath Me that dug into my bloody, broken flesh. I made it to the hill, the battleground Calvary, and lay on my Death Tree, knowing what would come. The splinters pierced My shredded muscle and I cried again. I watched your hand place a nail on Mine and take the hammer. With each strike you shouted your anger, your malice, your hatred. "You lied. You leave. You will never have me." You leaned over My beaten face and whispered your curses in My ear. I cried with each strike of hammer and word. I remember that your hand brushed Mine and I hoped for warmth but your hand was like a corpse. Cold and stiff. You kissed Me one last time, but there was no love, no passion, it was like the kiss of a snake, a mockery of what once was. A goodbye not because I was leaving but because you were. My heart split and My Father left Me because I took on the darkness that you carried. I saw you in the crowd, blurred with tears and blood. Your lips stained with My blood as you savored its flavor. I gave you a necklace of jewels and a golden crown and you gave me a crown of thorns. You pressed it on with that final kiss, whispering "for a king, for a king..." and the flow of My blood became like the sea. You stood there and hissed your bitterness, exalting yourself in vivid tales of lust and your lovers. I cried out My pain but you laughed. I breathed My last breath and choked. I heard roars of laughter echo in the sky. "We won!" I heard you shout to your lovers with the voice of My fallen angel. Beauty made into the very thing I had come to slay.

My Love, remember that the day approached and your greatest master lost his hold. I returned for you and your love, once old and dead, was renewed. I loved you in life, in death, and in the life again but I remember your old demons came calling and I tried to fight for you but you melted my sword and danced away with them. I searched for you, Love, but each time I found you, you ran. You fled with the demons. My love pursued you as it always has. For years I chased after you, calling to you. Your anger became an unknowing mockery. "In the name of Christ" you said, but you got so caught join expecting Me to come that you forgot to look for Me. And so I remind you of where you've come from. When I saw you on that street corner, you looked at first lovely. Sparkling eyes and beautiful as if you didn't need Me. But I looked again and saw behind your mask. I saw black, cold eyes, blind and dead, the mouth of a snake with venom coating your every word. I could see your pain corrode skin which peeled off, decaying. Your hair fell out and you tried so desperately to hold yourself together like a rag doll coming apart at the seams. But you covered up your desperation with false love and unreal hope. You disguised your attempts at holding yourself together as a calling card for all the innocents and all the ravenous and all the hollow empty souls walking by. I saw you and remembered your dress when I found it in the woods after you left. It was town and stained with blood. The blood from the thorns and then from your blade. My Darling, I await your returning. I seek you, watch you, wait for you. My love is endless. The church is not a place for the broken to remain broken but to be healed.

Worth Dying For

Some people say there are few things left in this world worth dying for. Others argue that things like Peace, Justice, Friendship, etc. are far more than worth it. Perhaps it depends on your point of view, I don't know. However, it seems to me that there while there are a few things worth dying for, there is much more worth living for.

 Here's something I bet you didn't know: you are loved. Not only that, but you are loved beyond imagining. Maybe you're like me: a Christian raised in a church and Christian home. But you have no idea. You can't know. That's how much He loves us. It's Easter Sunday as I write this and although I don't know when I'll get around to publishing it, you should realize that Easter is not only the time Christ died and rose, it is also the time that you were permitted into Eternity with God. That's a big deal. I heard a spoken word thing on my hand-me-down mp3 player a while back and looked it up on YouTube. It's by a guy named Mattie Montgomery from a band called For Today. One thing he said really struck me: "You are worth it".

 

People today find their worth in a lot of different things: money, status, relationships, possessions, the list could go on and on. You want to know what really defines us? God. He's the one who tells us who we are. And do you know who that is?  He says you are a princess, His little girl, His love, His dream, His passion, His desire, His focus, His joy. Guys, he says you are His son, a Prince, His strong boy, His heart. You are His sole desire. He wants you and He will go to any lengths to get you to want Him. So, like Mattie said, You Are Worth It. You are worth living for, worth dying for, worth coming back to live for again. Even though by your very nature you despised Him and because of you He suffered and died the most vicious way possible. You killed Him. It was your sin that nailed Him there. But He still died for you because He LOVES you. More than you realize, more than you can imagine.

To the Cutter: He bled so you didn't have to. To the Suicidal: He died so you would live. To the Forsaken, the Lost, and the Lonely: God turned His back on His Son so He would always be with you. To the Depressed: He took on your sorrow so that you could live without it. To the Complacent: He lived radically to set an example for you. To the Careless: He loved you so you might love Him. To the Fearful: He dislodged fear so you wouldn't be ruled by it. To the Human: There IS a God. He is more powerful than you could ever dream and He is passionate about YOU. You who killed Him, You who shouted "Crucify Him!", You who disowned and rejected Him. YOU.

  Never forget, He loves you more than you could ever realize   
                 and He thinks that YOU worth dying for.