“For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.” (Revelation 19:7-8 NKJV)
The modern
Church is about to be purified. The Bride of Christ will rise spotless to meet
her Groom. God will purify us by fire or by self-sacrifice. For too long we
have taken for granted the material riches with which he has blessed us, for
too long we have blithely accepted our freedom to worship unobstructedly.
Instead of using such freedom to further the purposes of God, we have furthered
our own ends.
If God must
strip us bare for us to turn to him, he will. He did so with ancient Israel and
there is no reason to expect he will not do so with us. He brought calamity, misfortune,
and warnings, and yet they stayed fast in their rebellion. He will do the same
with us if we do not repent and return to him. The choice is ours. We can be
purified by fire or by sacrifice. One comes from God’s hand as a purifying
judgment, the other as a willing sacrifice, freely given. Both can achieve the
same purpose—a repentant, broken people, people who trust and rely upon God alone,
not their own feeble self-efforts. The choice is not to stand or fall, for one
day we will all fall before his glorious face. The choice is whether we will fall
upon our knees in judgment or whether we will fall upon our faces in
repentance, adoration, and worship.
God is putting
the Church through times of testing and tribulation to present a spotless Bride
to Christ at the coming marriage supper of the Lamb.
For
the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins
with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?
(1 Peter 4:17 NKJV)
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