“The Marriage Proposal of the Lamb” -R. Nelson
BIBLE MEDITATION:
“But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.” Matthew 26:29.
ENCOURAGING WORD:
There are so many historical traditions that are representative of the messages that God is trying to reach man with. One such tradition is the Galilean wedding. I am going to lay out the steps of a Galilean wedding and then I will tie it in with what I Believe is a truth that is seldom taught today. When a man wanted to start the process of marriage, the first thing that took place was the betrothal or in our terms, the engagement. When the groom wanted to proclaim his intentions, he would have in his possession a cup of wine which would be offered as a bond between the groom and his bride to be. The groom would first offer the cup to the future bride and if she would take a drink from the cup, which would indicate that she was accepting his proposal. At that point, she had total control of whether she would accept or decline his betrothal. If she accepted it and took a drink, she would then give the cup back to the groom. At that point, he would declare that he would not drink from that cup until they would celebrate their wedding feast.
From that day on they would separate and do what they needed to do to prepare for the wedding. The groom would depart to his father’s house where he would spend the next year or more preparing a room for him and his bride when they would be reunited at a later date. The bride would spend the time that was allotted her to prepare for the day that her groom would return to claim his wife. During that time away from each other the groom would spend his time adding on a room to his father’s house in preparation for the wedding feast. The bride would stay pure, wait in anticipation, and prepare herself for the day that her groom would return. They were not aware of the exact date of his return, neither the groom nor the bride-to-be, only the father would know. Once the room was built for the wedding feast and the bride was decked out in her wedding apparel, there would be a waiting period for when the father would say to the son, “Go get Your Bride” At that time all those involved with the wedding would make themselves ready to be witnesses to the reunion of the groom and bride-to-be. The groom would then sound the shofar for those to hear that were anticipating the day that the groom would return to take his bride. The bride-to-be would still be uncertain as to when the groom would return but nonetheless, she was always ready no matter when that time would come. Then they would appear where the bride-to-be was and they announced the groom’s arrival. The day was set! The feast was ready and those that were called entered in to celebrate the marriage supper of the bride and groom. This celebration would last for one week. From that point on they would forever be together as they have made their intentions clear, “what God has joined together, let no man put asunder.”
Now, I will tie all this together to show evidence that the Bible is not a book of myths and legends, it is absolute truth from beginning to end. There are also no coincidences in the scriptures, every word and sentence are there by divine intervention. Now, let’s look at a story that we are all familiar with where we read in Matthew 26:26-28; “ And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. For this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” Then we read in Matthew 26:29 where Jesus says, “But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.” Notice, Jesus gave to His disciples to drink, but he did not drink from the cup at that time. This would be symbolic of the betrothal that took place in the Galilean wedding. The disciples knew all too well what Jesus was talking about at this time because they were very familiar with the Galilean wedding.
Then we get to the crucifixion of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ where He took upon Himself the sins of the world and nailed them to the cross. Luke 24:6-7 tells us the most important event in history that took place, for, without this event, the Christian belief would be in vain. “He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spoke unto you when he was yet in Galilee, Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rises again.” If the resurrection is not true, then we too are men most miserable as we hear Paul say in 1 Corinthians 15:15-19; “Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then Christ is not raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable” Jesus has been resurrected and is now sitting at the right hand of the Father but what did Jesus say that He was going to do while He was gone. We read this in John 14: 2-3; where He told His disciples, “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” Jesus is preparing a place for you if you have accepted Him as your Lord and Savior and have been born-again into the Holy Spirit! Imagine this, God created the entire world in six days, which means He had six thousand years to prepare a home for you. I do not know about you, but I cannot wait to see what it looks like!
So, what are we to do now, we as the prepared bride of Christ are always to keep ourselves pure and ready in anticipation of His soon return? Just like the Galilean wedding, we do not know the day nor hour in which our Lord will return, but we are instructed to always be ready for at any moment He could return. We read in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-2; “But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you, yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.” This has to be in reference to the catching up of the saints as we read in 1 Thessalonians 4:17,” Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus, we shall always be with the Lord.” When the Father tells the Son, “Go get your Bride “The trumpet will sound as we read in 1 Corinthians 15:52; “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” 1 Thessalonians 5; 9-11; “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.” What does it say at the end, “Comfort one another with these words?” If the church were going to go through the tribulation, let me ask you this, would you find comfort in the promise that we are not appointed to wrath if it were not so? We are not appointed to God’s wrath!
When we read that Jesus is coming like a thief in the night, which means that He could return right now. Wouldn’t that be great? We read these interesting verses in Matthew 24: 29-13; “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” If you are living during the great tribulation, you will know the exact timing of the second coming of Jesus Christ, it will not be like a thief in the night. The catching up of the saints and the second coming must be two different events otherwise the Bible will make no sense whatsoever. If you believe that the verse above is the catching up that is referred to in 1 Thessalonians 4:17,” then you take away the imminent return (That He could come at any moment) of Jesus Christ, which would turn out to be a very dangerous belief. If you believe that the tribulation has to come before Jesus can return for His church, then everybody could live as they wish until the last moment, but the Bible instructs us to be ready at any moment because we do not know the day and hour of His return. This is an extremely controversial topic, but if you read the Word of God without taking out thirty percent of the Bible, (which are a prophet in nature) you cannot explain the teaching of the “catching up” away as most churches do today.
ACTION POINT:
Like everything else in this world that we may hear about as we go through life, it is up to us to accept or deny what we hear as true or false. I can say right up front that most of the world population today will deny the teaching of the catching up of the saints. But know this, whether you accept the catching up of the saints as truth or deny it, it will have no bearing on your salvation. You are saved by grace through faith and not by works. But let me say this also if you take out all the prophecy that is in the Bible, then you will have to allegorize the rest of the scriptures to make them make any sense. God is not the author of confusion, so if we must allegorize scriptures in order for them to make sense, we are most likely denying the truth that is written. We read this in 1 Corinthians 14:33 “for God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.” If the Bible is confusing to you, then you most likely have the wrong teacher guiding you through the scriptures. Just to clarify what I mean; your teacher should be the Holy Spirit of God. You need to trust in God, not man! I will not water down what I believe to be the truth of God’s word. Sorry if I sound bold, but Jesus is coming soon and there is no time to be holding back the truth of what is on the near horizon! Believe what you will, and if I am correct, then you will be ready, if I am wrong then you will still be ready. You cannot lose! I would also like to encourage everybody to do your own study with the Holy Spirit of God as your guide and see what He teaches you.
Commentary from our Chaplin – R. Fritz
GOD’S MIRACLES
The bible talks about the signs and wonders. Acts 2:43 says “And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.” We look around and are seeing hoarding and stocking up of food and supplies for months. This is fear. Matthew 6:30-34 says “Wherefore, if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore, take no thought, saying, what shall we eat? Or, what shall we drink? Or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek 🙂 for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things? But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” What this is saying is that we should be thinking of taking care of today, tomorrow will take care of itself. It also says that if we seek God first and his righteousness all are needs “shall” be added. When we “trust” God, we do not need to get food and supplies for months. Therefore, fear operates in future thinking, it does not operate in the here and now thinking.
The book of Acts tells about the signs and wonders from the 12 disciples, who when they came back from preaching and healing, were called Apostles. Some of the miracles were in Acts 19:11-12 that says “And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.” Handkerchiefs and aprons were given to Paul and all he had to do was touch them and the owners of them were healed.
People do not understand that the miracles that happened with the 12 disciples were because they believed, and it showed in their actions. With this Coronavirus, people are panicking because of fear. We in the United States have never seen anything like it. What I am trying to show people is without Jesus in your life, people panic, with Jesus Christ you operate in Faith and you trust in him to get you through. You might not believe this because you cannot see Him and with all the news about the coronavirus, you will feel that you need to act to take care of you or your own family. Let us look around to neighbors, friends, and people we know and see if we can help them because we are all in this together. I am praying for all people, that we get through this together and after this is over, we come together. Let us understand that with Jesus, we can get through anything. Hebrews 13:5-6 says “let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.” I encourage everybody to look at this verse and believe assuredly that the Lord has your backside.
In Conclusion – R. Nelson
We all need to understand that God is in charge and He is aware of what we will face in the future. For those that believe in Jesus Christ, you have no need to fear. You are in God’s hands and there is nothing that can separate you from His protective care once you have given your life to Christ! John 10: 28-30 gives us this promise, “And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one.” This is a promise from God that you can take to the grave! You have a choice; you can believe what the world tells you and continue running around in fear or you can trust in Jesus Christ and know that you are forever in His loving hands. Fear comes from Satan, Love and comfort come from Jesus Christ, what will you choose? Along with Rick, I too will pray for all that receive this message that The Holy Spirit will truly speak to your heart and bring you into His everlasting family. Please do not wait another day, we never know what a day will bring! Keep this last thought in mind, God loves you as much as He loves anybody and wants nothing more than for you to receive His free gift of grace so He can bring to into His eternal home. We are all equal when it comes to God’s love, but only those that receive His love will benefit from His sacrifice for your sins. Trust in the One who gave His life for you! “Written To the glory of God, Inspired by the Holy Spirit!” Amen!