Tag: preparing the bride

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God's Story Preparing the Bride of Jesus Christ

GOD’S STORY: Part 5 What is the Law?

Here at Preparing the Bride, I’m telling GOD’S STORY. Presumptuous?! Not when simply looking at scripture, because scripture is the unfolding of God’s story to us who read it.

How do we prepare as the Bride of Christ? We learn GOD’s Story. Piece by piece, and peace by peace, we learn to walk as He has walked. 

GOD’S STORY Part 5: What IS the Law? And How does it relate to Creation?

In a very personal way, the LORD GOD Yehovah has shared with us through Jesus what is the law… It all comes down to Love.

Last week GOD’s Story discussed why GOD created the Law. This week, I’ll share more about what that Law actually is….

Looking at Psalm 119 we can take apart so many verses and see how much the writer is devoted to the precepts, statutes, word, wonderful works. All these draw upon the Law of GOD, the Creator of the Universe.

Looking at the Laws of physics, mathematics, language…. GOD’s Law will not be mocked. We think of the Law as a set of rules (religion) or guidelines (relationship) but it is so much more….

“Open my eyes that I may see wondrous things from your law.” (Psalm 119:18) These are not simply words of wisdom but the essence of life.

“Make me understand the way of your precepts; so I shall mediate on Your wonderful works.” (v 27)

The Father does not just want us to obey rules but He wants us to comprehend His workings! Like a watchmaker who intricately creates a timepiece, so the Father has intricately created earth, from Beginning to End. And He has created not just the physical earth but all the properties and laws of nature that govern how everything works together and holds together. He is the Alpha and Omega (Revelation 22:13). In the beginning was GOD (Genesis 1:1) even before Time, creating day and night on the first day, and hence a marker, a beginning of Time itself, there was GOD at work.

Core of Creation

And at the very heart of this Creation… is Love. A GOD who has three identities in one person: the capacity for thought, the physical embodiment, and the spiritual. GOD the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are the labels given but He is in harmony with Himself and models that for mankind. In the beginning was a void and out of that void He created life in all its fulness, that He would have companionship and share that with humanity.

And for humanity to exist well, it needs Love at its core.

Opposition to Love

What does the enemy sow? Hatred, animosity, strife. What does GOD sow? Love, forgiveness, kindness, generosity, grace.

Following GOD’s Law is not following rules and even goes beyond relationship. Jesus came to fulfil the Law, not to replace it (Matthew 5:17). And what did he encapsulate the Law as?

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:36-40)

In essence His Law encapsulates the concept of Love and it goes right back to the beginning — to Creation itself and its natural laws. And GOD has always wanted us to explore, to discover His Laws. The writer of Psalm 119 yearns to understand, 

“Teach me, O LORD, the way of Your statutes, And I shall keep it to the end. Give me understanding, and I shall keep Your law; Indeed I shall observe it with my whole heart.” (v33-34)

GOD’s motive and science

The LORD does not shun our exploration but encourages it. And when we tried to build the Tower to reach heaven, tried to defy nature, He divided us through language, destroying our inter-communication, not so we would be confused against one another, but so we would rely upon Him still, to seek Him rather than to override Him, not to compete with Him, but rather to engage with Him.

The astronaut who goes beyond earth’s atmosphere and into outer space says that it is more obvious, not less, that there is GOD, a Creator, of this vast universe. Exploration in itself does not take us away from GOD, but draws us to Him.

A part of GOD’s story is Love. He loves us and wants us to love Him and one another. He also encourages us to explore, to understand His creation and its laws of nature and of science, so we can better understand Him and ourselves. 


He does not compete with science and exploration. He is science and exploration just as He is the Creator of all and created us in His image.

Comment on Environmentalism

I cannot finish this post today without drawing momentary attention to the climate change agenda, the environment, and where society has got off track.

Simply put, GOD created the earth and the universe. He called us to be stewards (Genesis 1:26-28). He called us to worship Him and to take care of the planet. One without the other is confused or disobedient. 

Let us love our world but let us love GOD first and foremost. Then the world will know us by our love. Hallelujah!

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God's Story Preparing the Bride of Jesus Christ

GOD’S STORY: Part 4 Why the Law?

Here at Preparing the Bride, I’m telling GOD’S STORY. Presumptuous?! Not when simply looking at scripture, because scripture is the unfolding of God’s story to us who read it.

How do we prepare as the Bride of Christ? We learn GOD’s Story. Piece by piece, and peace by peace, we learn to walk as He has walked. 

GOD’S STORY Part 4: Why the LAW?

“Open my eyes, that I may see

Wondrous things from your law.”

(Psalm 119:18)

I asked the LORD, What is the next thing to share of Your Story?

He led me to the Ten Commandments. Really? Yes! Okay.

Why the Law to share with you?

You will know Exodus 20, where the LORD lists the summary version of His Law: the 10 Commandments. Exodus and Leviticus are full of GOD’s laws for various contingencies. But the Law is encapsulated well in the 10 Commandments.

Exodus 20:2-17

2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.

4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

12 “Honour your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

13 “You shall not murder.

14 “You shall not commit adultery.

15 “You shall not steal.

16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.

17 “You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbour’s.”

But why was the Law necessary? 

Sin, yes. But why didn’t GOD just send His son in the first place? If Jesus didn’t come to replace the Law but to fulfil it (Matthew 5:17), why didn’t He just arrive in front of the Hebrews in the wilderness?

“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of GOD.” (Romans 3:21) But first we need to know we’ve sinned in order to recognise we have fallen short. The Law teaches us our inability to keep it. Who hasn’t made a mistake and hoped and prayed we’d not suffer the consequences? That fear, that prayer, enables us to see we’ve fallen short. The Hebrews needed to learn GOD’s perfection before they could recognise their fallibility. So they needed to know GOD’s standard, His Law — They certainly weren’t going to find it in the heathen Egyptian society.

And so, why the Law? So we can know we’ve broken it, so we can know we’ve sinned, so we can know we’ve fallen short and need a Saviour… and then value The Saviour: Jesus, the Jewish Messiah Yeshua.

What does the Law signify?

Whilst GOD very much wanted relationship with the Hebrews, the fear of GOD pervaded their hearts. They saw the power of GOD in the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud. They saw His power in the parting of the Red Sea. And so, they pushed Moses up front and said, ‘You talk to GOD and then tell us what He says.’

“Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. Then they said to Moses, “You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.” (Exodus 20:18-19)

This was immediately after the 10 Commandments had been announced. The people were willing to obey but didn’t want intimacy with GOD. The Law gives rules, requirements and we turn it into religion. But GOD wants relationship. 

So, why Jesus?

Millennia after the Hebrews in the desert Jesus arrived, and He fulfilled the Law we failed to follow, with two commandments that encapsulated GOD’s standard even more succinctly, 

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your 

strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbour as yourself.’ ” (Luke 10:27)

Even further, through Jesus we can receive freedom today… overcoming the Law through the grace of faith in GOD.

John wrote in chapter 8 of his gospel, “If the son sets you free, you shall be free indeed.” Faith in Jesus, the son of God, offers us freedom from the Law as we receive Him and His love. We discover our choice to follow the Law changes; no longer do we follow out of a sense of duty or fear, but out of the desire to love others just as He has loved us. We are free as the yoke is lifted! “Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

The Law makes us aware of our failure to keep it. But we don’t have to live in fear and anxiety about the consequences of our weaknesses. Rather, we can know we have been saved from ourselves — our sinfulness — through the blood of Jesus.

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 19:14) Like little children innocent of their faults, we can embrace Jesus and His Father, knowing Jesus is the Truth and GOD the Father is a GOD of love. The sin of the past is left behind and the new has come: walking as Jesus walks, saved through faith in Him and living beyond sin because through faith in Jesus our sin is forgiven and blotted out.

So, the knowledge of GOD’s Law provoked mankind to realise our sinfulness and Jesus has released us from the yoke of the Law when we choose to follow Him.

“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32)

God’s Story 

When we look at GOD’s Story through the lens of His Law, we recognise that the Hebrews and all the descendants, save one, were imperfect. It is through that one exceptional person that any and all can be rescued from imperfection. 

We cannot escape GOD’s Law but we can learn to live the Law as embedded in the principle of Love, GOD’s love. And a part of GOD’s story is to recognise His identity. GOD’s identity is that He is Love. 

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God's Story

GOD’S STORY: Part 2 Nature of the Hebrews

Here at Preparing the Bride, I’m telling GOD’S STORY. Presumptuous?! Not when simply looking at scripture, because scripture is the unfolding of God’s story to us who read it.

This is GOD’s Story: Part 2, looking at the nature of the Hebrews, God’s chosen people. He chose them because He had chosen Abraham and the Hebrews are Abraham’s descendants. Abraham had others descendants but the ones who are special to Him, according to Biblical scripture: the Chosen Ones are the Hebrews, descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Hebrews become Faithful

Exodus 14 is where we’ll start. The Hebrews have left Egypt with gold and silver from their Egyptian neighbours, who had watched the onslaught of plagues inflicted upon the Pharaoh — and his people — because of his own stubborn heart. But after their escape, when they see the Egyptian army following, “Then the Hebrews say to Moses, “Because there were not graves in Egypt, you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt so with us…?” (verse 11)

The miracles of GOD did not leave an impression on them, building them as a people of faith. Not yet. 

Next Moses obeyed GOD and the sea was parted miraculously. The Hebrews escaped across dry ground and then the sea closed over the Egyptians who were following them. “Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.” (verse 30) Very grim indeed. Such was the consequence of the power of GOD, and “so the people feared the LORD and believed the LORD and His servant Moses.” (verse 31)

They who were faithless became full of fear and full of faith.

Hebrews complain

Next, let’s turn to Exodus 16 and 17. The Hebrews have arrived in the wilderness. And they are getting grumpy, as people are inclined to do. 

They’ve celebrated their deliverance from attack and the miraculous parting of the Red Sea. GOD has promised He will take care of them. He has promised they will escape disease if they heed His voice and do what is right in His sight. He has offered them a one-to-one relationship with them. But they don’t like the wilderness and they start to complain.

Moses says, “for the LORD has heard your complaints which you make against Him…” (verse 8) and “He has heard your complaints.” (Exodus 16:9)

The LORD presents Manna — bread from Heaven for them to eat. He brings quail and promises bread will come by day and meat at evening.

But they break His rule which asks them to respect His Sabbath. 

Then “the people contended with Moses” (Exodus 17: 2) because they were thirsty. 

They had received water from a rock. Pillars of fire and cloud had guided and protected them, food and water was given. Why did they still complain?

A new enemy approaches and they fear the enemy; yet GOD gives them military victory. 

So many good gifts and mighty miracles have come from GOD. And yet, gratitude and obedience are missing, even after the fulfilment of all His promises and His miracles. Why?

Talking to Moses

“Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.” (Exodus 16:2) 

“And the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses, and said “Why is it you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” (Exodus 17:3)

What is missing? GOD has provided and protected at every turn. And yet the complaints and hostility continue to be the knee-jerk reaction of the Hebrews in their situation. One problem is that the Hebrews are communicating with the leader but not with Their Leader. They talk to Moses, they complain to him and Aaron. But they do not communicate with GOD. What if they had?

Celebration

The Hebrews are not without some gratitude. They are expressive, not only of fear and complaints but also of joy. Exodus 15 is all about the celebration of freedom.

Miriam, Moses’ sister, leads the dance and song as women rejoice at their escape from the enemy.

“The LORD is my strength and son, And He has become my salvation;” they sing. (Exodus 15:2)

There is an echo of this later in Judges 5, when the Hebrews rejoice after another military victory, “Thus let all Your enemies perish, O LORD! But let those who love Him be like the sun when it comes out in full strength.” (verse 31)


The Hebrews, who will become the Jewish people, know their GOD is powerful. But do they know He’s on their side. Do they know who it is they are celebrating?

Fear of the LORD GOD… without trust

When staring at the dead Egyptians on the seashore, after the waters of the Red Sea had come crashing down, the Hebrews must have shuddered. They must have paused and thought, “That could have been us!” 

The scripture says, “Thus Israel saw the great work which the LORD had done in Egypt; so the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD and His servant Moses.” (Exodus 14:31)

Reminiscent of this is Peter, walking on water…

In Matthew, this Jewish man, upon seeing Jesus walking on water said, “LORD, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” (Matthew 14:28) And Jesus does.


“But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!” (verse 30)

What was missing in Peter? We might scoff at Peter and yet, at least he got out of the boat; at least he tried. 

What was missing with the Hebrews? We might think ‘how ungrateful they are’. And yet, they were homeless. 

They have fear. They have faith. So what is missing in the Hebrews and in Peter?

Missing Key

GOD provided to the Hebrews according to the requests. GOD was consistent. Jesus did do as Peter asked. And yet there was so much doubt. 

They all saw the power of GOD. But did they know His love?

Do you know what I believe was missing? They feared Him without trusting Him. 

Why was trust missing? They were not aware of the perfect love of GOD.

And even Peter, who had relationship with Jesus as one of his best friends, still lacked faith because he was unable to realise just how much GOD loved him.

Who is GOD?

This is GOD’s story. He made Himself available to the Hebrews. He made Himself available to Peter. He makes Himself available to us. What do we do with that opportunity? Do we talk to Him? To what degree do we trust Him? To that degree will be the our level of faith, the extent of our submission, and the limit of our peace.

GOD’s story will tell us at every turn, He loves us! He will never leave us nor forsake us. If we turn around and He isn’t there, why is that? Surely it is because we’ve moved away.

Every blessing as the LORD allows His story to unfold in our own hearts:)