THE BRIDE'S CHOICE

Servant or Master

The Bride is being made ready for her Groom.
Is she a servant of the Word through obedient surrender?
Or, has she become its master, twisting it to suit her needs?

There she stands in her final hour of preparation.
The Bride, perfect in her adornments of grace
Facing a struggle like never before seen.

She is called to be a Servant of the Word
Yet, the god of this age pressures her to instead become its master,
Molding and twisting the Word to appease her fleshly desires
Rather than serving the Word in its Holy Perfection.

The corporate Bride, living stones, a holy expression
Of praise perfected. Of worshipful surrender. Of sacrificial service.
Yet, corruption has entered the room where she is being prepared
As a Bride for her Wedding Day. Tempting. Teasing. Challenging.
Pressing against the heart of the servant. Enticing the heart with mastery.

Her choice. Will she submit to total surrender to her Groom?
Or, will she choose to take in her hands the reins of her heart?
Leading instead of following. Demanding instead of giving.
Self-serving instead of surrendering to the Word in its perfection.

There is little time. The choice must be made.
Take the hand that leads her down the path of righteousness.
Or, succumb to the will of a deceptive and corrupt heart.

She knows the way she should take. She is empowered to make the right choice.
Her Groom awaits her decision. She wrestles within herself.

Self dies. The Bride is perfected. A servant of the Word emerges.

These words grew in my heart this morning as I was contemplating the different aspects of Christianity. While some claim that total surrender is required of the true Bride, others claim that the Word of God can be interpreted to fit individual circumstances that may even include what has been deemed to be sin throughout the generations.

In my heart I saw the image of a Bride in her final moments before her wedding. She is in her the Bridal Chamber putting on the finishing touches before she walks out the door to meet her Groom. Suddenly, there is a wrestling in her heart. Can she offer herself in total surrender to Him? Or, will she take control of her own life and attempt to lure Him to bend His will to match her own?

That is what I mean by "mastering the Word".  Taking control over divine inspiration in an attempt to conform it to our carnal desires.

We all struggle with this one way or another, to some extent or another. After all, we can prove any behavior, desire or self-pleasing attitude by taking the Words of the Lord out of context, failing to rightly divide the Word of Truth. This, my friends, is a cancer rapidly spreading throughout Christianity today. It is a disease permeating the Body with a contagion factor worse than Ebola or other deadly and infectious disease. It is a horrifying thought that this spiritual disease has eternal consequences, killing the soul if allowed to continue.

Submissive humility will simply obey, reining in the desires of the flesh in order to conform to God's Word. Pride, arrogance and "mastery of the Word", on the other hand, will stubbornly demand the misinterpretation of the divinely inspired Word in order to appease sinful choices.

If we are to be the pure Bride adorned for our Husband, we must wholly surrender our hearts by surrendering to God's Word, not a carnal interpretation of God's Word twisted and contorted to explain away or offer excuses for our wretched flesh.

The Bride must stand arrayed in the glory of the Groom -- the One in whom there is no darkness at all.

"This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you:
God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness,
we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light,
as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another,
and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin." (1 John 1:5-7)