Posted: 03/23/2008 at 9:57am | IP Logged

Just when the world is crying out for the real and the genuine, the church offers little more than a mockery of God’s intended purpose. His name is being blasphemed in the earth because the church is "holding Him in derision." We have set Him up as an object of ridicule by presenting a ‘testimony’ that is "absurdly and offensively inadequate and unfitting." Our barrenness is evidence of a false and impudent imitation of what we believe to be truth and life. In actuality there is very little depth of the Life of God being integrated into the way we operate. Consider the following ‘prophetic pictures’ that are being set before us that , if seen with an eye toward the church, are quite revealing of the mocking pretense and travesty of our current existence.

One such painful picture is the blatant contradiction of one high official of government who seemingly stood for all that was right and just within the realm of society, but found himself groping with a harlot amidst the shadows of night. Caught up in deceitful desires, he left pronounced life purpose to join himself to the very ’substance’ of seduction that has now rendered him ludicrously futile and unsuitable to the public eye.

Could this really be a picture of the church and present day Christianity in America as a whole? Could this mockery that has now come into full view be a precursor of greater understanding of what lies at the heart of ‘official’ Christianity within the dark halls of the church? Will the Lord be exposing secret rendezvous in the unholy places of the inward man that show forth our eagerness to waste our zeal on a harlot? Will He stand back and allow His name to remain an object of scorn and ridicule? Will He not bring to light what is hidden in the dark, so that He can have a testimony that springs forth from the deep fountain of the Life of the Spirit, flowing forth from His corporate body for the healing of the nations?

And what about the young lady who played the harlot? You know, she had a first love. It was music. "The music was her and she was the music," she stated. But the music was not enough. There were other needs, other desires. Perhaps she even rationalized that this little ‘side endeavor’ would help her fulfill her dreams surrounding music.

Oh, how like the church! She too had a first love that has now been forsaken to pursue other lovers. They may even be ‘good things’ that will help her fulfill dreams conjured up in the ‘sacred’ halls of religion. She has forgotten that there is only One initiator and fulfiller of dreams. She forgot about the songs of love that used to caress her soul. She left that place of intimate union with the song of Truth and followed the deceptive voice of self, looking for her identity in the strangest of places. Playing the harlot, she now has become one with strange lovers of the world. She has forgotten her purpose and she has forgotten her calling. Caught up in a web that has entrapped her heart, she longs for the music of first love, but the sounds of convenience and comfort have all but drowned out the call to walk the narrow rigorous path of grace. She can do it herself! Purpose and fame and happiness await her! She has no time to be still and listen to the sweet sounds of the cross wooing her ever so gently to the simple place of beholding His face. She has sought to sustain her own "life" and has come away empty and barren. She is the young harlot. Meant to be a bride and to belong to One, she has fallen from the place of highest dreams and become one with the world.

Did you hear about the wedding that needs no bride or bridegroom? Montana has a law that allows for a double proxy ‘wedding’ so there is no need for the presence of either of the actual couple desiring to be married. Someone else can ‘do it for them’ then they can proceed on their way with the ‘ceremony’ all taken care of. Here again, we have a prophetic picture of the current state of the church. The ‘stand ins’ for these ‘weddings’ have been through so many of them, that they simply respond to the vows with rote boredom. They don’t even bother to look up but just mutter "yes" and "I do" at the appropriate time. The absence of the real bride and groom is no obstacle to obtaining the paperwork that verifies a legal union.

How like the shallow "pronouncing of vows" that is currently taking place between our beloved Bridegroom, Jesus, and His bride. Our interactions with one another are largely ‘ceremonial’ with no real passion and desire. We have become satisfied with rote repetition which does not require or allow a face to face encounter. Our legalistic approach to what is meant to be a deep union of hearts has left us with an empty feeling of formalism. No bride - No groom - No problem! We’ll just get the paper stamped and walk off into life as we have always known it with our "obligations completed."

Oh the dreariness and sadness of such an arrangement! We bypass the pure joy and fulfillment of vows made upon the platform of deepest covenant love. We are left searching and longing for the ‘real’ and the ‘substantial.’ Our substitute ‘quick fix’ has cheapened the price that was paid for the marriage supper of the Lamb. We no longer value the awaiting mysteries of the true betrothal ceremony where we share in His broken body and shed blood. We settle for a form without the Life. We don’t really need the Bridegroom and we don’t think He really desires us. We are left empty and so is He. We are saddened and so is He. You see, the ‘ceremony’ is not just a ceremony. It is the very uniting of hearts to become as one. It takes the deepest commitment from our Bridegroom that, when understood, results in the deepest commitment from the bride. The ‘ceremony’ is Life itself. We partake of Him and he lives in and through us. Without the face to face ‘ceremony’ there is no union. There is no wedding. There is only mockery and pretense.

And finally, there is the story about the unclaimed wedding dresses that are just sitting at the drycleaners waiting to adorn the next generation of brides. They are spotless. They are white and pure. But they remain ‘hung up’ in their unclaimed beauty, just waiting for the ‘prepared bride’ to come forth and be adorned with her destiny.

There is another wedding garment that awaits the beautiful bride who is chosen and desired by the Bridegroom. He is longing for her to respond to the deep desires of His heart to be joined with her in the marriage supper of the Lamb. His passionate heart of love is seeking for that bride who shows her eagerness to be clothed in the beautiful garments of righteousness. But she stands off at a distance. She is not ready. She is not willing. She still has ‘her life’ that she is pursuing. She can’t put off her ‘old garments’ that she has become so used to. Aren’t they good enough? After all, they are in style. She fits right in with her surroundings. Why does she have to wear that wedding dress? It doesn’t really fit the times. She is more ‘suitable’ to attire that is less constraining. After all, isn’t it really about her comfort and her desires and her way of form and fashion?

Oh, wayward bride, how your heart leads you astray. Dressed in the moth eaten clothes of self effort you are deceived and you are a deceiver. Like Jacob of old, you are conniving and manipulating your way towards tainted dreams. The image you portray is filled with the gaping holes of self satisfaction. You refuse to take a good long look in the mirror that reflects back the deep motives of your heart. You will not stop and behold the face of your Bridegroom Lover and listen to His voice calling you away from empty hearted pursuits. Instead, your garments reflect your heart’s condition.

The Bridegroom awaits saying, "Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come along... The voice of the turtledove is singing and the time for the pruning of the vines has arrived...Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come along!" (Song of Solomon 12:10,12,13).

The call goes out for a prepared bride who has made herself ready so that she can be clothed in fine linen, bright and clean. Unheard whispers of love fill the air but dull ears cannot respond to the gentile cooing of the soft sounds of sacrifice. Excess upon excess is allowed to weigh down the once fruitful vine and now her ‘false measurements’ will not allow her to fit into the wedding dress. No wonder she just leaves it hanging for someone else to claim. If she will but recognize the season, she would understand the call to come away and be separate. Instead of treating the Bridegroom with contempt and scorn she would quickly turn back to the way of the cross, allowing her excesses to be trimmed, that she may be made fit to claim her wedding gown.

But now she is a portrayal of the ‘Governor’, the ‘harlot’, and the wedding that never was. Her acquiescence to the ‘comforts’ of natural ‘living’ have left her sitting with that scornful look on her face. She is meant to glow with a fresh revelation of the cross of Christ and the divine Life which springs up from a heart committed to the narrow way of living and moving and having her being in Him and in Him alone. But she has no lasting vision of ruling in righteousness, or pursuing her first love, or beholding her beloved Bridegroom face to face. No, her pretense won’t let her. So she must mock and scorn and play the game of outward appearances, all the while refusing to be known and to know that if she would just ’come clean’ she would be clothed with ‘grace upon grace.’ It would be given unto her to be made ready and to clothe herself in that "fine linen, bright and clean." She would live out the "righteous acts of the saints" as she emerges from the bridal chamber, ready and prepared to be that true witness to a world dying to see the genuine and the real.

Woody Winchell

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.

Psalms 1:1-3

Let the priests, the Lord's ministers, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, "Spare Thy people, O Lord, and do not make Thine inheritance a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they among the peoples say, 'Where is their God?'
Joel 2:17

You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: "He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us"? But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, "God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble." Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

James 4:3-10

Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my bretheren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Neither can salt water produce fresh. Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is eathly, natural, demonic. For where jealsousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocricsy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

James 3:11-18

Jesus therefore said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. He who eats My flesh and drink My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.

John 6: 53-57

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are opena and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need.

Hebrews 4:12-16

'But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you, and will remove your lampstand out of its place - unless you repent.

Revelation 2:4-5

"Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready." And it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

Revelation 19:7-8