Concerning the Bride of Christ Part 3

To this point in our lessons "Concerning the Bride," we have seen the selection of the Bride from among the captives (See the first post: September 14, 2013), and we began to look at the requisites of the Bride for fulfilling her role in this new state of her being (See the second post: September 22, 2013).
 
In this session we will focus on a couple of remaining requirements for the Bride as set forth in Deuteronomy 21: 13. This will bring a conclusion to this study at this time:
 
After the young woman who was selected from among the captives to be the Bride was released from her bands of captivity and was incorporated into covenant relationship with the Groom and His people, she began undergoing the process of preparation, of learning to be the companion of such a Lofty One.
 
She had to shave her head (set aside her own glory in lieu of His glory). She also had to "pare her nails," which indicated that she would no longer depend on her own prowess, strength or wisdom to make a life for herself. She would now look to Him to provide for her life "...and that more abundantly." Neither would she now look to her own ability for protection; she would trust wholly in Him for her defense. He would be her high tower into which she would run and be saved.
 
In verse 13, she is instructed to "...put off the raiment of her captivity." She must learn that any works or religious garb, any philosophy or superstition that she had depended on prior to this to cover her sins, her life apart from God, must be laid aside. There must be a total separation from such efforts or devices forever...never again to be resorted to...there must be a clean and lasting break with it all. She must "...put off the old man with his deeds" (Colossians 3:9_ and "...mortify the deeds of the body...") (Romans 8: 13)...that it is "...not of works which we have done, but of Him who called us..." (Romans 9: 11). How absolutely amazing it is that so much of Christendom still resorts so readily and so adamantly to works!
 
Then, the Bride must "...remain in the house." She must become fully integrated into the life of the house, the family of the Groom. She must learn from them and with them of the things that He approves, that He loves, the way that He works and the manner in which He deals with various aspects of life. I'm deeply concerned that so many, even among the circle of my own acquaintances. Who have lost faith in the Church and are setting it aside as a viable instrument of God in these perilous times. Some of them say, "Well the Kingdom has replaced the Church." The fact is that the Church is the instrument in the earth through which God will manifest the Kingdom of God. The Church is not the Kingdom, but it is the institution through which the Kingdom shall come to full power and glory. The Bride had to "remain in the house."
 
Then she had to "bewail her father and her mother for a full month." The father and the mother were the two most powerful influences in her life up until she was taken from among the captives. She must now be delivered from the residual impact and continuing effect of her life together with them. The culture and the ambience that she knew as a result of being under her father and mother was so different and so far removed from the new life into which she has been brought that she must be lovingly weaned from it altogether.
 
Again, how amazing it is that it is so difficult and it takes so long to process from what we were! Legally the difference was made in a relatively short span of time, but practically it would take a "full month" to make that adjustment without being tempted to fall back on it again and again. The "full month" indicates the amount of time, however long it might be, to get past those things so that she could begin to build her life on the core beliefs of her new Husband and to live complicit with Him and His family.
 
Only when she had been able to assimilate all these new things into her life so that she was who she had become did He come to be her husband and she to be His wife. One of the problems I have with much of the teaching regarding "end-times" is the emphasis on His coming for us rather than our being changed into His likeness. When we have been "conformed to the image of the Son, the Bridegroom, when we have been made in His likeness, He will come and be our husband and we shall be his wife.
 
Jesus isn't looking to snatch a defeated, groveling, anemic and sickly Bride that is about to be overcome by the powers of darkness out of this world and save her just in time. He is looking for a Bride who has put off her glory to share in His glory, one who no longer depends on her prowess and ability to get by in life and to fight off the enemy, but one who has put her full trust in His abundant supply and His Divine protection. He is looking for a Bride who has "put off the raiment of her captivity and has been arrayed in His righteousness...one that remains firmly trenched in the Church that He said He would build that He might bring forth His Kingdom in power. He is looking for a Bride who is weaned from the most powerful influences of the past life so that she can become conformed to Him in all things. Lord, hasten the day when the Bridegroom may come and be a husband to the Bride and she might be Thy wife.