Fighting for Our Best 2 – Battle for the Bride
‘For Zion’s sake, I shall not be silent, for Jerusalem’s sake, I will not remain quiet, until her righteousness shines forth like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch.’ (IS. 62: 1)
This Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent. During the next forty days, Jesus invites us to join Him in the desert; as He was led by the Father into the severe beauty of solitude (Mark 1:12), so we too can descend into prayer and listen.
Such intimacy prepares us for the Cross. As Lent becomes Holy Week 2013, might we wait longer with Him on Good Friday, and so rejoice more fully with Him on Easter Sunday?
Lent is a time of reduction. We pare down the extras in our life; we turn down the noise of a thousand voices in order to hear the One. Hopefully our downward turn will result in hunger for the only One who can truly give us Life. We die a little in order to live more fully for the Risen One.
He has already made holy the desert for us. Yet the path He cleared does not exempt us from its hardship. The little crosses of Lent have power to open our ears and liberate our wills to obey Him more authentically than ever before.
This year, we at Desert Stream shall pray especially for the Church and for our readiness to do our part to make her ‘salvation shine like a blazing torch.’ We need more of the Bridegroom in order to love His beautiful, broken Bride. Each week during Lent we shall consider Jesus’ affirming yet challenging call to the 7 churches in Revelation. We shall pray along with His call to each of them weekly: I shall post a small devotional every Thursday to help us know and share His heart for our own churches.
Then each Monday during Lent, I shall post a brief meditation on the link between the Church’s clear witness of salvation and our call to stand for marriage. Only the Church has the anointing, the authority, and the mandate from Jesus Himself to champion the truth of one man committed to one woman for the sake of the children they bear; today we the Bride must be roused to do so as never before.
On Holy Week 2013—March 26th and 27th–the Supreme Court of the USA will hear the two cases which shall determine how marriage will be defined in our country. The hour is urgent! Watch and pray!
St. Edith Stein wrote: ‘The more an era is engulfed in the night of sin and estrangement from God, the more it needs souls united to God…The greatest figures of prophecy and sanctity step forth out of the darkest night.’
More than ever, we must be prayerful and united in one voice as we beseech God to uphold marriage: the one relationship that St. Paul defines as the living witness of Jesus’ loving initiative towards us, His bride (Eph. 5: 23-33).
Might we pull away this Lent and seek Him in earnest for both marriage and the Bride who is making herself ready for Him? Bless you dear friends, as you consider His invitation to you this Lent. I hope that includes some prayer time with us at Desert Stream Ministries!
‘Therefore, I am now going to allure you; I will lead you into the desert, and speak tenderly to you…I will betroth you to Me forever, I will betroth you in in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord.’ (Hosea 2: 14, 19, 20)
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