Repentance of a Bride

Fridays have become my day for doing the 'social media' thing. I look at my Face Book page and what friends are saying on Face Book and I visit my friends in the blog communities to which I belong. I take the time to read, digest, learn, discuss and comment. Today as I was reading various blog posts, all so uplifting and encouraging to those seeking Christ, I kept on checking with Him the topic for my own blog post today. I didn't want to write about the topic pressed on my heart...I wanted something else to write about...but time and again He confirmed my topic - repentance.

The problem with this topic is that when we talk about repentance, we almost automatically link it with judgement and condemnation. It signals the message that we have done something wrong for which we are now being reprimanded and to be honest, people don't like that. We want to hear love and mercy and grace and all the up-lifting 'feel-good' messages from God. Life is tough enough and we are being judged enough by everyone around, aren't we?

Yet, the truth is that to reap the peace and joy and life and love and all the other good blessings mentioned in the Bible, we need to go through a specific door...Jesus Christ. And if we can play around with this imagery, there is a doormat on which we need to wipe our feet as we enter through the 'Door' and that doormat is called 'repentance'.

"True repentance involves a change of mind. The mind that was hostile to God and His commands is now changed into a position of agreement with God...thus true repentance...causes a turning away from sin and an earnest desire to please God and obey His commands."

(From Bride Adorned)

Dear friend, as the beloved of Christ, we have received from Him the Holy Spirit to help us grow into the bride of Revelation 19 - a bride who is ready to meet her Groom. All the fullness of Christ, every spiritual blessing in Christ are bestowed on us...we are crowned with glory and beauty.

But here is the key...all these beautiful promises and blessings are IN Christ. And to be in Christ means that we have come to a place where we willingly abandon our own ways for His ways, our own thinking for His thoughts and therefore we willingly submit to the pruning of the Holy Spirit, to His guidelines.

This is not easy...actually this is something we can and will only do when we have come to a position of agreement with God and His commands and repentance of our own ways. Repentance says...Lord, no more my will but Yours because Your will is good and right. This is a beautiful thing. It is a sweet fragrance to our God. It humbles us, the clay, to be formed by the hand of  the Potter into something of the utmost beauty!

Last year December, my chef of twelve years passed away. Still grieving his death, I have been frantically looking for a new chef these past weeks in time for our first guest to arrive in camp this year. No which way I turned, looking for a new chef, proofed to be successful... until the very last minute when I met up with a lady who was available. Her name...Repent.

From scratch I new (but half ignored) that God was telling me something but, every time I spoke to her, I heard God say, "Repent". During this time I was also reading from the book of Job and because I found it quite hard to understand at times, I also read some commentaries on Job. Well, when the commentary of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown mentioned that Job also comes from an Arabic word meaning 'repentance', I was wide awake. I took the time to pray to God and ask Him in earnest what it was that He wanted me to repent from. When the revelation came, I was in tears and prostrated myself before Him. It was painful to acknowledge the sin God was pointing out to me, but God did not want to judge or condemn me, He wanted to purify, sanctify and redeem me from this thing.

I cannot tell you how relieved and 'light' I felt when God and I had dealt with this thing and I have repented of it and asked His help to renounce and fight it in my life. I not only felt clean, I felt like a bride, loved and in love with the most awesome Grooms of all.

This is the beauty of repentance.

What is God asking you to repent from today?

May each one of us be always willing to repent before our God and Groom and be made a most beautiful bride in His sight!

Until next week, God bless
Lize

Bride clothed with strength

"Awake, awake, O Zion, clothe yourself with strength." 

 (Isaiah 52:1) 

Have you ever noticed that living life requires a lot of strength? I bet. We know it all too well. Only this past week I have encountered so many really difficult situations in the lives of people around me and in my own life - loss of a loved one, possible diagnoses of cancer, extreme stress, financial struggles, strained relationships and various other challenges. Yes, life requires strength...but being the bride of Christ requires even more. Why? Because we are called to leave behind our own and old way of living. When we are faced with such difficult situations as I have seen this week, we cannot react in any which way. We cannot deal with them in the same way that the world would...and that requires more than strength...it requires divine strength.


Careful reading of Isaiah 52 gives the bride of Christ several commands. Let's look at them:

1. Awake, awake (v1)
2. Clothe yourself with strength (v1)
3. Put on your garments of splendor (v1)
4. Shake off your dust (v2)
5. Rise up (v2)
6. Sit enthroned (v2)
7. Free yourself from the chains on your neck (v2)
8. Depart, depart, go out from there! (v11)
9. Touch no unclean thing! (v11)
10. Come out from it (v11)
11. Be pure, you who carry the vessels of the LORD (v11)

These commands made such an impression on me! They cut to the bone...they are strong words! They even start with a double and urgent call to wake up...and does not that imply that the bride is fast asleep? Yes. We are fast asleep to the truth of our identity, the power of the Holy Spirit within, the freedom achieved for us and the necessity of being holy and pure and live according to a new way...God's way!


Talking to a dear friend yesterday we both agreed that handling life's challenges according to God's way is hard...it's just not easy. It asks nothing less of us than to crucify self. Giving up anger for love, vindication for forgiveness, fear and anxiety for faith, defeat and despair for courage and hope and bitterness and resentment towards God for meekness before His permissive will is not child's play. Therefore the call...clothe yourself with strength...divine strength that is. And that strength is available to us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and to the extent that we are willing to submit to Him. When facing any challenge in life we are not to faint from it...we are to clothe ourselves with strength and follow our Groom as He guides us in and through the situation.


I can tell you that whatever He asks will be too much for us in our own capacity, it will be in direct contrast with the worldly and fleshly and natural way to handle it and therefore we are commanded to clothe ourselves in His strength and we will be led to victory!


Whatever it costs us, the victory in Christ will be worth it...Christ Himself, the fullness of the Son of God is our portion and our reward!


Furthermore, Isaiah 52 calls on us to know that we know who we are and to own and live and move in that identity!! Look at these commands - put on your garments of splendor, rise up, sit enthroned...you who carry the vessels of the LORD! When I arise each morning, how do I enter the day? Will it make a difference if I go into my day with the sure knowledge that I am a royal bride, a child of the Most High? Will it cause me to rise up in my identity and face any situation the day may offer, knowing that I have an Almighty Father and Groom whose love and power and provision will not fail me? Yes! Therefore the call...awake, awake to your identity!! Know who you are...know whose you are!


And then dear friend, shake off the dust, free yourself from the chains and come out, depart. Whatever makes up your dust and chains...whatever attitude, addiction, habit, behavior and mindset...FREE YOURSELF. The chains were already broken by Christ...now you free yourself and come out. Depart immediately from where you are. Don't touch the unclean thing whether it is anger, unforgiveness, laziness, fear, worry, sexual immorality, foul language, slander...come out and be pure. Don't hesitate, don't tolerate.


In my own life, when facing a difficult situation I find that my thoughts are my biggest enemy...yet whenever I wake up and realize that I am brooding on the negative, I tell myself: "Stop. I have given this thing to the Lord, I will not tolerate any further negative 'mind-discussion.'" I then deliberately fill my mind with what is good and lovely, with thoughts of my Lord or with song of praise. I depart and come out and refuse to touch that unclean thing!


Isaiah 52 speaks to those who 'carry the vessels of the LORD'. In the Old Testament, the priests carried the vessels of the LORD  but now, we are the vessels of the LORD the Holy Spirit. Isaiah 52 is our wake-up call :-).


Therefore O bride of Christ, let us not sit in the dust or stay bound in chains that Christ has broken, but let us wake up and clothe ourselves with strength! Oh the joy that is ours in Christ!! It's worth it dear brother and sister!!


God bless until next week
Lize

Bride Adorned Launched!

Saturday 8 March 2014 saw the official launch of my book "Bride Adorned".  Not only was this a day of celebration...it was a day of all things bridal...it was a royal wedding. As our guests received a royal invitation, each one of us has received an invitation to the Wedding of the Lamb. I do not want to miss that marvelous day when we are united with our heavenly Groom. I want to be the bride of Revelation 19:7 "For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready."

The event started with Pastor Leon Erasmus giving the call: "Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!" (Matthew 25:6)

In her embroidered garments, the all-glorious bride is brought to her bridegroom. Christ is our joy-filled Groom who paid the highest price on a cross to present us to Himself as a radiant and pure bride.

 

 

"...I put a ring on your finger...and a beautiful crown on your head. Thus you were adorned with gold and silver..." (Ezekiel 16, ESV) Christ crowns you and me with His love and dresses us in His righteousness. We are a bride adorned for Him!

  

 

Praise dance to the music of "We are crowned with beauty"

 

"They are led in with joy and gladness; they enter the palace of the king." (Psalm 45:15) This is the sure expectation of every person who comes to Christ - to be accepted into His heavenly Kingdom and share the utmost of intimacy with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is the end destination of our journey!

 "The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face..." (Revelation 22:3-4)



 "How my heart yearns within me! Oh what joy it will be to know God the Father and Jesus Christ in this way!"  

(Bride Adorned)

 After this most beautiful and spectacular portrayal of the wedding of the Lamb to come, myself and various other speakers painted glimpses of what the readers can expect from the book "Bride Adorned". Explaining that the book explores our identity, journey, realities, challenges as well as purpose and meaning of being the bride of Christ, I set out to demonstrate what we can expect on our journey...

"Though the outcome of our journey is secure in Christ, the road we travel on, leading through the realities of our everyday lives, is not an easy one. As we know all too well, it is not without its pitfalls and dangers, not without pain or hurt, disappointments and doubts."

(Bride Adorned)

 

Using Scriptures from Jeremiah 2:2, Song of Songs 8:5 and Isaiah 61, I explained that there is only one way to survive the desert and wilderness experiences of life...following our Groom through the 'land not sown' (Jeremiah) and leaning on our Lover (Song of Songs). Following and leaning says something of our Groom - He is right there with us to follow and to lean on!! He has not forsaken us. But following and leaning upon Him asks trust and faith from us. Without trust and faith in Christ, we will perish in the wilderness. But should we put our trust in the One who was anointed and sent to bind up the brokenhearted, to set the captives free, to comfort those who morn and give a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair (Isaiah), we will find that He is faithful and in Him we are more than overcomers! We are filled with strength and peace and joy irrespective of our circumstances. Yet, living in the truth of our identity as the bride of Christ and finding healing and restoration in His love is still not the epitome of being the bride...

John 7 gives the promise that whoever believes in Christ, streams of living water will flow from within him...that is the Holy Spirit. And in Isaiah 41 God promises that He will make rivers flow on barren heights and that He will turn the desert into pools of water...This is manifested when we, filled with the Holy Spirit, share His love with those in need, those who hunger for the truth, those who mourn... As God pours into us, we spill over and pour into others' lives...and the desert becomes a place of life and growth.

 

This is the essence of being a bride adorned...this is our challenge!

This is also why I have chosen to dedicate my book to Sylvia Mashego. Sylvia sometimes helps me when I have a camp full of clients. She lives in Acornhoek in the poverty stricken Limpopo province of South Africa. When she was still young, she gave her heart to Christ. Though her family was hugely upset, she persevered in her new-found relationship with Christ. Trust in her new King and persistent prayer saw her mom and sister turn their backs on the practice of witchcraft and accepting Christ as their Saviour. Wherever Sylvia goes, she prays, loves and testifies of the love of God that there is for us in Christ. Sylvia is a most radiant bride of Christ! At the launch of my book, this remarkable woman fearlessly and joyfully gave her testimony and called us to trust and love our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

 


I want to thank my Lord and King for the awesome journey and privilege to write "Bride Adorned". The message is one which I myself need to  always treasure in my heart and one that I pray will strengthen and encourage others to draw close to Him and, in that place of love and intimacy, find LIFE!


Click on the links at the top of my blog to buy either the printed copy or the E-book version of 'Bride Adorned'.

God bless until next week.
Lize

Bride at work

"Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, 'Come along now and sit down to eat'? Would he not rather say, 'Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink'? Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.'" (Luke 17:7-10) 

The launch of my book "Bride Adorned" on Saturday 8 March, has come and gone and I have had very little time to sit down and reflect on not only the day itself, but the whole journey of this book. I went to church on Sunday to savor again the beautifully decorated church...the drapes and flowers, the purples, gold and white depicting not only a wedding scenario but also the majesty of our King and His heavenly Kingdom. That was the last chance.

Coming home after church on Sunday, there was some cleaning up to do, lunch to cook and serve and preparations to make for a precious boy that was going to stay with us for a couple of weeks. Sunday afternoon brought the news of clients arriving end of week and the realization of so much work to be done around camp in preparation for their visit...not forgetting the cleaning up of the church on Monday, the monthly Value Added Tax to be handed in, the normal school and kid's activities...

My heart found a moment to ask, "Lord, could I not have a little breathing time, just a day or two?" I also remembered a similar question the week before the launch. It was one of the hottest and most humid weeks ever in Hoedspruit. Working day after day in the church to get everything ready was challenging and left us wet and sticky! One afternoon after the others have left, I found myself on my knees washing the carpet where the pots we brought in had left mud marks. Sweat was dripping from my forehead and my knuckles were bruised. Again I had a quick moment with God: "Lord, I just wanted to pen down the message You gave me...I just wanted to write a book and here I am, washing carpets on a most hot and humid day!"

Looking back now on the two years since I started to write the book, there has been an incredible amount of very hard work! I am sure every person who has written a book can testify that it entails millions more than you can ever imagine! Many lonesome hours, stolen hours, tired hours, tearful hours. Lots of moments when you want to give it all up, when all the odds are against you, when everybody tells you how impossible this venture is and when the demands put on you from all sides of life which did not come to a halt when you decided to write a book, leave you utterly exhausted!

My complete wish and dream was that when I finally put the last dot to the last page, that someone would come and take the book from me and do what needs to be done further. I would sit back, job done and dusted. Haha, it did not work out that way...almost never does! While writing a book is one thing, publishing a book is a complete different thing! And it is a vulnerable place to be! You now have to clinically sell your heart's writing to someone. Convince them that it will bring in the money, that it will be their worth while, that it will do better that all the other books on the market. Yes, the publishing world is as brutal as this. The writer's work is still not done and so you continue on.

Then one day, you find yourself with a book in hand and you are delighted and you think, "Ah, now I can sit back...work well done." But no! The people out there must be made aware of your book! I have the incredible privilege of a small and encouraging town and a great church family that embraced me and helped me put together a beautiful event for the launch of my book. It would take the shape of a wedding...and yes, a wedding also takes a lot of hard work and the help of a lot of people, and cleaning up afterwards!

When I read the above Scripture from Luke yesterday, I was reminded of this great truth...

we are a bride at work.

And rightly so! We are to live our lives, do our physical daily tasks as if for the Lord and all the while, we also have some spiritual work to do...good works that He has prepared for us in advance!

I want to remind us of Ruth and Esther...and the bride in Revelation. We have such romantic ideas about Ruth and Esther and a bride. But careful reading of Ruth and Esther will reveal that they had a tough time before they became the 'brides'. Ruth had to glean from the morning till the evening day after day. Esther had to enter a palace not knowing whether she would end up in the harem, forgotten and robbed of freedom and life. When they had found favor in the eyes of their husbands-to-be, their work was still not done. Ruth had to ask Boaz to put his garment over her. She had to put herself out there. Esther's work did not stop when she became queen...it had only begun. She had to put her life out there and she did not plead for her people once, but over and over and she had to work with Mordecai, writing letters and giving out decree's. In the same way, in Revelation 22 which is the last chapter of the Bible, we read these words:

"The Spirit and the bride say, 'Come!'"

A bride at work with the Spirit of God.

And so we find ourselves hard at work there where we have been placed, washing carpets, doing our daily jobs and all the time being a vessel, a body, a temple for the Holy Spirit doing His work through us! What a joy, a thrill and a privilege to work with God!

May you all be strengthened and blessed to be hard at work right where God has placed His precious bride!!

Our reward is in heaven.

God bless until I am back with all the photo's of a most amazing day!

Lize