How do you feel about the church? Do you love her as the bride, or do you hate her for all her faults? The church is the bride of Christ, and I have to admit that if you're going to really upset me, you're going to talk smack about my wife. How do you think Christ feels about our conversations about his bride? I do get it - she frustrates me. I have a number of experiences that I've had that area over the top negative. I can identify with other's bad experiences and how they could have so easily been avoided by the bride, but through selfishness or unawareness were not. There is, of course, the fact that I am a part of the bride. That is almost more frustrating because I think, "that's not how I would do it... why would they give the church such a bad name". There are times I see what she does and can't comprehend how she processed the world around us and responded the way she did. I almost feel embarrassed about how our world sees the church.
If someone comes up to me and says, "I want to be friend with you, but not Stephanie (my wife)" My response is, "good bye." Even if we're talking about anything else and their the one to bring up points about here that annoy them. I really don't have time for that person anymore. The points that tear me up the most are when she feels bad and says negative things about herself. She is the only one that I can't legitimately defend her to. It doesn't matter if it factual or not - I hate to hear anyone speak negatively about my bride. If you have something bad to say, focus on yourself.
Can you imagine how Christ must feel? We are his bride, and he gave his life for us to be able to be presented to his father.
Process everything you have said about the church per the last week, month or year and imagine having your in-laws tell your spouse that type of statement about you
Who am I becoming?
No comments:
Post a Comment