Sunday, January 11, 2009

Coming to get His bride

This morning in church, at the end of the service, I had a word from God that I believe He instructed me to share. This doesn't happen that often to me, and when it does, I feel so nervous I think I'm going to throw up. Today's was so clear, so vivid, that I knew I had to obey.
The song we were planning to end the service was "So You Would Come". Part of the text says,

"Come to the Father/ though your gift is small
Broken hearts, broken lives/ He will take them all
The power of the word, the power of His blood
Everything was done so you would come."

The message came to me full-blown and clear. Yesterday was Jenny's wedding. When she came into the church, she walked alone. Most women are walked down the aisle by their daddies, or maybe their moms or grandmas or brothers if their dad is not around. Jenny, as some of you may know, had a pretty un-traditional childhood, and didn't have a very strong Daddy figure to rely on. (This, by the way, is so foreign to me - thankfully - that it was hard to get my head around. I have the best Daddy in the world.) So, in any case, Jenny walked halfway down the aisle on her own, and then Josh (her new husband) met her and brought her the rest of the way to the altar.
So the message God gave me: Sometimes in our lives, their are people around us that are strong enough to carry us to the foot of the cross when we are broken. They'll ignore our mess, see our need for a Savior, and just bring us there. But sometimes, people don't have anyone like that. They are, in the truest sense of the word, alone. It's at times like this that Jesus comes to us and carries us to the foot of the cross. He walks down the aisle to where we are and carries His Bride home. There's nothing we can do to earn this blessing. There's nothing so bad that we've done that could make Him NOT pursue us. All we have to do is accept it with thanksgiving. (Pretty easy, huh?)
Anyway...I had to share. It was one of the most powerful words God's ever given me, and I'm thankful He used such a visual picture of the redemption He shows us. If you haven't read or studied the book of Hosea in the Old Testament, it's pretty incredible. Another recommended read, which is an allegorical novel of the book of Hosea is Redeeming Love.
Thanks for letting me share with you.

6 comments:

nanajobx said...

it was amzing and the power was evident when so many came forward for ministy.

Jen said...

thank you for sharing that gretchen!

Melody Strayer said...

Beautiful.

ctf said...

Soooo good. Thanks Gretchen.

vibrantbutterfly said...

Redeeming Love is an amazing book. God healed me several times over through that book. God is so good. :)

Anonymous said...

Wow. Incredibly strong image.