In the Fire, Not the Smoke

Wenatchee Canyon Fire, Photographer unknown

Acts 2:19-21 New International Version (NIV)

19 I will show wonders in the heavens above

    and signs on the earth below,

    blood and fire and billows of smoke.

20 The sun will be turned to darkness

    and the moon to blood

    before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.

21 And everyone who calls

    on the name of the Lord will be saved.’[a]

The sky was hazy overhead as we left church this morning and there remains a red moon above.  Smoke from wildfires (not the fire pictured) north of us have altered what was expected to be a bright and sunny day.  The air quality is bad and our normal sea breezes aren't enough to dissipate the smoke.  So this Scripture from Acts and these Leonard Ravenhill quotes seem especially appropriate for this Fifth of July.  It is far better to live in the fire of God's moral authority than in the smoke of cultural tolerance; for it is there that the church, the bride of Christ, is being made ready.

Ephesians 5:27 English Standard Version (ESV)

27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.[a]

Pure Bride - Leeland 

Here Comes The Bride

Revelation 19:7 New International Version (NIV)

7 Let us rejoice and be glad

    and give him glory!

For the wedding of the Lamb has come,

    and his bride has made herself ready.

I wore a full blown wedding veil when I was a bride.  I wanted my face covered when I walked the aisle as a screen for my shyness and because I just thought they were pretty.  I still think they're pretty.  Unfortunately I forgot to explain the tradition of the veil to my groom.  He lifted it for the kiss than proceeded to cover me back up again.  I had to throw it back myself at that point.  Oh well, we got through it.

Some years later I found an old wedding veil in a garage sale and purchased it to use in the dress-up closet at the church's kindergarten class.  On an impulse I threw it over my head and asked my then young son, "Does Mommy look pretty?"

"You have a force field!" he answered, having seen too many space cartoons for an impressionable, imaginative boy.  Sigh. The men in my life just don't get it.   

Will I feel like a bride when I enter Heaven?  I hope so, even though I know the church as a whole will be the bride of Christ.  I would still like to meet my Lord with an unveiled face knowing He finds me beautiful, as one made pure by His atoning sacrifice.  Until that day, I must make myself ready. 

Pure Bride - Leeland