Tag Archive for Christ and His Bride

Our Joining

A prayer response to Revelation 21:1-4,
the holy city and the new creation

O Father, the new creation!
How we long for it!
All the root of sin and
all the fruit of sin
will be gone
completely and forever.

But surely the crown of the new creation
will be the crown of the first creation:
Your people,
made in Your own image,
breath of Your own breath,
life of Your own life.
We who were once
stained by sin,
bound by death,
rebellious,
far away and
unfaithful,
will be the pure and glorious bride of
Your own dear Son.
As His bride, we will not arise from the earth but will
descend from heaven itself,
perfectly prepared and
beautifully adorned
by You.

In Jesus Christ, Your holy and loving Son, we will be
lovingly,
intimately joined with You
in perfect, constant, eternal union,
with all trace of separation gone forever.
One with You, Father.
One in Your Son, Jesus Christ.

O Lord, how we long for His return!
How we yearn for our joining!

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Christ and His Bride
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

from Prepare Yourself for Worship

Prepare for All Saints Day

Father, thank You for uniting us with Jesus, Your holy Son.
In Him, we are one with You
through the Spirit we share.
And as we are all one with Jesus,
we are one with each other as well.
We are one in Him with all God’s children of every
language,
culture, and
personality, of
every time and place.
By being one with Him in the Spirit,
we all become one in Him with each other.
Our oneness
with You and
with every other believer
is in Jesus Christ.

All this is Your doing, loving Father, and
we praise You!
We are in the early stages of this wonderful unity, and
we are just beginning to understand what it will mean.
We are warmed as Jesus speaks of us so glowingly as
His friends,
His family,
His body, and
His bride.
It seems that no one image can fully express His desire
for all of us to be together in Him
in the fullest possible sense.

Father of all,
help us to grow in this marvelous and mysterious unity.
We know it is Your loving desire for
each of us and
all of us,
so it is our desire as well.
More and more one in Christ,
and in Him,
more and more one with each other –
that is our prayer, Father.
One with You. 

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Christ and His Bride
Recording
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The Christ of All Saints Day

from A Christ-centered Year,
free seasonal readings from LNWhymns.com

You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building…is growing into a holy temple in the Lord. (Ephesians 2:19-21, NASB)

On All Saints Day, Jesus unites us with all God’s children of all nations and all ages.
He was speaking of us when He said,

“I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.” (John 10:16, NASB)

In His final evening before His arrest, as He talked to His Father, He prayed for us:

“I do not ask on behalf of these [disciples] alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.” (John 17:20-21, NASB)

He longed to make us all one with Himself,
one with the Father, Son, and Spirit.
To express this oneness, He speaks of us and thinks of us as
His friends, His family,
His temple, His body, His bride.
It seems that no one image could fully express His desire to be
together with us in the fullest possible sense.

In Christ, we are united with all believers of every time, every nation,
every language and culture, every situation and personality.
The lives and examples of all who have gone before us
are like a great cloud of witnesses,
watching, encouraging, and cheering us on.
In Jesus Christ we share with them the same Spirit,
the same love, and the same purpose.
Together we are being prepared as the holy, beautiful, glorious bride of Christ.

On All Saints Day, Jesus unites us with all God’s children and
points us toward our shared destiny in Him.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Christ and His Bride
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics