Emergent Nazarenes - Latest Comments in She is So Beautiful

Re: She is So Beautiful

Eric+ — Sat, 30 May 2009 11:05:04 -0000

Wasn't it St Augustine who said something to the effect of, "The church may be a whore but she's my mother and I love her"?

Re: She is So Beautiful

Phule77 — Thu, 28 May 2009 18:52:44 -0000

Many people are willing to love Christ, but not to really know Him. True knowledge of a person means living in terms of what offends them and hurts them, or that lights up their life and sastifies them.

If you were actively living a lifestyle that was offensive to your spouse (to be) there likely wouldn't be a marriage in the works for very long.

But...since Christianity is only about salvation so that we can go to heaven, rather than lifestyle, what's the problem?

Re: She is So Beautiful

Paul Sheneman — Wed, 27 May 2009 09:43:17 -0000

I will add my thanks for this description of the Church as bride of Christ.

Jeremy-
Your description of the bride as "a collective whore" took me immediately to Hosea. It hurts to realize that we stand in the place of Gomer more times than not. Yet, I too am amazed at a God whose steadfast love reaches into our lives of unfaithfulness and calls us to be joined with Him.

Re: She is So Beautiful

jtedvoigt — Tue, 26 May 2009 14:20:23 -0000

right on. I love this imagery and I don't think we talk about it nearly enough, so thank you for bringing it up.

I think it's important to remember that though we are the bride of Christ, we are not yet the wife of Christ- that we are in a state of waiting for the bridegroom to come. In that state of waiting, we SHOULD be concerned about how we look, but it should be how we look TO CHRIST, not to everyone else. that would be adultery, as you suggest.

Re: She is So Beautiful

JeremyDScott — Tue, 26 May 2009 13:33:35 -0000

Thanks for the post. I've really come to value the image of the Bride too.

You somewhat alluded to it, but one of the extrapolations of the image is that we, the bride, are a collective whore, but the grace of the bridegroom goes against the notion of the law (both biblical and civil) in returning again and again to the bride, as unfaithful as she (we) may be.

That's love.