Is the Bride preparing herself or will she get cold feet?

To my GLP Brothers and Sisters,

Grace and peace from God the Father and Our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all!

I'm positive that I cannot be the only one that is currently experiencing a spiritual detoxification process of the most grueling and trying variety. The Holy Spirit has begun convicting me, quite rapidly, of MANY MANY sins I've held onto for so long. Anger, bitterness, malice, greed, envy, jealous, dissensions, sexual immorality and lying..just to name a few. I suppose you might say that I am finding myself at a point in my life where I "hunger and thirst for righteousness".

Now, how many of you have ever felt like this;

"We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me."

There are so many things like bridling the tongue and avoiding lust and sexual immorality that seem almost impossible due to extensive and aggressive programming that we have all fallen victim to throughout our lives. Some extreme religious communities (think Amish and Mennonites, etc) decided they needed to completely remove themselves from the corruption of society in order to guard themselves from the onslaught of attack by the enemy, who roams about like a lion looking to devour. However, for many of us, this cultural disassociation is very VERY difficult. I for one have gone from church to church to church looking for communities and groups of like-minded people and yet time and time again I'm met with blatant hypocrisy and prideful zealousness.

We are supposed to love our neighbors (EVERYONE we share our land with, not just our next door neighbors!) as well as ourselves AND THEN we are even to LOVE OUR ENEMIES (yes, this means Iran, Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea AND muslims, jewish people, hindus, buddhists, atheists, pagans, satanists, 'illuminati', socialists, communists and whatever group we want to label as 'evil' and 'enemies') God does not hate ANYONE, He merely hates their sin. People are not our enemy, SIN is our enemy and the battle is not even ours, it is GODS and He already has the victory! We are not supposed to judge people, for the measure with which we judge others our Father will use to judge us. We are not supposed to throw stones, for not one of us is without sin. We are supposed to SELL OUR POSSESSIONS AND GIVE THEM TO THE POOR. We are supposed to fight for the cause of the fatherless and the widows and the orphans and this doesn't mean a bi-weekly food pantry with rigorous interview processes and applications. We are not to question whether we should give or to whom we should give or how much we should give but rather we should give to ALL just as our Father gives to ALL.

You might say "well, I love Jesus Christ and I believe He died for my sins and that He will forgive me and I'll go to heaven anyway if I just believe Him and call His name!" Well truly I tell you that if you merely offer Him lip-service and make empty promises you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. He says, "If you love me, then keep my commandments." How many Churchians do you know that keep his commandments? Makes you understand why He says wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to death and destruction but small is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to everlasting life. Why do you think He refers to true believers as THE REMNANT. We must be preparing ourselves and preparing the Church which is the Bride. How embarrassing would it be if Christ came back and His Bride was unprepared..OR IF SHE GOT COLD FEET! :(