An Addition To Your Cup Of Joy This Christmas!

Fourteen days until Christmas Day - and my goal to finish this reading of God's Word - the Bible - before Christmas Day is 11 pages from completion!  Happy day!


I started the book of Revelation just yesterday, and today, James shared a video with me, which gave wonderful insights on the Last Supper Jesus celebrated with His disciples, just before going to the cross.  These insights shed significant light on the return of the Lord Jesus.  They were so special to me (some of them new insights; some not, but wonderful reminders) that I wanted to record them.

During the last Passover supper before the cross, Jesus is sitting at the table with His disciples and picks up what scholars believe was known as the Third Cup, called the Cup of Salvation.  Traditionally, Jews would not actually drink of that Cup; they would pour it, but would then just set it aside - because they believed their Salvation had not yet come.  But Jesus did something that would have been considered outrageous by most Jews of that day.  Jesus offers it to them, saying, "Take and drink it."  It was outrageous because 1) Jesus was declaring that the Messiah is, indeed, here, and 2) because of the marriage customs of that day, it was as if Jesus was saying to those disciples, "Will you marry me?!"

In that day and time, when a Jewish guy wanted to marry a particular girl, he told his father of his interest and desire, and his father would offer her father a bride-price.  At first glance, coming from our own culture, we don't see the romance.  But it's there!  Basically, the young man was purchasing - NOT the woman - but he was buying an opportunity to ASK the girl to marry him.  He could not even ASK her without this arrangement being made.  When the bride-price is arranged and agreed upon, the families are called together, and before the families, the proposed groom pours a cup of wine and gives it to his chosen bride, saying, "This is my covenent with you; take it and drink."    She has a choice, at that point - to drink, or not to drink.

If she drinks from the cup, she is accepting him as her groom - the equivalent of saying, "I do!"  The groom then leaves her, and does not see her for several months, up to a year.  During this time, they do not actually see one another at all, but the groom's "best man" delivers messages back and forth.  She goes back home to prepare herself and to expectantly wait for her groom.  Her intended, however, has work to do, a mission to accomplish!

The groom now goes back to his Father's house, to prepare a dwelling place for his bride.  This word, "mansions" found in the KJV, is better translated as "rooms..." as we think of an apartment.  It is not a separate house, but is within the Father's house (an add-on, as it were).  The groom would build it, but it was the Father who pronounced it complete.  When the father gave the word that the dwelling place was finished and ready for occupancy, he told his son, the groom, and the son would gather his groomsmen.  They would blow the shofars, announcing their coming, and, together, go get the bride.  The bride would hear the sound of the horn, and come out to meet her groom.  What an exciting day!

All of those Jewish traditions and customs were in the mind of those Jewish men as they heard Jesus say, "Drink!"  Once you have those insights, it's easy to see the parralel.  Once we, as a Believer, say "I do" to the Lord Jesus, we become His Bride.  He says to us, "In My Father's house are many mansions (rooms)... I go to prepare a place for you!  And if I go...I will come again to receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there you may be also!"  We're also told that no man knows the day nor the hour of His return - not even Jesus, the groom!  Only the Father knows!  And when the preparations are complete, the Father will tell the Son to go get His Bride!  In the interim, the Holy Spirit is the messenger, through Whom we have intimate communication and fellowship with the Lord - Jesus Christ - until one day the trumpet will sound and the dead in Christ will rise first, and those Believers on earth will then rise to go meet Him in the air - and so shall we ever be with the Lord!  Even so, come Lord Jesus!

All of these wonderful, Bible truths are what made it possible for me to place a wreath on my parent's graves just last weekend - a wreath that said, "JOY!"  Truly, there is deep down, heart joy for the Believer, even at the grave site of another Believer ... because they know that one sure day that trumpet will sound, that grave will open, that loved one will rise, and we'll all be together with the Lord Jesus for all of eternity.  What a day that will be!

"There is coming a day,
When no heart aches shall come,
No more clouds in the sky,
No more tears to dim the eye,
All is peace forever more,
On that happy golden shore,
What a day, glorious day that will be!

"There'll be no sorrow there,
No more burdens to bear,
No more sickness, no pain,
No more parting over there;
And forever I will be,
With the One who died for me,
What a day, glorious day that will be.

"What a day that will be,
When my Jesus I shall see,
And I look upon His face,
The One who saved me by His grace;
When He takes me by the hand,
And leads me through the Promised Land,
What a day, glorious day that will be!"

"I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?
"The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
"Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain!"
(1 Corinthians 15:50-58 ESV)

This ought to add significantly to your cup of JOY as you celebrate the birthday of our King!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!