FASTING DAY 1 - River of Life "IT IS REALLY ABOUT THE HEART"

Why do we fast? To make our heart & life ready.

MATT 25:1-13 " BE READY"

The Parable of the Ten Virgins

There is a real meaning to this parable.

It was to be READY. To have our heart READY. & to long for the Son to come & to love the Son. The Christian is the bride & Jesus is the bridegroom.

Jesus was from Galilee. A wedding was a big thing with many traditions there. The very first act in the wedding tradition there was...

The Father of the bridegroom would send the bridegroom to go & get his bride. She was to be READY to come to his the fathers house. The bridegroom would have build a room for her there, to live with him.

Normally this would all start in middle of the night. (like a thief in the night) weddings were long drawn out affairs. Only the father could start the wedding & so take the bride away from her father's house.

The whole town in fact would be READY. The bridegroom would let everyone know what he was doing, as walking across the town to his brides house. The town people would rise & follow him. (They all knew it was going to happen just "not the day or hour. No one would know the hour but for the Father, not even the Son.")

No one but the father knew when the bridegroom would call the wedding to start.... for the son to come & take the bride from the house of her father.

So the bride needed oil to be READY to go out in the middle of the night. To not have oil & not be READY was disrespectful to the father of the bridegroom. You were not prepare to go when I called you, when I sent my son for you? So if you could not do this one little thing, & have oil. The father would wonder if you would be a good wife to his son, the Bridegroom. & by law the father could & certainly would stop the wedding & cancel the marriage. Only a foolish woman about to be married would not have oil.

Of course, Jesus was saying the Father in heaven was going to sending Jesus the bridegroom of the heaven back for the church... We know it as the rapture, & we are to be READY. (I will speak on the rapture on Sunday.)

We are to be READY.... For the coming of Jesus back for us. The oil speaks of the REALNESS. A right heart that is prepared & READY to go. In fact longing to go. Not just waiting but prepared to go. Not just with a "let see attitude". But a longing for the moment to come to meet the Son, the Bridegroom in person. & go to the place Jesus has prepared for us in His Father's house.

As we enter into this 14 days of prayer. May

Fasting helps us prepare. To have our oil READY. Our heart longing for our coming Bridegroom to come & take us away in the rapture. To be with him in a place He is preparing for us right now!

Prayer:

Father God over the next 14 days bring me into a deeper & more profound READYNESS of longing & love for Jesus. Make me more prepared to serve Jesus now & excited at being taken to be with Him in person. In the place He has prepared for me in your house... heaven. ...AMEN

Pastor Thom Burke