I believe that a little known fact is that the Bride Of Christ is part of the Body of Christ, but being part of the Body of Christ doesn't necessarily qualify you as the Bride.
The Body of Christ is not bound by the same parameters, judgment is a thing that we do out of boredom.
Just today on my bus (I drive a special needs bus) I overheard (Started that way and then it became eavesdropping- didn't get the whole, just the gist) two seniors (citizens...) talking about- (senior citizens) talking about getting together for some fellowship.
They went to different churches and were of separate cultures (one of them is old school racial thought processes, but good at heart) and the one gal suggested that they could go to a senior center (_ nah, you prolly got that one) and eat lunch and play bingo.
The okey said that her church didn't allow gambling and they would have to find somewhere else to meet.
I told her that it was hardly gambling as the prizes were useful things that you were going to have to buy anyway, ie- toilet paper, tooth paste, etc...
I am more convinced all the time that the old, established church spent more time telling people what not to do because;

A) They needed to feel the extent of their control and don't are easier to list than do's
B) They had to clean up the mess left behind by someone who had no discernment and they thought that the preemptive NO! would be the most efficient way of dealing with matters that they didn't want to work through with anyone.
C) The easiest way to pressure someone is to tell them that they will be excluded if they don't comply. This is also an effective means of evangelizing. Tell someone that only certain people "get it" -it's not for everyone.

I remember how ridiculous the whole "no dancing" thing was when I was in high school.
(me) "So Mom, what's wrong with dancing anyway?"
(Mom) " I've heard what happens on those dance floors."
(me) "Don't you think that if that was what we had in mind we would tell you we were going to the dance and go do that instead?"

There have been doers and don'ters since Peter came back from Cornelius house. "They don't fit the mold that I'm struggling to fit!"
Either we are free from sin and it has no hold over us or we are in bondage to it like we were before Jesus made the grand gesture to try to convince us that He was serious and we could be in fellowship with His daddy.
If you get it, if you are one of the chosen Welcome Home!!!

I've been thinking about what the Gospel really is. What Jesus meant when He said that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Was He just saying that He paid the price of admission to give us access to an alternative to eternal discomfort? Was it about living a life of rigid adherence to a set of rules that don't come across particularly relevant in our culture? Was His life and death to empower us in that goal? Was it about making up for our short comings?
I talked with a girl one time who didn't wan to see the movie, "The Passion Of The Christ" (Mel Gibson)because in her estimation it was about Jesus coming to rescue a pathetic people. She wanted to make her unsaved mother watch a different version with a "happy Jesus." For her, the story of Jesus as she would present it was that Jesus was happy and he made people happy.
And there are the hard liners that say that He died because God can't look on sin and wants to redeem his creation so that they can hang out for eternity and well, we're never quite sure what's next.
I have come to the conclusion that Jesus meant that our entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand. Or perhaps that the Kingdom of Heaven was about to be established in the earth.
If the latter is true I would say that we have lost the keys to unlock it and Garmin doesn't have a clue how to find the location. If the former is the truth then we have something to share with others.
I tend to believe that perhaps both of these statements are true.
There is evidence that all of the miracles Jesus did are within our grasp. Even Jesus said that greater miracles than He did would be done at our hand. Walk on water, levitate (the pinnacle, walking on water really), loaves and fishes multiplied.
I will go so far as to submit that the 90% of our brain that we don't use begins to be healed and reawakened, re-tooled, reactivated to do and be what the first Adam was in Eden. And Jesus death was to make room (so to speak) for us to step into authority to wield the power that He made available to us.
I've got to think about this.
I believe that Jesus died to allow us to be able to have fellowship with the Father. And then we were told that since Jesus did this, we are told to pray to the Father in the name of the Son as it was that he acquired this for us, this power and authority.
I just have to meditate. Workin' at it-