Question about whether or not God has a Will for your life..

[jlay]

Because the Church is Christ's Bride and Body, how and where then does the Church fit into all this if only Israel is still His chosen people (I know that the covenants and blessings promised to Abraham apply only to Israel, but if Israel alone is chosen then does Israel have a kind of preeminence over the Church based solely on that, or are they both counted as equal?). Does the new covenant superceed the old ones?

Since this is about whether God has a will for our lives, I think this is a topical question.

What is the difference between the church (the bride/ the body of Christ) and Israel?

Actually the covenant promised to Abraham does affect the gentiles. As God said,
Genesis 22:18 and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me."
Genesis 26:4 I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed,

This covenant foresaw the specific covenant with Israel, but also how all nations will be blessed through Israel, as the Messiah would come through Israel.

God had a plan through Israel. That plan was essentially still in effect through the day of Pentecost, as this was still all Jewish followers, and those converted were identified as Jews of the dispersion. Something happened with the Jewish program. Why? Well, Israel refused to repent and receive the Messiah. The coming of the Messiah had two purposes. To usher in the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, through Israel. Through this Israel would be the city on the hill that would draw all men to Christ. And thus the 2nd part would be Christ revealed as savior to the world for those who would believe.
The problem. Well, Israel rejected this plan. And so God put that plan on pause. And thus we have the church, the body of Christ. Read Romans 10 and 11, just for starters.
Paul certainly didn't view them as the same except in the sense of individual salvation.

[DannyM]

J,

I see that it looks like I am putting words in Gab's mouth. I did not mean to do this. I'll come back to the rest later. In the meantime I prostrate myself before you and Gab for my carelessness.

[RickD]

Danny, this is a good read as well.http://www.gotquestions.org/prosperity-gospel.html

[DannyM]

Danny, I didn't mean to imply that you aren't a "real" Danny when I didn't use CAPS in you're name here:

danny, this link gives an overview of the word-faith movement. Another similar movement is the "prosperity gospel" or, "name-it-and-claim-it gospel"http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/word-faith.html

It was just a typo on my part.

Very clever my man. I had to think about that one for a minute until it dawned on me...

Thanks for the links, Rick. I'm a bit all over the place at the moment, but do intend to get back and catch up on this one and get into it.