My Thoughts on Weddings

Recently, I flew to Hayward, Calif. (in the Bay Area) to perform a wedding ceremony for a younger Christian couple. These delightful individuals met and fell in love while enrolled at Freed-Hardeman University. They also both attended Bethel Springs church of Christ, where I preach on a regular basis. It has been a joy to see their relationship develop and blossom over the past year. 

While I was in California to officiate the wedding, I had some downtime to meditate on marriage and reflect upon the significance of wedding ceremonies in general. In this column, it is my desire to share these thoughts with you. I hope my personal musings are helpful in some way.

Weddings are supposed to be joyous and memorable occasions. They are the long-awaited fulfillment and climactic culmination of many prayers, plans, and oft-difficult and painful personal journeys.

Jesus said, in Matthew 19:4-6, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Marriage ceremonies serve as a special celebration of life itself, of the experience of romantic love. They are a ritual or spiritual rite of passage that recognize and honor familial relationships, meaningful friendships, spiritual connection, religious beliefs and values, and mark the beginning of something brand new—something beautiful and sacred.

At marriage ceremonies, the couple’s families-of-origin and extended family members, dearest friends and colleagues, and communities of faith come together in a unique way, for a special (inimitable) and distinctive purpose. But, most of all, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are present and should be honored as both guest and host, audience and participant. You see: marriage would not be possible without God’s matchless love that he has poured out upon humanity.

Marriage is the one human bond and relationship that most closely reflects God’s own interpersonal connection within the intimate and interdependent relationship of the Trinity—the Godhead Three. In turn, it symbolizes the relationship between Christ and his holy Bride, the Church (Ephesians 5:22-33).

Wedding ceremonies are an unsurpassed avenue—a sacrament if you will—for individuals to share openly together in God’s grace and goodness. They are also an opportunity for those who are already married to reflect upon their own unions, engage in self and couple-evaluation, and recommit themselves to upholding their binding, covenantal vows as they think back to their own wedding day.

For those who are widowed, they can remember the good times and priceless moments they spent with their spouse during the years God gave them together. For those who are still single, they can dream of a momentous day in the future when they will meet, fall in love, get engaged, and ultimately become joined with their future spouse in holy matrimony.

We are reminded by means of wedding ceremonies of the inestimable value of genuine and lasting commitment, the preciousness of relationships, and the sublime beauty of love itself. We are reminded of God’s wonderful gifts, his divine expectations for marriage partners, about the critical importance of faith and fidelity, generosity and kindness, selflessness and sacrifice, truth and honesty, caring and sharing, hoping and dreaming, helping and healing, comforting and caressing, loving and learning, growing and maturing, spirituality and service.

In a surrounding secular culture that is plagued by marital conflict and infidelity, chronic promise-breaking, self-centeredness, devastating divorce and the destabilizing and dismantling of the home and family, Christian marriages needs to stick out. They must be different from marriages in the world. 

Christian marriages ought to demonstrate God’s abiding and unshakeable love. They must shine brightly as a safe lighthouse of spiritual hope, holiness, refuge and peace in a dark, depressing, sinful world.

Depression, Grief and the Holidays

Excited to be Featured on TheologyMix.com

Hi, everyone!

This week, I'm very honored and excited to have my article, "Depression and the Holidays" featured on TheologyMix.com. 

They have just recently launched their brand new website and it looks fantastic. The three grown daughters of a fellow author, John I. Snyder, are the administrators and are very talented at what they do. Please check it out!

And, I want to wish you and your family a very happy Thanksgiving holiday!

Working Together as Christians can be Rewarding

Recently, our congregation was involved in a community service project, called “Community Care.” 

It was a very hands-on type of effort which included such things as cleaning out people’s gutters, fixing exterior doors and windows, replacing fascia boards, pulling weeds, installing shutters, pressure washing home-siding, and a large amount of scraping and painting. It was a lot of hard work, but definitely well worth the effort.

On the Friday, a few of us, primarily retirees, did quite a lot of prep-work to get ready for the big painting job on the Saturday. I’ve got to be honest with you – I was more than a little concerned that we had bitten off more than we could chew. 

If you’ve every tried to scrape loose paint off an older home to prepare a good and paintable surface, then you know from first-hand experience that it’s hard to know when to quit. The more you scrape, the bigger the job seemingly becomes. So I just wasn’t sure that we would have the time and/or manpower to complete the work in time.

But, I’ve got to say—it’s amazing what 35 or more energetic and focused Christians can do when they set their minds to a common task! The sky’s the limit!

We started on our big painting job Saturday morning at around 8:45am, after a hearty breakfast together, which was prepared by some of our sweet ladies in the church fellowship hall. By 11:45am, most of the house had received not only one but two coats. I couldn’t believe my eyes. 

Things went so smoothly, except for when I got stung on my left ear by an aggressive wasp. OUCH! It stung like fire, but a combination of ice and a copper penny did the trick to draw out the bad stuff—though my ear did start to swell up.

We took a break for a delicious taco salad lunch at the noon hour, got back on the jobsite by 1pm and were cleaning our brushes and picking up trash and debris by 3:00pm. It was astounding to me how quickly things went. I really couldn’t believe it. But, then I suppose that the group was able to cumulatively accomplish hundreds of hours of work in a relatively short timeframe. 

That’s how it’s supposed be in the body of Christ, each member doing their part and using their gifts and talents to the glory of God.

Some of the skilled older men from the congregation had helped with setting up scaffolds and accomplishing some of the more technical carpentry work, for which I was grateful. The younger ones, primarily college students put their efforts into the painting dimension of the work and property cleanup.

Working side by side, sharing a unified goal and spiritual purpose between us, and everyone being willing to do their share of the work produced success. Of course, God had provided some wonderful, sunny weather to allow us to accomplish the work we set out to do.

After the work was complete, I thought to myself, “Oh, ye of little faith!” I had significantly underestimated what was possible when dedicated disciples are willing to work together in peace and harmony, and give sacrificially of their time and energy. It was truly inspiring for me to see this dynamic at work.

There was a sort of synergy present, whereby we each encouraged one another to keep on working when we grew tired, balanced each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and whereby each person unleashed their own respective know-how, skills and talents to contribute to the work. It was a beautiful thing to behold. And it was such an honor and privilege to be just a small part of the work.

I love projects like this because it allows individuals in the church to personally participate who may be shy, those who may possess special hidden talents to shine, or who are starving for good Christian fellowship.

When we work for the Lord and not for men, and with all our hearts, God will bless our efforts to his glory. That’s what it’s all about!