Weddings and more

Hey friends,

Been a busy month in the life of the Waters' family and what we are doing. I've had many chances to share with many people. But, the highlight of the month was the wedding of my good friends Samantha and Chuck. Here's a snippet of the wedding talk. Enjoy!

Tumey-Hill Wedding

When Corrie and I agreed to house a band… we had no idea…

When they met around a fire on our back patio…

When they became friends via texting…

So happy to see our long-time friend in Samantha and now our new friend in Chuck find not only a friendship… But now through that relationship, you’ve been able to…

  ·      But a strong love for each other.

  ·      A strong companion to face life challenges.

  ·      A perfect compliment.

  ·      Helpmates in times of trouble.

  ·      Someone to share the completeness of your lives with.

  ·      Someone to be totally transparent with.

  ·      You’ve found the right person to bring out the best in one another.

We are now going to have a short conversation …invite audience to listen in:

The Cure for Loneliness

·      Did you know that God himself performed the first wedding? Genesis 2:15-25

  ·      15 The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. 16 But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden— 17 except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”

  ·      18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.” 19 So the Lord God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one. 20 He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him.

  ·      21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man.

  ·      23 “At last!” the man exclaimed.

  ·      “This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh! She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man.’”

  ·      24 This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.

  ·      25 Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.

  ·      This is an amazing story. He thought that this covenant was so important that He blessed it by his own words and presence.

  ·      The only perfect covenant (pre-sin).

  ·      God knew that even though He and man were in perfect relationship that Adam could not fully reflect his image until he had to sacrifice for someone else… until he could express his love for someone else.

Joined in a New Love

  ·      Mark 10:6-9 ~ But `God made them male and female' from the beginning of creation. `This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.' Since they are no longer two but one, let no one split apart what God has joined together."

  ·      The old person doesn’t disappear, but gets better in the marriage of the two of them. Suddenly in marriage, we become interdependent on one another. We realize that when we hurt the other person, we are actually hurting ourself.

  ·      The apostle Paul actually said that Jesus looks at his church as his bride. So he sees himself as one with us. This then is reflected and pictured in the marriage relationship. Everything ordained of God on earth reflects a heavenly reality.

  ·      In marriage, you actually find attainable the reality to love your neighbor as yourself in ways that you can’t in any other relationship.

  ·      The love of Jesus is described in 1 Corinthians 13 (read)… this now becomes the love the two of you will emulate for each other.

  ·      4 Love is patient, love is kind.

  ·      It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

  ·      5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

  ·      6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

  ·      7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

  ·      8 Love never fails.

My Life is No Longer My Own

  ·      From this day forward, you have chosen to lay down your life… Jesus said that there is “no greater love” than to lay it down for your friends.

  ·      And today, you are marrying as best friends.

  ·      Today, you are laying down your own rights and picking up the right to choose the other persons needs.

  ·      Today, you are becoming more like Jesus than you can possibly imagine.

  ·      Today, you are choosing submission to the one you love over your independence, over your personal dreams… and you’re saying that the completeness of our union… and those dreams… will be more beautiful than what I could’ve been on my own.

  ·      Listen to how Paul describes this beautiful picture: Ephesians 5:21-33 à

  ·      21 And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

  ·      22 For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. 24 As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.

  ·      25 For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her 26 to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. 27 He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. 28 In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. 29 No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. 30 And we are members of his body.

  ·      31 As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” 32 This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. 33 So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

  ·      don’t get hung up on “submission.” The Greek word means to “give up your life.” So, as you have given up your lives for Jesus, so now you put that into human action by putting someone else’s needs above your own.

  ·      You have both chosen a life of sacrifice for God. You are now choosing a marriage that is underneath the sacrifice of God. No decision, plan, activity or purchase will be made on your own. You make them in covenant with Jesus and with one another.