YES AND NO

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14 NIV)

Terror seized me by the throat a few months into my engagement to be married. Ardor turned to horror. Hot pursuit suddenly got cold feet. This came with a fundamental realization: If I had this woman, I couldn't have any of the others. If I said "yes" to one, I was saying "no" to millions. Not that this was the breadth of my options, mind you -- but whatever options I might have had before I said my vows, they were no more after I said them…

Every yes contains a no. And if you can't learn to say one, you won't learn to say the other. It certainly describes the way Christians and churches can drift into heresy and confusion…

Learning to say the yes and the no: Few issues portend so much for the future of the church, because none carries so much potential to fly in the face of the spirit of the age… It's the "Who's to Say?" syndrome: Who's to say what is right? The answer, it seems, is everyone, or no one, or both. Whatever. It's cool.

Faithful stewards of the household of God must practice the discipline of saying both yes and no. It's hard, it's not fun, and it doesn't usually preach to packed houses. But believers in every age have had to learn it or lose the faith…

Saying no is part of the nature of our faith… Its narrowness is the narrowness of the birth canal, or of a path between two precipices -- or of a lifetime spent loving one woman. 

-- Excerpted from Ben Patterson in LeadershipJournal.net

#6231

THE BRIDE OF CHRIST

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.“ (Ephesians 5:25-27 ESV)

Joni Eareckson Tada, who was paralyzed in a diving accident as a teenager, draws parallels between her wedding day and Christ's love for His church.

I felt awkward as my girlfriends strained to shift my paralyzed body into a cumbersome wedding gown. No amount of corseting and binding my body gave me a perfect shape. The dress just didn't fit well. Then, as I was wheeling into the church, I glanced down and noticed that I'd accidentally run over the hem of my dress, leaving a greasy tire mark. My paralyzed hands couldn't hold the bouquet of daisies that lay off-center on my lap. And my chair, though decorated for the wedding, was still a big, clunky gray machine with belts, gears, and ball bearings. I certainly didn't feel like the picture-perfect bride in a bridal magazine.

I inched my chair closer to the last pew to catch a glimpse of Ken in front. There he was, standing tall and stately in his formal attire. I saw him looking for me, craning his neck to look up the aisle. My face flushed, and I suddenly couldn't wait to be with him. I had seen my beloved. The love in Ken's face had washed away all my feelings of unworthiness. I was his pure and perfect bride.

How easy it is for us to think that we're utterly unlovely -- especially to someone as lovely as Christ. But He loves us with the bright eyes of a Bridegroom's love and cannot wait for the day we are united with Him forever.

-- Quoted by John Woodbridge in “This We Believe: The Good News of Jesus Christ for the World”


#4679

YOU MATTER TO ME

It’s what a bride and groom are really saying to each other when the exchange their vows. It’s what a parent means when he says to his child, “If you ever need to talk, I’ll be here.” It’s what a young baby-toting wife means when she says to her departing GI husband, “I’ll think of you every day.” It’s what a doctor means when he stares into the jaundiced eyes of a dying patient and says, “We’ll do everything we can.”

All great promises say “You matter to me.”

That’s what makes a broken promise so painful. Nothing hurts quite as badly as the realization that someone you trusted doesn’t care after all.

If your faith needs refilling, I would recommend that you thumb through the Bible with a highlight marker in your hand and look for the promises Jesus made to you. Here are a few to start: Matthew 11:28, Luke 18:29-30, John 8:12, Revelation 3:5.

Woven into the fabric of these and many other promises is the simple message that our Lord cares about us. In spite of our failures, we matter to Him. If we didn’t, there would be no logical reason for Him to make such commitments. 

-- Mark Atteberry in “Free Refill: Coming Back for More of Jesus”


#4522

MARITAL RENEWAL

I am often asked by [my college] students if I will perform their wedding ceremonies…

There are those who say, "We are the ones getting married.  We should have the kind of ceremony that is meaningful to us."  I always respond by saying that such a perspective shows far too limited an understanding of what weddings are all about.  While it is true that the couple in the front of the church is being married, it should be understood that, if the ceremony is properly constructed, those in the pews may go through a symbolic process of being remarried at the same time.  When we attend weddings in which we hear repeated the same words that we ourselves uttered when we were married, we experience a sense of marital renewal.

Whenever I hear a young man saying the same words that I myself said almost forty years ago, I seem to go through that same ceremony of commitment once again.  When he says, "I, John, take thee, Mary, to be my lawful wedded wife; and I do promise and covenant, before God and these witnesses, to be thy loving and faithful husband ... ," I can hear myself saying, "I, Tony, take thee, Peggy, to be my lawful wedded wife; and I do promise and covenant ... "  It all comes back to me in the ritual.  The past is renewed.  I feel again what I felt on my wedding day.  I sense the commitment I made on that day, and my marriage is renewed.

-- Tony Campolo in Following Jesus Without Embarrassing God

#3697