Sunday, July 15, 2007

Awesome wedding vows

In June I was privileged to perform the wedding of Christa Jacobs and Jon Hewett. Christa's family was a part of the church I used to pastor in Howell, MI. I can't express how honored I was to be able to marry them.

Anyways, I got permission from Jon and Christa to post their vows. Jon is a writer and he wrote his vows and Christa adapted them for herself. I wanted to post these because they are the most biblical and mature of any I have seen. Admittedly, some people might not like the submit part that Christa affirms from Ephesians 5, but when a husband is loving his wife as a Christ loves the church it isn't a dangerous thing to submit. So without further ado:

Jon's vows:
I, Jon, take you, Christa, to be my wife from this day forward, to join with you and share all that is to come.
I vow to love you as Christ has commanded me, striving daily to die to myself for your sake.
I vow to cherish you above all people and things, God being the only exception.
I vow to serve you sacrificially, putting your needs above my own.
I vow to protect you from all evil within my strength, and to entrust your ultimate safety to God.
I vow to lead you in the pattern Christ has set before us, so that we may honor Him.
I vow to forgive as Christ has forgiven us.
I promise to be faithful to you until death do us part.

Christa's vows:
I, Christa, take you, Jon, to be my husband from this day forward, to join with you and share all that is to come.
I vow to respect you as Christ has commanded me, striving daily to die to myself for your sake.
I vow to love you above all people and things, God being the only exception.
I vow to serve you sacrificially, putting your needs above my own.
I vow to submit to you in everything as to the Lord.
I vow to follow you in the path Christ has set before us, so that we may honor Him.
I vow to forgive as Christ has forgiven us.
I promise to be faithful to you until death do us part.

Pretty cool, huh?

Monday, July 09, 2007

Absolute Truth? Are you sure?

Hey, it's way too long since I've posted here. My Mom let me know nicely that she's getting tired of seeing my Spiderman post at the top. I am too.

As I was praying today I was reflecting on John 4:24, "God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship him in spirit and truth." As I reflected the thought came to me, how often do we truly follow the truth of God and how often do we follow the truth as we see it? In my studies over the last few years I have studied theology and postmodernism. One of the hallmarks of postmodernism, of course, is the idea that there is so absolute truth. In other words, no one truth that is true for all time. As a Christian I would say, "The Bible contains the truth for all time. " Someone else might say, "Well, it's truth for you but not for me. It isn't absolute for me."

As an evangelical Christian I believe that Word of God is always true, end of discussion. So the promises of God that are contained in the scriptures are true for me and I should live according to them. God said He would never leave me or forsake me, I should live like that. He said that where my treasure was there my heart would be also, I should act accordingly. He said that I should consider the birds of the air ..., okay you get the point. God has given me a vast wealth of truth and promises in His Word. I should live by that truth.

Every time I decide to ignore the Word of God and follow my ideas and notions I am denying absolute truth. Here's another way of thinking of it: God's truth is absolute whether I feel good or not. It is absolute when life is easy and when it is hard.

Prayer: God help me to believe the absolute truth of your Word — absolutely