July 2004
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MAYBOLE BAPTIST CHURCH

 

One Wedding In Five Years

 

Should a minister get excited

about conducting a wedding ceremony?

Or is that the sole prerogative of The Couple?

 

Well, this month I have the first wedding of my five years ministry in Maybole!  My wife and I have had the pleasure of talking through married life with the couple and I’ve shared in planning the service with them.

 

             During the service I can say (more or less) what I like, I pronounce the couple married and without my signature on their Marriage Schedule it remains invalid.  It seems to me fair enough for the minister to be excited too.

 

Perhaps the best part about the whole business

of arranging and setting up a wedding ceremony

is the reminder from the service that

God has made us male & female and marriage is his gift.

It is a holy mystery in which man and woman become one flesh,

united in a love, wherein they are called to be faithful to each other

throughout their lives.

 

             This is a spiritual understanding of marriage but it is like the relationship God wants to have with us.  That too is a holy mystery in which we are united with Him, in love; a relationship in which we are to be faithful all our lives. 

 

             One very significant difference is that the union of the born again believer with God is NOT until death us do part!  Indeed, we can say that at death this union reaches a special consummation. For then the believer enters the very presence of God Almighty.  The Apostle Paul describes it this way in his

First Letter to the Corinthians ch.13 v.12

Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.

Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

 

             In a good marriage, husband and wife are always learning more about each other.  God, of course, knows believers through and through.  But the believer is always learning more about God – and I suspect this will be the case even after death.  Even when I see Him face to face I can hardly know all God knows.

 

Have you entered into an intimate relationship with God?

Have you asked God to forgive your sin in Jesus Name?

Are You Willing To Be Faithful To Him As Long As You Live?

 

 

Rev Richard Martin                                                                         Tuesday, 10 July 2004

Contact Us With Questions or Your Prayer Request

e-mail to: Martins.Maybole@Virgin.net    or   telephone: (UK) 01655 88 22 05