The Gospel & Marriage

We've had two weddings here on the farm in the past three weeks. One of them was a friend of a friend's, and the other was my Dad's.

The Cowboy officiated my Dad's, and he what I loved about it was that it was a six minute ceremony rooted in the one and only thing that can hold a marriage together... the gospel.

The gospel not only has the power to transform individual lives, it has the power to transform marriage. One of the things the Cowboy mentioned struck me. Not because I haven't heard it before, but because I hadn't thought about in terms of marriage. One of the ways that the gospel transforms marriage is that Christians have become new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17). Therefore, in our marriage, our past does not define us, confine us, or determine our future.

The Cowboy went on to say, "The Lord is not finished with you yet. He is indeed at work in you two and from this day forward, in HIS strength, you are able to say yes to Christ, and no to sin. Because of the gospel, sin's ruling power over us is broken (Romans 6:6,14). Therefore we can truly obey all that God calls us to do in our marriage, regardless of any circumstance or situation."

Sometimes life doesn't always unfold the way your heart might have hoped it would. Sometimes it unfolds in ways that throw you for a loop and cause you to go running to the Lord with an abundance of questions and only one answer__ Trust_in_me.

I hate that my mind so often limits the Lord.

Another thing the Cowboy mentioned was forgiveness.

Because of the gospel__we are forgiven.

And because of the gospel__ we can forgive. Nothing done against us compares to our sin against God. Therefore all offenses, hostility, and bitterness between Christians can be completely forgiven and removed.

Nothing is impossible with God.

Often times life unfolds in ways that seem like the Lord is no longer near.

Those are the times when He's digging the deepest__healing, molding, and changing us__ and granting us understanding of the deeper things in His Word, of His heart towards His kids.

Those are the ugly-turn-beautiful times.

Weddings are these days when we get the gift of soaking up the glory of the gospel one more time. It's a glorious, life-giving story of redemption and hope__ it's a story that never, never gets old.

I was thankful for a day with my family... my messy, yet God-carried family.

My Dad moved out to the farm nearly three years ago, and The Lord has given me great gifts of Himself completely alive in my life, and great gifts of grace, and tender, unexpected moments with my Dad__ I'm thankful that the Lord knows that we have to walk through the good, the bad, the ugly and the beautiful to really know the glory of this life.

Thankful for the gospel, and the way that it's transforming my life.


* Excerpts from Desiring God Ministries.