Yesterday at Legacy we celebrated baptisms and ended our teaching series on marriage with the renewal of vows for 15 couples. The special part about the baptisms was that one child was a foster child with a family who gave a good word about the blessings of caring for children from families that can't or won't. The other baptism was the biological child in a strong, loving family who also has an adopted child who was first a foster child in their home. I was reminded that the real work of the church is to "widows and orphans."
The vow renewal was special, too. We interviewed one of the couples who celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary this year. (You can hear their story here.) Others had celebrated their 25th and 30th. Others their 7th and 10th. Marriage is a precarious adventure these days. I'm glad we gave everyone a chance to renew their commitments to one another. My outline for the rest of us was that to build and keep trust in a marriage, you must show up, step up and give up. The rest of the content is here.
I noted that baptism and marriage are two public ceremonies that signal the beginning of a life-long journey with someone. Baptism is that public ceremony that tells others we have begun our life-long relationship with Christ. Marriage, like baptism, is the public statement of our inward commitments to love each other for life. Also, marriage is God's metaphor of choice for His relationship with Israel under the Old Agreement and Christ's relationship with the Church under the New Agreement. The marriage relationship is close to the heart of God in many ways. That's why we did the series and will do another one again in the future.
Next week we begin "Waking Up in Bastrop: Jacob's Journey with God." I'll try my hand at writing a manuscript for publication while preaching it. My writing and teaching styles are different, so, it will be a trick for it to be effective.
The vow renewal was special, too. We interviewed one of the couples who celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary this year. (You can hear their story here.) Others had celebrated their 25th and 30th. Others their 7th and 10th. Marriage is a precarious adventure these days. I'm glad we gave everyone a chance to renew their commitments to one another. My outline for the rest of us was that to build and keep trust in a marriage, you must show up, step up and give up. The rest of the content is here.
I noted that baptism and marriage are two public ceremonies that signal the beginning of a life-long journey with someone. Baptism is that public ceremony that tells others we have begun our life-long relationship with Christ. Marriage, like baptism, is the public statement of our inward commitments to love each other for life. Also, marriage is God's metaphor of choice for His relationship with Israel under the Old Agreement and Christ's relationship with the Church under the New Agreement. The marriage relationship is close to the heart of God in many ways. That's why we did the series and will do another one again in the future.
Next week we begin "Waking Up in Bastrop: Jacob's Journey with God." I'll try my hand at writing a manuscript for publication while preaching it. My writing and teaching styles are different, so, it will be a trick for it to be effective.