Nitschke-Durbin
Wedding Michelle Nitschke / Brian Durben 9.18.99
Texts: 1 Cor 13.1-7 1 John 4.8-12
love in the verses, love in the air, romantic setting
otoh: they basically got engaged by the Helzberg jewelry salesman at the Mall of America who left them asking later in the parking lot: What just happened in there?
M: “Brian is the least irritating man I know.”
M & B in love (getting married), but they also aware of the realities of the daily grind; challenges of managing careers; finding time together
they know love but they also know life, and oftentimes the facts of life can overwhelm the feelings of love
impt to make distinction between LUV and LOVE
basically diff between feeling and action
LUV as a feeling is okay, desirable BUT LUV is fickle
LOVE is an action and it is this love that is described in 1 Cor 13:
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
A goal of Xn life in general and Xn couple in particular is to have this love become natural but it always remains something we practice, choose to do: Love one another!
and now I am quoting from the 1 John passage you chose
hope you realize what an awesome command and challenge this is: love one another!
But know that w/ every command God gives, God also gives the way to make it possible to keep
Look at verse: Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.
it is God’s love for you that makes it poss to love one another
in fact, I am convinced that it is God’s love that brings you to this day
God at work in the Helzberg salesman
God was present in the parking lot
and God will continue to be present with you in the midst of sickness and health and better and worse and all that the years may bring
today not only celebrate your marriage but also celebrate this love of God which is being manifested in your relationship.
And throughout your marriage, I pray that you will not only LUV each other but also LOVE one another just as God loves you. AMEN.