Thorstad.Badger
Wedding Kim Thorstad / Corey Badger 4.15.00
Texts: 1 Cor 13.4-8,13 Ephesians 3.14-21 1 John 4.9-12
love in the verses, love in the air, romantic setting
fitting: Kim told me that when we she met Corey, she saw this small town guy wi cowboy boots, but “I fell in love right away and didn’t even know it”
fitting: couple who love spending time together: movies or fishing or hunting
romantic Corey: got her hunting boots for Val Day… and she was glad!
then again: Why married today? when figuring out, decided today caused least conflicts with hunting/fishing seasons!
Kim and Corey are in love (getting married), but they also aware of the realities of the daily grind; challenges of work; of getting enough sleep, finding enough time to do things you enjoy
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 through Shane in bringing you together;
God was present at that moment of falling in love
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.
Eph 3: may Christ dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.
And so throughout your marriage, I pray that you will not only LUV each other but also LOVE one another just as God loves you. AMEN.