I'M GETTING MARRIED!!!

....Someday. :)

I love a good trick!

Tonight I heard and AWESOME message regarding marriage. It stirred a lot of really good thoughts and made me ponder so much in my heart. But it was the very last point of the message that really had me going.

" The bible begins and ends with a Wedding."

WOW!!! Have you thought about that before? Because it is a really cool thought to me!!!

My good friend Daniel really hit the nail on this message. Although I am not yet married, I take every opportunity to learn from those around me and to hear the heart of God in regards to this subject because one day, God willing, I will be in that season. However, tonight didn't stir my heart to marriage to my "future husband", but to the Lord.

Daniel shared about Adam and Even in Genesis. How the Lord had created adam, how then the Lord created the animals, but among them there was no suitable helper for Adam. So the Lord created a woman out of the rib of man.

"This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man" -Gen 2: 23

THEN....BAM!....wedding:

"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and they will become one flesh." -Gen. 2:24

Wedding one!

Then.... the bible ends with a wedding also:

"For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready...Bless are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb" Revelation 19: 7,9

"I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband...now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them." Revelation 21:2-3

Wedding two

So here is what I got! :)

Really...I thought about ALL that is in between those two weddings...there is a story.

The very last verse of Genesis 2 says this: "The man and his wife were both naked and they felt no shame."

When Adam and Even came together there was no shame within their marriage or themselves because it was a HOLY union. One anointed by the Lord. It was a beautiful gift. One that was pure and right. There was no reason to be shamed.

Then....along the way...the temptation was great....and choices were made. There started the story and thousands of years later we are still living that story. You can read in the bible of so many things that occurred in the pages between these weddings. Praise God that one of those things that occurred was the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus. He is what makes the second wedding possible. Even after all of the things that have happened. After the way we have trampled on God's good love. The beauty of what he created marriage, love, and life to be. He still offers a purification and participation for us in this second wedding.

Do you get where I am going here?

Adam and Eve's Wedding was a Holy wedding......They were not shamed because of what it represented. Even after everything this world has endured and seen, in the end...we will stand before him again...made pure and Holy...united with our first love.


As a single adult woman, who does have the desire to get married, i pray that my marriage one day will be an "in between" marriage. It will also be a gift of the Lord and will depict a combination of both of the beautiful weddings spoke about above. A gift of a man. That I will be a "suitable partner" who will be Loved by him the way Christ loves the church. That i will be redeemed of past mistakes and stand with him complete in the Lord. What a beautiful gift of marriage the Lord has given us.

My whole single life I have always thought of marriage as God saying this: "Amanda, your husband will be my gift to you. He will NEVER be what I am to you. He will never love you as deep as I do. However, in this life...this will be the CLOSEST thing you will ever get to it."

Amen.

I am 25 and single. Not what I would have planned. However, I do not resent it. Actually, on all but a few days, I really enjoy it. Because I believe that my single life is ALSO a gift from the Lord. He has a plan and a purpose for me in my life now. I don't want the "pages in between" to be blank. I want them to be filled with peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self control, and love. That they would be filled with continual obedience. That they would speak of continues praise. And would depict a life lived at the feet of Jesus. And God willing, one day i do get married, that my husband and I would reflect the Love of Christ in our lives lived together.

I am bound to the Lord. He is my everything. Although my life has not always reflected my "marriage" to him, but to other things in this world. I can never forget, my heart will NEVER let me forget, my FIRST love.

And even within those "in between pages in my life" where mistakes may lay. Where those pages are not always filled with things I am proud of. One Day, I will still stand before the Lord, Holy and complete. I will enter in to his dwelling place. Part of the bride of Christ. To live....forever.

Marriage...its to much deeper then one would even think.


When you look at your life....whether single, married, widowed, divorced, whatever....What is your life reflecting that you are married to? What do you want it to reflect?

Think about it my friends..its worth it!

One Holy Wedding....To another Holy Wedding...and ALL that is inbetween!!

-Amanda