Snapshots of a Christ-Focused Wedding IV

And we can’t just leave it there. 

Weddings are meaningful moments to reflect on our response to God. 

Adoration?  Or duty? 

Which word seems more fitting?

The bride may “hang the moon”,  but the moon only reflects the sun that it turns its face toward in response to its light.  And the bride turned her face to her new husband with all the love, adoration, and joy possible to fit into one heart, two eyes, and a radiant smile.  No reserve, just true, joyful response.  She’s follow him anywhere, happy only to be in his presence.

This, then, from a must-read book I’m just into:

[Jesus Christ and the gospel] is not only the means by which you get into heaven, but the driving force behind every single moment of your life.  I want to help, in some small way, your eyes to be opened to the beauty and greatness of God.  I want you to see how the gospel, and it alone, can make you genuinely passionate for God, free you from captivity to sin, and move you outward to joyful sacrifice on behalf of others…

The goal of the gospel is to produce a type of people consumed with passion for God and love for others. ..true love grows as a response to loveliness…Love for God is commanded in Scripture, but the command can only be truly fulfilled as our eyes are opened to see God’s beauty revealed in the gospel…

In the last message Jesus gave to His disciples, He told them the way to fruitfulness and joy—the “secret” to the Christian life—was to abide in Him…The Greek word meno means literally “to make your home in”. When we make our home in His love—feeling it, saturating ourselves with it, reflecting on it, standing in awe of it—spiritual fruit begins to spring up naturally from us…

Yes, Paul says [in I Corinthians 13), spiritual giftedness, doctrinal mastery, audacious faith, and radical obedience do not equal the only thing that actually matters to God—love for Him.  Without love, even the most radical devotion to God is of no value to Him…

The gospel produces not just obedience, you see, but a new kind of obedience—an obedience that was powered by desire.  An obedience that is both pleasing to God and delightful to you.

--Excerpts from Gospel, by JD Greear

and this from Spurgeon:

: "They [believers] love to behold Him in communion and prayer, but there in heaven they shall have an open and unclouded vision, and thus seeing, 'Him as He is', shall be made completely like Him. Likeness to God -what can we wish for more?...Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty." Imagine! Enjoy! Anticipate!"