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Memoir of Devotion 30 yrs
50 Plays3 months ago
30 years
Recommended
Transcript
Wedding Day Scene
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Speaker
It was a crisp, cold day on December 2nd in 1995. The church was already decorated in beautiful Christmas wreaths and glowing candles that arrayed the already red velvet pews and the plush red carpet that stretched all the way up to the platform.
00:00:22
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Accompanied by the white baby grand piano where the lovely melodic lyrics of surely the presence of the Lord is in this place echoed towards the back of the sanctuary.
Commitment and Unity
00:00:36
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This young girl and not much older guy would walk hand in hand and stand before the presence of God and their family and their friends and surrender all they could possibly know to at the time to God and one another for the rest of their lives together.
00:00:58
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the covenant to become one, one with God, one for God, one in flesh, one in spirit, one in joy, one in pain, one in surrender, one in the giving and one in the taking, one in dying to self, one in sharing and suffering, one and becoming whole And for the next 30 years, they would keep seeking to become one, leaning into one another instead of running away from one another, taking leaving off of the table, running into the fire together instead of letting go and watching the other run into the burning flames.
Sacrificial Love
00:01:51
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You see, running doesn't heal what's broken. it just helps it hide a little longer. It tucks it away a little deeper. And when running away from one another felt most natural and the stronger desire was to let go, we chose to remember that sacrificial love is not always laying down your life for someone else that you love or giving yourself up for someone else. It's giving them up to the one who created them.
00:02:24
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It's sacrificing your desires to sacrifice for them so they can fully encounter the one who has already sacrificed it all for them.
00:02:36
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We were babies on that day, December 2, 1995, without one single clue of what was ahead or how we were going to get to what was next.
Growth Through Challenges
00:02:49
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We couldn't have known all of the flesh that was going to need to meet its death so that our one flesh could fully live through all that was ahead.
00:03:00
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I think of the words of Jesus that in order to truly live, we must die to our flesh every single day.
00:03:12
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i have seen the necessity of his words so profoundly on this journey in our marriage. To truly live as one, we must choose the surrender of our flesh, our selfish desires to him.
00:03:29
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This is where you gain life in your marriage. This is where the leaning becomes lasting and the running changes directions. This is where intimacy deepens and staying becomes your only option.
Faith and Solace in Hard Times
00:03:46
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And when financial devastation comes and babies pass and diagnosis comes and addiction enters your doorsteps, pride creeps in loyalty sways and relationships shatter and parents age and leave us and children leave and dreams die and hope shatters and days become dark.
00:04:12
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You find the one who gave you the gift of one another. You find him together in it all, through it all, because of it all.
00:04:26
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It's amazing how much you discover that true Joy in a marriage isn't the superficial things. It isn't found in the physical eyes, the physical touch, or even the physical presence. It starts in the physical flesh of two, running from and dying to their own flesh and running together towards becoming one in the spiritual flesh, colliding into his presence together, choosing him together, holding on to him together.
00:04:59
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the two become one. Leaning into one another instead of running away from one another. Taking leaving off of the table.
00:05:11
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Then the joy finds you. It envelops you. it surrounds you. it upholds you. it shapes you. It encourages you. it steadies you. It draws you deeper and closer.
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And nothing can separate you. Because the love of God creates and defines your love of one.
Reflecting on Three Decades
00:05:36
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I share this because I've lived this. Today, Chris and I enter 30th year of soho imperfectly running from and dying to our own flesh and running together towards becoming one in the spiritual flesh, leaning into one another instead of running away from one another.
00:06:00
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Early on in our marriage, through some very wise counsel, we chose to take leaving off of the table. We chose to keep leaning. And when we wanted to run, even started to at times, we chose to turn back towards the only one who could ever help us become one, our Jesus.
00:06:26
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The two can only become one when you're running to the only one who can make you one together. Today, i am remembering all that God began and all that God has allowed us to become, all because we chose to run to together.
00:06:49
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choosing we keep choosing him We keep running to him We keep finding him together.
00:07:00
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He completes us and he keeps working all of his good in us and for us because every good and perfect gift comes from him.
Enduring Love and Commitment
00:07:11
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We share the good and the beautiful and the hard and the holy all because we keep finding him in it
00:07:23
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There's this song Stephen Curtis Chapman that Chris sang um over me on our wedding day. um and our live in our life, we choose to continue to remind each other of these words as our marriage continues to become a song of our Savior's love, and I want to share those with you today I know you've heard me say these words before, but every time I say I love you, the words mean something more.
00:07:59
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I spoke them as a promise right from the start. I said death would be the only thing that could tear us apart. And now that you are standing on the edge of the unknown, I love you means I'll be with you wherever you must go.
00:08:19
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I will take a heart whose nature is to beat for me alone and fill it up with you, make all your joy and pain my own. No matter how deep a valley you go through, i will go there with you.
00:08:36
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And I will give myself to love the way love gave itself for me and climb with you to mountaintops or swim a raging sea to the place where our heart is made from two.
00:08:50
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i will go there with you. i see it in your tears. You wonder where we are. The wind is growing colder and the sky is growing dark.
00:09:03
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though it's something neither of us understand. We can walk through this together if we hold each other's hand. I said for better or worse, I'd be with you. So no matter where you're going, I will go there too.
00:09:21
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I will take a heart whose nature is to beat for me alone, and I will fill it up with you, make all your joy and pain my own.
00:09:33
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No matter how deep a valley you go through, I will go there with you. So happy 30 years, my love. i will always go there with you, and I still
Anniversary and Message of Unity
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do.
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i really, really love you Let's keep running with Jesus, the one who grabbed our hands as two and continues to make us one until the end of our adieu.
00:10:09
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Thank you all for letting me celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary with you today. It's my hope that you take away some encouragement and that you will choose to lean instead of running.
00:10:25
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that you will choose to take leaving off of the table. And whether you're in a marriage or soon entering into a marriage, that you will choose becoming one with Christ.
00:10:41
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I leave you with this. I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.
00:11:02
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I am so excited to be back with you in the overflow, and I can't wait. Until next time.