Marriage is a furnace of iron sharpening iron

作者:Larry Lu
日期: 11/15/2024
类别:主内生活
Marriage is a furnace of iron sharpening iron
Groom’s Dad’s Speech
We are a family of four. Ryan has a younger sister, Cody. Both were born in Louisville, Kentucky, a place where Kentucky fried chicken is very popular. (Just in case you do not know how to say it, it’s Louisville instead of LouiSville.) If you are here today, you are part of our extended family. For those of you who might not know us very well, here are a few hints that may help you to get to know us, especially when we are preparing for family trips:
Starting from our youngest, Cody would say “let’s just go”; Ryan would take care of everything every time; Mom would keep asking if we need to bring our own shampoo, bath towels and lots of other essentials; Dad makes sure the car is washed up before we head out.
We have one thing in common: We all love our Lord Jesus because He loved us first.

The history of the human race began with a wedding in the Garden and will end with a wedding in Heaven. Herman Bavinck opened and concluded his book “The Christian Family” with these revelatory proclamations. Ryan also loves to read this book.
The poem that I am about to read is carved out from what John Piper wrote for his son’s wedding:
Ryan,
The God whom we have loved, and in
Whom we have lived, and who has been
Our Rock these twenty-six good years
With you, now bids us, with sweet tears,
To let you go: “A man shall leave
His father and his mother, cleave
Henceforth unto his wife, and be
One unashamed flesh and free.”
This is the word of God today,
And we are happy to obey.
For God has given you a bride
Who answers every prayer we’ve cried (especially your mom)
For over twenty years, our claim
For you, before we knew her name.
It’s the theme of this poem:
A double rule of love that shocks;
A doctrine in a paradox:
If you now aim your wife to bless,
Then love her more and love her less.
If in the coming years, by some
Strange providence of God, you come
To have the riches of this age,
To love her, love her more than wealth.
Yes, love her, love her, more than life;
O, love the woman called your wife.
Go love her as your earthly best.
And if your life is woven in
A hundred friendships, and you spin
A festal fabric out of all
Your sweet affections, great and small,
Be sure, no matter how it rends,
To love her, love her more than friends.
Of Heaven’s Joy, which you esteem
And cherish more than breath and life,
That you may give it to your wife.
The greatest gift you give your wife
Is loving God above her life.
And thus I bid you now to bless:
Go love her more by loving less.
I shared this poem when I preached in a small Chinese church last year. After the sermon, one of the dads came up and asked me if he could borrow it for his son’s wedding. At the time, his son was only 6 or 7 years old.

Marriage is a covenant instituted by God and is also a school to cultivate His citizens in Heaven; it will be OK if you are not perfect students, but be encouraged: God gets glory when two very different and very imperfect people forge a life of faithfulness in the furnace of affliction by relying on Christ.
Imagine Ryan and Yujin riding a tandem, a bicycle built for two. They will love it when they’re in Sarasota, where they can use a gear that sets a slow, steady pedaling that surges them forward. It would be a very different experience in Johns Creek, though, as you know if you have been there. Ryan will look much sweeter in Yujin’s eyes on an uphill than a level ground. Marriage prepares you to be ready for the curves and turns into an uphill path.

Lastly, you will make it to the end if you two keep pedaling together.
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