"The Preacher's Wife" Commentary

 "Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly" Colossians 3:16

There can never be any real opposition between religion and science, for the one is the complement of the other. -Nobel physicist Max Planck 

You can trust the Bible.

 The exquisite order displayed by our scientific understanding of the physical world calls for the divine.–MIT physicist Vera 

 You can trust the Word of God

Due to the fact that the Monday Morning commentary hardly ever actually happens on Monday, I have decided to rename the series, "The Preacher's Wife" Commentary. The Spirit and purpose of the commentaries will be to share with my blog readers, and thereby journal and remember for myself, my personal synopsis and summary of the things God is doing at the Bridge Church and give a brief overview of my thoughts on the sermon and sermon series. Of course, I am my husband's (The Lead Pastor of the Bridge Church) biggest cheerleader, so don't expect to find my commentaries containing any potshots at the choice of sermons or sermon series. I know from first hand experience the hours of prayer and fasting and studying that go into every decision that is made, so I can rest confidently not only as his wife, but first and foremost as a member and servant of The Bridge Church, that our Pastor hears from God. Will everything that happens always be perfect? Absolutely not, but you can rest assured that motives, hearts, and intentions are pure. That is why I love the Bridge Church. It exists to reach those far from God and those who have never known God to bring them into a thriving relationship with Christ and  equip them for service in the kingdom. I am so blessed to be a part of a church that has the great commission as it's primary mission. Hopefully these commentaries will happen on a weekly basis, however, realistically there will be times when they get buried under a pile of other duties. Regardless though, know that the "Amen" corner and cheer leading section of the Bridge (comprised of me being the captain) is always there to encourage the Pastor and my fellow friends in Christ.

This past Sunday was sermon number 2 in our "40 Days in the Word Series". This series has been an amazing way to drive all of us into the Word of God, not just for information, but for transformation. Our Pastor has said he feels like our church is going to grow, God is going to perform miracles in every life, and every person that participates is going to reach new levels in God through this campaign. You literally can't go wrong in your life by adding a daily devotional. So far, there have already been reports of miracles. We have 9 different "DevoGroups" or Devotional Small Groups going during the mid-week where people are coming together to learn how to study the Bible, live on purpose, and put the Word of God into practice. Our church is experimenting with a devotional blog right now to become an asset after this sermon series is over. A church that Loves the Word, Learns the Word, and Lives the Word will be a blessed, growing, thriving epicenter for the glory of Jesus Christ. Sermon 1 was "Building your Life on the Bible" and this past week was "Why can I trust the Bible".

In a day and age with so many people who don't believe in God, or who aren't sure about God, you have to have a reason why you can trust the Bible. It is no longer to be assumed that those raised in American culture have adopted the Bible as a guide. It used to be that everyone believed in God and the Bible even if they didn't practice it. Today, however, there is little cultural Biblical foundation and, in fact, there are many that proclaim to be Christians that aren't even sure they can trust the Bible. If they do believe the Bible, they don't read it or apply it very often. (This makes for an interesting phenomenon known as the "Christian Atheist"- Those that profess there is a God, but live as if there is no God)

Psalm 119:86 tells us "All of your commands can be trusted" (NCV)
2 Timothy 3:16 tells us "All scripture is God-breathed"

Ultimately, you can trust the Bible because it is the Word of God and God is true, but, there are reasons beyond faith and belief in God why you can trust the Bible.

1) It is Historically Accurate- Archeology always confirms the Bible eventually and the Scriptures have been copied with extreme care. Most of the Bible is from eyewitness accounts.

2) It is Scientifically Accurate- The Bible wasn't given to be a textbook, doesn't use scientific language, and in fact is always ahead of contemporary views historically. The Bible never gives bad science.

J.Kepler (astronomer) "Science is thinking God's thoughts after him"

3) It is prophetically accurate- The bible has predicted 1,000's of events that happened just as God said.

4) It is thematically unified- Out of 66 books by 40 different authors over a period of 1,600 years in over a dozen countries on 3 different continents in at least 3 different languages by people from all walks of life, comes one unified message. The Bible makes one book with one main story without contradiction that has survived centuries of attacks.

5) The Bible is confirmed by Jesus- Matthew 5:18

6) The Bible has survived all attacks- The most despised, derided, denied, disputed, dissected, debated, outlawed and destroyed, bestselling book ever!

7) It has transforming power- Nothing can change your life like the Bible (Romans 12:2) (John 8:31-8:32)

You can believe the Bible.

So, this Sunday, you will see me in the "Amen" corner cheering on our Pastor because I know that he uses the Bible as the guide and basis of all he does. You can quote me on that. I am loving this series. Nothing refreshes my soul like spending time in the Word of God.

John 1:1 and John 1:14 are my two favorite scriptures about the Word of God.

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth.

Love Challenge: Love the one you're with

The Love Challenge

A Love Note from Reese

  

^{Song of Solomon Chapter 1}

² Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth—
   for your love is more delightful than wine.
³ Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes;
   your name is like perfume poured out.
   No wonder the young women love you!
⁴ Take me away with you—let us hurry!
   Let the king bring me into his chambers. 

(Love Lessons from Jessica: Kiss your spouse at least 10 seconds every morning and 10 seconds every evening no matter what. You will be amazed at how much benefit will come from this 20 second  investment into your day.)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Today is the day of the year that you either dread, get annoyed by, are ambivilent too, or celebrate with the zeal of a 6th grade school girl with a crush on the popular boy in class. Thankfully, I feel like I fall into the ambivilent category. I am absolutely in love with love. I would choose a romantic comedy or drama anyday over any other type of movie, and love weddings just like everyone else. (Side Note: "The Notebook" is still my all time favorite romance movie. Confession: I've never read the book) However, I feel like society puts way too much pressure on relationships on these grandiose days. This is just my opinion, but, if the only time you ever celebrate the ones you love is when stores are pressuring you to purchase 4ft tall Vermont Teddy Bears or else divorce looms over your head, perhaps you need to take a new look at what love is. I do like the fact that Valentine's Day netted me a bacon wrapped steak dinner on Saturday night though :)

Today I celebrate the great loves I have had in my life. My heart aches for those who have never experienced great love. The old adage says, "It is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all." This can be debated for hours and I'm not even sure how I feel about that quote, but I do know that it feels good to love and be loved. The first great love of my life was my parents. Sure they annoyed me. Sure they wouldn't always let me do what "everyone else" was doing. Sure, they forced me to do chores and homework, but they were my first glimpse into the world of love and they must've done a fantastic job. I have read that a woman can be saved by the love of her father. I believe that. Because my dad thought I was the smartest, prettiest, most talented girl in the world, I believed it, and didn't need a pimple faced 15 year old pubescent boy to tell me those things. I was being hugged, praised, and affirmed at home, so, although I had thousands of crushes and plenty of gangly boyfriends, I didn't need affection and affirmation from men enough to compromise my personal morals or values. My dad showed me that I was valued and worthy of a great romance in my life. I could wait for God to send me my knight in shining armor because my dad would fight my battles until then. My mom showed me how to respect and care for a husband and how to love my children through the love she gave me. I was blessed with an intact home, full of affection, and never once had to wonder if I was loved. Although, plenty of times I screamed " I hate you" to both of my parents and slammed doors loudly because they must not have loved me when they wouldn't let me be out until 3 AM when other kids were. (I'm so looking forward to these days with my own children. (smile))

Then, God blessed me with the very best man I could've ever hoped for. I can't believe that He let me meet my soul mate when I was only 19 years old. Some people have to wait a lifetime to find "the one" and I had my "one" dropped into my lap while I was still too young to see it. (I tried my best to break up with him once, but he wouldn't let me. It was quite the scene) This handsome, hardworking, respectful, and at the time kind of shy and quiet, romantic boy was chasing me and I was still stuck mentally on some loser. God and Jonathan must both really love me. On my 20th birthday he told me he loved me for the first time while we were gazing at the moonlit Ohio river. I mean, seriously, could you get any sweeter? At this point, I thankfully realized how insane it was that I was pining away for some guy that would've ended up destroying my life, and embraced the beautiful destiny God had designed for me. Our relationship, friendship, and love grew until the week between Christmas and New Year's when my amazing boyfriend flew me to Europe to Prague, the capital city of the Czech Republic, and proposed to me on the Charles Bridge after a 5 star dinner and horse drawn carriage ride through the ancient town and cobblestone streets. He even had picked out my ring all on his own, a glistening princess cut diamond that he paid cash for because he saved all of his $1 tips from his bellman job just for me. Little did I know at the time what a blessing starting a marriage out debt free would be. I'm glad I didn't spend the first 5 years of my marriage paying off a $3,000 ring because I had a man wise beyond his years that knew "cash was king" before Dave Ramsey was even popular. At 21, we married, and have  had an extraordinary life together since. One day I'll detail for you some of our story. It has been a journey. It has been marred with sadness, sorrow, and struggle in the midst of all of the great joys, but any life worth living always has tragedy and triumph. You can't have one without the other.

God instituted 3 types of love, but we, as English speakers, use the same word love for everything. Do you really love Doritos as much as you love your kids? I hope not, yet we use the same terminology for both. 

The 3 types of Biblical love are:

1) Eros: Erotic or Romantic Love (You Eros your spouse I hope)

2) Phileo Love (Which is a brotherly type of love)

and

3) Agape Love (Which is the most perfect form of love, the love God has for us)

Because of Jonathan and I's eternal love for each other, we created 2 gorgeous blonde haired, blue eyed, smart, amazing boys. They are truly the greatest love I have ever experienced on this earth. There is no way to describe the depths of my love for these boys. I was awakened early this morning by their chatter because they had made me several Valentine's Day gifts, of their own volition. Dad did not guide them or tell them what to do. Reese is also always making me love cards and poems (a picture is exampled above) and Gentry is always hugging, kissing, and snuggling me. This makes me so happy for two reasons. Reason number one is becasue I love it. It fulfills me. It makes the ocassional drudgery of parenting bearable. It gives purpose to my life. And, reason number two, because I am giving them the foundation for love that my parents gave me. They will know how to treat a woman right. They will know that waiting for the right girl is worth it. They will know that no matter what they say or what they do, they always have a place to go. They know that there is nothing in this world that can change the love or passion I have for them. They know that when/if they hit rock bottom and life gets tough, there are open arms of love to accept them.

Finally, I have experienced the love of Christ in my life. So, if your parents were abusive losers and you're single and/or childless, there is still hope for you. Agape love is the purest form of love. It is the only love that never fades or changes and that is the love Christ has for His children. Therefore, today, love the one you're with. The love challenge is to love no matter what. If you are with no one, love God and love yourself. If you are with someone, love them the way Christ designeed, with an unselfish love. If you have children, love with the love of the father of the prodigal son, never faltering no matter what. Love the one you're with is not a death sentence, but a gift of life. Quit looking everywhere for love, you have love right in front of you. If you are married, commit to being the best spouse your spouse could ever have. You can only control yourself, not them, so make yourself the best you can be. If you have children, model for them self-respect, integrity, purity, and grace. Teaching them these principles will be one of the greatest acts of love you can do for them. Don't buy their love, show them love with words and deeds. And, finally, if you are single, love yourself. Married people need to love themselves too or it will cause major problems in their relationship, but love yourself. Love your community. Love those around you. The grass is not greener on the other side. The grass is greenest where it is being watered and fertilized, so love the one  you're with.