Our Vows and a Few More Pictures

There are many people we wish we could have invited to our wedding.
Here are our vows and a few more pictures although the photographer has yet to send us the whole disc. http://www.mintphotography.ca/blog/?p=6799

 Andy's vows
Tina; Before God and man, without doubt or hesitation, with all my heart, I marry you. You are - and have been to me - God’s mercy and grace. I never knew that I would love again and I could have never known how much. Forsaking all others, I will cherish you always. I will fan the flame of our affection with words and deeds of devotion and appreciation. I will honor you always. I will seek your security, your rest and your joy. I will serve you in sickness and in health, in riches and in poverty, until God separates us by death. I will always recognize you as God’s gift to me and never forget how precious you are to Him. I will guide us towards holiness. I will love those you love, offering friendship and fatherly affection to Jessica & Danielle. I give you my all and trust you with my all. Please take me as your husband. Please be my wife. 

Tina's vows
Andy, I stand here today before God, our family, and our friends to proclaim my love for you. In you, God has provided a healing in my heart and soul that I never thought possible. Your words have washed over me like cleansing waters. My cup overflows. I admire your love and devotion to the Lord, And I know His love is your standard and your strength, and that you love me with that love. In this same love I promise to respect you, to honor you, and to love you I promise to love and care for your children, Josiah, Katy and Alex as though they were my own. I promise to pray with you and for you. I promise to support you in all you do. I promise to help you serve the Lord and to grow in his love. I will remember that you are not mine alone but that you are 1st His, that we are united by Him and in Him. The Lord will be our strength, our hiding place, our high tower and our intercessor. Above all, I promise to love you with all that I am as I love my own body and with the love of Christ I am blessed to have your love and honored to share my life with you. It is my joy to take you as my husband. Today I will no longer be my own; I freely and fearlessly give myself to you Andy, to be your wife, and your soul mate. To have and to hold forsaking all others, as long as we both shall live.

Sex Talk for Singles

Unfortunately the video did not work out but the Power-Point can be accessed here: http://s3.amazonaws.com/storage.nm-storage.com/brantcommunitychurch/downloads/Sex_Talk_singles_1.pdf

Assess Strategize Be strong Trust 1Ch 19:9 The Ammonites came out and drew up in battle formation at the entrance to their city, while the kings who had come were by themselves in the open country. 10 Joab saw that there were battle lines in front of him and behind him; so he selected some of the best troops in Israel and deployed them against the Arameans. 11 He put the rest of the men under the command of Abishai his brother, and they were deployed against the Ammonites. 12 Joab said, "If the Arameans are too strong for me, then you are to rescue me; but if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will rescue you. 13 Be strong and let us fight bravely for our people and the cities of our God. The LORD will do what is good in his sight." I love this attitude! Surrounded by an enemy, he was not sure he could defeat, Joab assesses the situation, strategizes and communicates a plan to the troops and then commands “Be strong!” to fill the men’s hearts with vigour. And then Joab puts the whole outcome in God’s hand, recognizing it may cost him his life. That’s how to fight. We have an enemy who is allowed to cause us great harm. 1Pe 5:8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Re 2:10 Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life. We need to assess our enemy and plan for victory but then we must determine to trust God before we enter into the battle knowing, “The battle belongs to the lord” We could be afraid, but we will have lost ground to the enemy already if we are. The choice of attitude lies before us. We can fear, but our enemy lies defeated, his weapon of fear, impotent. Heb 2:14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. May our attitude be like Esther’s Es 4:16 "Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish." Assess. Strategize. Be strong. Trust Christ, regardless of the outcome.

A Sex Talk For Couples

This video is based on 1Corinthians 7:5 "Do not deprive each other.."
If you are frustrated or defiant in your marriage and not experiencing the joy you expect, have a look and see if you can get the conversation started.
Just cut and paste this link into your browser

http://www.brantcommunitychurch.ca/content.cfm?id=390&download_id=232#attached_content

The Best Thing You Can Do For Your Pastor

I whole-heartedly agree that the best thing you can do for your pastor(s) / elders is pray for them. This is a response to http://www.theblazingcenter.com/2012/02/the-best-thing-you-can-do-for-your-pastor.html
Let me state why I am especially passionate about being upheld in prayer today.

God is a God of means. He honors us by using us and making us the channel by which he will accomplish lasting goals. “The” Paul says to Timothy: 1Ti 4:16 “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.”

Which along with John 21:17 "Feed my sheep.” Are life verses for me.

The means by which sheep are kept alive is by being led to green pasture by a shepherd. The means by which Timothy would be saved (sanctified which MUST proceed being glorified) was to watch his life and his doctrine and persevere in them. The means by which his hearers would be saved… (sanctified which MUST proceed being glorified) was again Timothy’s perseverance in a pure life and doctrine.

Praying for a Pastor’s perseverance in these, puts a tool in God’s hand by which He ensures the progress of many towards our heavenly home. Notice Paul says, ”you will save” When I preach and teach and counsel and lead an individual to Christ, biblically speaking, I am saving them, sanctifying them. Just like grass and water may save a sheep. I am being used to save, to sanctify them. What a terrifying responsibility, that keeps me from sloth and pursuing ease. What a high, noble, joyous privilege that I would not trade for ANYTHING!!!

Thank-you for your prayers. They are the means by which I can continue to be a means to lasting joy for you.

The Risks of Not Loving

C. S. Lewis on the Danger of Love
By Jonathan Parnell | Feb 14, 2012 12:00 pm


If you were having a cup of tea with C. S. Lewis on Valentine's Day, and you asked him sincerely, "Mr. Lewis, am I better not to love because it's so risky?" — he might say something like this:

Of all arguments against love none makes so strong an appeal to my nature as “Careful! This might lead you to suffering.”

To my nature, my temperament, yes. Not to my conscience. When I respond to that appeal I seem to myself to be a thousand miles away from Christ. If I am sure of anything I am sure that his teaching was never meant to confirm my congenital preference for safe investments and limited liabilities.…

There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness.

But in that casket — safe, dark, motionless, airless — it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.


The Four Loves, (New York, Harcourt, 1960), Kindle Location 1541.

Exhausted

…he pursued… exhausted
Judges 8:12, 15

Gideon and his men pursued their enemies led by Zeba and Zalmunna and though Gideon requested bread from towns along the way, he and his men received none. They pursued, exhausted, yet they were triumphant and displayed that at times we will accomplish what we must only in a state of fatigue.

We like to be well-rested and fed and at the top of our game, but this is not the only condition in which meaningful victories will be won. History is made by weary people who perceive their goals as more important than their performance and keep going, at least for a time, until the opportunities have yielded their potential.

Paul knew the experience of exhaustion in accomplishment.
2 Corinthians 4:8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

He knew what it was to come to the end of his resources and yet continue pursuing, continue fighting. He knew what it cost to win.

February can bring many people into this state of depletion. It is a time to find appropriate rest and enjoyment, but it is also a time to continue the fight for faith and hope and joy, commodities too precious to neglect.

May we continue to pursue, though perhaps exhausted and anticipate victory granted by God.

Engaged

After dating for a little better than five months, Tina and I are happy to announce our engagement. We have not set an exact date yet but are aiming for the end of June or the beginning of July. It is an amazing thing for the two of us, both widows, to experience the kind of work that God does. It is He who says, “I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.” Jeremiah 31:13

It is good to have his word as our guide.

1Timothy 5:14
I counsel younger widows to marry…

Genesis 2:18
The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone…

1Corinthians 7:2
Each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.

1Corinthians 7:39
A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. If her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, but only if he loves the Lord.

We are grateful for His guidance and His provision and are happy for the encouragement of so many. Thanks to everyone who has increased our joy by sharing it.

"unlovableness"

Thank-you for getting this. That is my point. "unovableness" is a lie of the Devil planted early on in a child’s life and may become so familiar that it is difficult to imagine ever living without it. We may even come to embrace it, using it as a self-pitying crutch to reject the love of God. We may in fact use it to refuse to live under his loving constraint and guidance and grace. God does love you and me. We are lovable. We are loved. You must choose to either accept His love or reject it and be responsible for that choice. There is no excuse in saying, "I am unlovable". That doesn’t even exist.