30. WHAT WILL BE YOUR WEDDING DAY MESSAGE?

My One Day Dream Wedding Series)

I think that Christians (that is, genuine believers in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, who have confessed him as Lord, repented of their sins and submitted their lives in surrender to his Lordship), should put more thought into a Wedding than the people of the world do.

I am not referring to frock and frills but I think that a Wedding, for a Christian couple, should not be approached casually as the world sometimes approaches it. For, apart from the fact that it holds significant spiritual meaning (which every Christian getting married should appreciate), it is far too major a milestone and momentous an occasion for that. It is the start of something wonderful and who can tell what God may do with this new family, for his Kingdom?

We are children of the most High God and it is clear in the Bible, that Marriage is a sacred, honourable, beautiful thing, thought up by God and indicative symbolically of the relationship that Christ has with the Church. I think that Christian couples should therefore give careful thought to the message they want their day to send to the world and how it can bring glory to Christ.

Personally, if someone were to ask what I wanted my one-day Wedding to say, I definitely have a theme in mind but in terms of a statement, I would say that the message I want it to convey is multi-dimensional.

That is, should the good Lord decide to grace me with a spouse which I’m trusting him to do, I want my Wedding Day to demonstrate thirteen (13) things in particular, as follows:

1. ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE WITH GOD.

I want my Wedding day to demonstrate that absolutely nothing is too hard for God to do. He is able to provide and abundantly in areas where, humanly speaking, there is a dearth. He is all powerful and he operates through our faith in Him.

2. OUR TOO LATE IS HIS ON TIME.

I want my Wedding day to demonstrate that there is no time limit in which the Lord can operate. Our too late is His on time, even as Lazarus’ sisters and friends learned when he was raised from the dead after stinking for four days. When people have given up on you because they figure that too much time has passed is when God usually steps in and says: I’m ready to work my miracle now.

3. I AM ACCEPTED IN THE BELOVED.

I want my Wedding day to demonstrate that, no matter who has positioned themselves as my enemy in life or hated on me or disliked me or rejected and abandoned me, that by the grace of God, I am His and He is mine. Due to my acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ and what he did for me on the cross, I am loved by Him and accepted into his Royal family and absolutely nobody, not even principalities or powers, can pluck me out of His hands or change that beautiful fact.

4. GOD CAN DO GREAT THINGS WITH A WRETCH LIKE ME.

I want my Wedding day to demonstrate that, if we submit ourselves to the Lord, no matter how many mistakes we may have made in our lives thus far or how lowly people think of us or how difficult our life has been, no matter how hopeless our situation looks, he is able to put his comeliness upon us and make us shine beautifully, reflecting his radiance and his glory.

5. MODESTY IS THE BEST POLICY.

I want my Wedding day to demonstrate that God’s daughters don’t need to follow the world in the way they dress. I have seen a trend where the immodesty which characterizes women of the world, has seeped into Christian Weddings as well, as if Christian women feel that they must adopt what the world calls ‘sexiness’ in order to be considered beautiful and a bridal success.

It is a trend I abhor. We are supposed to be leading the way and have the world follow, not the other way around. 1 Timothy 2:9 states that women who profess to be godly should “…adorn themselves in modest apparel.” Modesty should therefore never go out of style for God’s daughters but should be something that they proudly embrace, as valuable women in God’s sight and especially on a day as sacred as their Wedding day.

Exposing one’s body in dress makes one look cheap and easy, two things that should never characterize God’s precious daughters. I therefore want to send the message that modesty is still the best policy and more than that: That it is possible to dress modestly (that is with all your God-given assets covered) and still look lovely and perhaps even more beautiful, attractive and radiant than those who feel the need to reveal their bodies.

I think that as women of God, we need to stay true to who we are called to be in Christ Jesus and not drift the way of the world. Esther in the Bible stayed true to who she was as a Jew, when it was her time to be taken to the king. The king intended to select one of many women to be Queen and I am sure that many women were hopeful that they would be the one chosen. Yet, when it was Esther’s turn to go to see the king, like the other women, she was given the opportunity to ask for whatever she wanted, as the worldly view was that somehow, this could help a woman stand out more and procure the eye of the king. Other women may have asked for a whole lot of items I am sure and felt confident that this would get them noticed but their attempts failed.

When it was Esther’s turn to go in, the Bible states that she asked for nothing, other than what she was appointed. She went in as herself with the favour of God on her life and this caused her to shine more radiantly than the other women, capturing not just the attention of the king but all who saw her. Needless to say, the king took notice, preferred her over all the other women and chose her to be his Queen.

6. GOD IS THE GOD OF REDEMPTION & RESTORATION.

I want my Wedding day to demonstrate that God redeems any person that will come to him and beautifully but that even when the redeemed make mistakes, once they repent, he restores. The conclusion of the matter therefore is that there is no write-off with Christ. In him there is always hope. There is no person that he cannot redeem or cannot restore. Those that are written-off by man, considered to be absolutely worthless, too far gone and insignificant, he loves to write-on.

7. GOD CAN DO EXCEEDING ABUNDANTLY.

I want my Wedding day to demonstrate boldly, that there is no shortage in heaven, that what God provides to those who wait on him (even if it is a long wait) is always of high quality, that it surpasses even the best of expectations and that he is able to bless exceeding abundantly above all that we could dream to ask or think, just as is stated in Ephesians 3:20.

Of course this means, that I have to allow the Lord to choose for me and not go selecting someone for myself. I foolishly tried to do this in my early years but I have grown to trust my Lord completely since then and have learned to lean on his understanding while abandoning my own. I have therefore resolved to wait on him, no matter how long it takes and I know because he is faithful and all powerful, that, once he intends for me to be married (and I believe he does), that he has a high quality, godly man in store for me, somewhere, which he will reveal in His time.

8. THE EXTENT OF MY GRATITUDE, THANKSGIVING & PRAISE.

I want my Wedding day to demonstrate that, given all that God has done for me in my life thus far (and he has done a lot), my heart is overwhelmed with gratitude, thanksgiving and praise, to the point where I desire to pour it all out on Him, even as the woman with the alabaster box of ointment that was very precious, poured it out on Jesus. When I consider all the pain that I have been through from childhood to date, the upheavals I’ve had, the valleys I’ve been in, the dangers I’ve faced and how good Jesus’ hand of provision, protection and preservation has been to me over the years, I often think that people don’t know the cost of the ointment in my alabaster box but God does. I therefore want to convert all that he has done for me into praise and thanksgiving, from a heart filled to overflow with gratitude.

9. GOD IS THE BEST LOVE STORY.

I want my Wedding day to demonstrate the fact that the God I serve is not a boring, dull, uneventful God but one that is full of excitement, drama, suspense and romance. That is what you experience when in a relationship with Him, unsurpassed by anything else you will ever experience. In fact, I want it to be known that, as the God of love, he himself is the best love story. No earthly relationship could ever compare. As someone once said (and those in relationship with him know this to be true in their lives), “To fall in love with God is the GREATEST ROMANCE; to seek him THE GREATEST ADVENTURE; to find him THE GREATEST HUMAN ACHIEVEMENT.”

10. JESUS HAS RESURRECTION POWER.

I want my Wedding day to demonstrate the fact that the Christ that we Christians serve did not remain dead but He rose up again and victoriously. He is therefore alive and in Him there is resurrection power. He is therefore able to raise up his children (those who have his spirit within them) out of any dead situation, no matter how long they may have been in it. For, he is THE resurrection and THE life, as he declared in John 11:25, before he raised Lazarus, who was rotting and stinking for four days, back to life again.

11. ITS ALL ABOUT CHRIST & THE CHURCH.

I want my Wedding day to demonstrate the real meaning of marriage and to remind people that it signifies and is symbolic of the relationship between Christ (who the Bible describes as the Bridegroom) and the Church (who the Bible describes as the Bride). It is my view that this is sometimes lost, even among Christians and I want to bring it back to the fore.

12. GOD IS THE GOD OF FORGIVENESS, GRACE & MERCY.

I want my Wedding day to demonstrate that the God we serve is a forgiving God, full of grace and mercy, which he is willing to give to us, once we see the error of our ways, repent of our sins and turn/return to Him. His gifts to us are grace gifts because we are so undeserving, yet he gives them to us anyway. I therefore want these three words: forgiveness, grace and mercy, to echo throughout the day’s affair.

13. THE AWESOMENESS, GRANDEUR AND EXCELLENCY OF JESUS CHRIST.

I want my Wedding day to demonstrate and in so doing, remind people of the awesomeness, excellency and greatness of Jesus Christ, the one who possesses great power and magnificence, who is majestic and highly lifted up, the one who doeth all things with perfection, the theme of all creation and redemption, the anointed one, the one who makes no mistakes, has no sin and is spotlessly beautiful, the light and Saviour of this world.

SUMMARY

If I were to put all that I have listed above into one paragraph, I would say that I want my one-day Wedding to demonstrate that ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE WITH GOD, that OUR TOO LATE IS HIS ON TIME, that I may always be unpopular but I AM ACCEPTED IN THE BELOVED, that WHAT HE CAN DO WITH A WRETCH LIKE ME once submitted to his will is so phenomenal, it will blow your mind, that MODESTY IS THE BEST POLICY, that with God there is REDEMPTION & RESTORATION, that he is able to provide EXCEEDING ABUNDANTLY over anything we could ask or think, thereby filling our hearts with GRATITUDE, THANKSGIVING & PRAISE, that GOD HIMSELF IS THE BEST LOVE STORY, that in him is RESURRECTION POWER, that marriage itself symbolizes CHRIST & THE CHURCH, that all that we have is because of his FORGIVENESS, GRACE & MERCY and that we ought to appreciate and meditate on THE AWESOMENESS, GRANDEUR AND EXCELLENCY OF JESUS CHRIST.

As a matter of fact, having written the above, I subsequently thought a few weeks later that I also want my Wedding Day to demonstrate the following additional points:

14. THE DECREE OF THE KING IS GREATER THAN THE WILL OF YOUR ENEMIES.

I want my Wedding day to demonstrate the fact that whatever God wills and has decreed for your life, once he has purposed that it will be done, it will be done, no matter how much opposition you face or what people think or say, how much time has passed and how hard the enemy fights against it.

This was made clear in the book of Ezra in the Bible, when, after king Cyrus (whose spirit had been stirred up by God) had decreed that the Jews were to build the house of the Lord God, opposition came to try to frustrate the work and abort their mission (Ezra 1:1-6;4:1-6).

When the leadership changed, the enemies of the Jews sent a mischievous report to the successor king Artaxerxes, causing the work to cease but only temporarily. For, whatever God has willed, purposed and planned, may be fought against by the enemy, trouble may come and it may be delayed but it can NEVER be denied.

After king Artaxerxes was no longer on the throne, king Darius took his place and although the enemy tried to get him to stop the work of the Jews which had resumed, the strategy backfired. For, king Darius found in the records, that king Cyrus had made a decree concerning the house of God at Jerusalem and to the dismay of the enemies of the Jews, he reinforced it with a decree of his own.

The long and short of it was, after much opposition, attacks from the enemy and delay, the wall was built because God purposed for this to be so.

Similarly, when God has given a promise (as I believe he gave to me in 2013 and then confirmed in 2014 from his Word, while having my devotions), no matter how hard the enemy tries to derail and frustrate it from happening, it must come to pass because God’s decree is greater than the will of your enemies, greater than how things appear, what you see and greater than even your own insecurities. Looking back on my life and the strategies deployed by the devil to try to mess up my life, it was clearly the will of the enemy that I remain single forever but once God wills it, my Wedding Day will attest to the fact, that it is the will of God that overrules and only the counsel of God will stand.

15. WHEN FAITH GIVES WAY TO SIGHT, IT IS MARVELLOUS TO BEHOLD.

I want my Wedding day to demonstrate that it is indeed a beautiful sight to behold, when that which has been hoped for but not seen for many years, finally gives way to sight, when that which has been dreamed of and prayed about and waited on patiently, finally materializes and God provides, not just any man but one after his own heart, one indwelled by his Spirit and in short, a high quality spouse.

16. THE LORD BEAUTIFULLY PRESERVES.

I want my Wedding day to demonstrate, even as the Israelites found when their clothes and shoes did not age despite the many years they had spent in the wilderness, that God beautifully preserves his children. As long as he may take to bring what he has willed to pass, he is able to present his children with youthful exuberance and radiance, so much so, that they do not look a day older than they did ten years ago.

17. ALL GOD’S PROMISES ARE YEA AND AMEN.

I want my Wedding day to demonstrate that whatever God promises is a sure promise. It can be relied upon and even prepared for because it will surely come to pass, no matter how the situation looks or how intense the opposition or how long it takes. He may take his time but he does come and whatever he promises to do, he delivers because he is faithful to his word.

18. ITS ABOUT RELATIONSHIP, NOT RELIGION.

I want my Wedding day to demonstrate the sweet intimacy that comes from someone having had and continuing to have a personal relationship and walk with the Lord. I want the day to attest to the fact that the bride and the groom are people that are not religious but instead have walked with the Lord who is real and not just a theoretical character of which we read in the scriptures, that we have had relationship with him, been in communication with him, enjoyed sweet fellowship with him, been through thick and thin with him and that we know him personally.

19. THE LORD HIMSELF IS MY INHERITANCE.

I want my Wedding day to scream out loud that, of all the good things I could ever hope to acquire in this life, it is the Lord himself that is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup, as David noted in Psalm 16:5. He gives good gifts to his children but having him in my life and his Son Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, far surpasses everything else because he is the best gift of all.

20. WHOSOEVER WILL MAY COME.

I want my Wedding day to demonstrate that, just as invitations went out and people were called and people chose to come to my Wedding and partake of all that the day had to offer, the greatest invitation of a lifetime has been sent out to all the world by Jesus Christ, beckoning all to come. The offer is for a limited time but for now, whosoever will, may come. There is no discrimination when people come to Jesus Christ and accept his salvation invitation, which is freely offered and can be accessed by having faith in him. Those who come to Jesus’ marriage feast, obtain eternal life, gain access to heave and are given royal status.

Romans 10:9-13 reads:

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.For the scripture saith, WHOSOEVER believeth on him shall not be ashamed.For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.For WHOSOEVER shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Revelations 22:17 also states of Jesus’ glorious invitation to all of mankind: “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And WHOSOEVER will, let him take the water of life freely.”

CONCLUSION

I don’t believe that all this has been placed on my heart of my own volition but I believe that God has placed it there. I therefore long for the day when with his help and presence (because I can do nothing in my own strength and what I desire for that day is much bigger than me), He brings this vision, which admittedly I have held on to for several years, to pass.

(Written on 01st July, 2020 but subsequently expanded)

ADDENDUM

On 8th May, 2021, one more message came to my mind and I simply must add it here.

21. THERE IS NOTHING IN ALL THE WORLD LIKE MUSIC, THAT TRULY HONOURS AND BRINGS GLORY TO GOD.

I want my Wedding day to demonstrate that pure, reverential, sober, respectful and unadulterated music, which is based on God’s Word and seeks to bring nothing but honour and glory to Him, where the focus is truly on Him and on worshipping Him is music of which God approves and is the most beautiful music there is.

It never becomes outdated and it has absolutely no comparison. It is sweet to the ear and stirring to the soul. It brings comfort, where applicable but also conviction if due. It causes man to see the woefulness of himself while gaining insight and appreciation into the holy perfection of God. It causes man to be in awe at the magnificence of his Creator, of how high and exalted He is and how sinful man is in comparison. It causes man to take to his knees, to bow his heart in humility, acknowledging that truly, He (God) alone is worthy “…to receive glory and honour and power.” For He created all things, and for His pleasure they are and were created. (Revelation 4:11 KJV)

I want my Wedding day to demonstrate that genuine Christian music (not the cheap imitations being bandied about today) is superior to all other music. It is the best. There is nothing like it in all the world.

It does not seek to resemble anything or to sound a certain way or to be accepted by the world. It is not birthed from selfish, self-serving motives but simply from a humble heart that seeks to worship God for who he is and all that he has done.

What the world offers and what is many times touted today as ‘gospel music’ but is really music from the devil, created for entertainment, revelry, for the flesh to feel good, for man to have a false sense of comfort while clinging to religiosity and to win man’s praise, admiration, popularity and accolades, fade in comparison.

When you hear genuine Christian music that honours God, the discerning and many times, even the non-discerning, can tell the difference because it is different. It doesn’t seek to mix with the world and to fit in with it but stands out, separate and apart, as a city that is set upon a hill stands out or as a light that is placed in a dark room shines forth, expelling all the darkness round about.

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