Wanna Be a Steader!

I am a big fan of Vision Forum (www.visionforum.com), headed by Doug Phillips. 

I receive his newsletters and this is what came to me today.  I thought this was beautiful and wanted to share it with you.  This is our dream for our daughters, who we have brought up with courting (not dating) in mind.

Blessings from Ohio, Kim Wolf<>< 

We are living in amazing times. It is the best of times and it is the worst of times. While the world is sending its daughters into combat, redefining marriage, cutting off the godly seed and pushing America to a negative population growth, there is a growing number of families who are experiencing the very type of revival anticipated in the last verse of the Old Testament and proclaimed in anticipation of the coming of John the Baptist:

And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. (Malachi 4:6)

Evidence of this revival is found in a growing love for Christ, and an appreciation for His vision of the Christian family. As the hearts of fathers turn to sons and sons to fathers, the biblical doctrines of honor, multi-generational faithfulness and covenant keeping become a living reality. Parents begin to look at children as a blessing, not as a curse. Local churches seek to equip parents, not to usurp them. Parents recognize the critical nature of the local church in the life of their family. The home becomes a God-blessed place for evangelism, discipleship and generational care. In short, biblical revival brings reformation. One of the most precious reformation works is a new vision to follow the ancient paths as they pertain to marriage.

On August 26, my personal assistant, Mr. Peter Bradrick (son of Michael Bradrick, President of Chistian Heritage Home Educators of Washington) married Miss Kelly Brown (author of Coming In on a Wing and a Prayer and daughter of NCFIC Director, Scott Brown).

In so many ways the marriage and the wedding was a defining moment for a community of Christians yoked in the bonds of love and friendship. The marriage meant the realization of years of hopes and dreams and prayers. (For more photos on Doug’s Blog click here.)

First, the marriage represented the coming together, not merely of two individuals, but of two families of generational vision, Gospel emphasis, and tremendous doctrinal and orthopraxic agreement. Both families have been at the forefront of the battle to restore the biblical family to the condition, status, law, and jurisdiction presented by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in Holy Scripture. Both families have demonstrated a lifetime of love and self-sacrifice for the people of God. Both have suffered the slings and arrows of persecution for godly stands, and both have known the blessings of joyful spiritual victories. Both committed their children to the Lord early in life, and both specifically raised them with a vision for purity, for bold action, and for the strenuous life in Christ. For all of us, marriages like these are the blessed firstfruits of a historic reformation which God is doing within His church, turning the hearts of sons and daughters to their parents, and parents to their sons and daughters.

Second, the marriage was conceived in moral purity. Long ago, both Peter and Kelly had pledged their bodies and their hearts to the one true love with whom they would someday be yoked in marriage. Recognizing that the successive emotional relationships promoted through the dating culture of our era are fraught with trouble and lead to physical and emotional defrauding, they purposed to take the more difficult but higher path which involved receiving wise oversight, direction, and blessing from their parents in laying the foundation for a true biblical espousal.

Third, their marriage was a covenantal marriage. Both bride and groom have demonstrably lived lives as covenant keepers with the God of their fathers. Also, they have honored their parents and, as God has promised, it is “well with” them (Ephesians 6:2-3). Consequently, they have reaped not only the blessings which flow from a life of obedience to the Savior, but the benefits of receiving an enthusiastic and unqualified blessing on their marriage from both sets of parents. Moreover, both bride and groom have honored the Lord by keeping covenant with their local churches. To put it another way: They have been faithful churchmen, honoring their commitments to the local church. Consequently, when bride and groom desired the support of their respective local congregations and their church elders, both received the public, verbal, enthusiastic blessing of the people of God in their lives.

The Bible teaches that men reap what they sow. Covenant keepers reap blessings. Covenant breakers reap judgment. This couple reaped not only great blessings, but they inaugurated their life together by proclaiming to the world that their marriage is about more than themselves. It is about a joint dominion mission for the glory of God. It is about children and grandchildren yet to be born. It is about an unfolding generational vision which they will share as they spend their life together in the service of Christ. And it is about the richness and permanence of the marriage covenant.

The vows below were drafted by Peter and Kelly on their own. They reflect an unusually mature appreciation for the meaning and nature of the biblical marriage covenant. I believe these beautiful and “epistemologically self-conscious” vows could be enormously helpful to future couples who seek to take captive “every thought to the obedience of Christ” (II Corinthians 10:5).

Vows of the Groom

I, Peter David Bradrick, covenant before God and man, to you Kelly Jeannette to be your loving husband, and to lead you, to protect you, and provide for you in the fear of the Lord.^[i] I vow to love you as my wife even as Christ also loved the church, to lay down my life for you;^[ii] to wash you with the water of the Word;^[iii] to love you as my own body and to nourish and cherish you even as the Lord the does the church; to render unto you the affection due you, knowing that I do not have authority over my own body but you do;^[iv] to dwell with you according to knowledge, giving honor unto you, as unto the weaker vessel, and living together with you as heirs together of the grace of life.^[v] You alone will be my delight as the wife of my youth.^[vi] I will fight for you, for our sons, for our daughters, and for our household.^[vii] The Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts you and me.^[viii] I will be yours in times of plenty and in times of want, in times of sickness and in times of health, in times of joy and in times of sorrow, in times of failure and in times of triumph. I pledge to you my life as a loyal and faithful husband.^[ix]

Vows of the Bride

I, Kelly Jeannette, covenant before God and man, to you Peter David Bradrick to be your loyal wife and to submit myself under your headship.^[x] Just as the Church is subject to Christ,^[xi] so I will be to you in everything. I will live first unto our God and then unto you, loving you, caring for you, obeying you, and ever seeking to please you as my earthly lord.^[xii] I will be your discreet, chaste keeper at home,^[xiii] diligently, industriously, and faithfully caring for the affairs of your household so that your heart may always safely trust in me.^[xiv] If the Lord chooses to so bless us, it will be my delight to be your fruitful bearer^[xv] of children, and I will help you diligently teach them the commandments of the Lord as we talk of them in your house, as we walk by the way, when we lie down, and when we rise up.^[xvi] Wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, And your God, my God.^[xvii] The Lord do so to me, and more also, If anything but death parts you and me.^[xviii] I will be yours in times of plenty and in times of want, in times of sickness and in times of health, in times of joy and in times of sorrow, in times of failure and in times of triumph, I pledge to you my life as an obedient and faithful wife.

Conclusion

After the vows were read and the bride and groom pledged their troth to each other, they sealed their covenant with a kiss — a very special kiss, the kind you don’t hear about any more. A kiss of purity and innocence — a genuine first kiss.

As one of the men selected to officiate in the ceremony, I had the glorious, ringside seat to the very first romantic kiss in the life of both the groom and the bride. This is now the fourth or fifth time in my life that I have had the privilege of watching such a “first kiss” as an officiating minister to a wedding ceremony. Here are my conclusions:

First, these beautiful kisses are worth ten thousand sermons. They are an antidote to the cynicism of the age. They are instructive and inspiring. They give hope to mothers and fathers, young men and ladies, and the children we hope will also grow up in purity before the Lord. We are all better off as a community of saints when a pure woman marries a pure man. Our job as parents, elders, friends, and relatives is easier, because of this godly example.

Second, these kinds of kisses are victory kisses. Against all “odds” the couple has run the race to the finish line. They have won the first great race of their lives. Victory is sweet.

Third, they are also covenant kisses. They represent the blessing of God on the faithfulness of parents, their children, and the children yet to be born who will drink deeply from the testimonies of those who went before them. (Visit Doug’s Blog for more photos of the wedding celebration and the bride.)

Finally, they are biblical kisses. I call them biblical kisses because these kisses (as much as any part of the wedding ceremony, other than the vows themselves) restore the biblical imagery of the marriage covenant to its beautiful representation of the eternal, holy groom and his spotless bride. Body and soul, bride and groom have kept themselves only for each other.

[i] I Timothy 5:8
[ii] Ephesians 5:25
[iii] Ephesians 5:26
[iv] 1 Corinthians 7:4
[v] 1 Peter 3:7
[vi] Proverbs 5:18
[vii] Nehemiah 4:14
[viii] Ruth 1:17
[ix] Hosea 2:19-20
[x] Ephesians 5:22
[xi] Ephesians 5:24-25
[xii] 1 Peter 3:6
[xiii] Titus 2:5
[xiv] Proverbs 31:11
[xv] Psalms 128:3
[xvi] Deuteronomy 6:7; 11:19
[xvii] Ruth 1:16
[xviii] Ruth 1:17