Proverbs 22

The pursuit of money is the passion of many. Where does it all lead? Can it satisfy you? How many people pursue wealth above all, and yet find that riches seem to be far from their grasp?

If you want to have economic security, there are better ways and worse ways to pursue that goal. If being comfortable is a primary desire above all, it blinds a person, and leads to choices that are against the Word of the Lord. God is in charge of everything. Won't we all do better by seeking the Giver of every good gift as our highest desire?

What should we do when fear, greed, and covetousness arouse our interest more than the Lord? Repent. Tell Him about it. Ask for forgiveness, and let your mind be renewed by the Word and Spirit of God.

Look for prudence, humility, a generous heart, and the integrity of a good name. These are a better way to live than thinking that life is all about money. You will also tend to do better in life by paying attention to these matters of character, than in giving your heart over to covetousness.

Clarity of spirit is not only important to you, but also to any children or grandchildren you may have. They will see the pattern of your life that you may refuse to admit to yourself. Your descendants are being trained up in your passions. Train them up in the ways of humility and character, and trust the Lord to hold them in that good training throughout their lives. That kind of example will be very hard to run away from in the end.

Your children may sample a life of laziness and immorality in a world that has very different values than they were once taught. But can they really settle for that pig slop after seeing the peace and fruitfulness of the Lord's ways in your life? Like the wayward son in Luke 15, eventually they will think about the home they came from, and about the father they have left behind. Count on that, and pray for the wayward.

Have you disciplined your child in the ways of character? Was lying and stealing applauded in your home, or did it win the young ones some form of correction? Was it “survival of the fittest” in your playroom, or did not the strong have to share with the weak? Was laziness rewarded in your house? Didn't the young ones have to learn how to work hard in school and at home? Did you show them in word and action that the goodness and greatness of God was more important than anything else?

We can certainly find fault with our parenting and with our submissiveness as children. Even our wisest and most righteous acts are filthy when compared to the perfect righteousness of the perfect Son of God. He saw the way of His Father and He loved it and followed it. Did it lead Him to great wealth? In a way it did. The Son of God did His work very well, and now He is forever the King over all with all the fullness of glory under His authority. Yet the way to glory for Jesus was through suffering. His cross brought the generosity of divine forgiveness to us.

Have we failed as parents and children? Yes, but Jesus forgives us, and He has a new way of life for us now, even if it seems too late in the day for a new beginning.

Proverbs 21

God is the One and only. There are powerful men, and every man has a self to contend with, but if you were able to satisfy the most powerful leaders in the world, and if you had the highest self-esteem and personal happiness of anyone on the planet, but did not have peace with God, your situation would be perilous.

The Lord weighs the heart. His judgment of any person or situation is far more important than that of anyone else. Secret lies and perfectly executed violence do not escape His notice. He knows what is in your soul. He understands what makes a women contend against her husband, even when she and her husband cannot figure out why their marriage is unhappy.

God has established ways for everyone to grow in wisdom and in favor with others. There are systems of discipline among mankind, and if we will take correction to heart, it will be a benefit to us. God has given all of us the ability to learn by observation and testing. We can even study history and philosophy and learn much about the ways of the world in order to avoid patterns of thought and life that are destructive. But if we do not find a solution to the problem of the Lord's righteous wrath coming against us for our sin, how can we rationally face death with peace? But now we have heard the news of the death and resurrection of the Son of God, and we have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

With that secure foundation, we can put off the old man of self-preoccupation and secret scheming, and put on the new man which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of our Creator and Redeemer. We can give gifts in secret for the pleasure of the Lord rather than having to promote ourselves to others. We can seek justice with the confidence that the Judge of all the earth will make all things right in season.

In many ways we who believe are just like everyone else. We can study the world that God has made and consider the pathways of time past. We can use our reasoning and aim for righteousness and kindness alongside our neighbors all around us. But we can also seek the mind of the Lord as those who believe the Word of God and have the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us. We can pray to God. We can hope in Him. We can hear His Word. We can rejoice in the Lord.

That Spirit that He has given us enables us not only to make progress in knowing but also in speaking and doing. He grants us restraint and modesty by His grace. He brings us new diligence and generosity. More than any other way that we can make progress in who we are and what we do, God grants to us the blessing of true eternal worship, giving us the privilege even now of offering our bodies to Him as living sacrifices.

All of these blessings are worthy of our most sincere expressions of thanks to God through His Son Jesus Christ. The victory belongs to the Lord. The One and only has loved us with an everlasting love.

Proverbs 20

The answer for young men is not found at the bottom of a bottle, but in a life lived in the fear of the Lord. There is no wisdom in addiction, but only bondage.

Why do so many young men fall into trouble with drugs and alcohol? People need a knowledge of their purpose in life. The purpose in a man's heart is like deep water. A wise friend with more understanding will draw it out.

Young men have a hard time seeing the bigger picture of a long life ahead of them. One big disappointment and everything may seem to crumble. The man who can see Jesus and a life of integrity in living for Him will be a blessing to himself and to future generations.

Only the Lord can enlighten the eyes of someone's heart so that he will see the beauty of godly character. But a friend can help. He can pray and he can be a good voice of godly counsel.

The Lord has given us a natural system of dedicated and loving counsel in a well-ordered family. Here the young ones learn about the love of the Lord and see what it means to live in the fear of the Lord. When trouble comes to a young man in a faithful extended family, God can provide an older man who is loved and respected. But if someone curses his father and mother, who will he listen to when he needs a voice to redirect his way?

Even when a family is in such disrepair that there is no one nearby who is worth following, every boy who knows and loves the Savior has a worthy Friend he should follow. That Friend's Spirit searches out the deep waters of a young man's heart and finds not only the problem that kills but also the gift of the Lord which is that boy's potential for greatness.

This older Brother, the Lord who died for us, has steadfast love and faithfulness for each of His children. His Spirit can show us the way to go. He gives strength to the young and the wisdom of experience and godliness to the old. He disciplines those He loves.

Judges 15

We would like to live at peace with all men at all times, but sometimes peace must be won through warfare. Samson was at war with the Philistines because God had appointed Him to fight against them. In that war, the Lord used the occasion of Samson's marriage to one of the Philistine women in order to bring about His vengeance against them. Many people died in that fight, including Samson's bride and her father. Their own people burned them to death as an expression of their hatred for Samson.

Samson was virtually alone in His determination to fight the war that the Lord had for him in his day. The people of Israel accepted the supremacy of the Philistines over them as an established fact. They saw Samson as the problem and not as their deliverer.

Though he was betrayed by all those who should have been his allies in the fight, Samson had the Spirit of the Lord on his side. With the power of God he was able to win astounding victories.

God miraculously supplied this savior of Israel with water that refreshed him in his solo warfare. He called upon the Name of the Lord for help in his distress and the Lord gave him what he needed so that he might continue in the battle that God had chosen for him.

We were desperate for a very strong Savior, one who would be mightier than Samson. If you are looking for a more amazing victory than killing 100 Philistine warriors with the jawbone of a donkey, how about this one: defeating all the powers of sin and death through one man's death on a cross. Our King fought that fight for us and won!

Abuse against His bride stirs up His wrath even today. He is not safe, but He is the one who alone can bring us to safety. His own people handed Him over to defeat. But with His glorious resurrection He has burst the cords of death that held us. Because of His amazing power, we now have a river of life flowing out of us.

Anyone less than this mighty Warrior could never have won the battle that we needed our righteous King to win. All praise to God who reigns above! Jesus is the Strongman of our salvation!

Judges 14

Samson, the only man in the tribe of Dan in his day that seemed to remember that the Lord had given the land to Israel, a man who had been consecrated from birth as a Nazirite, wanted a wife from the Philistines, the enemies of the Lord's people.

Why not one of the girls from Israel?

His parents wondered, and so do we. Notice these two important clues. The Hebrew tells us something that many English translations obscure. Samson said to his parents, “She is righteous in my eyes.” Samson counted this Philistine girl as righteous. Also, Judges 14:4 tells us, “It was from the Lord.” There was a bigger story of conquest going on, a story that God had not forgotten.

When the time of his wedding feast arrived, it was Samson, a man who could tear apart a lion with his bare hands, who initiated a contest with the Philistines regarding a riddle. He saw the opportunity to pursue the Lord's will of deliverance.

The Philistines put pressure on the weaker vessel, his wife to be, using mortal threats against her and her father's house to turn this Eve against her Adam. That plan seemed to work. They found a weakness in the strong man; he listens to the cries of the one who will be his bride.

Samson was not ignorant of their devices. They had turned away the affections of the girl from her promised beloved. She cried out to her great man, but not for things agreeable to his will. Full of the fear of man, she begged for her own way in deceit.

By the Spirit of the Lord, this wronged savior worked the vengeance of the Lord against those who were oppressing His people. Samson was an instrument of the God's righteous wrath, and the one who was to be his bride was given to another.

The promises of God are sure. When the Lord promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give the land of Canaan to them forever, he meant it. Even the people who have received this inheritance may at times forget both the Giver and the gift. God has not forgotten. He sends His Son, our Savior, to secure the full inheritance that He has for all His people; not just Canaan, but a renewed resurrection creation. Jesus will come again to receive a bride who is righteous in His eyes because of His own life and death for her.

An enemy would like to stand in the way of this marriage, even convincing the church that her loyalties should be to the ruler of this dying world, rather than the strong Savior who has all power and authority in heaven and on earth. Do not fall for that enemy's threats. Remember the cross, and receive the love of the man who is coming to take you as His holy bride.

Judges 13

Psalm 116:9 makes this personal affirmation of our resurrection future: “I will walk with the Lord in the land of the living.” How good do you have to be in order to sing that song as your own? Our trust is in the Lord Jesus alone, who gave His life of perfect righteousness for us. Yet we come to a figure like Samson, and we wonder.

It helps us to read what the Scriptures say beyond Judges about this strong savior of Israel. Hebrews 11:32 includes him as one of the heroes of the faith. Samson was a Christ figure as a savior/judge of Israel. He was also a man who called upon the Name of the Lord, and was saved by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yet his “soul was vexed to death” through a bad relationship with a dangerous woman before the end of his life.

How much of a Christ figure was Samson? More than any other judge in this book. His birth account prepares us for the miraculous coming of our Savior. For forty years Israel had been in the hands of the Philistines. Then the angel of the Lord appeared to a barren woman and made this announcement: “You shall conceive and bear a son.” This child would be a ceremonial picture of perfect holiness, a Nazirite from birth. See Numbers 6. From before he was conceived, the message was given by the Lord that this child would “begin to save Israel.” The “One who works wonders” would give this child for the deliverance of His people during a time of great darkness and distress.

God's purpose in bringing Samson was not to bring death to Israel, but to save them, even at the cost of the life of the appointed servant of the Lord. Samson was not the Messiah. We can find fault with him if we choose. But we need to remember that the sin of this man was not the end of the story for him.

It was the Spirit of the Lord that began to stir in him as he started to walk on the road that would lead to the end of his life under the sun. At just the right time he would win his greatest victory through his death. How can we miss Jesus in this account? And yet we wonder, could not God have picked a better man to prepare us for His holy Son?

Yet Samson walks before the Lord in the land of the living. As Psalm 116:5 says, “Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful.” Psalm 85:10 tells us how God will be merciful. “Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other.” That kiss has come for us in the cross of Christ. Perfected sinners walk before the Lord in the land of the living now because of Jesus, the Lamb of God, who has atoned for our sins.

Proverbs 19

I want to walk in integrity today. I want a desire for God that is informed by a true knowledge of His Word. I want a holy awareness of the life that He has for me to live here and now. I want daily bread for me and for my family, and godliness with contentment, which is great gain. I want the best relationships possible with my wife and children, and fruitfulness for all of my loved ones.

These are good desires. They require the gifts that can only come from Almighty God. This great God is perfect in holiness and justice. When He looked at mankind in Genesis 6:5, He “saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” How can I, in my poverty of spirit, with my unwise use of speech, and my blotted record of life, expect all these good gifts that I desire from such a great God?

This would be impossible without Jesus Christ, the perfect Son of God. He lived and died for me. His record has become my record, and He is King.

In Jesus, the favor of the King of heaven and earth has come to sinners. That favor is not partial, but total and eternal. It is like the dew on the grass, covering every inch of my life with the grace of God.

God has seen my poverty and has made a commitment to my well-being. If others care for me in my need, He will surely pay them back. He has even taken over the management of my life, giving me the correction and discipline I need to make me the son He intends me to be. His purpose will stand forever. It is secured in the steadfast love and obedience of Jesus Christ. He has reserved for me a life without the harm of this fallen world, a life that is there for me even now in the present heavens.

Without Jesus, I have no way of understanding how God could rightly give me anything good. But in Jesus, I can ask the Lord for heavenly wisdom and He will give me the desire of my heart. I am a child of the King. I want to hear the Word of my Father and follow Jesus today. Lead on, O King eternal!

Proverbs 18

What would wisdom look like in my life if God had His way? His opinion would be more important than mine, and I would expect to hear it more in communion with His people than in a life of isolation with my own thoughts.

He has a fountain of wisdom for me, a bubbling brook of life. We can drink from those healthy waters together.

My sinful flesh wants to add a dissenting opinion. The Spirit of God says, “Rejoice in the Lord always!” My old heart insists on a soulful rendition of “Nobody knows the troubles I've seen.” But God will win.

Not all communion with others will move me in the right direction. If I listen to whisperers who are sowing discontent, how will I be helped to be more like Jesus? But if we open up the word together, if we pray and sing to the Lord, my heart will rejoice in the Lord, and so will yours.

The ear of the wise seeks knowledge. Will you help me by speaking words of life in my hearing? It is the responsibility of the Christian community to acknowledge together the full message of the faith. We do not deny the reality of trouble, but we know that the Name of the Lord is a strong tower for all who trust in Him. We run to that tower together and find security.

Together we use the gifts that God has given us, and we are brought into the presence of the greatest King. We serve one another in love, and find the beloved Husband of the church.

This is why God made us. We have been saved out of a life of folly in order to live together in the wisdom of Jesus Christ for the glory of our Almighty Father. We have a Friend who sticks closer to us than a brother. Think of how He embraced us through His death on the cross. He receives the glorified church as His wonderful bride, a gift of His own grace. May the Lord help us to share His heavenly assessment and to walk in the wisdom that comes from knowing Him together.

Proverbs 17

What do you want today? Quiet or strife? Wisdom or shame? How can you live a quiet life growing in the wisdom that comes from above, and stay far away from unnecessary strife and foolishness that only brings more trouble?

Sin entered the world through one man. Now life under the sun is badly broken. A bad report is eagerly heard and spreads like fire. Evil people use their money to get their own way. Others make promises that they cannot keep and people they may not even know feel the pain. Even family members may not be respectful or loving to one another. Not only evil people get hurt. The best around us are not exempt from getting their hearts badly bruised. They may not be able to find the way back to joy.

Where is wisdom? Who will fix the problems that are not only outside us but within us?

The Lord Jesus tests hearts. He also covers an offense.

He came into this present world of strife and brought a new world of love into being. He covered over our deep offenses with His own righteous blood. He took away our shame. He is bringing into the hearts of His people a new resolve to live a quiet life of godliness and sincerity with Him and with one another.

He is a friend who loves at all times, a brother who came to us in our worst adversity. He has given us good reason to have a joyful heart today, which is very good medicine.

Proverbs 16

Not every impulse of my heart is from the Holy Spirit. The plans I come up with need testing, and I need discernment. More than anything, I need the mind of Christ, which is a heart of wisdom.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:16, “But we have the mind of Christ.” We. I need godly companions who will help me to understand the difference between my flesh and the Spirit of Christ that dwells within us.

Arrogance in not a fruit of the Spirit. The Lord hates it. But Christ atoned for my arrogance. With His patient love, He is using the communion of saints to bring me a better heart.

Godly friends remind me what my renewed heart really desires. I want Jesus Christ. Wealth and fame are very poor substitutes for Jesus. He will establish my steps. He is my righteous King and a friend of sinners. I have found life in the light of His face.

Every day I need to give thought to the Word of God. It is the only way for me to discover good sense again for the day ahead. It is the way that my Savior leads me to refreshing waters. We can hear that Word together.

I am looking for the fruit of His love in my life today. Will my heart be patient? Will my words reflect the grace that I have received from the Lord? Or will I just fall into an old rut, an arrogant way of thinking and speaking that seems right to my flesh?

But the Lord will protect me. I will pray for you, and you will pray for me, and the body of Christ will find a new way of life. Jesus will win. His powerful death and His glorious resurrection were not in vain. We have been given a gift. You and I have the mind of Christ.

Judges 12

 “Jesus, Savior, pilot me!”

The ship of our lives requires a captain. One of the blessings of reading history, including biblical history, is that we are able to gain a larger perspective on life than we can normally hold on to when we are working on today's to-do list. We need a pilot who understands the whole journey of the history of heaven and earth and the part that our lives will play in that journey.

The Lord used Jephthah greatly in the defeat of the Ammonites. He lost his only child in an experience that is still difficult for us to understand. His life was not yet over after his tragedy. He judged Israel for six years, and they were sad days of brother fighting against brother.

The Lord Jesus is building up a body, a new Israel, over which He is the head. We are told to pursue the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Sometimes it is not clear what spirit we are actually following.

The people of Ephraim had a spirit. They made trouble for Gideon in an earlier generation. They made more trouble for Jephthah and many of them lost their lives. As the years moved forward in the history of Israel, this same spirit of division was displayed in an unwillingness to yield to God's chosen leader. This spirit would continue in the northern tribes for many generations.

Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit, which was very different than the Ephraim spirit. When you are full of the Holy Spirit, you are full of a Spirit of worship, thanksgiving, and submission. The Ephraim spirit is a spirit of pride, resentment, and rebellion.

We need the Holy Spirit. We need our Savior to cast out of us every other spirit that would hinder the unity of the body of Christ and our fruitfulness together as a new world of loving friends.

The Holy Spirit loves to see Jesus honored and obeyed. He loves the new resurrection life that the Lord brings. He loves the Word of God, and would have that Word dwell richly within us.

The generations pass, and judges that we will never remember fill the days between God's surprising gifts of Jephthah and Samson. Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon all seemed very significant in their days, but a larger view of Israel leaves them and their descendants with only a brief mention. They fill the space between an amazing son of a prostitute and a mighty savior who allowed a woman to destroy him.

Jephthah and Samson would be far more important in helping us to understand the Messiah than the men who filled the twenty-five years in between them. But who could have known that at the time?

How we live in our own day has everything to do with the spirit that is filling us. We need the Spirit of the One who gave His life for us in love.

“Jesus, Savior, pilot me

over life's tempestuous sea;

unknown waves before me roll,

hiding rock and treacherous shoal.

Chart and compass come from thee;

Jesus, Savior, pilot me.”

Judges 11

In I Samuel 12 and Hebrews 11 Jephthah is remembered as a man of faith sent by God. This savior for Israel was not one that would fit any profile for greatness that we might write. But then no one expected that anything good could come from Nazareth.

Jephthah was a mighty warrior. So was Jesus. Jephthah experienced his greatest victory at the cost of his daughter's future. Jesus brought us His greatest accomplishment through the free offering of His own life for our sins.

Jephthah was the son of a prostitute, a man who was despised by his father's sons. But when the elders of the Israelites who lived to the east of the Jordan river needed someone who could lead them against their enemies, the Ammonites, they thought of this mighty leader of “worthless men.”

Jephthah did not immediately proceed with force against the Ammonites, but sent ambassadors to them. In all that he said, Jephthah acknowledged that the Lord was the God of the conquest. He was the one who had given the land east of the Jordan into the hands of His people. The other peoples who had come against Israel could have what their gods might give them. Israel was not in a position to give away what the Lord had determined to be Israel's inheritance. The king of the Ammonites did not have his facts right, but he was not interested in the Word of truth that God brought from this most unlikely prophet.

Notice that Jephthah spoke faithfully about the Lord, had a correct understanding of the Word of the Lord, had the Spirit of the Lord, and made a vow to the Lord. We must not forget all of these facts and pay attention only to the content of Jephthah's confusing vow, especially since Jephthah is not condemned anywhere in the later Scriptures.

What was this vow of Jephthah? “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the LORD's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.” (Judges 11:30-31)

Jephthah sought the Lord for victory against the Ammonites. He made a promise that cost him dearly. Jesus sought His Father for victory over the enemies that assailed us. He made a vow that cost Him His life.

The Lord gave Jephthah victory over the Ammonites. The sovereign God of the universe also knew who would be coming out from the doors of Jephthah's house to meet him after that victory, his only child.

What exactly happened to Jephthah's daughter? That part is somewhat confusing. She mourned her virginity for two months with her friends, not her impending sacrificial death. She was willing to give herself as the promised offering, but could it be that she became a dedicated servant of the Lord, remained unmarried and childless, but lived entirely for Him? Did her father's promise lead to her actual death?

When the Father made a promise to save us through the death of His only-begotten, He made a covenant that He would not break. His child, Jesus, gave Himself willingly to fulfill that promise. That vow did cost a life. There is no confusion concerning that death. But now, Jesus lives, and a resurrection kingdom has been born.

Judges 10

Life goes on after Gideon and his evil usurping son Abimilech. Life always seems to go on. One day there will be something very new under the sun. Christ will come again and bring with Him the fulness of the resurrection world that He has been building in the present heavens since He ascended on high.

The world and the “church” that has abandoned the Scriptures have something new for you under the sun. It is not new at all, but it it feels new, perhaps because of its worldwide scale. Israel tried out this “new” way after the death of Gideon. They chose the gods of mother earth and the gods of the cultures all around them. It led to death. It always does.

Is there anything good in the false religion of Baal worship and totem poles? Nothing that could not be learned more purely from Jesus, the Lord of heaven and earth, and from the Holy Spirit illuminated Word of the Scriptures.

Jesus is Lord. Any new way that rejects His unique position as King over the present and the future is not a way that leads to life. It may look innovative, healthy, gentle, and open, but it is as closed-minded and dead as the grave. Any truth thrown into that bad mix is only there to fool you and to lead you further into a web of lies.

We trust in the Christ of the Scriptures. It is our expectation that He will lead us in truth.

Do not forsake the Lord. Trust Him. Serve Him. Call upon His Name. When it seems like He has utterly given up on you, do not believe it. He is full of kind compassion. Tell Him again that you need Him. Ask Him to lead you back home.

One day the right Man will come. He knows the times and the seasons. He created them in the beginning. Today is the day that He has made for you to serve Him under the sun. He has not forgotten His wounds for you. Do not accept any false substitute for Jesus. The Christ of the cross and the resurrection is our only hope.

Proverbs 15

My father had gentle hands and kind eyes. I remember very fondly his comforting care for me in times of trouble and his soft-spoken wisdom. I knew that he loved me, and I loved him.

If I look for the very best expression of wise fatherhood, I can do no better than to see the source of all fatherhood in God. If I want to know what that fatherhood looks like, I can do no better than to look at the Son of the Father, the visible manifestation of the invisible God.

Jesus and the Father were somehow one. When Jesus spoke with such knowledge and power, the Father was speaking. All fathers in this world have limited understanding, but the ascended Jesus sees all.

To know all and to be able to speak with a gentle tongue is a an amazing display of character. We can speak to God today and He listens. He invites us to bring our concerns to Him, to praise Him, and to thank Him for all His goodness. It is good for us to express our thanks to our heavenly Father. What an encouragement to our souls to know that our prayers are offered up to the Father through His perfectly righteous Son! The prayers of the upright are acceptable to Him.

How can we have a glad countenance in a world of regret and sorrow? Jesus has brought a smile to His Father's glorious face, and that smile is so full of joy that it now extends to all who are found in Him. Rejoice in the Lord always! Have a glad heart. It will make your face cheerful, and your life will be a continual feast.

Living in the joy of the Lord is true wisdom. Even thought the pathway of the righteous goes through this present moment of affliction, this road of following Christ in the joy of the Holy Spirit leads upward.

We have good news granted to us in the Father's joy. His righteous requirements have been fully satisfied. His Son has done all things well. Our Father is very glad. Though He is far from the wicked, He hears the prayer of the righteous. He comes to us with the gentleness of soft-spoken, powerful wisdom. We know that He loves us, and that we love Him.

Proverbs 14

The Lord loves His people, and will hear their requests for wisdom. He will build us up in character and fruitfulness if we will hear His voice eagerly and seek Him in prayer.

What passages has the Lord given you to guide you in His life-long project of your sanctification? Ask Him to show you the Scripture that will help you the most today. When we are sure of the goodness of the request, and the importance of the entreaty, we can ask Him with godly boldness and confidence. He will give us what we desire. What would the Lord be delighted to develop within your character over the course of your remaining days here below? What passage most informs that conviction? When we know that answer, we can pray that passage, coming alongside one another as friends in our desire for godliness and wisdom.

Lying, scoffing, laziness.... These are not the will of the Lord for our lives. This is the way of someone who is just being governed by old habits. God has something better planned for you, something we can ask Him for together.

Will we stumble along the way? If you sin, Jesus will help you out of the ditch of evil. He went to the cross as your guilt offering. Never mock the cross. Embrace it as a fact. He has made peace for you with God. Enjoy the Lord's acceptance.

You know your own sadness and joy, but Jesus knows you heart much better than you do, and He has good plans for you. He knows the way to more of His life in your life. You will flourish in His house.

Give thought to your steps. How else will you know where you are going? Ask Him for the wisdom that you need, so that you can walk in His ways. He is steadfast in devising good for you. Have confidence in Him, and take refuge in His love when you call out to Him in prayer.

Receive the tranquil heart today that He has for you. This is a gift that comes from the Lord's own righteousness. He is your confidence. His death and resurrection save you every day. Be lifted up by His excellence and receive the Word of grace that He has ordained for your life. Let His wisdom and peace rest in your heart forever.

Proverbs 13

The infection of sin in this world has hurt family relationships. But Christ, who heard the voice of His Father and obeyed, is able to repair the damage.

When He taught, the people were amazed. His deeds of powerful healing were the fruit of His holy lips. His Word was unstoppable.

He knew when to speak and when to say nothing. He did all that His Father asked of Him. He was obedient to the voice of God, even offering Himself up for us when He died on the cross as our ransom.

In addition to paying our debt to God and supplying all the righteousness that we would need to live at peace with the Father, Christ has become for us the way that we can follow. If we want to know what it means to walk in the light, we can look to Him and live as He lived.

His teaching and His life are one. Everything about Him is a fountain of life to all who trust in His Name.

Those who proclaim to us the Name of the Lord are called to be His faithful envoys. We do not have the liberty to correct our King who died on the cross and rose again from the dead on the third day. Anyone who would be an ambassador for Him must listen to Him and follow Him.

His instructions to us are not cruel, but are designed for our eternal well being. They spring from a perfect heart of love. As the Word of Christ dwells richly within us, our desires change, and the Lord will grant to us the renewed desires of our hearts in fullest measure since he is the Author of every good affection within us.

We walk with the One who is wise and we become wise. We have not spurned His discipline, for we know that the hand of the Lord is merciful and good, though we may suffer for a time. A new day will come. He will satisfy us with perfect joy forevermore in His glorious presence.

Proverbs 12

God has His good ways of correcting us and training us for the perfection of heavenly life over the course of our brief stay here below. It is wise to take that discipline to heart and to learn from it. It is good to change and to become more like Jesus.

Living a wise life requires patience and a conscience that knows the voice of the Lord and is willing to submit to what is right. Without a relationship with our heavenly Father, how will we resist the schemes of our own restless hearts that refuse correction and follow old paths that are not worthy or fruitful? But God is more powerful than our hearts and will lead His children to a better land.

The Lord knows how to make His house stand. He has chosen a glorious bride for His Son, and He is patiently and righteously working all things in heaven and on earth toward a joyful union between Jesus and this beloved bride, the perfected church. We will be the crown of our husband. The heavenly house of our righteous Husband will endure forever.

None of our Lord's pursuits are worthless. He is working all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes. Every Word of our God proceeds from a heart of perfect wisdom that loves mercy and is committed to justice and truth.

Impatient men rush ahead in ways that are out of accord with wisdom. But when Jesus came to establish our eternal blessedness through His own death and resurrection, every thought of His heart was wise, every word that He spoke was good, and all of His actions of love were pure.

Our Lord planned eternal peace for us, and then He patiently fulfilled all righteousness in order to achieve His holy purposes. His conscience is clear. He has great joy right now as He contemplates the fruit that is coming to Him from His holy life.

Jesus died for our sins and was raised from the dead in victory. He loves us with an everlasting love. There is no higher wisdom than to humbly receive our Father's discipline today and to follow Jesus.

Judges 9

As soon as Gideon died, the people were back to the same idolatry that had poisoned the nation in the past. Gideon was gone, but he had many descendants by his wives. He also had been intimate with a woman who was not his wife, who bore him another son. This baby was named by his father “Abimelech,” which means “my father is king.”

That name can be taken in two ways. Gideon had insisted to those who wanted to make him king that the Lord would rule over them. In that case the Lord was King, and the name Abimelech was a statement of relationship to God, that the young one was a child of God, a child of the King. The second way of understanding the Name was in a purely human way. Gideon, my father, was the king, and as his son with this name of royalty, I assert my right to rule in his place as a designated heir. In that case the claim of the name goes beyond, “my father is king,” to something more: “my father is king and I am his designated successor.”

Abimlelch, the son of Gideon and his Shechemite concubine, set out to be a ruler over men. His plan was to use his mother's people as his power base, and to expand his realm from that foundation. This was a direct attack against his father's statement of faith, that the Lord would rule over Israel.

This plan seemed to be successful for a time. Abimelech gathered a band of thugs who murdered all the other sons of Gideon except one that escaped, Jotham. Jotham spoke prophetically against Abimelech and the leaders of Shechem who had supposed that it was in their interest to support Abimelech. Here was one son of Gideon, Jotham, who was not afraid to speak a word in the Name of the Lord when the whole land had returned to the worship of false gods.

Though Abimelech was able to play the mighty man for some time, the Lord was against him. Eventually both he and the leaders of Shechem who had once been his allies were destroyed.

The world is full of stories like this one, where one man asserts himself over others, and seems to win. Some tyrants have even done their murderous deeds under the claim that they represented God, and that they ruled by divine right. But every proud man must one day face the King of kings.

Jesus is the only Man who is the Son of God according to His eternal nature. He came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. To all who receive Him, who believe in His Name, He gave the right to be called children of God. We have been born of God. Our Father is King. We need not be afraid of proud imposters. Our Father in heaven reigns.

Judges 8

The Lord worked a great victory through Gideon and his 300 men, but any day of spiritual celebration can be destroyed by envy and bitterness among those who should be rejoicing in God. The battle with the Midianites may have been won, but the battle in our souls still rages. Wise leaders see the full range of enemies around us and inside us and seek the Lord's hand in every joy and trial.

Gideon's continuing challenges are recorded for our consideration. The Ephraimites to the north are calmed with kind words, and the men of Succoth and Penuel are chastised. Who has the wisdom to know the right words for every occasion? Unless God leads us, victory will soon turn into defeat.

Massive numbers of Midianite armies and their arrogant kings are not our most formidable enemies. The sin within us that so easily entangles us will soon be our downfall even when the Lord defeats a formidable foreign oppressor.

Gideon has been moved by God from being a fearful slave hiding with his small store of grain in a pit to being the mighty man of valor that God intended him to be. But how goes the battle within his own household? How goes the war within his own soul?

When Israel insisted that this great deliverer should be honored as the head of a new dynasty of rulers, Gideon was able to resist temptation, and to assert the truth in faith. “The Lord will rule over you.” But he so quickly fell into an idolatrous trap, making a golden ephod from the spoils of war. All Israel was led away from God by this strange monument that distracted people from the God who had given them victory. Even Gideon and his family fell into the trap.

The land may have had rest for a generation, but what would happen when Gideon was gone? The schemes of a foolish and wicked son would bring more trouble upon the people of God.

We need a Savior that will not only deliver us from the devil and from oppressive powers that seek to destroy the church. We need a Messiah who will give us wisdom to know what to do when we are perplexed and who will help us in our ongoing struggle with sin. We need a Leader who will show us how to discern the way of life from the way of death. We need a Teacher abiding in us who will grant us the joy that is essential for godly living.

Jesus, our Messiah, is this perfect Savior and Lord. He is powerful, wise, and full of kind compassion for His bride, the church. After He made atonement for sin, He sent forth His Spirit to continue this important battle inside us and to subdue the enemy within. He will come again in glory to establish His kingdom in the fullness of His eternal purpose. His victory over evil will be complete and everlasting. His righteousness is not partial or provisional. It will endure forever.

Judges 7

The Lord of Glory would have no problem in instantly removing an oppressive nation from harming His people Israel. But He chooses to use men like Gideon in the process of deliverance. It's not that He needs our wisdom or our strength to accomplish His plans. He has purposes for us and for the world that He has determined to bring about through our involvement in His good work.

God was taking a fearful man and making Him into a mighty man of valor. The danger that He was determined to avoid was not defeat by the Midianites. He wanted to protect Gideon and the Israelites from the temptation of believing that victory would come through their own strength. God saves us. We do not conquer sin and death in our own power. Jesus did that by Himself. But now the Lord calls us into His service and expresses the glory of His love and justice through us.

In our own meager strength, today might feel like a day for more fear and confusion. The Lord has something else in mind. We are called to lift holy hands to Him without anger or quarreling, without fear or doubt, and to pray. Why do we pray? Because we have come to believe that the Lord is the One who is at work within us both to will and to do according to His good pleasure.

Whatever we do today, even something that may seem as insignificant as eating and drinking, needs to be done for the glory of God. We need to live in faith and not in fear. In the days of Gideon, the faithless were removed from the army of Israel based on the way they drank water. Were they drinking the Lord's good provision with the trust that their Master would protect them and lead them in battle? Those were the ones for this divinely appointed day.

Yet the 300 that God chose had a lingering fear problem. God knows our weakness. He uses every means to give us courage and faith in Him. Even from the mouth of an enemy comes the necessary Word that convinces Gideon that the Lord is with Him. Fearful saints, take fresh courage today. The Lord is with you. Would the God who died for you on the cross abandon you now?

God can defeat any enemy today, and He can use you to shine the flame of divine victory and to sound the trumpet of gospel joy. One day the trumpet of the Lord will be heard throughout the earth and the final Day of glory will come with the return of Jesus. Even then, look who is with Him; men and angels who are counted as His army of heavenly conquest. He will invite us to take part in the glory of victory that has come to us from His own wisdom, righteousness, and power.

“For the Lord God, and for His Only-Begotten Son, Jesus!” That can be our shout even in today's battle. Despite the magnitude of the troubles that you observe with your eyes today, remember this: Greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world.

Proverbs 11

Everything comes down to details. A merchant's dishonest scale. Just one detail in a complex life. But what is that person doing? Why has he opted to live the scheming life? How is that detail an important part of a larger story of forgetting the fear of the Lord?

God finds us out. If we are willing to be found by Him, we can have more than shame. We can move on to humility, and with humility we can grow in knowing God and serving others. When the Son of God came to save us, He came in the power of humility.

Christ gives us hope for a life beyond bad character. The Holy Spirit is bringing a new life to thousands and enabling millions and millions to experience daily growth in that heavenly life. The self-righteous man misses out on the joy of repentance and spiritual progress. Even so, God can change anyone by His love. Witness Saul of Tarsus!

God's love for sinners does not make unrighteousness OK with Him. There is a brash rejection of the Lord and His commandments that is unacceptable to the Lord and destructive of a society. But Jesus' answer to that is not the loud self-confidence of Pharisaic religion, but the quiet faith and obedience that comes from the cross. In His righteousness we have been counted as righteous, and by the power of the Spirit we pursue the way of holiness that He has appointed for His people with gentleness and self-control.

This life of faith, hope, and love is not only an individual pursuit. We follow Christ together, and we bear our neighbors' burdens. True righteousness that flows from the wounds of the Messiah will change the way we listen and speak to one another. It will have something to teach us about commerce within a city and about the efforts a more seasoned woman makes in befriending a new mother. True love will confront deceit and violence. It will rescue the desperate. It will change a person's outward appearance and yield discretion that increasingly forms a new inner beauty within a young girl.

Most of all, the love of Jesus creates a generous society of faithful followers. Those who find their life in Him will grow in good will, even toward their enemies. They will give and forgive. They will receive love from the Lord and pass it on. They will not use a dishonest scale when measuring out goods to their customers.

Jesus has secured a wonderful inheritance for everyone in His household. He has become a tree of life to all who will take refuge in Him. We worship Him together and find not only hope for the life to come, but life and blessing right now, even though we face trials. The Wisdom of God is living within us and among us. We have been taken captive by the Lover of our souls.

Proverbs 10

Solomon recorded these proverbs two thousand years before the coming of the Christ. His divinely inspired observations about the human condition are still true today. For instance, it is still true that godly fathers and mothers care deeply about the wisdom or folly of their sons.

Has anything changed in all the years since these words were written? Yes. The only Son of the Father has finally come, and He lived in the godliness of perfect wisdom. His righteousness has delivered us from death. Because of the astounding accomplishment of His perfect life, an entire world associated with Him will eat together and work joyfully and productively forever in the kingdom of heaven.

As we wait for His return, we are learning to trust this one perfect Son of God, even with the lives of our children and grandchildren. We can read these proverbs with joy if we will read them as the Father wrote them about His own son. We can read them with a godly expectation that will look beyond this current world of sin to the perfect fulfillment of the Kingdom of God.

Heaven is a place of godly living beyond the regrets and worries of broken relationships in a sin-sick world. It would not be a realm of perfect joy without the repair of strained relationships between one generation and the next that we experience here. In heaven we will live in full awareness that we are all sons of God through Jesus Christ, the perfect Son.

Have we mourned about the consequences of our laziness or the lack of diligence that we see in those we love? Have we felt the misery that comes from saying what we should not have said or hearing words that should not have been spoken? There is a better world in reserve for us even now in the heavens, a world where Jesus' love has covered all our offenses.

Here we face all kinds of necessary discipline and the consequences that come to us from ungodly living. But in heaven, God Himself will wipe away every tear. We will rejoice in the perfect protection of the bountiful riches and wisdom of the Lord.

Until that day comes when Christ returns or when we go to be with Him, we have the precious gift of the Word of God. We and our children would do well to take it to heart and to receive the discipline of the Lord as good sons.

As we feel the sorrows of life in a world under God's curse, we can find joy only when we remember the hope of the righteous. It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. It is well with my soul.

Proverbs 9

The Lord has sent out an invitation to a great banquet. Many are called, but few seem to respond, even among those who have some association with Jesus. He invites people to partake of a veritable feast of heavenly wisdom. It is the food that our souls need. Will we hear the Lord's entreaties?

There are other alternatives. If we are always filling our bellies with the buffet of choices offered by the world, we will have no appetite left for the food that Christ brings by His Holy Spirit. For instance, the world has a mountain of mocking cynicism that we can unwisely take into our hearts. If we eat that we turn into scoffers. That may win us laughs, but it deafens our ears toward the truth.

Folly is shouting out to us with her brash offers. She advertises the virtues of stolen goods rather than the fruit of honest labor. She leads people to secret places of shame and confusion. How can we find a way out? We need to hear the call of Christ, and not the voice that would make unholy pathways seem attractive and profitable.

The Word of God has bread and wine for us in the assembly of those who see His death as the way to eternal life. He invites us to love one another, not by being clever or popular, but by growing together with one another as we hear His voice. That voice leads us into holy relationships where we are willing to consider others more highly than we do ourselves. This is not the way of the world, but it is the way of the cross. It is the wisdom of God and it leads to a world of resurrection life.

Proverbs 8

Christ is the Wisdom of God in person, and we receive His love for us as the Husband of of His people. But here in Proverbs 8, the wisdom of God is a most beautiful, godly woman! Her voice is a holy call that can be heard by those who have ears to hear.

She calls all mankind to herself. She is very willing to lead men to herself. All her words are true and noble, and the life that she has for men who love her is a life of character and fruitfulness. She will lead her hearers to godliness with contentment, which is greater gain than all the wealth of the world.

She is not an alternative to the Lord of the church. She springs forth from God, the fount of every good gift. Her heritage is from of old, even before the foundation of the world. She was a master workman with the Almighty in all His deeds of creation. She was like a child of God, rejoicing before Him always and receiving His loving commendation throughout eternity past.

The sons of God throughout the world will listen to her lovely voice. Seeing her with the eyes of our hearts is seeing the face of the One who lived for us in perfect wisdom. Hearing her voice in the Word and in the revelation that comes through creation is hearing the One who says to His disciples, “Follow Me.”

We need to hear this Wisdom today. “She” is Him. In His beautiful voice, the voice of Jesus our Redeemer, is the blessing of a life that calls us forward on the path of faith. In His presence we find the way that leads us onward toward our heavenly home.

Proverbs 7

The life of following Jesus Christ requires many daily choices. The question before each one of us is the one that Jesus asked His disciples: “Who do you say that I am?” If Jesus is the Christ, the Lord, the Son of the Living God, then following Him will require the rejection of lesser loves that are found to be inconsistent with the wisdom that is from above.

The young man who consents to the enticements of an adulteress woman lacks this clarity of spiritual maturity. If he follows the wrong woman, he will go down a road that leads to death.

He is not alone. There are many young men who would make the same choice. But do they know that Jesus is Lord? It is especially sad when a young man who professes faith in Christ is enticed away from the love of wisdom by a woman who is not worthy of his best affection.

When he says yes to another man's wife, he acts like an unthinking beast. Her husband will hunt him down when he finds out what he has done. Even if that husband never knows or if for some strange reason he does not care, the Lord will know.

What a mistake! Run away from immorality and run back to the embrace of the One who forgives all of your sins. He knows how to restore foolish young men who have been led away from Him for a season. He knows how to heal a woman who is looking for love in all the wrong places. He knows how to give them wisdom and character.

Do not look upon the disaster of an unholy lifestyle as inevitable. Ask the Lord of love for a heart of wisdom, and receive His grace again today.

Proverbs 6

How do you restart your life after you have made a terrible decision? The feeling of “no exit” can be overwhelming for those who are stuck in financial commitments that look like they might bring them down. But the Lord is able to bring a new beginning, and He can help us to learn the lesson that He has for us that will help keep us from unnecessary bondage.

Pride can get in the way of freedom. Will you go and humble yourself in front of others and seek a fresh start? Then when you have your life back again, settle on a good plan of daily diligence, and abandon get rich quick schemes. Even when they work, they may take a toll on your heart and your body that you will later find unbearable. If you can get your freedom today, do so, and thank the Lord for your daily bread.

But the blindness of greed... A diseased soul places himself above God and makes schemes. Is he even in charge of his next breath? Will he have another chance to find peace?

The Lord is God. He is the Almighty One. There are ways of life that He loves, and habits of the heart that He hates. God will not be mocked. Our only hope is in the righteousness of His Son. But that hope is so sure through the cross of Christ, that we not only have the forgiveness of a debt that was far more than we could have ever paid, we have the power of a new day, a day beyond the horror of our past wretched choices.

It would be great if we did not have to learn lessons of holiness the hard way. We could listen to those who know. We could especially listen to the Voice of the Almighty in the Word made flesh. We could worship God through Jesus and turn away from an evil path before we get stuck in the mud.

Take relationships for example: A life of wandering affections is not worthy of your immortal soul. You will only regret it. Don't go there. If you find yourself where you ought not to be, get out while you can, or you may lose your very life.

Yet many people do not heed the voice that God has appointed for their instruction. They imagine that they know better. They see a forbidden prize and determine to go for it.

But the Lord is God.

Even still, there is a way He has provided in the wilderness that leads back home to Him. Jesus is that way. Thank the Lord for repentance and the start of a new day in the love of our faithful Husband.

Matthew 7

We do flatter ourselves. We imagine that we are great imitators of Jesus Christ. When I consider some of the sentiments of holiness, concern, humility, and generosity that I have professed, I am no longer sure how true they actually were. Do we really wish that we could take away the physical, emotional, and relational pain of others by having it fall on us? Are we really as content with things in our lives as we say we are? Is it possible that we really don’t think of others as better than ourselves, and that we may have falsely convinced ourselves that we forgive those who have done us wrong, wishing them only the very best? We know the Christian answers to some degree, but it is not clear that we fully live up to our own words.

It is quite a thing to consider that our Savior actually was faithful, not only to all of His own words, but to all of the great demands of God’s Law. Because of this, He is surely the one who is capable of righteous judgment. The rest of us would do well to avoid premature pronouncements of personal victory in our battles against sin, and especially that we would be careful in our judgments against others. Too often it may be the case that in the very area where we would judge another, we may find ourselves just as guilty of that same offense. The answer is not for us to simply settle on lawlessness, but to actually turn away from sin, to avoid hasty assessments of our own Christ-likeness, to be extremely careful concerning our thoughts and words against others, and to be very appreciative that our great Messiah not only claimed to love and serve His Father with a full heart. He actually did it. It is a good thing for us to take the speck out of someone else’s life, provided that we have taken the log out of our own.

All of this is enough to cause us to simply stop speaking. (Well, maybe not.) There are many occasions when it would be best for us to say nothing at all. Then we will not only be following our Lord’s advice, we will also be doing what He Himself did in certain situations where speaking would have done more harm than good. It is not wise to throw pearls at animals that don’t have a taste for fine jewelry.

The problem with all of this is that there actually are times when we simply must speak the truth in love, even though we may find ourselves in the dangerous situation that Stephen faced in Acts 7. What this means is that we need wisdom from above in order to discern those times when we should speak from those times when speaking the truth may be immoral speech, unwise to blurt out, and perhaps even callous defiling of the truth that works against the One who is the Truth. We need not only courage from God; we also need His gifts of wisdom if we are to speak the truth seasonably. For this and for all the gifts that would enable us to be truly more like Christ, we need to ask the right being, seek the right path, and knock on the right door. God will give us good things. He is a Father who truly loves His children.

We live in a very challenging age since the resurrection of Christ. The things that we desire are not always holy, and we actually know this, though we do not like to admit the truth. The ways that we would walk are often laced with secret sin, and may lead to a trap that will be hard for us to get out of. When our conscience keeps on bothering us about something that looks outwardly holy but we inwardly suspect it to be less than holy, it may help to look at the matter from another angle. Is the thing that we want to say or do in accord with what we would like others to say or do to us if we were in their shoes? Jesus says this kind of thinking really is the Law and the prophets, rather than just an outward display of superficial holiness.

The kind of living that Christ shows us in Matthew 5-7 is kingdom living, even resurrection living. It is the real way, and only our Savior has done it in the way that it needs to be done. That does not excuse us from loving this beautiful way of life and truly seeking this righteousness as we should. There is a sense that the gate of true perfection is so narrow that only one Man could enter through it. Yet because our King has successfully gone through the gate of the Law and the Prophets, and because we are united to Him, we are counted as righteous and are given powerful help from on high to live in this way of righteousness. There may be few that travel that road, particularly in times of societal disintegration, but the rightness of any path has never been based on the number of people traveling it.

True godly living has always been challenging, especially for those who would speak for God as His ambassadors. There have been many false prophets throughout history, just as there are many false teachers in our day. It is a wonderful thing to consider that there is one genuinely solid Cornerstone on which the Lord’s church has been built. He is solid in His righteousness and gentle and merciful in His regard for those whom He has called. Not only has He provided us all the holiness necessary for our right standing with His Father, He has also taken away the weighty debt caused by all our hypocrisy and lawlessness through His death on the cross. His resurrection insists that He has not only journeyed into harm’s way for us; He has actually come out on the other side of that ordeal victorious and alive. We would do very well to receive Him, to truly hear His words, and to follow them by the grace that He supplies.

Dan and Kristin's Wedding

Ani Ledodi Vedodi Li

(Song of Solomon 6:3a)

“I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine...”

Ani (I)

Kristin and Dan, this is your big day. Mom and I love you both, and so do all your Baldauff and Magee family and friends who are with you here today.

This verse from Song of Solomon is inscribed on your rings. You start out the verse Kristin on your ring “I am my beloved's...” and Dan, you finish with “and my beloved is mine” but all of it is actually spoken by the woman. The “I” is the bride. She has a confidence in this relationship, an assurance, that cannot be easily taken away.

How do you get to that point? It requires a mutual consent, a deep friendship, a man that is willing to say I give my life for yours, and a woman who is able to believe that, to receive it, to say it, and then to give it back again together with her own life, now united with him as one body together.

Le- (for)

“I for my beloved.” Kristin, you are saying to the world today in the presence of the God who loves you and before these covenant witness who want the very best for you, “I for...” You are for someone beyond yourself. You are for Dan in a way that you are for no one else.

dodi (my beloved)

You call him in this verse “my beloved” or simply “my love.” The word can also mean friend. That fits. Dan is your one friend. You have other friends. Some of them are here as your witnesses today. But you are saying that this man is in the special place of the only one.

To be a friend is a root relationship. To recognize that another person exists and that you can give of yourself for the the good of that other person, this is friendship. Kristin, here is your friend, here is your husband, here is your love.

Ve- (and)

And Dan,

dodi (my beloved)

you are Kristin's love. You are choosing to lay down your life for her. It is a wonderful gift to lay down your life for someone every day as their only one. It brings life to the woman of your dreams. When you do that, you say to your wife, I am for you. My life for yours. From this day forward, that's you, Dan the beloved who lays down his life for his bride. What a privilege. Every day.

Li (for me)

And Kristin, you have the privilege of receiving that love, joining in it, and giving it back again to Dan.

This is what your marriage is all about. This is what life is all about. This is what Jesus is all about. Lean on Him. He knows how to be a friend who gives His all for the woman of His dreams. He knows how to love us when we are unlovely. He knows how to give us life. He knows how to forgive us.

“I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine.” By the Holy Spirit within you, live this out. Be one.