A (Real) Letter to My Future Husband

Ephesians 5:31-32 "As the Scriptures say, 'A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.' This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one."



Hello my dear--

Reading Ephesians 5 and it says that marriage is "a great mystery", and right after that it says "but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one."

So what I get from that is that marriage was designed to better understand the unity, love, sacrifice and submission of Christ and the church. Marriage isn't just there for human purposes or earthly fulfillment. It was designed to glorify the Gospel. I pray we rely on God's mighty power to fulfill that purpose. We were not created to marry each other, but to glorify God; marriage just happens to be an illustration of exactly how to do that. So let's do it.

I love you.

-KJ

Stop Saying God is Good

I want to punch the screen when I read that.

We have begun to attach that truth to the most shallow, selfish, earthly things:

"I got the job! God is good!"
"Selfie with my man and pup! #godisgood"
"Passed all my classes! God is soooo good!"

STOP.

You're hurting me.

This "Christian" (and I say Christian lightly) culture that I have witnessed through social media is nothing but scary. There's this crazy notion that God exists for us and only us. He's our servant, our maid, our vending machine (as my pastor would put it). When something goes right or the stars align for us, only then do we recognize that "God is good".

If I'm describing you, don't worry. There's grace. (from God and me)

What if I told you that we exist for God? That we were created solely to glorify and praise him. That it was his idea to bring us into the world, instead of us bringing him into our world? Did you know that HE LITERALLY KEEPS US ALIVE and that YOU AREN'T LIVING ON YOUR OWN TERMS?

Acts 17:28 says this:
"For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'"

LIVE. AND MOVE. AND (wait for it....) EXIST.

And on the 'living' note, Genesis 2:7 says, "Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man's nostrils, and the man became a living person."

As Matt Chandler often says, "Are you tracking with that?"



How about this instead:

God is good because he is perfect, no matter the circumstance.
God is good because he is just, no matter the circumstance
God is good because he is love, no matter the circumstance
God is good because he is merciful, no matter the circumstance.
God is good because he sacrificed the best to save the worst. I mean, really, who does that?
God is good because he made a way when there was no way.
God is good because HE IS GOD. Period. End of story.

He doesn't need us to make him a "good" god. Spoiler alert: HE DOESN'T NEED US AT ALL. God is still God, whether humans, animals, or anything even exists at all. But he wants us. And that is what makes him a good God; that he would desire the chief of sinners and saturate us with the blood of his perfect Son.

Whoa.

That is why God is good, my friends.