Stephen continued his series on God’s fulness this evening, looking at the stumbling-block which often cause us to fail to experience God’s fulness in the way He wants us to. We often find it difficult to believe that God wants us to enter into His fulness; we are so used to hearing the negative voice of others and of the enemy which constantly tells us ‘You’re not good enough.’ When we read Scripture, we find amazing truths, but often remember verses out of context. Thus Rom 3:23 reminds us that all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory, but we often take that as condemnation, whereas Rom 3:24 goes on to remind us that all are justified freely through God’s grace and through the redemption purchased for us through Christ Jesus. There is no need for despair, but we often find ourselves in a ‘Catch 22’ situation, putting ourselves down and refusing to enter into God’s fulness because we feel unworthy.

The good news is that God’s grace is sufficient for us and that His power is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor 12:9). All that is required from us is to believe that God wants us to enter into His fulness; He pleads with each of us to accept and receive His truth and allow this truth to transform our lives. He is not interested in part-installation which fails at the last moment (rather like trying to install new software on a computer and failing at the last minute!), but wants us to allow His fulhness to dwell in us through the living Word of God.

We also had two family birthdays to celebrate:

This morning, Mark spoke on Ps 91 at Cherry Tree Court. Many of us like to feel safe, not being daredevils or risk takers or adrenaline junkies and this psalm reminds us that those who spend time with God live under the cover and protection of Almighty God (El Shaddai.) He is our refuge (a safe place to hide) and fortress (which gives us protection on all sides.) No matter what the danger – and several are mentioned in the psalm, such as the fowler’s snare, a perilous pestilence, terror by night and arrows that flee by day, we can be secure because of God’s shielding protection. Even sudden death cannot harm us, for He has secured eternal life for us. God promises protection even if 10,000 fall at our side; He has given angels the job of watching over us because of His great love for us!

Secure in the love and protection of God, we can know confidence and freedom, no matter what.

There were, however, many conventional aspects of the wedding. Traditional vows were exchanged during the ceremony and the register had to be officially signed:

After the vows, Stephen played an original piece of music he wrote for Stacey and then sang one of her favourite love songs:

A whole host of photos were taken of friends and family:

and there was lots of lovely food to eat!

Our church can, at times, be unconventional. Because the wedding was so closely connected with birthdays (the bride’s the day before the wedding, the groom’s the day after), it was decided that we had to include another ‘birthday box’ special at the end of the ceremony.

Then, we also had to incorporate Igor, the church mascot, into some of the photos:

He even went out for the evening meal too!

The afternoon reception was also unconventional: no dancing, just party games! Stacey was the undisputed Connect 4 champion and also enjoyed playing charades:

We enjoyed a silly game of ‘Mr & Mrs’ and tried to match the baby photos of couples with how they look now (more on this later), not to mention writing versions of wedding preparations (my personal favourite was the one which started ‘Gobby and Competitive’ instead of ‘Stacey and Stephen’!) and playing ‘Wedding Speech bingo.’

All in all, a fun day all round!

With the wedding themes focussing on music and photography, the sermon at the wedding looked at 1 Cor 2:9-10. Our senses are incredibly important to us and obviously we had great joy looking at all the beautiful things in church and listening to the music and vows being made. We enjoyed smelling and tasting the lovely food prepared by church members and hugging and kissing the bride and groom to convey our happiness at their happiness. Nonetheless, one key fact of Christian marriage is that we are called to live by faith (2 Cor 5:7) and the most important person at the wedding was not the bride or groom, family or friends, but God who is invisible to the human eye, cannot be heard by the human ear alone, cannot be smelled or touched or tasted by our physical faculties.

God has good plans for us all (Jer 29:11), a fact we celebrated through the Tim Hughes’ song ‘Plans’, and marriage is His idea. In the Biblical account of creation, we read how man made Adam and then Even and how Jesus endorsed this view of marriage through His presence at the wedding at Cana and through His comments when asked about divorce (Matt 19:6). Marriage, ultimately, is meant to be a reflection of God’s love for the church (see Eph 5:32) and the selfless love husbands and wives are called to demonstrate is meant to be a witness of God’s unconditional love for us, demonstrated in Christ’s death for us on the cross (see Rom 5:8).

Marriage, like life itself, has many seasons, but we know God gives generously to all without finding fault (James 1:5) and can rest secure in His goodness and help. Even in the days when we sing in a minor key or life looks monochrome and lacking colour, God’s presence is there to help us and bless us. 1 Cor 2:9-10 reminds us there is so much more to explore in God. The quotation is from Is 64:4, where we read that God ‘acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.’ Waiting and hoping are from the same root wood in Hebrew which is connected to the threads of rope being patiently twisted together (and a marriage is, after all, a ‘cord of three strands which is not easily broken,’ as Eccl 4:11 reminds us), but as we do that, we can be sure that God is the one who will act on our behalf. Our part is to live according to His principles (loving, forgiving, bearing with each other, caring, communicating, sharing, honouring, serving, being unswerving in commitment and faithfulness); He pours out His love and blessing on us.

Bezalel is a name that’s not that well known, even among Christians. Bezalel was the architect of the tent of meeting built during the wilderness wanderings. He designed and oversaw the construction of the tabernacle and Ex 35-40 gives us tons of details about this project, from the mandate to make ‘artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of craftmanship’ (Ex 35:34) to the altars of incense and burnt offering constructed (Ex 37-38) to the priestly garments to be worn (Ex 39). Bezalel and Oholiab and their team of visionaries and skilled workmen created a tabernacle which enabled God’s people to respond adequately to the salvation and revelation they had experienced in their deliverance from Egypt.

Attention to detail has been a key feature of the wedding preparations which have been ongoing now for months and which finally were seen by us all on Friday. I have seen modern-day Bezalels working patiently and painstakingly to create things of beauty. The wedding cake was a triumph in detail. From a photograph of the couple sent in advance, the cake maker (Lisa of Crossgates Cakes) made icing figures of the bride and groom, complete with camera around her neck and earrings in her ears, with glasses and beard coloured exactly to match the photo. The grand piano was made with painstaking detail and the icing figure of the groom positioned perfectly with hands on the keys and foot on the pedal.

Similarly, Ruth Coombs laboured (or played, depending on one’s perspective!) over flower arrangements, making the bouquet for the bride and corsages for bridesmaids and mothers that combined Stacey’s favourite flowers and colours, with tiny details such as silver initials and glittery pins that added sparkle. These details were incorporated into the flower arch at church and the flower arrangements throughout the building. Stephen’s comment was ‘every time I look at them, I notice more details.’ Few people will have had the time to stand and take in all the details, but to an artist, that doesn’t matter. The attention to detail they give is part of their offering, seen by God even if unnoticed by people.

Each person brought their own talents and vision. Julie Stead’s nimble fingers worked on folding napkins into lilypads. If you think that’s easy, you should have seen my attempts at doing exactly the same thing! Ruth Pettitt nudged us all in the right direction for hanging pompoms and hearts and worked tirelessly on sewing the backdrop which was in place for one day only. Claire and her husband from Chappell2Venues tied bows over chair covers to create this stunning visual effect, providing a ‘wishing well’ for cards and sweet trolley which added those finishing touches which people remember long after things are cleared away.

Gemma (chief bridesmaid) lovingly painted names onto every single one of the glasses that were given as gifts to all the guests.

Then there was the musical guest book – an innovative idea from Stacey which nonetheless required precision and accuracy to satisfy the musicians among us. Thanks go to India Walker for carefully cutting out the treble clefs to size and to Stephen, not only for writing the music, but for measuring everything out and making sure it all made sense. Stacey, not a musician, said at one point, ‘It doesn’t have to be perfect’, at which point all the musicians in the household nearly exploded! Artists really do care about the fine detail, even when we wished Stephen had written the song in C major, not F major, so that we did not have to cut out all the B flat signs on the board!

Many may think such details are trivial and unimportant. If God reckoned that the construction of the tabernacle deserved these five chapters in Exodus, however, we didn’t mind the time and effort spent on creating a day to remember and thank all those who helped in every way, from the most artistic to the most mundane, for every single detail was needed and valued.