Complete Obedience

I had the blessing of going to a wedding today. It was a simple wedding and yet it was completely Christ-centered. So often a wedding can become about the bride and groom, when that is not what God's intention was. God's intention was that marriage be a display of His relationship to His bride, the church. I enjoy fancy weddings... I enjoy creativity in organization... but nothing can replace Christ-centeredness on the wedding day. It was a blessing to see two godly young people be united in marriage with plans to serve the Lord together along the lines of Bible translation. I believe that ministry as a couple is a vital part of marriage. The moment that the focus becomes on "us" and "our plans", we miss what the Lord is wanting to do in and through us. I am thankful for the reminder of that today.

I have been continuing my reading in Joshua and ran across this great little phrase about what Joshua did in Joshua 11:15.

... he left nothing undone of all that the Lord had commanded...

Several years back, I was listening to a pastor on CD that was preaching to parents at a couples retreat and one of the things he said was that in regards to parenting is that "partial obedience is not obedience at all"! This is true in our relationship to the Lord. Partial obedience is not obedience. It leads us to think of ourselves higher than we ought to think and plays right into Jeremiah 17:9 in regards to the heart being desperately wicked, beyond what we can even know. May the Lord give us grace and help to be completely obedient like Joshua was... and may He give us the fullest of joys in doing so. It is a delightful thing to obey the One who knows how to gives His children only good and perfect gifts.