Saturday best pick: should young Christians be encouraged to get married earlier?

SHOULD YOUNG CHRISTIANS BE ENCOURAGED TO GET MARRIED EARLIER?

Early marriage might not be a problem; instead, it might just be a solution. In Young and in Love (David C Cook), Pastor Ted Cunningham boldly suggests that early marriage is not as harmful as many believe and even offers the solution to staying sexually pure. He guides young adults through the arguments against early marriage and then reveals the secrets to creating a healthy, successful, and life-long relationship in early adulthood.

Young men and women fall in love. They develop intense desires to be with one another emotionally, relationally, and, yes, sexually. Cunningham validates this budding relationship and chases the foxes that seek to delay or destroy the bud before it can turn into a blossoming marriage (Song of Solomon 2:15). He praises this budding love, calling family and friends to recognize it with a wedding, and challenges all unnecessary delays to marrying in one’s early twenties.

Developing a Godly relationship can be hard when you fall in love at a young age. Few people offer support. Many doubt your love is real. It seems almost everyone — your friends, your parents, even your church — thinks you are much too young for marriage. You’re not ready. But maybe that’s not true. Cunningham explains where the arguments against young marriage often go wrong. Then he offers wisdom on how to know if you are making the right choice including the Four C’s: 

Character, Chemistry, Competency, and Calling. 

He’ll help readers understand what it takes to be ready for marriage. And along the way he’ll show that the answer to staying pure might be to prepare for marriage. Because it’s often easier to say, “Let’s wait” when “I do” isn’t so far away.

According to Cunningham, “Ultimately, Young and in Love honors marriage and encourages marriages in the making. This is not another purity book teaching you how to suppress any and all feelings of love. I want you to express your love and then enjoy marriage. So if you kissed dating goodbye, it’s time to say hello! If you have kept true love waiting, I tell you now, wait no more. Get married!”

For more information on Ted Cunningham visit www.tedcunningham.com

The second coming of Jesus

Third Sunday before Advent
Reading, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Gospel, Matthew 25:1-13, the parable of the ten bridesmaids.
What is the context of the parable? Jesus talks to his disciples during the final week before his crucifixion, the cross is hours away. He has been questioned by people who tried to downgrade and ridicule him. He also has spoken firmly to challenge people. Last week, I watched a documentary on King Arthur, was it a great enlightening ? Who reads David Crockett, the Lone Ranger, Robin Hood. Take King Arthur! Was he from Yorkshire? or was he born in Cornwall? The documentary put him in Scotland. We don't know where he lived either! Part of the documentary says that Arthur is coming again to save the world and that we do not need to worry. Arthur lives in our hearts and minds. I thought that it sounded very familiar!
Take Jesus though! We know who Jesus was, the name of his followers. We know where he lived, Israel, we know how he died and that he rose again. Lots of things that he said have been written down not thousand years later but forty years after he resurrected, in AD 70, this is because the temple was destroyed that year and if it had happened, it would have been mentioned.
Lots of documents, the whole of New Testament, half of the Codex Sinaiticus tell us about him. Those Christians took the word of Jesus seriously and wrote everything down accurately. No other contemporary of Jesus is documented as well as him...
I cannot prove He is alive but I can taste and see that the Lord is good. (Psalm 34:8) He is doing things in our life and this is no sheer coincidence. Jesus says: I am coming again and in this parable of the Ten bridesmaids, his message is 'be ready!' The oil symbolizes the Holy Spirit. If God is with us, we cannot live and ignore his message. Jesus has paid the price for us and has given us a new life. ' I am the resurrection and the life' (John 11: 25) You will never die. Do you believe it? Christ is claiming his bride, the Church.  Jesus says some tough things.
 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
S.A.
I took those notes last Sunday in Sandon church so I post them with some delay. Have a blessed week-end! Yours in Christ. N.