A Marriage Celebration!

I had started to prepare a different message for yesterday....but since I didn't get it posted and I am posting today, May 23rd....I have decided to go a different route ( Excuses, Excuses will be next Monday!)
As I have been making preparations to celebrate 30 years of marriage today I began thinking about how I could impart my wisdom to you!  HA!
No wisdom to be found....but I can share with you a few thoughts God has shown me through this journey, this institution that He created!
The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.
But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
 The man said,

“This is now bone of my bones
    and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
    for she was taken out of man.”

That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. Genesis 1:18-24

30 years is worth celebrating!  But don't we celebrate each year of our anniversary...don't they even have "gifts" for each year...
1st year - paper
2nd year - cotton
...
25th - silver
etc etc

Since I was looking it up I did check 30.....it is pearl! (that might be another devotion!)

Jesus told a parable in which heaven was like 10 virgins waiting for their bridegroom.  Matthew 25

and Jesus refered to Himself as the bridegroom when His disciples were questioning Him about who was fasting and who was not...
 Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast. Mark 2:19-20

John the Baptist also referred to Jesus as the Bridegroom.
 To this John replied, “A person can receive only what is given them from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.’ The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less.”
John 3:27-30

SO He is our Bridegroom....we are to prepare ourselves for Him as we do for something as special as our wedding day. And His voice should fill us with joy!  How exciting that we BELONG to Him!

Shouldn't we celebrate that "marriage"!  That we, as believers, are the Bride and He is our Bridegroom!
Our Bridegroom has shown us what Love really is, we can Trust Him, He will never fail us! He can take care of ALL our needs.
 Isn't that worth celebrating!

One passage that God has used with me over the years is from Philippians 2
and to me it is a perfect model for a marriage relationship.

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

⁶ Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
⁷ rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
⁸ And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

⁹ Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹ and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

As a husband and wife....we are made of the same flesh, we are both created in His image, but one must be willing to be humble, so that both can be raised up and God glorified!

If we can have the attitude of Christ in ALL our relationships, how much more content would this world be! 

Celebrate your marriage today.....but more than that celebrate the fact that you have a Bridegroom that loves you and has all the best for you!

IF you don't know this Bridegroom I talk about please email me ....or ask someone who has a relationship with Christ.  BEST decision you could ever make!

It is a "marriage" made in Heaven!