How sweet and awesome is the place
with Christ within the doors,
While everlasting love displays
the choicest of her stores.
Here all the mercy of our God
with vast compassion rolls;
And peace and pardon through His blood,
is food for ransomed souls.
While all our hearts and all our songs
join to admire the feast,
Each of us cries with thankful tongues,
"Lord, why was I a guest?"
"Why was I made to hear Thy voice,
and enter while there's room;
When thousands make a wretched choice,
and rather starve than come?"
'Twas the same love that spread the feast,
that sweetly forced us in;
Else we had still refused to taste,
and perished in our sin.
Pity the nations, O our God!
Constrain the earth to come;
Send Thy victorious Word abroad,
and bring lost sinners home.
We long to see Thy churches full,
that all thy chosen race
May with one voice and heart and soul
sing Thy redeeming grace.
We just received an invitation to the wedding of my wife’s nephew. Of course we accepted the invitation; we are going to go, Lord willing. He is a delightful young man, and his bride is enchanting. However, in order to attend this wedding, we had to make our regrets to another wedding invitation that we received from friends whose daughter will be married the very same weekend, but in Virginia. On the surface, it seems like an easy choice. There never was any doubt that we would attend the family wedding. But, our regrets to our friends are real regrets. We have known them and their daughter for years. We even taught the young lady her Sunday school lessons. It’s nice to be in such social demand, particularly when I don’t get out very often. But, we had to choose, and I think we chose wisely.
Weddings are such wonderful events that their significance is often overlooked. A man and woman decide to leave their mother and father and cleave to one another in a covenant of companionship under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. In the presence of their friends and families, they exchange vows, calling upon God to help them fulfill the vows or judge them when they don’t. Once the vows are made, and the rings are exchanged, the person officiating pronounces to the assembled gathering that this man and woman are very different persons than they were when the ceremony began. They are now husband and wife, a relationship which God calls “one flesh.” Following the ceremony, the bride and bridegroom serve as hosts to their families, friends, and guests at the wedding feast. While the extravagance of the feast may vary depending upon circumstance and culture, it is an appropriate and fitting occasion to commemorate the marriage which has just taken place.
The author of the hymn How Sweet and Awesome Is the Place, Isaac Watts, wrote this piece in 1707, and he tells of the Great Marriage Supper that is recorded in the book of Revelation chapter 19. In that chapter, the apostle John writes,
First, at the wedding feast I will attend in June, I will only be a guest. I have neither role nor responsibility in the marriage, other than witnessing the exchange of vows. In the marriage supper of the Lamb, I am a member of the Church, the bride of Christ. Second, although I will wear my best suit and tie, and polish my shoes, at the marriage supper of the Lamb I will be clothed in “fine linen, bright and clean.” John tells us that this fine linen “is the righteous acts of the saints.” My suit will wear out, get shiny, and will have to be discarded at some time. The fine linen I am clothed with for the marriage supper of the Lamb will never decay. Finally, the wedding I will attend in June is but a shadow of the marriage supper of the Lamb. The present day marriage of men and women is not a anthropologic or sociologic conceived notion, but a Creation ordinance given to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden prior to their fall into sin. Marriage was given to men primarily because it is based on and typifies the marriage of Jesus Christ, the Bridegroom, to His bride, the Church.
What does all this have to do with Christian education? Simply this. Christian educators have the privilege of assisting the parents of students in fulfilling their God mandated responsibilities of rearing their children in the nurture and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christian educators help parents teach their children about the nature of the Creation, how God created all things out of nothing, all in the space of six, literal twenty-four hour days, by the Word of His power. Christian educators help parents teach children about the providence of God in the sciences, mathematics, languages, fine arts, and history so that they will know that God rules in the affairs of the universe, nations, and men to manifest His glory, to further the Kingdom of His Son, and for their good. Christian educators help parents teach their children the academic and critical reasoning skills necessary to develop and hone the gifts which God has given them so they may enter the vocation to which God has called them when they mature, thereby glorifying Him. Christian educators help parents prepare their children to take their place at the marriage supper of the Lamb.
with Christ within the doors,
While everlasting love displays
the choicest of her stores.
Here all the mercy of our God
with vast compassion rolls;
And peace and pardon through His blood,
is food for ransomed souls.
While all our hearts and all our songs
join to admire the feast,
Each of us cries with thankful tongues,
"Lord, why was I a guest?"
"Why was I made to hear Thy voice,
and enter while there's room;
When thousands make a wretched choice,
and rather starve than come?"
'Twas the same love that spread the feast,
that sweetly forced us in;
Else we had still refused to taste,
and perished in our sin.
Pity the nations, O our God!
Constrain the earth to come;
Send Thy victorious Word abroad,
and bring lost sinners home.
We long to see Thy churches full,
that all thy chosen race
May with one voice and heart and soul
sing Thy redeeming grace.
We just received an invitation to the wedding of my wife’s nephew. Of course we accepted the invitation; we are going to go, Lord willing. He is a delightful young man, and his bride is enchanting. However, in order to attend this wedding, we had to make our regrets to another wedding invitation that we received from friends whose daughter will be married the very same weekend, but in Virginia. On the surface, it seems like an easy choice. There never was any doubt that we would attend the family wedding. But, our regrets to our friends are real regrets. We have known them and their daughter for years. We even taught the young lady her Sunday school lessons. It’s nice to be in such social demand, particularly when I don’t get out very often. But, we had to choose, and I think we chose wisely.
Weddings are such wonderful events that their significance is often overlooked. A man and woman decide to leave their mother and father and cleave to one another in a covenant of companionship under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. In the presence of their friends and families, they exchange vows, calling upon God to help them fulfill the vows or judge them when they don’t. Once the vows are made, and the rings are exchanged, the person officiating pronounces to the assembled gathering that this man and woman are very different persons than they were when the ceremony began. They are now husband and wife, a relationship which God calls “one flesh.” Following the ceremony, the bride and bridegroom serve as hosts to their families, friends, and guests at the wedding feast. While the extravagance of the feast may vary depending upon circumstance and culture, it is an appropriate and fitting occasion to commemorate the marriage which has just taken place.
The author of the hymn How Sweet and Awesome Is the Place, Isaac Watts, wrote this piece in 1707, and he tells of the Great Marriage Supper that is recorded in the book of Revelation chapter 19. In that chapter, the apostle John writes,
The Watts’s hymn and John’s account tell of the marriage supper of the Lamb and His bride. The Lamb, of course, is the Lord Jesus Christ, and the bride is His Church which He purchased with His own blood on the cross. However, there are several significant differences between this marriage supper and the wedding feasts that we attend whenever a man and woman marry."Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready." And it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. And he said to me, "Write, 'Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.'" And he said to me, "These are true words of God."
(Revelation 19:7-9)
First, at the wedding feast I will attend in June, I will only be a guest. I have neither role nor responsibility in the marriage, other than witnessing the exchange of vows. In the marriage supper of the Lamb, I am a member of the Church, the bride of Christ. Second, although I will wear my best suit and tie, and polish my shoes, at the marriage supper of the Lamb I will be clothed in “fine linen, bright and clean.” John tells us that this fine linen “is the righteous acts of the saints.” My suit will wear out, get shiny, and will have to be discarded at some time. The fine linen I am clothed with for the marriage supper of the Lamb will never decay. Finally, the wedding I will attend in June is but a shadow of the marriage supper of the Lamb. The present day marriage of men and women is not a anthropologic or sociologic conceived notion, but a Creation ordinance given to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden prior to their fall into sin. Marriage was given to men primarily because it is based on and typifies the marriage of Jesus Christ, the Bridegroom, to His bride, the Church.
What does all this have to do with Christian education? Simply this. Christian educators have the privilege of assisting the parents of students in fulfilling their God mandated responsibilities of rearing their children in the nurture and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christian educators help parents teach their children about the nature of the Creation, how God created all things out of nothing, all in the space of six, literal twenty-four hour days, by the Word of His power. Christian educators help parents teach children about the providence of God in the sciences, mathematics, languages, fine arts, and history so that they will know that God rules in the affairs of the universe, nations, and men to manifest His glory, to further the Kingdom of His Son, and for their good. Christian educators help parents teach their children the academic and critical reasoning skills necessary to develop and hone the gifts which God has given them so they may enter the vocation to which God has called them when they mature, thereby glorifying Him. Christian educators help parents prepare their children to take their place at the marriage supper of the Lamb.
I am looking forward to the wedding feast in June. But, I am looking forward even more eagerly to the wedding feast of the Lamb. Blessed are you who are invited. As a Christian educator, I look forward to seeing you there, you and your children, my students.
We often think of education narrowly in terms of simply math problems, chemistry equations, physics and spelling. The hard sciences are important but the most important aspect of education is the formation of God honoring behavior. This is the very thing our government schools with their goal to maintain a separation of church and state so miserably fail at. We often fall into this way of thinking ourselves and have far too much separation in our own minds between how one behaves and their education. The American culture has created a set of false boundaries and our government recognizes this dilemma but is powerless to act because of its need to maintain a separation of a religious ethic and education in our government funded schools. Most often pluralism and atheism is the default ethos in our government schools and this at the great cost of God honoring behavior for our culture.
ReplyDeleteWebster 1828
EDUCATION, The bringing up, as of a child, instruction; formation of manners. Education comprehends all that series of instruction and discipline which is intended to enlighten the understanding, correct the temper, and form the manners and habits of youth, and fit them for usefulness in their future stations. To give children a good education in manners, arts and science, is important; to give them a religious education is indispensable; and an immense responsibility rests on parents and guardians who neglect these duties.