Weddings, Reading, Pressure and the Gospel

This has been a particularly hard week for me. One of the weeks in which things pile up and work seems to overload you. I can hardly wait for the weekend.

On last Friday Krista and I took off to Ohio, where we celebrated the wedding of my sister and new husband John. I preached the wedding sermon on Saturday, a great blessing for me and I hope for them as well. It was a fresh reminder of the purpose of marriage. Ephesians 5 clearly teaches us that God established marriage to point us to Christ's relationship with the church. The weekend went quick and while being enjoyable, has left me with a ton of reading to catch up on. So I've been engrossed in books all week. Yet again I was reminded that God has given to the church teachers, men to help us better understand our God. And whether those teachers be immediately located in our local church or far off we can thank God for them and the value we find in them. I was particularly encouraged by one authors writing on sanctification this week, and I hope to post on it soon enough. All the pressure I am feeling now has suprised me, not because I wasn't expecting it, but more because I didn't expect to get so much from it. That is to say that though I feel a weight of work on my shoulders, and I am tired and in need a breath of air, I am suprised that I am learning so much about the gospel. What a joy to study God's word and character. If only all Pressure could feel like this! Praise God for Pressure which reminds me of His grace in the Gospel.