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PAGE 2 THE HERALD NOVEMBER 2010

February is the month in which we celebratethe love that leads to marriage. Of course I’m refer-ring to,

[We interrupt this articlefor an important mes-sage. Attention all men!February 14th is St. Valen-tine’s Day! Get the card,order your flowers, makethe dinner reservations,and buy the candy today!We now return to your regularly schedulednewsletter article.] St.

Valentine’s Day.Marriage was estab-

lished by God in creation. Godsaid, ―It is not good for theman to be alone,‖ and hebrought Eve to Adam thatthey might both be blessed.God is still bringing men andwomen together that theymight be blessed. Jesus said,―Those whom God has joined together let no one putasunder.‖ Italics mine. Studies show that marriage isa blessing. Married men live longer, and are more sat-isfied with life, than single men.

The blessing of marriage is freely given yetcosts everything. When a couple falls in love they givethemselves freely to each other. They also makepledges of loyalty and fidelity to one another. Thistype of love calls us to give up certain freedoms for thegood of the relationship. For example, what womanwould marry a man who said, ―We can’t schedule thewedding for June 12th because that is my other girlfriend’s birthday and I have to be with her‖? Maritallove calls for an exclusive commitment to the oneyou’re married to. You resolve to do what is best forthe relationship and to refrain from doing things thatwould harm the relationship.

 You may have read, or heard on the news, thatmarriage is on the way out. People are redefiningwhat it means to be a family and that doesn’t neces-sarily include marriage. This news came from a studyby the Pew Research Center, in association with Timemagazine, which highlighted the changing ideas of what constitutes a family. 39 percent, of Americanssurveyed, said that marriage was becoming obsolete.This opinion comes from the fact that 29 percent of children, under the age of 18, live with a parent orparents who are unwed or no longer married. 15 per-cent have parents who are divorced or separated and14 percent come from parents who were never mar-ried. Within these two groups 6 percent have parents

who are live-in couples who opted to raise kids with-out getting married.

If your family is like mine, you probably havfamily members who are living together without befit of marriage. I have a cousin that has lived with same woman for 20 years and they have three chil-

dren together. They say, ―Wedon’t need a piece of paper tomake our relationship work.‖Kids used to chant, ― Fred anMary sitting in a tree, K -I-S--N-G. First comes love, thencomes marriage, then comesMary with a baby carriage.‖What a quaint and dated poeHow sad for our culture thatthis is no longer the expecta-tion.

 As society changes,Christians are called to becommore and more counterculturby remaining, or becoming,faithful to the teachings of thLord. We need to study theScriptures and come to a Bibcal understanding of marriagand divorce. We need to pre-sent clear, teachings on thissubject so that our lives migh

reflect God’s Word. We also need to confess and repof the many times that we have fallen short of God’ideals concerning marriage. This isn’t a call to con-demn anyone or insist that we move into some kindlegalism, as if having a perfect marriage makes usmore precious to the Lord. Rather, it’s a call to strivto conform our lives to the teaching of the ScriptureWe need to do this for the good of society, the churcand our families. Regardless of what we’ve done inthe past Jesus calls us to follow him into a better future.

Being countercultural is nothing new for Chtians. If fact, remaining faithful to the teachings ofthe Lord was how we got St. Valentine’s Day in thefirst place. St. Valentine went against the order of Caesar and preformed wedding ceremonies for menthe military. Caesar wanted soldiers to remain sing

because he felt they would be better fighters if theydidn’t have a wife and children to worry about. St. Valentine took a stand against this and was put todeath. We may not be called to die for people’s rightmarry but we are called by God to take up his wordand humbly accept what it says.

On February 14th, thank God for a man like  Valentine who took a stand for what was right. Let also ask God to make us like Him that, we too, willstand up for the blessing of marriage. But more thathat, let’s pray that our lives may reflect the blessinof the Biblical teaching on marriage, that we mightsalt and light to a society that is moving quickly awfrom the Biblical Standard.

The Blessing of MarriageBy Pastor Dave Woodby 

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The Herald

is published monthly by

Redeemer Lutheran Church

2510 N. M-52, Owosso, MI 48867

Phone: 989-725-5442

Fax: 989-725-0022

www.redeemerowosso.com 

Editor: Tami MacFadden

redeemerluthowo@frontier.com

Pastor: David K. Woodby

prdave1@frontier.com

 Webmaster:  Andrea Weinrick

aweinrick@gmail.com

Sunday Worship Schedule:

8:00 a.m. Traditional Liturgy

11:00 a.m. Contemporary Liturgy

Sunday School:

For all ages at 9:30 a.m.

Deadline for copy:

The third Wednesday of the month at 9:30 a.m. 

available upon request

 Relay for Life gearing 

up for 2011! 

The 2011 Relay for Life is planned

for June 10th & 11th. A Thrivent Finan-

cial/Redeemer Team will again be partici-

pating. If you want to join the team,

please come to a meeting on February

13th at 10:00 a.m. Many fundraisers are

planned to benefit the American Cancer

Society! They include selling luminaries in

honor or memory of cancer patients, sell-

ing candy bars, collecting returnable cans

& bottles, and hosting bake sales. The first

Bake Sale is planned for Sunday, February

13th. See Ardelle Rodgers if you have any

questions.

Youth Group 

Info! 

Mt. Holly Skiing! February 20 t

We will be leaving after the 11 am Worship Svice and returning before midnight. February21st is President’s Day so NO School J! Thecost is $38.00 for lift tickets and $24.00 for reals. For more info call Zach at 989-413-6052

Acquire ThFire is con-fronting cosions head

Young people from coast to coast will hear thGod wants to comfort, heal, and put them bactogether. Although the enemy continues to ste

kill, and destroy, Jesus binds up the brokenhearted and releases prisoners from thedarkness. Redeemer is attend AFT on Ap29-30. Tickets are still available! See ZacWoodby is you want to come!