My Valentine

In two days two things will happen. First, it will be, for everyone around the world, Valentine’s Day. Second, it will be for me and my Valentine, and all those who join us, our first day of worshipping as Sovereign Grace Fellowship. My bride and I will be hosting in our home a meeting with our Groom. These two events, however, are far more tightly bound together than we might think.

It is a good and right thing, a biblical thing, for husband and wife to be equally yoked. It is not a good way to share a life together if you don’t share the same new life together. There is, however, more to Christian marriage than walking side by side on the way to the Celestial City. There is the encouragement along the way.

The whole of the internet cannot contain all the reasons that I love my wife. The best one, however, the one that outshines them all is this- she helps me to love Jesus more. Nine out of nine marriage books for women insist on the importance of wives encouraging their husbands. The question is, encourage them toward what? Lisa has no patience with the idea of encouraging me to be more me. She isn’t diligent to be sure I believe in myself. No, she encourages me to run to, cling to, cry out for, walk with, listen to Jesus. She encourages me to believe in Him.

Lisa found me lying in the grave I had dug for myself. She found me projecting an image, dressing for success while hiding in the folds of the Grim Reaper’s robe. God used her to call me out, to inspire me to live again. He, and she, however, didn’t stop there. When my shame brought me down, she stuck with me. Why? Because she trusted Jesus to carry me. Which helps me trust Jesus to carry me. For more than four years now she has prayed over me, with me, for me, never stopping, wavering or doubting.

Sunday, when we open those doors and welcome our guests, when I break open God’s Word and preach the Good News, it will be because He gave her to me as a help suitable, a blessing, because she is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She has not only encouraged me, but encouraged Sovereign Grace Fellowship- setting deadlines, getting the word out, preparing and opening our home.

It is not typically my habit to preach most holidays, but instead to preach the next text. Sunday our text, our first text, will be II Kings 7:1-16, about the four lepers who discovered the feast that their enemies had left behind. My sermon title is “Beggars All,” reminding us that we are no heroes, but beggars telling other beggars where to find bread. That is why Lisa is my Valentine, the love of my life. She has been, from our very beginning, a beggar telling this beggar where to find bread. And so we feast together on the Feast Day of Saint Valentine. And feast together with our Lord at His table of peace.