Dear Members and Friends of St.
John,
In June I was struck by a text message sent to me by my
wife, Kathy. I saved the text for this
week’s devotion. On Monday, June 24, I
was driving to Sterling, making many stops, taking care of errands along the
way, as I traveled south to work on our cabin.
While in Anchorage I looked at my phone and Kathy had texted me from
work. The text log says this message was
sent to me at 7:51 a.m., Monday, June 24.
Here are the words of Kathy’s text.
“I hope you have some time to
relax. Please don’t use your phone while you’re driving. It’s your day OFF. Be
careful. Electricity and gas. I want you to come back in one piece. I Love you!”
Maybe you can hear or sense the years of experience and
knowledge from our marriage through this text message. I have always taken my calling as a pastor
seriously, but have probably worked too hard at times. Do you hear Kathy taking care of me and
wanting me to rest? While I don’t text
while driving, I do use my Bluetooth and talk while on the road. Our administrative assistant at St. John,
Judy Stahancyk, calls it my “Spock – Rock.”
Kathy has a different idea of being careful with a phone while driving. Do you hear her concern about my safety? Finally, my reputation as a handyman is
legendary, in that I have made many laughable mistakes over the years in my attempts
to fix things around the house. Kathy
will tell you that my handyman skills are getting better. However, I was on the way to the Kenai to get
propane and electric connected to the cabin.
(I did call professionals in to do that work for me.) Do you hear Kathy’s concern, and her warning
about dealing with dangerous power sources?
But, when I saw this text message what struck me at that
moment was just how much my wife of over 40 cares for me. Kathy knows my strengths. But, she also knows very well my many areas
of weakness. Yet, Kathy accepts me for
who I am and continues to love me. In
fact, Tuesday, August 20, is our 42nd wedding anniversary. This text message from Kathy was a loud
message from her that our love continues and has grown even stronger, much
stronger, over the years.
Hollywood and the other media of today have a different
idea of the love between a man and a woman.
In Hollywood, love is always exciting, between extremely attractive
people. In Hollywood, love almost always
includes sex outside of marriage, often without commitment, and without
God. But, as we watch marriages of
Hollywood celebrities make the headlines, both in the coming together and the
explosive splitting apart, the Hollywood dream shows itself to be shallow and
short-lived.
A person might understandably expect that after 42 years
of marriage a husband and wife might have become accustomed to one another, and
that love may have cooled. But, as a
pastor who performs marriages, and who also visits those in their last days and
months of life, I can attest to you that love grows deeper over the years. I’m convinced that God’s intent is for a
husband and wife to support each other in faith and in love through the joys
and challenges of life, and then, if grace allows, to share their last years
together remembering their lives and love together. I am thankful that in our marriage, I see
that plan of God at work.
Proverbs 31 contains God’s wisdom spoken
by King Lemuel. In Proverbs 31:10-31 Lemuel
writes about the blessing of a good wife.
This section begins in verse 10 with the following assertion, “A wife of noble character who
can find? She is worth far more than rubies.” Lemuel’s God-given wisdom is then summarized
in verse 30. “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the
LORD is to be praised.”
Lemuel’s wisdom is different from
the ideas of Hollywood. The Lord works
through Lemuel to instruct God’s children to look for a spouse of “noble
character,” who “fears the Lord.” I am a
deeply, and undeservedly blessed man! Significantly, Scripture also compares God’s love for His church through
Jesus to the love intended in marriage.
St. Paul writes in Epheians 5, “This
is a profound mystery-- but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33
However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the
wife must respect her husband.” (Ephesians
5:32-33) If the love of a husband and
wife grows deeper, how much greater is the love of God for His people. Well, the Father did send His only Son to
save us! Such sacrifice also reflects
God’s plan for husbands and wives.
Some of you know that I retire as full time pastor of St.
John at the end of this month, and that I am struggling deeply with this
decision. Perhaps my one guiding light
in this new direction is that my wife of 42 years loves me deeply, in a way I
do not deserve. Kathy wants to spend
time with her husband. What a blessing
that after 42 years of marriage my wife wants to spend time with me! I can surely say of Kathy, what Lemuel wrote
in Proverbs 31. “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is
fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.”
A Child of God, Blessed Beyond Measure by a Wife who
‘Fears the Lord’,
Pastor Jonathan
P.S. Here are some
pictures from our wedding, August 20, 1977 in Memphis, TN. Remember, Elvis died in Memphis on the
Tuesday before we were married. We have
stories! https://photos.app.goo.gl/6Xoo2KrYXr641Nup8
P.P.S. Stephen
Ministry at St. John is going well. Here
is a picture of most of our Stephen Ministers from a supervision meeting on Thursday,
August 15. Becky Lutz and Miki Entwistle
of Lamb of God are the only two missing from this picture. https://photos.app.goo.gl/LeNZs1gCjuBPrxy46
P.P.S. We have
been blessed with many baptisms this summer at St. John. Here are pictures from the baptism of Sophie
Bower, and of Isaac and Kenneth Walton on August 18.
******
ABOUT ‘THOUGHTS FROM THE PASTOR’ - I am
sending these e-mail messages, hopefully weekly, to all St. John members and
friends whose e-mails I have. (I am regularly adding new names of friends
and members – in case you are just receiving this e-mail for the first
time.) However, if you do not want to receive this e-mail, please let me
know, and I’ll gladly leave your name off my list for this message.
******
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