Thoughts on Marriage

Peter Dubbelman
Administration/Family Life Pastor

Nobody gets married with the intent of their family falling apart. But a lot of them do! Why?

Most sensible people, when asked if they would prefer a happy and fulfilling family life or a prosperous career would pick the former. Yet their actions show a preference for the later. They apply themselves diligently to their job, take refresher courses and put in extra hours, often at the cost of a relationship with their spouse and children.

Life’s constant and unexpected demands can unmercifully rob us of valuable family time. Our families are not something that can be continually put on auto pilot. The foolish person that does may soon be flying into a mountain of disappointment and hurt.

If you are married, please consider attending one of the two marriage seminars our church is promoting.

Festival of Marriage: October 24-26 in Asheville. Please contact Holly Ladner @ 567-2699 for more details.

Seeing Your Marriage through the Eyes of God: February 28 at ABC. Please contact Peter Dubbelman at x228 for more details.

Peace and the Ocean

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

I love the ocean. Almost every year of my life my family has spent at least one week down on Topsail Island. I love the wind, the sand, the sound of the waves, being with family, dolphins swimming out in the shallows--I even love the sun, occasionally. Not only those things, but there are a lot of good memories associated with the beach in my life. Especially memories with my family—looking for shark’s teeth, late night games of Balderdash, my Mom getting hit with a water balloon launched from a spudzooka 100 yards away, filming “How To Avoid Shark Attack” videos, walks on the beach with my wife and eating tons and tons of good food. There have been a lot of good memories over the years at the ocean.

A lot of times we compare the majesty and the grandeur of the ocean with God--the vastness of the ocean amazes us. We look at it's raw power--the currents, the pounding of the waves and riptides that will carry you away without a moment's notice and we are in awe. But to me it's not always the bigness of the ocean that points me to God, it's the peace that I see in the continual rolling of the waves--the rhythm of the water. When I look out on the ocean I don't know how to say it any better way except that peace floods my entire being—I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the same God who created these waters and these tides holds his children in his righteous right hand. And that gives my heart peace. I love what Jesus says in John 14.

Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Your heart must not be troubled or fearful.

This peace isn’t a promise of a happy life or of a follower of Jesus being safe and secure from all physical alarms and harms. It is a promise of peace with God and a promise that in the end this God that created the seas will triumph over all the evil in the world. And this peace goes beyond anything that we could ever imagine or understand. Paul writes that it transcends understanding. That’s the kind of peace I need. And that’s why I love the ocean.