In 2016, Dr Don and Ruthanne Lynch intend to host some really powerful and personal marriage encounters designed “to celebrate your marriage.” You may receive an invitation to a wedding that gives the time and location, but the marriage to be celebrated will be your own!
“Leave and cleave” are the old English words used to describe the initiation and forging of kingdom covenant marriage. Neither word finds the same meaning in our modern vernacular, es
pecially “cleave.” In fact, “cleave” reminds us more of heavy, sharp combination of a hand axe and a knife lifted high for leverage and brought down forcefully by a butcher or chef to sever. Not what “cleave” means in the context of marriage!
One of the radical concepts of Biblical descriptions of marriage, “leave and cleave” are God’s norms for celebrating the relationship by which He crowned Creation with this highest representation of God’s kingdom of heaven. Within marriage we see God’s highest investment of kingdom in the earth, and we glimpse the mystery of Christ with His redeemed Ecclesia.
Talk about reasons for celebration! God ruling on earth. Jesus loving His Ecclesia. Man and woman achieving spirit, soul, and body oneness. Powerful!
Marriage Foundations
Nothing rises above the quality of marriage in any culture. No ministry rises higher than the spiritual quality of the marriages of the people within it, especially the leaders of that ministry. No family expands functional integrity beyond the validity of marriage as the basis for family. Marriage is so foundational that God started with and will bring everything to its ultimate with it in the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
Marriage Fidelity
“Leave” defines the process before “cleave” defines the relationship. The quality of leaving often determines the quality of cleaving. What people carry into marriage more often than not determines what they carry on within the marriage.
The Bible says we should “run away from the demanding desires he acquired in youth that war against his soul.” What we acquire in our youth, that we fail to leave when we enter into marriage, affects our relationship building in the new covenantal oneness we hope to achieve.
“Fidelity” speaks to the achievement of the highest the design calls for. We are more apt to use the negative than celebrate the positive; that is, we are more likely to use the term “infidelity” when covenant is breached than invest in “fidelity” to experience the ultimate of what God designed marriage to be.
“Celebrate Your Marriage”refuses to ignore or minimize Divine design. We intend to create higher expectations for marriage and celebrate “success” only by God’s measurements while, at the same time, offering the steps that couples take to achieve oneness.
Leaving can be more difficult than cleaving. That is, what often limits oneness most is what we bring into marriage. What we develop within the covenant often reaps harvest from previously sown feelings, perceptions, expectations, and compensations for our fears, failures, and fantasies.
Celebrate Your Marriage
Expect God to restore His design and devotion to marriage! Expect Him to involve Himself in the marriages between believers in ways that restore fullness and cause us to look for ultimates. He designed and created kingdom covenant marriage, and He is defending His will and purposes.
As we cooperate with God, we will see the greatest opportunity for restoration available for decades. God is healing marriages, restoring covenants, and celebrating His design for marriage!
