CJ Bowen and Lisa Jackson Wed Tomorrow

Open letter of blessing, love and encouragement

Dear CJ and Lisa,

Tomorrow, God willing, you unite in the bond of covenant love, fidelity and service. Peggy and I are giddy for you both. We wish we could be there. Being witnesses within the public arena for a wedding affirms once again that our God continually—in a seamless way between the home and the church—boosts our faith and devotion. Your covenant making tomorrow at 1:00 PM nudges us all into greater and greater covenant faithfulness. We’ll miss your own vow-exchanging and the emotion and joy!

I know that both your parents will beam with you with a radiance of Christ’s good pleasure as they see the two of you united in marriage. Parents are particularly grateful and blessed to see this benchmark in life. Their own fruit of the labor of their loins, hands and hearts experiences a treasured aspect of the harvest. Parents value the ability to see the fruit of their hands. Resurrection hope gets fortification at weddings! Their own joy will be the complete sharing in yours—amen!

I wish somehow, CJ, that the two of us would have been able to meet face to face, and give one another a chest butt and share a beer. I have heard glowing testimonies of God’s kindness to you—with imparting to you His gift of grace and His many gifts of service within the Body of Christ. Continue on, son of the covenant, and grow in the Lord’s love and sacrificial service unto the King.

I exhort you brother with Ephesians 5: 26: imitate your Savior, and take the words of promise, blessing, cheer, comfort, hope, forward-looking anticipation and more and more, and wash your dear bride. I take the meaning of the word “the washing of the word,” in vs. 26 to mean the words that we speak to our wives as daily rituals of thoughtfulness, the everyday routines of the words of kindness and favor. Jesus told Peter and the other eleven that smaller cleansings are needful—the everyday kind like the feet: “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean…” The daily washings are the ones that are timely when she’s tired, discouraged, defeated and so on with respect to her faith and service. As you do this to Lisa, CJ, you’ll remind yourself and her of Christ’s work of redemption. Our Lord Jesus has washed us with His blood, we act upon His finished work washing and bathing with His Word of hope for growth in His sanctification. Wash her, brother! Grab your towel and basin and speak words of hope, life and faith. She will always have a sparkle in her eye and a kick in her step when she hears encouraging words from her prince.

My dear Lisa! I am almost in tears thinking about you today! I can remember doing the Bible study at Chapelgate Christian Academy in Maryland maybe 10-12 years ago, and I would see you around the school and various places with your school buds. I remember your bouncy step around your home in Glenwood. You always had a smile on, and I can remember the fun you had with our kids—especially with Toby. I have treasured your model of godliness of self-giving service. No doubt, you follow your folks on this. Your thoughtful ways of the little things for others are vivid in my mind. Yes indeedy, you’re a help-meet to the 10th power! Lisa, honor your man by contributing to his station in life. You’ve been privileged to gain skill in practical service at your own occupation in the past 2-3 years now, and I am sure that practical service will be a lift for your man and it will serve as a resource from which you will draw. Keep your eyes on Jesus Christ in your role of being the soil of humility, submission and service. It’s your soil of such things—being low, being a servant without words, see 1 Peter 3:1-6—where he is most influenced for growth. Be the soil in which CJ’s roots can go down deep for strength as God raises him up with growth to be a strong oak of a man.

To you both: may the Lord Jesus Christ be the supply of truth, life and faith as your lives are dedicated to His honor. May He enable you to hold fast to your good confession, to practice your oaths of loyalty that you make to one another tomorrow, and that you might walk in His service as husband and wife displaying the testimony that God has sent His Son for saving love, power and renewal.

Amen and Amen—in the name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

Have a glorious day tomorrow!

Yours, in the Glad Tidings of Christ’s Love,

Dad Sumpter

G. Mark Sumpter