The church held a musical event last night. This is something that they do on the last sunday of the month. Different people from within the church are asked to sing and a couple of people are the moderators to lead the event. My girlfriend, Diana, was one of the moderators for the night. I had told her last month that I wanted to sing so about 45 minutes after the night started, it was my turn to sing.
I sang a song from my United Methodist Church days. It is not known by too many people, but my old church family truly loved this song. It is titled,
Lord, You Have Come To The Lakeshore
My girlfriend and her friend were sitting on stage waiting for me to finish my song. When the song was over I went over to her and gave her a hug. She was happy for me (not sure if she was happy I was finally done singing or that I had done a good job!!) After I gave her a hug she walked up to the podium and I started to walk away. When she had passed me and had her back to me, I then reached into my pocket, stood right behind her and got down on one knee!
The audience, as if on que, all gasped and stood up. Diana turned around and saw me on my knee and just started crying. I proposed to her in front of her church family and she said...
YES!
It was a great evening. Everyone was so happy for us and before I knew it, they had the whole wedding all planned out for us! Which is good for me, since, I am terrible when it comes to color-coordinating things! We have set a date for our wedding.
Sept 27, 2008!
I love Diana very much and am looking forward to a long life spent together with her in service to the Lord! I would appreciate your prayers for our relationship. I thank everyone of you for your devotion to the Lord, even to those who do not agree with me, I appreciate the fact that you do love God and are serving Him in a way that you feel is best. May God bless each one of you today. I know I have been blessed with a beautiful woman of God.
Congratulations! I've prayed ya'll will be glorious exaltations...
ReplyDeleteActually, I didn't use all the big words. Just the same, with your blog as a guide since I don't know you in person, your marriage will be a blessed one for each other and probably used by God. No pressure.
And with the church as collective witnesses -- may they be accountable to letting ya'll live a wonderful married and God glorifying life in ministry.
In His Word,
Scott
as we say back in the 'hood... alright now!!
ReplyDelete:)
Congrats Brian!
ReplyDeleteWHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteYay! I'm so happy for you!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dude, way to go!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to you and your future bride!!
I wish I was close enough to come to the wedding.
Praise God!
Congratulations Brian!
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
Ladies and gentlemen,
ReplyDeleteApril 27th, 2008, Brian Culver, age undisclosed, passed into purgatory. He will be deeply missed by his Friday Night Poker and Cow-tipping team. But, it looks he's moved on to greener tables and pastures.
Born a poor black child in a cabin built with his own hands, Mr. Culver's last wishes were to see Star Trek IV one last time and get to shake hands with Barak Obama. Sadly, it appears the closest he'll come is driving by the video memorabilia store in his limo--I mean 'ambulance' on the way to services. As for the Obama dream, we overruled that due to the fact that it HAD to be caused by late-stage liberalitis of the brain. Very sad.
As of now, services are scheduled for Sept. 27th, 2008. Please bring your own double spaced Brian Culver anti-Mormon quote. These will be raffled after the service for a copy of a Star Trek IV dvd.
Thank you.
thanks everyone! even you Sam!! LOL
ReplyDeleteI have never been married before, I came close as the fiance that I had out in Arizona slept with her exboyfriend just one month before we were going to get married. That was back in 1990!
any advice or suggestions to make this wedding extra special?
(be good Sam!!)
Hmm... an extra special wedding.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that was extra special to me for our wedding was the fact that I was walking up the aisle to Jason. At that moment, no one else existed, and it was just US.
You could write her a song, sing her a song (a friend of ours sang Stephen Curtis Chapman's song "I Will Be Here" to his bride... so sweet), etc. But I think she will just be happy marrying YOU.
:)
thanks jessie! of course you realize that you signed in under jason's name so it made it look like jason was walking down the aisle to jason!!!!!
ReplyDeletefor everyone reading this, it is jessie writing the message about jason
Kinda similar to what Jason said,
ReplyDeleteI would suggest writing your own vows. (Don't try and memorize them, repeating them after a preacher is just fine since you wrote them.)
That was very special.
Also, you know how a lot of weddings do the 'unity candle' or something like? Well that's great until they are blown out. We did somehting similar but it was a salt ceremony (old Jewish thing) Inst6ead of lighting the candle, we pour salt from "our" jars into one jar at the same time, thus symbolizing the three cords not easily broken. Much more meaningful and great reminder of the inseparability of Christ and the Church.
Of course then everybody asks "what's the jar of salt for on the book case?"
excuse me, I meant to say Jessie.
ReplyDeleteI'm so confused.
I have a copy of wedding ceremony that had the couple taking communion. It was beautifully done. (I didn't perform it, it was done for my cousin at her wedding)
ReplyDeleteIf you like I can send it to you for your review.
Congratulations. May God bless you and your soon to be wife.
ReplyDeleteThat's class! Congrats Bro.
ReplyDeleteBill
cupcakes....cupcakes would make any wedding memorable :-D
ReplyDeletein all seriousness, i like the communion idea.
congratulations!!!!
Brian and Diana - am so pleased for you both - many many congratulations!
ReplyDeleteBarbara and I spent the whole day of our wedding at (with!) the church. Even before Barbara arrived we had had half an hour of worship. After the wedding ceremony we turned the church building into a dining space for an 'Agape meal'.
As part of the proceedings we had a person tell the story of Ruth. It was just an amazing wonderful day and my prayer is that yours too will be equally amazing.
God bless you both!
Neil and Barbara
Congrats!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations Brian! I hope you will spend many long years loving your "soon"-to-be wife as Christ loved the Church. Speaking of, why so long a delay between the engagement and the actual ceremony? My wife and I planned an engagement that was to be a year, but we quickly realized that it was something that should not be delayed as the sexual tension of the "now, not yet" was incredible. We wound up shortening it by 4 months, but even that was hard. Looking back, it would have been all the better if we would have married within two months after the engagement. I'm not saying preparation is not important, but it takes back seat to holiness. With that being said, she had everything knocked out within two months and then we just sat and waited... for... 6... loooooong... months... to... go... by. I tell you though, it was well worth the wait and marriage is definitely a blessing of the Lord (and a great responsibility that I think most enter into too lightly). Enjoy it and remember your role as appointed by God and know that one day you will stand before Him and have to give an account for how you led your wife.
ReplyDeletej razz
...any advice or suggestions to make this wedding extra special?
ReplyDeleteYou could hire me to film it :)
And you could ask for Lee Tankersley to preside over the ceremony. If you would like to hear him, check out this video. Please note, it is widescreen, but was squished to 4:3 by the host site. (if you want to see it in all its "glory" click the drop down below the video and select "Unknown File Type" and watch the high definition DivX file).
j razz
Wow! Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteJust For You Brian
ReplyDeleteI would email you but I don't know your email address as I don't want to detract from the purpose of this post or cause a distraction while discussing the issue below.
As per the communion idea, I would encourage you think about the purpose of communion and see if that fits in a wedding ceremony. I know at our wedding we had plenty of unbelievers present (we wanted them to hear the gospel and understand as best as can be displayed, the purpose of marriage at our ceremony). We also considered the idea of communion, but when we actually thought through it and thought about who it is for and what scripture says concerning its distribution, we decided against it to honor what we saw scripture as saying concerning communion and we did not want to make those who were there to feel pressured into taking part in communion who were not Christians.
j razz
brianculver@yahoo.com
ReplyDeleteBrian,
ReplyDeleteNot that you don't already know more about such things, here is something that explains in a 45 minute nutshell some of what my thoughts are on this issue of marriage in general that can be applied to all areas including ceremony. I'm not trying to be pushy, but I figured why reinvent the wheel? So instead of writing out a novel, just go HERE for the audio and HERE for the text.
In Christ
I would concur with the j razz a little bit on the communion idea. There are some specific issues relating to unregenerate people being present which would present at least potential problems. However, how do we deal with the unsaved in our churches when we practice communion? As we ought, we explain that this is just for believers, and that if someone's faith is not in Christ, then they should abstain.
ReplyDeleteThis could also be done at a wedding. Remember, it is also inappropriate for unbelievers to sing worship songs to a God they do not believe. So even a worship service could have similar arguments against it for a wedding ceremony.
But the fact of the matter is, do the bride and groom worship and believe God? If so, then worship or communion are both not only appropriate, but non-negotiable. What a great opportunity to preach to unsaved family and friends than have a part of your wedding not include them in their current state. As in a 'regular service', explain the repercussions opf partaking without belief, but let the believers there exercise their belief.
The wedding is between the three cords. Let them honor that grand entwining appropriately and reverently and in so doing proclaim to the lost present the 'unsearchable riches of Christ'. Not least of which are obeying the few sacraments He gave us.
(steps off soap box to let someone else bend some ears for a while)
SW
Obviously you are too busy planning for your wedding - you haven't put a new blog on for THREE days!!! LoL
ReplyDeleteNeil