| |
| |
Religious Readings |
| |
| Here are some readings for your ceremony from the Bible — to honor your family’s faith or your own. |
| |
| All the Bible passages are from the New Living Translation (NLT) — the most readable translation. |
| |
By the way, looking for a Bible to read? Forget the King James Version with thee’s and thou’s. Rev. Phil not understand it very well either. Get the New Living Translation (NLT) — available at Borders, Amazon, etc.
Start reading the book of John, the fourth book of the New Testament. Use the index in the front to find it. To try and read the Bible from front to back is to set yourself up for great difficulty. Want to read the Bible in 20 different English translations or 31 languages? Go to BibleGateway.com. |
|
| |
| The Bible passages below are : |
- 1 Corinthians, chapter 13 — the long version
- 1 Corinthians, chapter 13 — the short version
- 1 John, chapter 4, verses 7-16
- Colossians, chapter 3, verses 12-14
- Ecclesiastes, chapter 4, verses 9-12
- Genesis, chapter 2, verses 15-25
- Genesis, chapter 1, verses 26-28
- Matthew, chapter 19, verses 4-6
- Ephesians, chapter 5, verses 1-2 and 21-33
|
| |
|
 |
|
 |
| |
1 Corinthians, chapter 13 — the LONG version — 1 Cor 13:1-13 |
| |
| It is the most popular Scripture read at weddings. It’s lovely, traditional but, perhaps, overused. You decide. |
| |
If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless.
When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love. |
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
| |
 |
|
 |
| |
1 Corinthians, chapter 13 — the SHORT version — 1 Cor 13:4-7, 13 |
| |
| A shorter version than the one above. |
| |
| Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love. |
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
1 John, chapter 4, verses 7-16 (1 Jn 4:7-16) |
| Read at my wedding to Pamela on June 23, 1984. |
Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. All who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
Colossians, chapter 3, verses 12-14 (Colossians 3:12-14) |
| |
| Fresh, rarely used reading at weddings — words on love. |
| |
| Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
Ecclesiastes, chapter 4, verses 9-12 (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12) |
| |
| Another fresh, rarely used reading at weddings — more words on love. |
| |
| Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. 10 If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone? A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
Genesis, chapter 2, verses 15-25 (Gen 2:15-25) |
| |
| Woman is created from man; then the first marriage (with God as the first wedding officiant.) |
| |
The LORD God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. But the LORD God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden — except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.” Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.” So the LORD God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one. He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him.
So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the LORD God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man.
“At last!” the man exclaimed.
“This one is bone from my bone,
and flesh from my flesh!
She will be called ‘woman,’
because she was taken from ‘man.”’
This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one. Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
Genesis, chapter 1, verses 26-28 (Gen 1:26-28) |
| |
| God creates men and women in His image; told to be fruitful and multiply. |
| |
Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”
So God created human beings in his own image.
In the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.” |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
Matthew, chapter 19, verses 4-6 (Mt 19:4-6) |
| |
| God unites married couple, do not split it apart. |
| |
| “Haven’t you read the Scriptures?” Jesus replied. “They record that from the beginning ‘God made them male and female.’ And he said, ‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’ Since they are no longer two but one, let no one split apart what God has joined together.” |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
Ephesians, chapter 5, verses 1-2 and 21-33 (Eph 5:1-2, 21-33) |
| |
| Roles for wives and husbands. |
| |
Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God. Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.
For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. And we are members of his body.
As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
| |
 |
| |
|
|
 |
Experience the Power of a Love Story |
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
