I could not believe she said yes to marrying me after being divorced twice. It was 1993, and Michelle and I had set a date to get married in the fall of 1994. Around March 1994, Michelle found a foreclosure house located near our kids’ future school. I told her we could not move into that house together because we were serving in several ministries at the church. So, what did we do? We bought the house even though we both knew what God’s Word says about living together outside of marriage.
I told her to expect the Elders of the church to come and set us straight. You see, I had been serving at our church for about 8 years. Michelle was just returning to God after turning away from him for about 15 years. She is the daughter of a preacher and spent most of her school years in church many times a week. When she graduated high school, she moved out of the house and the church. It is difficult to be the child of a preacher because you are expected to be at church every time the doors are open.
Sure, enough we got the call. The Elders wanted to “drop by and see the house.” I bet they do! They came over, sat down on the couch, and explained we could not live together while serving in up-front ministries. We were welcome to attend church but that was all. Michelle was very upset and could not believe it. I couldn’t help but say ”I told you so.”
We called the pastor of our church, Barry McMurtrie, and he came over. He apologized and explained it would have been more appropriate for him to have come alone. Then if we refused to separate until married, he would have asked a couple of Elders to come and explain in more detail how we were sinning against God. He agreed to marry us in our home as soon as we could arrange it. After we were married on May 15th, we were welcomed back into all the ministries in which we had previously served.
You see, there is a right and wrong way to go about life. God gave us His Word to give us the wisdom and knowledge to do the right thing. It is not a book of don’ts but a book of dos. His Word is perfect. His Word is true. It is full of His promises. If we have questions about what the right thing is to do in this situation His Word has the answer if we will search for it.
Yes, what we did was wrong, but God turned it into our story and testimony to others. He brought good out of bad choices. He does that, you know. We are thankful for the Elders who stood on His Word instead of looking the other way.
May God walk hand in hand with you this week.
Jim Everett
