Showing posts with label Bible. Show all posts

Thursday, January 4, 2018

Relationship of Marriage

If the Bible tells us things about God, ourselves, life, and about human struggle along with the divine solution, then it is not a stretch that every passage can also be said to be a marriage passage. There is something there that gives us wisdom on how to deal with relationships.

The Lord made a woman out of the rib.The Lord God brought her to the man, and the man exclaimed,

“Here is someone like me!
She is part of my body,
my own flesh and bones.
She came from me, a man.
So I will name her Woman!”^[a]

That’s why a man will leave his own father and mother. He marries a woman, and the two of them become like one person.
- Genesis 2:22-24

Have respect for marriage. Always be faithful to your partner, because God will punish anyone who is immoral or unfaithful in marriage.- Hebrews 13:4

It is also safe to say that the image of God is reflected in the marriage union too. The Trinity is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit; they are one and yet still individual persons. Marriage demonstrates two individual people becoming “one” for the rest of their lives while maintaining their individuality.

Relationship finds itself as a central theme in the Bible.

“Our hearts are restless until we find our rest in Thee.” - St. Augustine

God designed us for a relationship with Him. The whole of Scripture speaks of our relationship with Him: how to have it, how to hold onto it, how to rest in it, how to communicate it, how to enjoy it.

We can see that marriage is an intimate and complementing union between a man and a woman in which the two become one physically, in the whole of life. The purpose of marriage is to reflect the relationship of the Godhead.

We can appreciate what God designed marriage to provide - partnership, spiritual intimacy and the ability to pursue God — together.

And why isn’t God pleased? It’s because he knows that each of you men has been unfaithful to the wife you married when you were young. You promised that she would be your partner, but now you have broken that promise. Didn’t God create you to become like one person with your wife?^[a] And why did he do this? It was so you would have children, and then lead them to become God’s people. Don’t ever be unfaithful to your wife.- Malachi 2:14-15

What does the Bible say about relationships and marriage?

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Witnessing

Manuel was an effective evangelist among the mountain Quechua people in Peru. One day some Shining Path guerrillas intercepted him on the trail and ordered him to stop going to the mountains; stop handing out Bibles, cassettes and other Christian materials; and stop preaching about Jesus. They threatened his life.

Some weeks later Manuel’s dead body was found on the trail. His feet, hands and tongue had been cut off. With a knife they carved on his torso the message in Spanish, “We told you to stop!” The chopped body parts completed the message, “...visiting the villages; distributing Bibles; preaching about Jesus!”

There was a memorial service for Manuel attended by many believers. An evangelist preached the memorial service message and challenged young people to come forward and take Manuel’s place. Ten young people made the commitment. An elder standing at the side asked, “But young people. What if the same thing happens to you as happened to Manuel?”

One of the youths cried out, “If we die, a thousand will spring up and take our place!”

This from China --

"…in the provinces, believers are still fined, imprisoned, and tortured; local regulations still prohibit unofficial church gatherings", One lady was held for 110 days in captivity. She was hung upside down and beaten with electrical cords. Others with her were beaten with wire from the waist down.

Their crime was meeting with an evangelist. Their testimony was, "...that God's presence was so tangible during the torture that, in fact, she felt joyful. 'Because of these afflictions, we loved the souls of China more...and we prayed for those who were torturing us... We go out ready to preach the gospel, ready to go to jail, and ready to die for Jesus' sake." (CHRISTIANITY TODAY, May 16, 1994, pp. 33-34).

"It is interesting to note that the underground church in China is apolitical! They pray for their leaders but maintain a careful independence...more than a few believers [in America] trade in their Christian birthright for a mess of earthy pottage. We must continually ask ourselves: Is our first aim to change our government or to see lives in and out of government changed for Christ?” Ibid.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

We need your prayers...

"Alexander was on his first research trip to Cuba for Open Doors. He asked a Cuban pastor what his needs were. He expected the response to itemize the many material needs that the churches in Cuba obviously lacked.
“The first thing we need is your prayers,” he replied, “to know the Body of Christ is with us.” Then he went on to list their tremendous need for Bibles, teaching aids, Sunday School materials and printing supplies. Then he concluded with the statement that they could use anything and everything.
“If you send us just a bar of soap, we’ll be grateful,” he confessed. “We'll praise God for it!”
Alexander says, “I felt a big lump in my throat as I thought of all the Bibles, literature and freedoms I enjoyed. Yet even with all my blessings, my testimony was not as strong. So I struggled to articulate my feelings. ‘Pastor,’ I said, ‘I can only begin to sense and imagine the difficulties you have encountered.’”
The pastor’s eyes became misty and he softly responded, “Oh yes brother, we have been through a most difficult twenty-five years. Yet we don’t fear persecution. As a matter of fact, we welcome it because it purifies us!”

There is a story called, The Butterfly. It implies a certain process that turns us into what we need to be so that we can do the things we need to do.

Keith Price, "Affliction is a great watershed. It either drives us to God or from Him. Which course we take likely depends more on our existing relationship with God than any other factor. I have come to the conviction that my closeness to God is more precisely measured by my capacity for suffering than it is by my capacity for joy."

"We do not want suffering; we want success. We identify not with
those who are low and hurt but with those who are high and
healthy. We don't like lepers or losers very well; we prefer
climbers and comers. For Christians, the temptation to be
conformed to this world is desperately sweet and strong. Yet, says
the apostle Paul, we are children of God if we suffer with Christ. ...
God does not give his hardest assignments to his weakest children." -- Cornelius Plantinga, Jr.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Patiently waiting for God

Paraphrase of Habakkuk by Dr. Jim Cunningham --

    "Though the job offers do not come

    and there is no employment on the horizon.

    Though the stock investments decline

and my RRSPs produce no income.

Though there are no savings in the account

and minimum cash in my pocket.

    Yet I will rejoice in the Lord.

    I will be joyful in God my Saviour.

    The Sovereign Lord is my strength.

    He makes me walk on the edge with sure feet

    and calms me to enjoy the view."

http://youtu.be/LuEFdtIv4lo

Friday, April 6, 2012

Loving God

I found this quote --

"God created people with free will, meaning that we can choose to love and obey God or not. It wouldn't be very meaningful if we loved or obeyed God because we were unable to choose otherwise. A computer or talking doll can be made to say "I love you," but it doesn't have the same meaning as when a human freely chooses to love. Thus, in order for anyone's choice to love and follow God to be meaningful, God permits everyone to choose freely what they will do"

No sooner do we decide to love the Lord with all our being then we hear Jesus' words - and one of the most difficult commands is to love even our enemies.

Related articles