...about the covenant of marriage...

I mentioned in an earlier post that once you make a covenant with someone your life can never be the same. God makes covenants (promises) and keeps them. We, here on earth, seem to have a bit of a problem with that.

Marriage is one example of a covenant. People stand in front of God and man and vow to love, cherish and obey “til death do us part”. Marriage is quickly becoming a thing of the past because we simply can’t keep a promise like that on our own. God is the only one who can give us the strength and determination to fulfill these vows. If BOTH people are not committed  and surrendered to Him, then many times it seems hopeless. Sometimes it is hopeless. God said, in II Corinthians 6:14, “Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?” Unfortunately, we don’t always heed God’s word, and he makes allowance for this in I Corinthians 7:15, where when speaking of marriage between believers and non-believers, he encourages the believer to stay and try to work the marriage out. And then adds,

“But if the unbeliever departs, let him depart; a brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases. But God has called us to peace.”

            What is so very sad is that there are so many lost people in our churches today and much of the time you can’t tell the difference between believers and the world. Sometimes believers meet someone in church and think, “This is great, we both love the Lord and each other,” only to discover later that the person they married is not who they thought they were.

The fact that the divorce rate is higher in churches than outside only confirms the fact that people are not getting exactly what they expected. Have you ever had that? You think you are taking a drink of an ice cold coke, and actually it’s unsweet tea? Yuk!

When it comes down to it, life is never what you expect. Even if providence hands you a godly wife or husband, everyone has their moments, or days, or weeks or years. Life is not like a romance novel or the latest chic flick. Life is all about giving up the remote, cleaning up puke, going to McDonalds instead of Outback, getting a toaster instead of diamond earrings for your birthday. Get over it. Remember, love keeps no record of wrongs. Do something nice for your mate, they may not appreciate it, but it will definitely make you feel better.

The fact that marriages fail are not an excuse to abandon marriage. God instituted this covenant, and the problem is not with Him!

Attributes - Part 6

God is righteous and holy. The word righteous means that God is just or right. It’s not just that His actions are just and right, He IS these things. He is the standard of these things. Many times when bad things happen we want to say, “That is just not right,” or “It’s not fair.” But you see, we are not the judge of what is right or fair. Job had been put through loss and tragedy time and again and finally toward the end of the book after he had lost everything and suffered greatly, he questioned God’s justice and proclaimed his own righteousness. Basically proclaiming, “This is not fair, I don’t deserve this!” Elihu came down on him pretty hard. I love Job 35:5-7, “Look up at the heavens and see; gaze at the clouds so high above you.  If you sin, how does that affect him? If your sins are many, what does that do to him?  If you are righteous, what do you give to him, or what does he receive from your hand?”

Of course, then God comes in the whirlwind and reprimands Job saying, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you have understanding. Who has laid the measures thereof, if you know? Or who has stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? Or who laid the corner stone thereof; When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?” God goes on for several chapters explaining to Job just who He is and what He has done, until finally, Job, in chapter 42, if I may paraphrase, said, “God, you have done everything. You even know my thoughts. I had no idea who you were. I have been talking about things that I know nothing about. I had heard about you, but now I see who you are. I can’t stand in your presence, and I repent in dust and ashes.”

What is truly amazing about this characteristic of God is that He can transfer it to us. The New Testament tells us that we should seek righteousness (Matthew 6:33), thirst after righteousness (Matthew 5:6), suffer for it (I Peter 3:14,15), be slaves of righteousness (Romans 6:18), and practice righteousness (I John 3:7).

God is Holy. The word holy means “apartness” or “sacredness”. God is completely apart from everything else. He is “other”. God’s holiness separates Him from all else, because everything else was made “by Him and for Him”. God in His very nature is holy. I Samuel 2:2 says, “There is none holy as the Lord: for there is none besides thee: neither is there any rock like our God.” Then in Exodus 15:11, “Who is like unto thee, O Lord? Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?”

Community Life - Part 4

Everyone longs for community. Most people find it in one way or another. Whether it is in a church, a club, a lease, or even facebook, people find a way to connect with other people who have something in common with them. There is a website that is like a community “directory” and there are more than 2000 “Intentional Communities” in the US alone. Ours is not listed and I’m sure there are many others that aren’t. These also do not include, retirement communities and “gated communities” which are on the rise because people not only want to live around people with whom they have something in common, they want to feel safe. The list probably doesn’t include Amish and Mennonite communities among others like the Hutterites. In the 1950’s most everyone lived in a community. We knew our neighbors, and it was the day of outdoor barbecues and backyard baseball. Today, most people don’t know their neighbors and if they do they are suspicious of them.

It reminds me of when we first moved to Romania, 5 years after communism fell. We rented a house in a small village where all of the houses and yards were connected by tall walls that you couldn’t see over. Our landlady had us over for dinner and whispered during the meal, “Don’t trust your neighbor! Stay away from them. They are with the secret police!” About a week later our neighbor came to our gate with a television. He said he could hear over the wall that we had children and thought they might enjoy watching something. He also invited us to dinner. During the meal he whispered, “Stay away from your landlady! Don’t trust her, she is with the secret police!” Rob and I looked at one another and tried not to laugh.

The way communism accomplished this type of fear and suspicion in people is to bulldoze down whole villages (communities), where people lived, worked, celebrated, and died together, and moved them to different locations. Usually to live in tall “blocks” or apartment buildings where no one knew their neighbor. I started this post to tell you what community means to me and never quite got there. May be next time. Meanwhile, here is a quote from one of my favorite authors.

“A community is the mental and spiritual condition of knowing that the place is shared, and that the people who share the place define and limit the possibilities of each other's lives. It is the knowledge that people have of each other, their concern for each other, their trust in each other, the freedom with which they come and go among themselves.” 
― Wendell Berry

Attributes - Part 5

  Not only is God alive, active, moving, real, he is the source of all other life. While everything else that has life received it as a gift from God, He IS life, with no possibility of death. Throughout the Bible it speaks of “the living God”. In Daniel 6:26 it states, “He is the living God and he endures forever; his kingdom will not be destroyed, his dominion will never end.” The word immortal means “without death” or “imperishable”, “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” (I Timothy 1:17) We know that God not only has life eternal, but He gives it to others. John 5:24 says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”

            God is unity or “oneness”, but He is also triunity, which means there are three persons in one God. Dr. Norman Geisler puts it this way, “God has a plurality of persons and a unity of essence; God is three persons in one nature. There is only one “What” (essence) in God, but there are three “Whos” (persons) in that one What…. Three Subjects in one Object.”

Jesus prayed in John 17:5, “…Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” And then in John 8:58 He says, “Before Abraham was born, I am!” which refers not only to Jesus’ existence before Abraham, but also to His claim of being there as one with the Father when He said, “I Am” in Exodus 3:14

The Holy Spirit is also referred to as God throughout the Bible. In Acts 5:3,4 it says, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit…You have not lied to men but to God.” II Corinthians 13:14 states, “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all”, which brings all three persons together in one benediction. Again, the three persons of God were shown together at the baptism of Jesus. When Jesus came up out of the water, He saw the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, and He heard the voice of God, the Father, coming from heaven. In Matthew 28:19 it says, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” All of these verses and more show three distinct persons with one nature. Our God is three in one, three persons in one being.

Attributes - Part 4

Remember when you were a kid and it seemed like your mom must have eyes in the back of her head? I always thought she had some secret way of knowing everything. Come to find out, only God is all knowing or omniscient. He knows the past, present and future. Hebrews 4:13 tells us, “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” Matthew says that He knows when a sparrow falls to the ground, and that even the hairs on our head are numbered. Psalm 139:2-4 states, “You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord.” Does this sound like someone who would have been playing hide and seek in the garden with Adam? NO! God asked Adam, “Where are you?” Like we ask our children, “Do you need a spanking?” or when someone wakes you up at midnight with a phone call and asks, “Oh, I’m sorry, did I wake you up?”

GOD IS LIGHT. At first glance one might think that this is just a figure of speech, but upon close examination of the scripture we see that light is actually a characteristic of God. He is light spiritually, and He illuminates.  Isaiah 60:19,20 says, “The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more; the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end”. II Samuel goes on to say, “You are a lamp, O Lord; the Lord turns my darkness into light.” Matthew 17:5 states, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Finally, in Revelation, “There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign forever and ever.”

*Many of God’s attributes are beyond finding out, or beyond our comprehension. The Bible speaks of His majesty, honor, strength, greatness, power, glory, victory and beauty; His wisdom, dominion, power and awesomeness. Job 11:7 says, “Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?” In Romans 11:33 it states, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!” We cannot know everything about God, but we should seek to know what He has revealed to us in His word.  

Community Life - Part 3

             We have people ask questions about our community many times that refer to rules and regulations: “What kind of rules do you have?” or “Do you have a list of Bylaws?” The answer to these are found very simply put in Matthew 22: 36-40.  “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

When people make covenants with one another (make binding vows or promises), their lives can never be the same.  We will save the subject of covenants for another dayJ

The thing is, that if we get up every day and think of God first and others second, it leaves very little time to think of ourselves. If we love, like it speaks of love in I Corinthians 13, then we will have very few problems with one another. The big one is to “take no offense”, and to “keep no record of wrongs”. We know that everyone has off days, bad moods, say things they don’t mean, but it’s hard sometimes not to take offense because we let our egos get in the way. When problems arise in any relationship it’s always because we think we deserve better. “They shouldn’t have treated me like that.”, Why? Because I didn’t deserve it, I deserve better.” Right? I’m not saying to ignore problems. If you have a problem with someone, you should always go to them and let them know. “Hey, it really hurt my feelings, when you said…………..” After that, let it go. Forgiveness is not for someone else, it’s for you. It keeps you from becoming bitter and miserable.

If you think through the 10 Commandments, all of them come back to these two. If we love God and one another, we are not going to want what someone else has, (coveting), we won’t lie to one another, and so on.  I’m not saying, we’ve got it down, and don’t have problems, but if you can bring everything back to the word of God, that's always the place to start.

Attributes - Part 3

Not only is God eternal, but He is infinite. Infinity means without bounds or end.  God is not bound by time, nor is He bound by anything else. I Kings 8:27 states, “Will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you.”

God is Spirit. He is not made of matter. John wrote in chapter 4 verse 24 that “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” Material beings occupy both time and space and of course were created. None of these things apply to God.

God is omnipotent. He has unlimited power. Since God is free of time and space, He can use His unlimited power whenever, wherever, and however He chooses. Just because He has the ability to change things doesn’t mean He is obligated to change them. Psalm 115 compares our God to idols, “Not unto us, O Lord not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake…..our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.” It goes on to say that idols, which are made by man, have mouths, but can’t speak, and ears, but can’t hear. Why would someone worship something made with their own hands rather than the creator of the universe who made all things?

I would like to pause here and expound somewhat on the statement that God is not obligated to change things simply because He has the ability to do so. Terrible things happen in our world today. I’ve heard the statement, “Bad things happen to good people.” God’s Word tells us in Romans 3:10, “…There is none righteous, no not one.” And again in Psalm 14, “there is none that doeth good, no not one.” Remember we read in Colossians where it said, “…all things were made by Him, and FOR Him.”  So we exist for God, not God for us. If God is good, which HE IS, and He has unlimited power, which HE DOES, then He has the will and the ability to destroy evil, which HE WILL. It is not our place to say when, where, and how He does it.