The Mystery of Marriage

 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:31–32)

Here in Ephesians 5:31 Paul is quoting Genesis 2:24, which Moses spoke — and Jesus said God spoke through Moses (Matthew 19:5) — “A man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Paul says this word of God, spoken before the fall into sin, is a reference to Christ and the church and contains therefore a great mystery.

What this implies is that when God engaged to create man and woman and to ordain the union of marriage, he didn’t roll the dice or draw straws or flip a coin as to how they might be related to each other. He patterned marriage very purposefully after the relationship between his Son and the church, which he had planned from all eternity.

Therefore, marriage is a mystery — it contains and conceals a meaning far greater than what we see on the outside. God created man male and female and ordained marriage so that the eternal covenant relationship between Christ and his church would be imaged forth in the marriage union.

The inference Paul draws from this mystery is that the roles of husband and wife in marriage are not arbitrarily assigned, but are rooted in the distinctive roles of Christ and his church.

Those of us who are married need to ponder again and again how mysterious and wonderful it is that God grants us in marriage the privilege to image forth stupendous divine realities infinitely bigger and greater than ourselves.

This mystery of Christ and the church is the foundation of the pattern of love that Paul describes for marriage. It is not enough to say that each spouse should pursue his or her own joy in the joy of the other. That is true. But it is not enough. It is also important to say that husbands and wives should consciously copy the relationship God intended for Christ and the church. That is, each should seek to live after the distinctive model of God’s pure and glad design for Christ and the church.

I hope you will take this seriously whether you are single or married, old or young. The revelation of the covenant-keeping Christ and his covenant-keeping church hangs on it.

Prayer’s First Priority

 “Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” (Matthew 6:9)

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches that the first priority in praying is to ask our heavenly Father to cause his name to be hallowed. In us. In the church. In the world. Everywhere.

Notice that this is a petition, a request. It is not a declaration or acclamation. It is not an expression of praise, but petition. For years I misread the Lord’s Prayer as if it began with praise: “Praise God, the Lord’s name is hallowed, revered, honored!” But it is not acclamation. It is supplication. It is a request to God that he would see to it that his own name be hallowed.

It is like another text, Matthew 9:38, where Jesus tells us to pray to the Lord of the harvest that he would send out laborers into his own harvest. It never ceases to amaze me that we, we laborers, should be instructed to ask the owner of the farm, who knows the harvest better than we do, to add on more farm hands.

But isn’t this the same thing we have here in the Lord’s Prayer — Jesus is telling us to ask God, who is infinitely jealous for the honor of his own name, to see to it that his name be hallowed, which means honored, revered, exalted as supremely precious?

Well it may amaze us, but there it is. And it teaches us two things.

One is that prayer does not move God to do things he is disinclined to do. He has every intention to cause his name to be hallowed. Nothing is higher on God’s priority list. But we should ask anyway.

The other is that prayer is God’s way of bringing our priorities into line with his. God wills to make great things the consequence of our prayers when our prayers are the consequence of his great purposes.

Bring your heart into line with the jealousy of God to hallow his name, and you will pray with great effect. Let your first and all-determining prayer be for the hallowing of God’s name, and your prayers will plug into the power of God’s jealousy for his name.

FORGIVENESS ENGENDERS FORGIVENESS!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 20, 2021.

SUBJECT : FORGIVENESS ENGENDERS FORGIVENESS!

Memory verse: "Bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, If anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do." (Colossians 3 vs 13.)

READ: Matthew 6 vs 12; 14 - 15; Mark 11 vs 25 - 26:

Matthew 6:12: And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

6:14: For If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

6:15: But If you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Mark 11:25: And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you Your trespasses.

11:26: But If you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.

INTIMATION:

Forgiveness is to pardon; to acquit of sin. Forgiveness is an expression of love. When Jesus taught His disciples how to pray, one of the things He told them to say was, "And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us." That is to say, "Lord forgive us, just the way we forgive others. Don't forgive us when we don't forgive others." 

When we don’t forgive others, we are denying our common ground as sinners in need of God’s forgiveness. It’s easy to ask God for forgiveness but difficult to grant it to others. Whenever you ask God to forgive you your sin, you should ask thus, “Have I forgiven the people who have wronged me?”

If we document other people's sins against us, then the Lord will document ours also, if we desire their hurt, He will desire our hurt also. So, when you don't forgive those who have offended you, your sins also remain unforgiven. Until your sins are forgiven, you don't have any fellowship or prayer access to God. 

The key to forgiving others is remembering how much God has forgiven you. Realizing God’s infinite love and forgiveness should help you love and forgive others. Is it difficult for you to forgive someone who has wronged you a little when God had forgiven you so much? Forgive those who have wronged you, and let God worry about the wrongs you have suffered. 

Many have been crying in all manner of prayers, fasting and vigils, yet God hasn't heard them, because they are holding back the sins of others in their hearts. You probably may have told your offender, "I have forgiven you, it is all over." But it is not over yet in your heart. And because the Bible says in Psalm 66 vs 18, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me," your prayers go unheard. 

You may pray as long as you like, remain on your knees all the days of your life and fast as many days as possible, if you have imprisoned somebody in your heart through unforgiveness, you will never have a breakthrough, because the Scriptures cannot be broken. Love is your vital link with God and the foundation stones of the altar of your heart. There is a future in forgiveness. Let love flow from your heart to everyone and you will see God step into the affairs of your life.

It is spiritual foolishness to live with unforgiveness; the cost is too high. It is one of the traps of the devil to make you lose favor with God. Jesus told a parable in Matthew 18 vs 23 - 35, likening the kingdom of heaven to forgiveness;  A king had a servant who owed him and was unable to pay. The king wanted to sell him and members of his household to recover his money. But when the servant begged the king, he was moved  with compassion, and he forgave him the debt.

But that same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him, and seized him by the throat, insisted he must pay him. His fellow servant begged him, but he refused and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. His master got the wind of what he did and was very angry. And since he was not able to be compassionate to his fellow servant who owed him, he was delivered to the torturers until he pays all that was due to his master..

When God forgives you your sins but later sees the way you are tormenting somebody who has offended you, He will bring your records out again and deal with you. Forgiveness brings you into eternal friendship with Jesus and gives you access to heaven's hotline. Until you free that man or woman, God will not hear your cry of affliction. That man might have really cheated you, and that woman insulted you terribly, but let him go! Let her go! Until the love foundation is in place, effectual prayer is impossible.

Watch any person who walks in hatred, malice and unforgiveness, the person's life keeps drying up. And because the person has no access to God's favor, he or she is a cheap prey to the devil. Your expression of love for your fellow human is the authentic proof of your salvation. Examine yourself, to see if there is anywhere your altar has been broken down, and plead the mercy of God for restoration. Rededicate your life to God and be determined never to be found doing what displeases Him. That long-awaited answer to your prayers will be delivered to you now, in Jesus' name!

Prayer: Abba Father, endue me with the spirit of forgiveness and love for one another, that I may be able to have eternal fellowship with You, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Love’s Greatest Happiness

 No one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. (Ephesians 5:29–30)

Don’t miss that last phrase: “because we are members of his body.” And don’t forget what Paul said two verses earlier, namely, that Christ gave himself for us “so that he might present the church to himself in splendor.” So in two different ways, Paul makes plain that Christ pursued his joy in pursuing the holiness and beauty and happiness of his people.

The union between Christ and his bride is so close (“one flesh”) that any good done to her is a good done to himself. Which means that the clear assertion of this text is that the Lord is moved to nourish, cherish, sanctify, and cleanse his bride because in this he finds his joy.

By some definitions, this cannot be love. Love, they say, must be free of self-interest — especially Christlike love, especially Calvary love. I have never seen such a view of love made to square with this passage of Scripture.

Yet what Christ does for his bride, this text plainly calls love: “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church . . . ” (Ephesians 5:25). Why not let the text define love for us, instead of bringing our definition from ethics or philosophy? According to this text, love is the pursuit of Christ’s joy in the holy joy of the beloved.

There is no way to exclude self-interest from love, for self-interest is not the same as selfishness. Selfishness seeks its own private happiness at the expense of others.

Christlike love seeks its happiness in the happiness of others — not at their expense. It will even suffer and die for the beloved in order that its joy might be made full in the life and purity of the beloved.

This is how Christ loved us, and this is how he calls us to love one another.

KEEP THE ‘ROYAL LAW’ AND FULFILL ALL THE LAW!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

TUESDAY OCTOBER 19, 2021.

SUBJECT : KEEP THE ‘ROYAL LAW’ AND FULFILL ALL THE LAW!

Memory verse: " If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall see love your neighbor as yourself, you do well.” (James 2 vs 8.)

READ: Romans 13 vs 8 - 10; Galatians 5 vs 14:

13:8: Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.

13:9: For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

13:10: Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Galatians 5:14: For all the Law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 

INTIMATION:

The ‘royal law’ is the law of loving one another. It was given by our great King Jesus Christ, who said, “Love one another as I loved you” (John 15 vs 12). This is the principle upon which human relationships are established. One does well if he or she manifests loving concern for his or her neighbor as he or she does for himself or herself. To love others was not a new commandment (see Leviticus 19 vs 18), where it was originally summarized, and was the basis for all the laws of how people should relate with one another. 

However, to love others as much as Christ loved us is revolutionary, and absolutely very rare in a world dominated by selfishness—“me first.” Now we are to love others in consonance to Jesus' sacrificial love for us. Jesus is a living example of God's love—Who gave His only Son as a propitiation for us, we are to be living examples of Jesus love as well—bearing one another’s burden (Galatians 6 vs 2). 

Jesus summarized the law as ‘Love for God and neighbor’ (Matthew 22 vs 37 - 40). The royal law holds us accountable to God, and devoted to others. In the the passage we read today, the apostle Paul said that love demonstrated toward a neighbor would fully satisfy the law. Therefore, when we fail to love we are actually breaking God’s law. 

A heart of love, both towards God and your fellow human, is a fundamental requirement in our relationship and fellowship with God. Jesus gave us a commandment in John 13 vs 34, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another." His unique and unequalled love for us caused Him to give His life for us, hence He said, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15 vid 13).

We must treat all people as we would want to be treated. This is a debt that all believers in Christ owe. Why? Because we are permanently in debt to Christ for the lavish love He has poured out on us. The only way we can even begin to repay this debt is by fulfilling our obligation to love others in turn. Because Christ’s love will always be infinitely greater than ours, we will always have the obligation to love our neighbors. 

The love for our neighbor is limitless and has no boundaries. It doesn’t ignore anybody, because ignoring anybody, whether rich or poor, is tantamount to withholding our love. But we must not favor the rich for what they can do for us, while ignoring the poor who can offer us seemingly nothing or so little in return. The Scripture recognizes love for one another as a demonstration of love for God; "If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar, for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?" (First John 4 vs 20.) Therefore, love your neighbor you are seeing before you can claim your love for God you do not see.

Christians must obey the law of love, which supersedes both religious and civil laws. It’s quite easy for us to excuse our indifference to others merely because we have no legal obligation to help them, and even, in some circumstances, justly harming them if our actions are technically legal! For instance, if our actions are legal and beneficial to us, we may not care how it affect others. But Jesus does not leave loopholes in the law of love. Whenever love demands it, we are to go beyond human legal requirements and imitate the God of love. 

When we believers lose the motivation of love, we become critical of others. We stop looking for good in them and see only their faults. Soon we lose our unity. Have you talked behind someone’s back? Have you focused on others’ shortcomings instead of their strengths? Remind yourself of Jesus’ command to love others as you love yourself. (Matthew 22 vs 39). When you begin to feel critical of someone, make a list of that person’s positive qualities. When problems need to be addressed, confront in love rather than gossip.

It’s noteworthy that we need self-love that can influence our love for others. But even if you have low self-esteem, you probably don’t willingly let yourself go hungry. You take care of your body and may even exercise. You clothe yourself reasonably well. You make sure there is a roof over your head. You try not to let yourself be cheated or injured. This is the kind of love we need to have for our neighbors. 

Now, do we see that others are fed, clothed, and housed as well as they can be? Are we concerned about issues of social justice? Loving others as ourselves means actively working to see that their needs are met. Interestingly, people who focus on others rather than on themselves rarely suffer from low self-esteem.

Examine your attitude and actions toward others. Do you build people up or tear them down? When you really criticize someone, remember God’s law of love and say something good instead. Saying something beneficial to others will cure you of finding fault and increase your ability to obey God’s law of love.

Prayer: Abba Father, endue me with the spirit of love for You and my neighbor that I may fulfill the law, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

FAITH IS A POTENT FORCE!

EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

MONDAY OCTOBER 18, 2021.

SUBJECT : FAITH IS A POTENT FORCE!

Memory verse: "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he that comes to God, must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." (Hebrews 11 vs 6.)

READ: Hebrews 10 vs 19 - 23:

10:19: Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, 

10:20: by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh,

10:21: and having a High Priest over the house of God,

10:22: let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

10:23: Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.

INTIMATION:

Building up your faith is a prerequisite for effectual communication with God. Faith is a potent force without which prayer will be absolutely unproductive. The Bible calls faith "The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11 vs 1.) You are holding in confidence the things you have asked in prayers, and perceiving as real facts what is not revealed to the senses. It is the ticket on which you take delivery of anything from heaven.

Your confidence in God must first be in place before you ask Him for anything, because though His Word presented before Him grants you audience in the Throne Room, your faith in Him (in His Word) is what motivates Him to act on your behalf. Therefore, it is you, not God, who determines whether your prayer gets answered or not. Though ‘He is ready to perform His Word’ (Jeremiah 1 vs 12), He demands your faith that leads to a personal, dynamic relationship with Him.

You don't only approach God with His Word, you must come with an unwavering assurance that ‘He abides faithful and cannot deny Himself’ (Second Timothy 2 vs 13). Therefore, your approach to the Throne Room must be with unwavering faith. The Scripture in James 1 vs 6 - 7, says, "But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord." Once your faith and trust in God is established, you can rest assured of results when you pray. You will not only believe in the existence of God, but also believe in His loving care. That is relying on God with full  expectations that He will hear and answer when you pray.

In Matthew 9, two blind men prayed to Jesus for the restoration of their sight. Even though Jesus heard them, He did not heal them until He was assured of their faith in Him: "When Jesus departed from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out and saying, "Son of David, have mercy on us!" And when He had come into the house, the blind men came to Him, and Jesus said to them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this? They said unto Him. Yes, Lord. Then He touched their eyes, saying, "According to your faith let it  be to you." And their eyes were opened...." (Matthew 9 vs 27 - 30.)

Jesus didn't respond immediately to the blind men's pleas. He waited to see if they had faith. They followed Him all through to the house, pleading with Him to heal them, and that shows believe and commitment. Not everyone who says he wants help really believes God can help him. Jesus may have waited and questioned these men to emphasize and increase their faith. When you think that God is too slow in answering your prayers, consider that He might be testing you as He did the blind men.

Jesus, by His death and offering of His blood in atonement for our sins, has made it possible for us to approach God in the Throne Room directly. We must come not halfheartedly or with improper motives or pretense, but with pure, individual, and sincere worship in faith. We can know that we have “a true heart” If we evaluate our thoughts and motives according to His Word. Christians can approach God boldly, free from our “evil conscience” and in full assurance because of the work Jesus Christ did for us in redemption.

Under the new covenant of accepting the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, our hearts and consciences are cleansed completely, not partially or temporarily, from dead works to serve the living God (Hebrews 9 vs 14). Christ’s sacrifice transforms our lives and hearts and make us clean on the inside. Our clean conscience allow us to enter God’s presence with boldness. We have a personal access to God through Christ and can draw near to Him without an elaborate system, and growing in faith to deepen our relationship with God.

Prayer: Abba Father, my trust is in You who made heaven and earth. In You I live, and move, and have my being. My faith is forever anchored in You. Whatever You cannot give me, let me not have it. Whatever You cannot do for me, let it remain undone, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD! 

Jesus’s Joy in Marriage

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor. (Ephesians 5:25–27)

The reason there is so much misery in marriage is not that husbands and wives seek their own pleasure, but that they do not seek it in the pleasure of their spouses. The biblical mandate to husbands and wives is to seek your own joy in the joy of your spouse.

There is scarcely a more hedonistic passage in the Bible than the one on marriage in Ephesians 5:25–30. Husbands are told to love their wives the way Christ loved the church.

How did he love the church? Verse 25 says he “gave himself up for her.” But why? Verse 26 says, “that he might sanctify” and cleanse her. But why did he want to do that? Verse 27 answers, “that he might present the church to himself in splendor!”

Ah! There it is! “For the joy that was set before him [he] endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2). What joy? The joy of marriage to his bride, the church. The joy of presenting the church to himself in blood-bought splendor.

Jesus does not intend to have a dirty and unholy wife. Therefore, he was willing to die to sanctify and cleanse his betrothed so he could present to himself a wife “in splendor.” He gained the desire of his heart by giving himself up in suffering for the good of his bride.

Then Paul applies this to husbands in verses 28–30: “In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.”

Jesus had said to husbands and wives — and everyone else — “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). Marriage is an extraordinary place of application. It is not merely “as” you love yourself. But you are loving yourself. When you love the person with whom God has made you one flesh, you are loving yourself. That is, your greatest joy is found in seeking the greatest joy of your spouse.