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Posts Tagged ‘Marriage’

On Judgement Day, all the people were queuing up to enter heaven. God decided to divide the people into three lines. The first line was for the men who were dominated by their wives while living on earth. The second line was for the men who dominated their wives during their lives on earth. The third line was for all the women. God looked at the first two lines and saw that one was longer than the other.

The first queue was really long and God was greatly disappointed to see that there were so many men who failed to fulfil their destiny set by God as the head of the household. Their lives were completely controlled by their wives. But God saw that there was one man in the second line. Finally, there was one man who lived up to his calling. God turned to all the men in the first queue and told them to follow the good example of the one man in the second line. However, God was really curious as to how he did it. He turned to the man and asked him for his secret formula on how he managed to control his wife and not let her dominate his life. The man turned to God and said, “I don’t know, God. My wife told me to stand in this line so I obeyed.”

Marriage is long instituted by God. It was created by God in the Garden of Eden. When God instituted marriage, it was not meant for Christians alone but for all people. King Solomon told us in Ecclesiastes 9:9 (New Living Translation) to “live happily with the woman you love through all the meaningless days of life that God has given you under the sun. The wife, God gives you is your reward for all your earthly toil”. Clearly, even King Solomon understood the meaning of marriage and to live happily with the woman that God has rewarded you for you your hardworks. King Solomon wants us to enjoy the marriage that God has instituted in our lives.

Marriage is important to God and to use. It represents how God loves us and our relationship with God. The Bible likens us as the brides of Christ. If we say that our marriage is not working, then we are saying that our relationship with God is not working. All His marriage institutions then are failure. This is not a good representation of God’s love for His people. There are many divorces in this world. We are Christians have a role to play and that is to show God’s love is real. We must ensure our marriage is successful as it is our message to the world that God’s love is real and our relationship with God is real.Ephesians 5:22-25; Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Saviour of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her.The Role and Responsibilities of a Husband1. To be a leader

The husband is to be a prophet, priest and king to his wife. The husband is the leader and head of the household. As the leader and the head, men are called to have vision and to provide direction. Why is the man called to be the head? On the head, lie the eyes. The purpose of the eyes is to see far and near, to see ahead with vision. When God created the world, He created the man first and God gave man the responsibility of work to look after the garden and the animals. God left man with the accountability and command not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil before God created woman.

However, since sin entered the world through Adam, men began to fall away from God. Today, men are so busy working. They do not have time to pray. They do not have time to serve in the church. They do not have time to read the bible. They do not have time to provide spiritual food to their wives and children. How then is the man going to fulfil his role as the priest and king to his wife?

As the priest, the role is to lead the people of God into the presence of God. As the priest to your wife, your responsibility is to provide spiritual food and guidance to your wife, and to lead her into the spiritual presence of God.

A king always carries himself with dignity and authority. He is supposed to lead like the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit leads God’s people. He does not drive or push the people to meet God’s goals. The king rules the kingdom wisely and reigns among his people.2. To love his wife

A wise and loving king will put his kingdom and people first before himself. Similarly, as the husband, you are to lead your wife and family but not by force or by thumbing your wife down. A wise and loving husband will govern his household wisely and reigns. His family will respect him and obey him as he puts his wife and family first before himself. A husband must love his wife, be willing to give of yourself and lay down your life for your wife.

Every time we backslide or sin, we grieve God. But He never gives up on us. He saddles us with His love and lovingly holds us in His arms. God remains faithful even if we are unfaithful. In every way, the husband is to be like Jesus who loves the church and gave of Himself for our salvation. In the same way, the husband is to love his wife and give of himself to her.The Role and Responsibilities of a Wife1. To be a helper to her husbandGenesis 2:28; And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”

God told Adam the reason why Eve was created. When God created the world, God said that everything He created was good. When He created man, He said that it was not good enough. God said that something was missing and it was not good for man to be alone. Although when God created Adam, he has a job to look after the Garden of Eden but God realised that it was not healthy for Adam to be alone. By being alone, Adam will not have a healthy character development. Hence, God created woman to be a helper and comparable in every way to Adam in order to assist him.

How then is the woman to help man to fulfil the visions and dreams given to him by the Holy Spirit? How is the wife to help her husband to see the visions and dreams from God? For the wife to be a helper, she must know the husband’s vision. It is the husband’s responsibility to share his visions and dreams with his wife. If your wife believes that the visions and dreams come from the Holy Spirit, she will believe in you. It is the wife’s role to help her husband to achieve his visions and dreams. As a wife, you are to be a dream enabler, not a dream stealer or destroyer. You are to encourage your husband and to render help to make the visions and dreams come true.2. To submit to her husbandEphesians 5:24; Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

The responsibility of a wife is to submit to her husband. When the Bible says that a wife is to be submissive to her husband, it does not mean that she becomes a slave, to be thumbed down, to be ordered around or to be abused. A wife is to be encouraging, supportive and helpful. In turn, she is to be loved, treasured and respected by her husband. As a wife, you are to submit to your husband in everything.

If a man is married to a woman, who is high powered, more educated than him, and earned much higher, he must do his duty as a husband and as head of the household before she is willing to submit to your authority. Think about it. If you first love your wife and shower her with your agape love, you will find your wife loving you willingly in return. Just as God first loves us, as husband, you are to love your wife first.

Why does marriage fail and Woman dominate over Man? Let’s see in the part 2.

Religion has been a huge part of life all over the world for thousands of years. The Roman and Greek Gods indicate some form of religion all those years ago and developed within society, evolving to suit the next generation. Today there is a wide selection of religions that give people some higher power to believe in. Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism and Sikhism are the major world religions, although there have long been different religions emerging from within one of them. Take Jehovah’s Witnesses for example. The existence of Christianity extends into thousands of years but this particular organisation emerged in the 19th Century.

The history of Jehovah’s Witnesses now extends more than a hundred years in its own right but is as strong as it has ever been today. Founded by Charles Taze Russell in the 1880 as Zion’s Watch Tower Tract Society, the faith was based around the Adventist beliefs that Russell had become fascinated with when he was growing up in Pittsburgh. After founding a Bible group of likeminded people, Russell developed a magazine that was to become the start of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald Of Christ’s Presence soon took his message to people all over the United States. Within just a few years, the faith had become established within America and was beginning to filter outwards to Europe.

Although Charles Taze Russell founded the movement, Joseph Franklin Rutherford began to form the beliefs that are held true by Jehovah’s Witnesses all over the world today. Russell died in 1916 and Rutherford took over. He altered the structure of the faith in addition to making several alterations to long held beliefs and practices, and not all of it went down well with Russell’s followers. In fact, some split away to form their own religions. However, Rutherford soon became convinced the changes he made, such as having no involvement in the military and politics, were right when he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for conscientious objection during World War I. His conviction was overturned but it changed the face of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Although the movement was not to be called Jehovah’s Witnesses until 1931, members of the religion had taken to spreading God’s word door to door before then. Sermons were published in newspapers and meetings were arranged so that their missionary work could prosper and more people could be welcomed into the fold. However, the unpopularity they had faced before was to be nothing compared to the level of persecution they faced from the Nazis in World War II. One in four German Jehovah’s Witnesses were slaughtered during the war and over 50% saw the inside of a concentration camp. This was not as documented as the plight of the Jews but still as poignant nevertheless.

It was this early history of the Jehovah’s Witnesses and all the hurdles they faced when trying to establish their religion and gain autonomy that has effectively made the faith such a tightly knit one. This is why the community is so supportive and so strong. Despite modern persecution, most notably in Russia in 2004, the worldwide community is still standing strong and is also continuing to grow. Understanding the history of Jehovah’s Witnesses and the obstacles they faced is definitely the key to understanding their beliefs, attitudes and practices.

“And ye, O peoples, to whom God gave the liberty to choose your own magistrates, see to it, that ye do not forfeit this favor by electing to the position of highest honor, rascals and enemies of God.” —John Calvin

“Political slavery ensues when the public sleep.” —John Dickinson, 1732-1808

At this critical time in the history of the United States, as the nation has selected a new president, there is passivity, indifference and unconcern among pastors and the Christian Church. As one prominent church leader, John MacArthur, recently said, “I wouldn’t spend five seconds thinking about the fall 2008 election.” This mindset is antithetical to the scriptures and historical theology. It reveals a perverted view of church and state that consigns the secular world to a realm outside the influence of the Christian community. By inversion, this myopia views the spiritual as the only sphere wherein God’s will is accomplished. The modern church has become a microbe fortress with virtually no voices to call the nation to repentance. There is a somnambulence of spirit and mind that has overtaken the church world. We are insulated within a micro-world and have consigned the society in which we live to irrelevance. The vacuum of non-involvement with the secular world by Christians is immense. One 20th Century theologian diagnoses the passivity of the modern church, “In the early church there were persons called ‘Anchorites’ who went off into the desert, separating themselves from all social contacts and living solely for God. From that early movement, monasticism was born. In our time, we see a somewhat similar response among some evangelical protestants. They believe that the Christian community should be so separated from the secular sphere that individual Christians should not go into politics or vote in elections, that they should withdraw from the culture, live in distinct communities, have Christian friends exclusively, work for Christian companies, or in general, have nothing to do with this world. It is a way of saying that the authority of the state is illegitimate.” (James Montgomery Boice, Foundations of the Christian Faith, p. 691). The institution of civil government is not illegitimate, it is ordained by God to restrain evil and show forth His glory. In the words of John Murray, “…when the civil magistrate trespasses the limits of his authority, it is incumbent upon the church to expose and condemn such a violation of his authority.” (The Relation of Church and State, p. 253).

The Anchorites of the Middle Ages lived in stone cells approximately 12 x 12 with a small aperture cut through the wall to view the world outside. They devoted their entire life to academic and scholastic study, while repudiating a world they felt was irretrievably lost. Their influence on society was as effectual as an ant on a crumb of bread. The present day Anchorites confidently assume that their weekly or weakly sermon will counter the encroaching darkness that is encircling their religious sphere like a hurricane enveloping a small island. Behind a bluster of verbiage they vainly believe their words are holding back the night. The lacuna of pro-test-ant voices from the matrix of the Christian church has allowed the virulent hatred of theism to capture the agora of ideas. Mere exposition is anemic without confronting a degenerating culture. Apologetics confined to an ecclesiastic cell is cowardice not Biblical courage. The words of a Nineteenth Century Reformation Scholar and theologian, Abraham Kuyper, are disturbing to our comfortable isolation: “There is no doubt then that Christianity is imperiled by great and serious dangers. Two life systems are wrestling with one another, in mortal combat. Modernism is bound to build a world of its own from the data of the natural man, and to construct man himself from the data of nature; while, on the other hand, all those who reverently bend the knee to Christ and worship Him as the Son of the Living God, and God, Himself, are bent upon saving the ‘Christian Heritage.’ This is the struggle in Europe, this is the struggle in America, and this also is the struggle for principles in which my own country is engaged, and in which I myself have been spending all my energy for nearly 40 years. In this struggle, apologetics have advanced us not one single step. Apologetics invariably begun by abandoning the assailed breastwork, in order to entrench themselves cowardly in a raveline [3 sided fortress] behind it. If the battle is to be fought with honor and with a hope of victory, then principle must be arrayed against principle; then it must be felt that in Modernism the vast energy of an all-embracing life system assails us, then also it must be understood that we have to take our stand in a life system of equally comprehensive and far-reaching power.” (Abraham Kuyper, Stone Foundation Lectures: Lectures on Calvinism, 1895, p. 3). A one-dimensional perspective of the church is ecclesiastical suicide. It leaves civil government out of the purview of church authority and God’s sovereign will. “…it was always understood that both church and state were responsible to God in whose wisdom each had been established. They were two independent servants of one master. Although neither was permitted to rule the other, each was to remind the other of its God-appointed duties and recall it to upright, godly conduct if it should stray. Today, however, the doctrine of the separation of church and state is taken, primarily by church people to mean that the church is irrevelant to the state–though the state increasingly brings its secular philosophy to bear on the church. Thus, Christians withdraw from politics, neglect even to inform themselves of national and international issues. And, as a result, the articulation of spirital or moral principles is eliminated from debates on national and international policy. The state becomes its own god with its chief operating principle being pragmatism.” (James Montgomery Boice, Foundations of the Christian Faith, p. 665). When the church is anemic, civil government by default becomes the guardian of the people. Government becomes the foci of trust and hope.

“Wherefore no man can doubt that civil authority is, in the sight of God, not only sacred and lawful, but the most sacred, and by far the most honorable, of all stations in mortal life.” (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 4, Ch. 20, Sect. 4).

The philosopher and theologian, John Calvin, who designed the secular and ecclesiastical constitution of Geneva in 1540, believed that no walls should separate the influence of the believer from the secular sphere. His doctrine of church/state relations is eye-opening. “All we wish to be understood at present is, that it is perfect barbarism to think of exterminating it [civil government], its use among men being not less than that of bread and water, light and air, while its dignity is much more excellent. Its object is not merely, like those things, to enable men to breathe, eat, drink, and be warmed (though it certainly includes all these, while it enables them to live together); this, I say, is not its only object, but it is, that no idolatry, no blasphemy against the name of God, no calumnies against His truth, nor other offenses to religion, break out and be disseminated among the people; that the public quiet be not disturbed, that every man’s property be kept secure, that men may carry on innocent commerce with each other, that honesty and modesty be cultivated; in short, that a public form of religion may exist among Christians, and humanity among men. Let no one be surprised that I know attribute the task of constituting religion aright to human polity, though I seem above to have placed it beyond the will of man, since I know more than formally allow men at pleasure to enact laws concerning religion and the worship of God, when I approve of civil order which is directed to this end.” (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 4, Ch. 20, Sect. 3). Calvin valued civil government as having more worth than food to the body and air to breathe. He even calls the state the “religious polity” which is a system of divinely-ordained human government, established by God to glorify Himself and restrain the rebellious nature of man. To him, the state was to reflect from the matrix of the church, a recognition of God as Sovereign Creator and acknowledgement and worship that is due Him. Calvin invested the state with power to restrain idolatry and blasphemy against God. He was in no way apolitical. This is a far cry from pastors and Christians who say that the government is not worth our time and effort to change, amend or restrain. The religious life is not active in the whole of our being, but in a fraction, confined to feelings or the volition. A partial influence of character now obscures the full impact of a redeemed life. Religion and its authority is being excluded, “…from the domain of public life; henceforth the inner chamber, the cell for prayer, and the secrecy of the heart should be its exclusive dwelling place.” “And the result is that, in many different ways, religion, once the central force of human life, is now placed alongside of it; and, far from the thriving of the world, is understood to hide itself in a distant and almost private retreat.” (Abraham Kuyper, 1895, The Stone Foundation Lectures p. 40). The church shadowboxes phantoms of their own devisings. Conferences are held to attack straw men of antiquity, and rededicate their habitually rededicated lives, while the judicial and legislative organs of the nation are increasingly hostile to the name of God. The time consumed on such minutiae is irrational. Little sermons, pridefully delivered as textually sequential, are as far-reaching as the tip of one’s nose. Rhetorical fluff has replaced the Word of God that existentially confronts all of life.

“America is the only country ever founded on a creed.” (G. K. Chesterton)

The philosophic and theological inflence of the Reformation not only established churches but created nations from the central teaching of God’s sovereign will and call. No individual would hold allegiance to any foreign despot that restrained the worship of God, for God alone was the Ruler of heaven and earth. The matrix of constitutional principles came from an understanding of God’s sovereign nature. “The Declaration of Independence dogmatically bases all rights on the fact that God created all men equal; and it is right, for if they were not created equal, they were certainly evolved unequalled. There is no basis for democracy except in a dogma about the divine origin of man.” (G. K. Chesterton, What I Saw in America, 1922). The individual has dignity and worth not deriving from civil law, but solely from God’s hands, as made in His image and likeness. “…Calvinism has captured and guaranteed to us our constitutional civil rights; and that simultaneously with this there went out from Western Europe that mighty movement which promoted the revival of science and art, open new avenues to commerce and trade, beautify domestic and social life, exalted the middle classes to positions of honor, cause philanthropy to abound, and more than all this, elevated, purified, and enobled moral life by Puritanic seriousness;…”. The Reformation, “Created a church order, which became the preformation of state confederation, it proved to be the guardian angel of science; it emancipated art; it propagated a political scheme, which gave birth to constitutional government, both in Europe and America.” (Abraham Kuyper, p. 29, 155). There are some evangelicals, MacArthur and his followers, who view the American Revolution as illegitimate. Their perspective values the authority of colonial England as the God-honored government of the land. They reject the Reformation foundation of the American constitution and diminish the value of our democratic state, as decreed by God for the enobling of man and the propagation of the Gospel. This ahistorical view rejects our religious heritage and fosters a myopic mindset that perceives no interrelation between the church and state. Such a view of our history is quite simply troglodytic. “America had been founded primarily for religious purposes…” “The Pilgrim Fathers had come to America precisely because England had become immoral and irreligious. They had built the ‘City on the Hill.’ Again, their descendants had opted for independence and liberty because they felt their subjugation was itself immoral and irreligious and opposed to the Providential plan. There is no question that the Declaration of Independence was, to those who signed it, a religious as well as a secular act, and that the Revolutionary War had the approbation of divine providence. They had won it with God’s blessing and, afterwards, they drew up their framework of government with God’s blessing,…” (Paul Johnson, A History of the American People, p. 204). The constitutional framers understood that their work was Divinely ordained and empowered by the God of heaven.

What would Calvin have thought or said, living in 21st Century America, where a candidate, and now president of the United States, was accorded titles of divinity? By all that we know of him, he certainly would have spoken out in anger with authority. Just recently, a U.S. House of Representative, Jesse Jackson, Jr., said that an additional book should be added to the Bible, describing the ascendancy of the greatest redemptive figure of Western history. He would call it the Book of Obama. “The single most extraordinary event in American history, even a redemptive act of divine revelation. The event itself is so extraordinary that another chapter could be added to the Bible to chronicle its significance.” (from Politico, June 5, 2008, article by Josephine Hearn, “Black Lawmakers Emotional About Obama’s Success”). Barack Obama has been accorded the title of “The Messiah” by the Nation of Islam. Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, has declared that he (Obama) has entranced our youth and that the day of messiah has arrived. In Obama’s own words, upon receiving the nomination for President of the Democratic Party, “Tonight the tides will slow and the earth will heal.” The New Testament portrays Jesus’ death and resurrection as the only redemptive hope of humanity but Obama says of himself and his followers, “We are the hope of the future; the answer to the cynics who tell us our house must stand divided; that we cannot come together; that we cannot remake this world as it should be. Because we know what we have seen and what we believe–that what began as a whisper has now swelled to a chorus that cannot be ignored; that will not be deterred; that will ring out across this land as a hymn that will heal this nation, repair this world, and make this time different from all the rest.” (Barack Obama, Speech in 2/5/08). With unbridled hubris, he declares, “I am confident that we can create a kingdom right here on earth.” (Barack Obama, October 8, 2007 speech). We have no need for political rulers but men and women of truth who will endure rejection and umbrage to support the unborn, maintain the historic definition of marriage, support Israel as a sovereign state without further territorial concessions and maintain the economic value of the individual, the incentive to achieve. The rhetoric from Barack Obama and his adoring throng come from a matrix of unbridled pride and arrogance unprecedented in American political history. We have heard cult voices utilize such language in the past but they were relegated to the lunacy of mindless extremism. But Obama seduces an entire generation with political/cultic language that is more reminiscent of an illusionary god-complex. In ancient Rome when a conquering general returned to the city with his army and the spoils of war, the whole population would greet him with praise and acclaimation. But running behind the general’s chariot would be a man who would whisper in his ear, “You are not a god, you are mortal.” The church needs to remind Obama that he is not the messiah, he is only a sinful mortal. To perceive of John Calvin’s view of state authority is to understand that he would have opposed and exposed such blasphemy against God.

“On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; all day and all night they will never keep silent. You who remind the Lord, take no rest for yourselves; and give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.” (Isaiah 62:6-7)

“And I set watchmen over you, saying, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ but they said, ‘We will not listen.’” (Jeremiah 6:17)

“At every stage of her existence the Church is in need of watchmen who will guard the flock from all that would destroy it.” (E. J. Young, Book of Isaiah, Vol. 3, p. 470)

As ancient sentinels were stationed on the walls of a city to alert the inhabitants of approaching danger, especially at night, so the prophets of Israel were to sound a tocsin voice to the nation of Israel of impending calamity. The prophets of Israel were the heart of God in human flesh. They encountered every aspect of life in reference to God. The prophets diagnosed the spiritual, cultural, social, economic, political and military condition of the nation from the perspective of eternity. Their voices knew no bounds of influence and repercussion. Nothing was outside the authoritative domain of the prophetic voice. From kings to pauper, all would come to know the mind of God through the enflamed heart of the prophet. Their message embraced the totality of Israel’s life and history. Their voice captured the present from the transcendence of eternity. The prophets mindset encompassed the world, not just a sliver of religious activity. “The prophet is not only a prophet. He is also a poet, preacher, patriot, social critic, moralist.” “The prophet was an individual who said, ‘No’ to his society, condemning its habits and assumptions, its complacency, waywardness and syncretism.” “The prophet faces a coalition of callousness and established authority and undertakes to stop a mighty stream with mere words. Had the purpose been to express great ideas, prophecy would have had to be acclaimed as a triumph. Yet the purpose of prophecy is to conquer callousness, to change the inner man as well as to revolutionize history.” (Abraham Heschel, The Prophets, p. VIII, XIII, p. 16-17). The prophets left no avenue of society untouched by the revelation of God. Their voice hit the solar plexus of society with warning and redemption. No aspect of life was sacrosanct from their fiery confrontation. “By his very claim, his was the voice of supreme authority. He not only rivalled the decisions of the king and the counsel of the priest, he defied and even condemned their words and deeds.” (Abraham Heschel, p. 260). The lack of authoritative voices that speak power to power, truth to lie, clarity to obfuscation, is sorely felt in a nation inebriated by the rhetoric of self-exaltation.

Jesus gave a warning in Matthew 10:16 to his disciples, to be alert of impending danger on the horizon, in the midst of a hostile world. “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; therefore be shrewd as serpents, and innocent as doves.” The phrase “shrewd as serpents” and “innocent as doves” is found in the Midrash on Cant. 2:14. Israel is described as “harmless as the dove”, towards God, and “shrewd as serpents” toward the Gentile nations. The serpent has a sensory system that can detect approaching prey or predator by ground vibrations. They can detect motion more than 100 feet away. The believer is to be cognizant of what is on the horizon. We are not to be overtaken by events. When Israel failed to be prudently prescient, they paid a high price as a nation. The epithelium of the church has placed the believer in a state of vulnerability to the encroaching dangers of the culture.

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how will it be made salty again? It is good for nothing any more, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.” (Matt. 5:13). There was a common expression among the rabbis in the time of Jesus that the Torah was the “salt of the earth.” “For as the world could not do without salt, neither could it do without the Torah.” (Soferim 15.8). The Torah was believed to have a preservative effect upon the world. The world would rot in an accelerated rate without the retarding affect of the Word of God. But Jesus does something amazing in this passage, He transfers the meaning of Torah to the Galilean disciples, a band of weak, incompetent, unschooled men, despised by the educated of Jerusalem. Jesus says that the Word in and through them would restrain the spoliation of the world. No teacher in the history of Israel has ever made such a declaration. Our presence in word and deed, is to be a preservative in the midst of a dying age. Our lives are to penetrated every realm, retarding corruption. Our influence is to glorify God and affect this world. May we see the glory of God once again shine from sea to sea as at our nation’s birth. Our presence in the midst of this age retards the accelerated spoliation of a dying world.

The need to pray currently for our nation is incumbent upon all of God’s people. A united confluence to seek the will of God is the only restraint to the encroaching darkness over the land. There are thousands of believers across America that are grieved and are being awakened by God for the future of this nation. Only dependence on the Sovereign God can redirect the present course that embraces progressively an autocratic view of life. At signal moments in our past, God has drawn his people in concerted prayer. “Wherefore, although it is true that while we are listless or insensible to our wretchedness, he waits and watches for us, and sometimes even assists us unasked; it is very much for our interests to be constantly supplicating Him; first, that our heart always be enflamed with a serious and ardent desire of seeking, loving, and serving Him, while we accustom ourselves to have recourse to Him as a sacred anchor. In every necessity; secondly, that no desire, no longing whatever, of which we are ashamed to make Him the witness, may enter our minds, while we learn to place all our wishes in His sight, and thus pour out our heart before Him.” “It is very absurd, therefore, to dissuade men from prayer, by pretending that the Divine Providence, which is always watching over the government of the universe, is in vain importune by our supplications, when, on the contrary, the Lord Himself declares, ‘He is nigh unto all that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth.’ (Ps. 145:18).” (Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 3, Ch. 20, Sect. 3). God is the Sovereign Lord of all the nations and He has ordained that His will be accomplished in a unique way through the weakness of our intercession.

The church is losing its spiritual and moral ground to the kingdoms of this world. Yet in their conceited illusion the evangelical anchorites justify such societal degradation as a sign that the end of the age is imminent. This is the ultimate escape from responsibility to our children and their children’s generation. “Religious living is not only a private concern. Our own life is a movement in the symphony of ages. We are taught to pray as well as to live in the first person plural.” “All generations are present as it were, in every moment.” (Abraham Heschel, A Philosophy of Judaism, p. 422-423). The Christian cannot shut himself up in his church and abandon the world to its fate. A concatenation of generations have falsely assumed that the consummation of the age was within their lifetime. “…Occupy [Gk. "pragmateuomai", daily affairs of life, commerce, judicial functions] till I come.” (Luke 19:13). “Watch therefore: for you know not what hour your Lord doeth come.” (Matt. 24:42). Jesus commands constant vigilance regarding the believer’s interaction with society.

“…humanity glorifies God by subduing the earth by words and by work. Tragically, the pious abandon culture to the non-pious. They foolishly argue: ‘Why polish brass on a sinking ship?’ One polishes brass to glorify the ship’s Maker, who will not allow His ship to sink. In other words, the ‘purpose-driven life’ aims among others things to produce a godly culture.” (Bruce Waltke, Old Testament Theology, p. 221).

For too many in the church, the canard has been embraced, “Why polish the brass on a sinking ship?” The answer to that sophomoric question is, God is the Captain of the ship and He has not forsaken it. Yes, the ship of state is listing, but we are called to be a restraint and empowerment toward a God-honoring government. We are at a crisis in American history and only the Sovereign God can restrain a movement that is dishonoring to Him at its very core. If we are silent and passive, we will suffer the consequences with the rest of the nation under God’s chastening hand. Though millions have cried out for a leader after their own heart, as Israel of old, the consequences of God giving Israel an alter-ego, Saul, for a leader was grievous. “And he gave them their request; but sent leanness unto their soul.” (Psalms 106:15). We must pray and seek God to take us out of the small confinement that we are in. We must see Him as the Sovereign Lord of heaven and the nations of the earth. Only God bearing His holy arm can restrain the arrogance and the supercilious movement that is capturing the imagination and seducing millions of Americans.

The systems of dependence are rapidly diminishing in stature and reliance. The promise of constant economic expansion is now being seen to have been illusory and myopic. The stratum of an economic and material foundation of life is being shaken by the seismic changes that call our entire capitalistic system into question. It is as if we as a nation are being sequestered into a cul-de-sac of despair. In this time of the death of America’s golden calves may we be granted the grace of God to be quickened by His spirit to breathe again the breath of eternity in the midst of the death throes of a dying age. “A sense of contact with the ultimate dawns upon most people when their self-reliance is swept away by violent misery.” (Abraham Heschel, A Philosophy of Judaism, p. 422).

Good sense of humor, hard working, has a good job, loves kids and dogs, likes to build and fix things, loves to cook, nice smile, hair and at least a semi-nice body. Once again I found myself looking through the personals on the internet. No one met my criteria, what could I be doing wrong? How was I ever going to find someone to love. I stopped to think about what I really wanted in a soul mate. What kind of love did I really want?
I love to watch programs on television where the husband and wife love each other. It is wonderful to watch them interact and handle each situation in life no matter how difficult. They unite when their children are doing wrong and they work together to resolve the problems with appropriate discipline for the offense. They never blame each other for the child’s mistake.
They are a couple that like to be together even if a distraction occurs because of life’s dramas. They walk hand in hand and show affection even in public. They take vacations together and want each others advice. It is a perfect relationship that can never be broken by anyone else. Now that’s the kind of relationship I want!
But lets face it, the world we live in today is seldom like the fairy-tale lives we watch on television. Real life has consequences, from the partner we choose to how we live and pay our bills. It could be the difference between living in a big house or living in a run-down apartment complex in a poor neighborhood.
Finding the perfect partner is probably the most difficult thing to do. It is so easy to allow your emotions to persuade you to commit before you really know the person. Just thinking with your desire for sex and not with your head is liable to make you hook up with a person who doesn’t have a job, education, or any kind of ability to support a family.
I know a lot of couples who looked for love by going to bars and parties. One even hooked up for a while and got pregnant. Everything changed after that and now the relationship that looked like it might have worked, was over! Now they are forced to raise a child together!
What a nightmare! Some people should never be parents! Especially when they like to party too much. Having a child takes commitment and parents who will give up their lifestyle for the child’s sake.
The picture is really bleak when you become involved with the wrong person. It makes you not believe in love! It’s even worse on you when you try to find another relationship when you have a child by someone else. My friend has a child and every time she gets close to another person the child becomes the reason why they spilt. Well, I am not going there! I refuse to allow my sex drive to make me a parent before I am married.
How am I going to find a worthwhile relationship? A love that is an unbreakable force of love? A person who will share my hopes and dreams? I know it doesn’t exist, at least not in the world I live in!
Suddenly a thought came to my mind. I was raised with faith and a belief in God. Many times in church there were sermons over marriage. I need to find out what the Bible has to say about the right person.
I wasn’t sure where my Bible was until suddenly it came to my mind that it was at the bottom of my dresser draw. I ran to get it and immediately turned to the concordance to look up marriage. Some papers I had taken notes on during one of the pastors sermons fell out and into my hands.
I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was a miracle! It was on marriage and how to find the right person. It was as if God was telling me what I needed to know. It was like He read my mind and was about to give me all the information I needed to find my soul mate. I excitedly began to read . . .
Matthew 19:5&6, “And God said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and unite with his wife, and the two will become one.’ So they are no longer two, but one. Man must not separate, then, what God has joined together.”
When God is first in your life He will help you find your perfect mate. God puts together unbreakable relationships. God holds couples together and gives them the ability to work through difficult problems that other people would fail at when they are in charge of their lives.
When God is the head of a relationship no man can separate the union. Court battles, jail sentences, family disputes, children born by other relationships, nothing will ever break up a relationship that God puts together. No situation can break their love and commitment. When God is the head of a relationship it is an unbreakable force.
When God puts two people together they become one. When you are one you don’t think just about yourself, you think about what your mate wants. You aren’t selfish and seeking your own will, but you are interacting with your mate, always talking and never isolating yourself and refusing to work on the difficulties that all people face in life.
It is all about love and commitment. It is all about letting God and the principles found in the Bible lead you into having a good life together. Love is the commitment, but God is the reason why it is strong.
In order to find the right person you must begin by looking in the right place. Start at church and single gatherings. Date more than one person and never allow sex to make you hook up with someone. Sex is a gift when it is in a loving, committed relationship by two people who want to build a life together.
When God is the head of your marriage then sex is a binding force between two people in love. It is a pleasure that enhances a marriage and makes you think of the other person’s needs and not just your own.
Ephesians 5: 21, “Submit yourselves to one another because of your reverence for Christ.”
1 Corinthians 7: 3&4, “A man should fulfill his duty as a husband, and a woman should fulfill her duty as a wife, and each should satisfy the other’s needs. A wife is not the master of her own body, but her husband is; in the same way a husband is not the master of his own body, but his wife is.”
When we don’t know our Bible or how to have a good relationship with God’s help, then we don’t understand how sex works. When it is under God’s love it is an act that shows affection and love because it is an act of giving and trust between a couple. This is the reason why God tells us to submit ourselves to each other.
As I finished reading the notes I wrote on the sermon about marriage, I smiled to myself. This is the kind of love I want. I began to search once again for my perfect soul mate. Now I had the information I needed to make the right decision. Now I knew I was looking in the wrong places and the only way to find the right person is with God.

Why does marriage fail and Woman dominate over Man?

Romans 5:12 says that sin entered through one man. This ‘man’ mentioned in the bible is not a general term referring to mankind but specifically to a particular man. Sin entered through one man and that is Adam. God made Adam the head over all things in the Garden of Eden as we look back at the bible in Genesis 2. Adam was also given the responsibility of works and Adam was commanded not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. All things were perfect and beautiful until sin entered the world through Adam. This explains why things do not go well with businesses, family relationships, careers and even within the nations. Sin has stained everything that God created which was originally beautiful and perfect.

As the head, Adam has a responsibility and authority over Eve. But he failed in that as a husband to protect and to guide her. When we read further in Genesis 3:6, Adam was with Eve when she was tempted by the devil to take and eat of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He heard and saw the devil tempted her but he did not stop her. When Eve ate of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, sin has not entered the world yet as far as God is concerned. Reason being, Adam has not sinned yet. He has not eaten of the fruit. He is the head and authority that God has placed over the Garden of Eden and Eve.

1 Timothy 2:13-14 tells us why God held Adam accountable. Adam was formed first before Eve. He was given the revelation by God that when he ate of the fruit, he would die. Adam knew the consequences of eating the fruit. He knew that what the serpent told Eve were lies. Yet in knowing all these, Adam did nothing to neither protect his wife from the devil nor stop her from taking the fruit. As husbands, if we do not cover and protect our wives, they will fall away and try to fight for their own rights and survival. They will fight for themselves.Example of Tamar in the Bible who Fights for her Rights

Let take a look at Judah, his sons and his daughter-in-law. Genesis 38 tells us of Judah taking a wife for himself and they had three sons – Er, Onan and Shelah. Judah also took a wife for his first son, Er, called Tamar. But Er was a wicked man and the Bible tells us that God killed him. In the Jewish tradition, if the wife of the first son does not bear him any children, the second son in the line is to marry her. And the first child born in the second marriage will bear the name of the elder brother and to carry on his line. In Latin, this is called “Levirate Marriage” where “Levir” means husband’s brother.

When Er was killed by God, Judah asked Onan to marry Tamar in order to carry on the line of Er. Onan knew all these and he knew that the family inheritance will go to his brother’s child. He did not obey Judah’s instruction. He wanted sexual pleasure with Tarmar yet didn’t want to give her any baby. He wanted the family inheritance totally for himself as well. God was displeased with Onan’s actions. Onan was killed by God, too. The next son left in line is Shelah. Shelad was too young then to marry Tamar. Judah, after lost two sons, became fearful that Tamar was a jinx. So, he sent her away to her father’s house and promised her that Shelah would marry her when he came of age. But Judah didn’t plan to fulfil his words (Genesis 38:11).

Maturity doesn’t come with age, it comes with the acceptance of responsibility. Judah, being an old man, was totally irresponsible. Tamar waited for Judah to fulfil his words. She saw Shelah grew up and yet was not given to her. When the husband does not give to the wife what she wants that is rightfully hers, she will go and get it her way. Genesis 38:13-14 tells us that Tamar decided to take matter into her own hands. She took off her widow’s garments, covered herself and dressed up like a harlot. She placed herself on the road to Timnah. Timnah, in those days, were equivalent to the modern day Las Vegas, a place where men go to find pleasure for themselves with prostitutes.

Here was Tamar, a woman from a good family background and an obedient woman, was willing to offer her body immorally as a prostitute. What caused her to degrade herself? The reason was given in Genesis 38:14. What was due to Tamar as promised, was not given to her. When a husband does not fulfil his marriage vow to his wife, she will go her own way to meet her needs that her husband does not give her.

Judah, on his way to Timnah, saw the veiled Tamar. He thought she was a harlot. Judah wanted to have sex with her. This was a woman of great virtue and integrity, yet she reduced herself to prostitution to get what she deserved, because of three men who failed her. Tamar knew that Judah was not going to keep his word so she asked for a pledge until he sent his payment. Here, Tamar resorted to manipulation. Judah, like all men, was living for the passion of the moment. He gave his signet, cord and staff that represented him and authority to a “prostitute” in return for a moment of pleasure. God in his sovereign plan has a far greater plan than family life for in the lineage of Judah came Jesus. In Tamar’s change of behaviour, we saw how women can become cunning and manipulative as a result of men who failed them.

The greatest ironic of the entire story in Genesis 38 is we saw Judah keeping his promise to a prostitute instead of to his own family member, his daughter-in-law. The same situation happens today. We saw men who do not provide for their wives and family but they were willing to throw away their money to their mistresses and lovers. Subsequently, Judah received news that his daughter-in-law was immoral and became pregnant. Judah became angry and wanted to burn her alive as a punishment.

Tamar asked her father-in-law to find the man whom the pledge belonged to and found the culprit responsible for her pregnancy. Could you imagine how shock everyone was in the room when they saw the signet, cord and staff? Judah, having saw the pledged items, began to realise the reason behind Tamar’s actions. Genesis 28:26 tells us that Judah realised his failure to keep his promise and decided to take responsibility for his actions.Conclusion

God has a far greater plan despite our failures. Years later, Jesus came through the line of Judah. The most important point in the story is that Judah repented. He did what Tamar wanted of him, and that is to be responsible. Tamar didn’t expect her man to be perfect but to be responsible to their words and to fulfil their duties. As husbands, we have a duty to God and our wives, to fulfil our marriage vows to love, protect and provide for them. Women, today become dominating, demanding, and marriage fails, when men fail to take up their responsibility and role as a man, husband and head of the family. You may be a male by birth but you can choose to be a man by choice!