MACO 103

MACO 103!!

“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, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself” Ephesians 5:25-28 (ESV)

So my wife and I are sitting in front of the television one night to watch a DVD about building a healthy marriage while encouraging and strengthening others when “Sweet Holy Moly” (recited in the tone of the guys in that Metro PC commercial) it’s Ed Hindson of that show called “The King is Coming” on one of those Christian channels we got on the cable box.

Well we both thought this would get interesting since we watch him regularly and we both think he is sorta on the ball with what he goes over on his television show. I was just hoping that he would give me enough time to continue working on my marriage before Jesus comes back and reclaims the earth for the Father. To my surprise he never went there. But I will share where I went with what I got from the DVD.

In the Book of Matthew the Pharisees approached Jesus and asked Him, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” Now the one thing about the Pharisees that I have noticed is that they always went after our Lord and Savior with His Father’s own words but with a twist. Sound familiar? The Garden, the serpent and we never really know that the serpent is the Devil until we read it in the Book of Revelation but it was still the Devil. (There is my Hindson twist by the way.) Anyway, Jesus answers them by saying, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Well let’s look at the beginning. In Genesis 2:18-23 God realizes that man cannot be alone in His creation. So He forms Eve from Adam’s rib and its love at first sight for Adam. Adam realizes that Eve has been created from him. Both have been created in the image of God uniquely and this marriage is an invention of God Himself. And as we look at the invention of marriage in both the Old and the New Testament we see three important things. Marriage was created and instituted by God Himself. Marriage was meant to last and marriage is a covenant relationship between man, woman and God. And I will stretch it out to Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

So as the Pharisees continue with their test of Jesus they ask, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” Then Jesus tells them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.” When I look at Deuteronomy 24, where the Pharisees get their argument from, I can see why Jesus takes His stand on marriage. “When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her.” What would happen to us if Jesus found no favor with all of us? After all, haven’t we’ve been “indecent” in the eyes of our Heavenly Father from time to time. Would Jesus just simply write us off?

In Ephesians Paul explains to us the importance of marriage. It is the illustration we need to see so we all can see how Jesus wants His church to be. So Husbands…love your wife as Christ loves the church. He wants to be reconciled with us and the sooner some of us get it through our thick skulls that if God is willing to reconcile with the fallen world through His own Son, who are we to find any “indecencies” with our own spouses that are unforgivable. When it’s all been said and done, I do not want to face the Savior only to have Him hand me a certificate of divorce and send me on my way. Do you? -- Chris Hughes is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy and a frequent contributor to Freedom Fighter

Digging Deeper: Proverbs 23; Psalm 33-34; Acts 24

Dig This Quote: “Marriage was designed from the beginning to display the new covenant between Christ and the church. We have seen this in Ephesians 5:31-32. The very essence of this new covenant is that Christ passes over the sins of his bride. His bride is free from shame not because she is perfect, but because she has no fear that her lover will condemn her or shame her because of her sin. This is why the doctrine of justification by grace through faith is at the very heart of what makes marriage work the way God designed it. Justification creates peace with God vertically, in spite of our sin. And when experienced horizontally, it creates shame-free peace between an imperfect man and an imperfect woman.” John Piper

Determined Digging: Level 1: Isaiah 1:18; Level 2: Psalm 103:1-5

Determined Praying: Powerful praying demands discipline and patience. God is not a bellhop who comes running at the snap of our fingers. God wants us to stretch ourselves in the realm of prayer. When was the last time you asked God for something YOU couldn't figure out? -- Michael Catt