Monday, 1 March 2021

MARRIAGE GOD INSTITUTED!

The marriage that God instituted has three basic aspects: 1.The man leaves his parents and promises himself to his wife. 2.The man and woman are joined together by taking responsibility for each other's welfare and by loving the mate above all others. 3. The two are united into one in the intimacy and commitment of sexual union that is reserved for marriage alone. Strong marriages include all three of these aspects. Why would God place a tree in the garden and then forbid Adam to from eat it? The reason being that He wanted Adam to obey, but He gave him the freedom to choose. Without choice, Adam would have been like a prisoner, and his obedience would have been hollow. The trees provided the exercise in choice, with rewards for choosing to obey and sad consequences for choosing to disobey. There is always good rewards in choosing to obey God! God gave Adam responsibility for the garden of Eden and told him not to eat the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Why did He not prevent him from eating the tree? This was to show us that man was created as a free-will being and not a robot. Man is given a right to make his own choices and God cannot override it. This is the only impossible thing God cannot change. If we choose wrongly we suffer the consequences, but they can help us learn and grow and make better choices in the future! Living with the consequences of our choices teaches us to think and choose more carefully! Why did God give Adam the job of naming all the animals? The purpose was to show him his need for a companion that corresponds to him. As he was naming the animals, he noticed all of them came in pairs- male/female. He observed he was a male and there was no female to pair up with, he then realized he was alone. The moment he realized he was a alone, a female was formed to correspond, complement and complete him. Without a woman, a man is not completed! Christian marriage must not be shaped by culture, but by the cross of Christ, the Word of God, and the Spirit of God: Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul (1 Peter 2:11; Romans 12:1-2; Ephesians 4:17-24). When Christians comes to marriage, we dare not allow the world (our culture) to shape our thinking, our attitudes, or our actions. A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way. Husbands are bestowed with the highest honor of leadership position in marriage. Therefore, they are expected to know what the infallible word of God says as regards to marriage, lead the way for their families and be the light through which their families see their way to God. Family life is reflection of the man's leadership! A leader is given an authority to lead and also is being held accountable should anything go wrong!