marriage

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Marriage is a Mystery!

Paul doesn’t stand alone when he declares that marriage is a mystery! However, what he meant and what I’m alluding to are different in emphasis. Every one of us who has married will have been confronted with the challenge of mystery in the sense we just plain don’t understand what is going on at times. For Paul, the mystery is the link he makes between human marriage and the relationship between Christ and the Church. In this the Church is the bride who awaits the arrival of the bridegroom, which signifies the consummation of all things.

In his relationship with us, God chooses to stay close and believe in the longevity of the relationship, in spite of our waywardness. His heart is big enough to hold us. We are invited to view family as a challenge most certainly, yet not one in which my spouse is expected to make changes to accommodate my fault lines. Rather, it is an opportunity to explore how each might become a servant and resource to the other. The model is the relationship God extends towards us. It is perhaps this relationship Paul invites us to reflect upon as we consider how we are to practise our marriage vows day by day.

Consider the love that God extends towards you. At the same time reflect upon the esteem, veneration and appreciation you have towards God. It is these elements that encompass family. Love is described in the scripture as believing, hoping for, and enduring all things, for love can never end. Hence, keeping love alive for the other is an essential responsibility. Where you lose respect, so love will slowly ebb away; respect for yourself, for your spouse, and even for God. Considering how God loves us continually, warts and all, might provide some insight into how we might love.

(Dr Micha Jazz)

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With many peaceful blessings

Geoffrey

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Applying the Law of God into Marriage

Applying the law of God into marriage creates tensions. Each party introduces traditions from their own family home which are foreign to their partner. I remember Katey and I having major problems our first Christmas. Each of us knew how we celebrated Christmas, yet had failed to disclose this to each other. Hence, disagreement and conflicts, five months into our marriage! At this stage we had little experience to draw upon and so were too ready to take it out on each other. Fortunately, good friends, who were long-time married, stepped in to help us and we navigated Christmas and learnt something about the ‘law of love’.

However, society’s values will always constrain marriage and spouses will submit to the prevailing rules. Paul recognises this, yet adds that such submission must be carried out in a Christ-like fashion. Hence in a society that accepted slavery, Paul advises the slave, Onesimus, to return to his master as a slave, while encouraging his master to treat him kindly, ie after the fashion of Jesus and as a brother in Christ.

The Church must be ready to contextualise its teaching within the society to which it is preaching. While all societies have marriage as a cornerstone to their stability, the rights of wives and husbands varies. However, the authentic Christian message is that marriage is a one time, lifetime commitment.

While such a commitment can pay homage to overarching social conventions, unless they breach God’s greater law of loving others as self (such as Sati, the custom of burning widows in India), yet within the Christian marriage the principle of equality and kinship must be practised. God’s law overrides all others in the life of the Church, yet cannot be enforced upon a social structure. That society must be wooed and won by the Good News first, and conversion is always a matter of free choice, never compulsion. How we live our marriages speaks to society.

(Dr Micha Jazz)

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With many peaceful blessings

Geoffrey

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What is the Formula for a Good Marriage?

On his fiftieth wedding anniversary Henry Ford, the great car manufacturer, was asked:-

“What is the formula for a good marriage?”

Ford replied, “The same as for a successful car; stick to one model!”

Perhaps, in our world of constantly changing husbands/wives/partners, this is sound advice which everyone should inwardly digest and follow?

After all, it worked extremely well for Henry Ford.

With many peaceful blessings

Geoffrey

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“What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder”

Yesterday, my wife, Marlene, and I went to a wedding. It was a very joyful occasion; love was most definitely in the air.

It has been many a long year since I was last invited to a wedding. But funerals? Now that is a different story. I guess that at my age – 67 – it is only to be expected that some of my friends have run out of steam here on earth.

During the wedding ceremony I was reminded about what Mark had written about marriage (Mark 10:9):-

“What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder”

Here in the UK we are supposed to be a Christian country – even the Prime Minister professes to be a Christian. Yet a closer examination of some of the Government’s policies suggests that our country has moved a long way away from God’s laws!

There is a Facebook Group ‘I love My Foreign Spouse’ :-

https://www.facebook.com/groups/139807999382936/?fref=ts

Members of this FB Group are mostly wifes/husbands/partners who are separated and who have problems living together because the Government have decreed that if one lives outside Europe then it is necessary to have a minimum income of £18,600 per year to obtain a spousal visa.

Marriage, so it sadly appears, counts for absolutely nothing. Money rules, unfortunately.

I am sure that there is no reference in the Bible to having to have a minimum level of annual income to be able to live together once once falls in Love and becomes married.

We can only pray that the Government see the error of their ways and will repeal their draconian immigration laws, which are most certainly not God’s laws!!

With many peaceful blessings

Geoffrey

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Jesus In The Right Place

It was Friday night. A pastor was struggling to prepare his sermon and didn’t want to be disturbed by his five year old daughter.

So he removed a map of the world from his study, tore it into pieces and gave it to her to assemble with the promise that he would answer all her questions and play with her when she was done.

He knew she would never be able to fix it. To his amazement, in less than five minutes, she returned to him in his study with the map in perfect shape, every continent and every country in its place.

The surprised father asked, ”Honey, u don’t know anything about geography, so how did u fix the world so easily and quickly? The five year old girl smiled sweetly and replied, ”The picture of Jesus was at back of the map and i knew that if i have Jesus in the right place, the whole world would be in perfect shape

That was just the right inspiration he needed for his sermon. He thanked his daughter and prepared a powerful sermon on the subject ”Fix your world by placing Jesus at the right place.”

If you place Jesus at the right place in your life, finances, marriage, jobs, ministry and relationships, your world will be perfect… Just place Jesus in his rightful place and all your life will be in order.

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With many peaceful blessings

Geoffrey