TRUE LOVE IS FROM GOD

TRUE LOVE IS FROM GOD. There is no word more frequently repeated in modern speech and song than the word love. But overuse has made the meaning of the word wear thin. To give back to the word love its proper depth, we must raise our thoughts to God, from whom love comes. 1 John 4:7-8 New Living Translation (NLT) 7 Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. The only possible explanation is that, whether we realize it or not, all human love is really a longing for God. Only God can give that timeless happiness, that perfect satisfaction, that unchanging lovableness, that unfailing faithfulness which men and women are seeking in one another's love, but cannot fully find there. Both the joys and the sorrows of human love show that we are made for divine love It follows that, if human love is to begin to satisfy the heart of man, it must imitate God's love as closely as possible. To be like God's love for us, the love of man for woman must be faithful, unchanging, dependable unto death, must be patient, unwearyingly, forgiving. I wish you the best as you love each other unconditionally.

Marriage is God's Idea

Genesis 2:18-25 New King James Version (NKJV) 18 And the LORD God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” 19 Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature that was its name. 20 So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him. 21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. 22 Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. 23 And Adam said: “This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. • God is the One who noticed that it is not good for man to be alone (man was satisfied and he was not looking for a partner for life) • There is only one thing that can meet the man’s need, from God’s point of view, a woman (just 1, not more) • God creates the woman to be exactly what the man needs (the way that she is created physically, emotionally, spiritually, and mentally) • There is a clear process to marriage here: o man leaves his father and mother (creating a new family unit) o he first joins to his wife (the literal translation is cemented together, this is the bond of marriage) o then the 2 become 1 flesh (through the act of sexual intercourse, marriage first, then sexual relations) o the 2 were together and not ashamed (shame comes when sex comes before marriage, or when marriage is anything other than 1 man and 1 woman) • Someone may say, “but that was the Old Testament., we live under the New Testament. so things are different, right?”. That is a good point so let’s see what Jesus says on the topic, since He is the Mediator of the New Covenant or Testament. • He answered, “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 they shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. (Matthew 19:4-5)

IN THIS GENERATION, DOES MARRIAGE MATTER?

IN THIS GENERATION. DOES MARRIAGE MATTER? Marriage is the building block of families. Families are the building blocks of communities. Communities are the building blocks of society. When marriages and families break down, so do communities and ultimately society and civilization as a whole. We've seen this pattern before, and we're witnessing it again as this bedrock of society increasingly crumbles. As Jesus Christ Himself said: "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate" (Matthew 19:4-6; quoting Genesis 1:27; Genesis 2:24). This is how God designed marriage, when we reject or redefine this pattern, we reap the tragic consequences. Never let yourself be lulled into thinking that marriage doesn't matter! Remember what happened to the people of Sodom and Gomorrah when they tried to change God’s plan of marriage. Marriage matter in this generation as before. Marriage helps us do God’s work better and helps us build relationships with other people.

Don't Let Bitterness Poison Your Marriage

Don’t Let Bitterness Poison Your Marriage The Bible says in Hebrews 12, “Make every effort to live in peace with all men (which would include your spouse) and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.” But what do you do when your spouse hurts you so deeply that you find a bitter root developing within, despite your every effort, and the fact that you know it can hurt more than it can help? Someone once said, “Bitterness is an acid that hurts more the object in which it’s stored than the object on which it is poured.” You may not want to take it in, but you find yourself taking it in anyway. The following are a few thoughts for you to consider: • “When others (including our spouse) hurts us in ways we don’t deserve, at some point we will come to the crossroads of decision. We will have to look our pain square in the face and ask, ‘Am I going to hang on to my anger and do violence to myself, or am I going to forgive those who have wounded me? Am I going to allow bitterness to poison and putrefy my soul, or am I going to invite God to empower me to let the anger go? • The choices we make form the rudder that directs our marriage journey. Good choices keep us sailing smoothly in the right direction. Bad choices steer us toward the rocks. And every day in marriage, choices are made that keep couples headed where they want to go or lead them to places that they dread. • “Listen to these words: ‘We stand at the crossroads, each minute, each hour, each day, making choices. We choose the thoughts we allow ourselves to think, the passions we allow ourselves to feel, and the actions we allow ourselves to perform. Each choice is made in the context of whatever value system we’ve selected to govern our lives. In selecting that value system, we are, in a very real way, making the most important choice we will ever make.’ Benjamin Franklin said this, and his words have more wisdom for married couples than he probably ever knew.” Keep in mind that: In order to thrive, bitterness averts its gaze from God’s grace and mercy, focusing instead on the multitude of ways He and people we’ve counted on have let us down. There probably isn’t any of us would want to choose to hold onto bitterness. But how do you make a different “choice?” To help you with this, we would like to recommend that you read books from other marriage teachers, study the bible and always remember to pray for yourself and your spouse for God’s help. Hopefully, these things, along with what you can read in the Bible, and other articles you can read on marriage from other writers, and most importantly, working through all of this with our Wonderful Counselor, the Holy Spirit, you can better release whatever bitterness you are struggling with. Maybe you can pray the following is a prayer, God “Help me not to hold myself apart from [my spouse] emotionally, mentally, or physically because of unforgiveness. Where either of us needs to ask forgiveness of the other, help us to do so. If there is something I’m not seeing that is adding to this problem, reveal it to me and help me to understand it. Remove any wedge of confusion that has created misunderstanding or miscommunication. Where there is behavior that needs to change in either of us, I pray You would enable that change to happen. As much as I want to hang on to my anger toward [my spouse] because I feel it is justified, I want to do what You want. I release all those feelings to You. Give me a renewed sense of love for him and words to heal this situation.” “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139:23-24) “Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.” (Psalm 25:4-5)

Love Is Impossible Withought Jesus

Love is impossible withought Jesus Let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone Who loves is born of God and knows God. -1 John 4:7 To have genuine love, you must know the secret. And though it’s been an unspoken element throughout each day, you’ve likely grown more and more suspicious of it all the time. Now that you’re this far, it’s a secret you’re discovering for yourself, even if you haven’t exactly known how to put it into words. The secret is this: you cannot manufacture unconditional love (or agape love) out of your own heart. It’s impossible. It’s beyond your capabilities. It’s beyond all our capabilities. You may have demonstrated kindness and unselfishness in some form, and you may have learned to be more thoughtful and considerate. But sincerely loving someone unselfishly and unconditionally is another matter altogether. So how can you do it? Like it or not, agape love isn’t something you can do. It’s something only God can do. But because of His great love for you-and His love for your spouse-He chooses to express His love through you. Still, you may not believe that. You may be convinced that with enough hard work and commitment, you can muster up unconditional, long-term, sacrificial love from your own heart. You want to believe it’s in you. But how many times has your love failed to keep you from lying, from lusting, from overreacting, from thinking evil of this person you’ve vowed before God to love for the rest of your life? How many times has your love proven incapable of controlling your anger? How many times has your love motivated you to forgive or brought about a peaceable end to an ongoing argument? It’s this failure that exposes mankind’s sinful condition. We’ve all fallen short of Gods commands (Romans 3:23). We’ve all demonstrated selfishness, hatred, and pride. And unless something is done to cleanse us of these ungodly attributes, we will stand before God guilty as charged (Romans 6:23). That’s why if you’re not right with God, you can’t truly love your spouse He is the source of that love. You can’t give what you don’t have. You can’t call up inner reserves and resources that aren’t there to be summoned. In the same way that you can’t give away a million dollars if you don’t have it to start with, you cannot pay out love in greater measure than you own. You can try, but you will fail. So the hard news is this: love that is able to withstand every pressure is out of reach, as long as you’re only looking within yourself to find it. You need someone who can give you that kind of love. “Love is from God” (1 John 4:7). And only those who have allowed Him into their heart through faith in His son, Jesus-only those who have received the spirit of Christ through belief in His death and resurrection-are able to tap into love’s real power. “Apart from me,” Jesus said, “you can do nothing” (John 15:5). But He also said, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7). God has promised through Christ to dwell in your heart through faith so that you can “know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:19 NKJV). When you surrender yourself to Christ, His power can work through you. Even at your very best, you are not able to live up to God’s standards. But He “is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us”(Ephesians 3:20). That’s how you love your spouse. So this unsettling secret-as defeating as it may feel-has a happy ending for those who will stop resisting and will receive the love God has for them. This means that the love He has “poured out within our hearts through the Holy spirit who was given to us”(Romans 5:5) is always available, every time we choose to submit to it. You simply won’t be able to do it without Him. Perhaps you’ve never given your heart to Christ, but you sense Him drawing you today. You may be realizing for the first time that you, too, have Gods commands, and that your guilt will keep you from knowing Him. But scripture says that if you repent by turning away from your sins and turning to God, He is willing to forgive you because of the sacrifice His son made on the cross. He is pursuing you, not to enslave you but to free you, so you can receive His love and forgiveness. Then you can share it with the one you’ve been called most specifically to love. Perhaps you’re already a believer, but you would admit that you have walked away from fellowship with God. You’re not in the word, you’re not in prayer, maybe you’re not even in church anymore. The love you used to feel coursing through your veins has dwindled into apathy. The truth is, you can’t live without Him and you can’t love without Him. But there is no telling what He could do in your marriage if you put your trust in Him. Jesus is the source of help we need to love those next to us and the unlovable. Trust him and you will never regret.