Our Hope & Strength
"...Just you wait. Six months in, or maybe a year , the joy will wane and you'll see marriage is tougher than you think."
Encouraging thing for someone to say, huh? The funny thing is that we realize it will be tough later - simply because two sinners living in close proximity is neither easy nor ideal.
Nevertheless, in as much as Betsy & I know we are sinners, we also understand there is a design for marriage which can help us thrive as a couple and as individuals, to be everything for which we were created.
Over the years, we've both known several couples who have weathered some very severe storms, some even have "hit the rocks." And yet these marriages, contrary to popular wisdom, not only survived but have thrived and today these people lead quiet & harmonious lives.
Almost every one of these couples has understood and taken to heart one simple thing: God showed the extent of His love for us by sacrificing Himself for us. But it didn't stop there. He then showed His power over everything, including even death, by raising Jesus from the dead.
Think about it. If God loves us that much and has that much power to change things, then there is hope and there is a keen example of how we ought to live with each other.
“In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength....”
- God is Love and does not desire anyone to perish
- God is also perfectly holy and no imperfect person can enter heaven or have real fellowship with Him
- We all have sinned and just can't be perfect
- Acting imperfect our only wage, our only earnings, the only thing we truly deserve, is Hell
- But because God desires we all repent, He delays judgment to give us a chance to decide to do just that. But someday that judgment will come.
- Meanwhile, there is a dilemma - God is Love and doesn't want to punish us. And God is also Just and so must punish sin.
- God answered this dilemma by taking on the form of Man in Jesus Christ, God's Son, and lived on this earth as man but was sinless, perfect. Then offered Himself as a sacrifice on our behalf so God's just law could be fulfilled.
- But death could not hold Him, which he proved by raising Himself from death.
- Those who trust in all these truths & repent, believing in their heart and confessing Jesus as Lord are immediately given the legal standing of "perfect" in His sight.
If you have not received this gift of a perfect standing before God, this might be your last chance - please click here now!