WEDDING-MARRIAGE

Wedding-Marriage

Man is a unity and not a unit. Man is a dual, but not two. The perfect reproduction of the Divine Image and Likeness is in the marriage of male and female where elements of that Likeness and Image exist in both. In the union of both man and woman there is an expression of truth concerning God as there cannot be made in the loneliness of the one, or the isolation of the other.

He emphasized the teaching of the old economy on this one point. That teaching is that man is a unity. and not a unit: that man is dual, but not two; that the full ideal of humanity is the union of fatherhood and motherhood; that spiritually and in the last analysis humanity is not represented in man, or in woman, but in their union. Man is in the Divine likeness and the Divine image partially, woman is in the Divine likeness and the Divine image partially. Not in man is a full and perfect representation of the Divine likeness and the Divine image: not in woman is a full and perfect representation of the Divine likeness and the Divine image.  In each there are elements of the Divine likeness and the Divine image: but in the mystic union is the full unveiling of the truth concerning God. God is not Father alone. He is Son and Holy Spirit also. In the essential mystery of the Divine Being, there are not only all those quantities and qualities which we associate with man, there are those quantities and qualities which we associate with woman. Consequently, thinking in each case upon the very highest level, in the union of man and woman there is the expression of truth concerning God as there cannot be in the loneliness of the one, or the isolation of the other.

DIVORCE

“And the Pharisees came to him, and asked him, is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? tempting him.” Mark 10:2

When today questions are asked about divorce, men do not usually begin here: but this is where Christ began. If the question of divorce is to be discussed, said Jesus in effect, let us get back to the beginning of things, and see what God meant in the creation of humanity. From the beginning of the creation He created them male and female.

HOMOSEXUAL

Same truth goes for homosexual behavioral sin. The biblical standard for marriage is a monogamous relationship in which a man and a woman share a lifetime commitment to each other, second only to their commitment to God. It is an unconditional, lifetime commitment. Jesus emphasized God's intention that marriage be a lifetime commitment (Mark 10:5-9; Matt. 19:4-9). He affirmed this as the principle of marriage inherent in divine creation (Gen. 2:24). Paul cited this key principle to show the sinfulness of sexual relations outside marriage (1 Cor. 6:12-20) and to emphasize the importance of self-giving love in marriage (Eph. 5:28). Gen. 2:24 emphasizes the oneness of the marriage relationship and the priority of the relationship over all others, including the relationship of the couple to their parents. Marriage is also for companionship (Gen. 2:18-23). Paul described the kind of mutual submission that should characterize the marriage relationship (Eph. 5:21-33). Although the husband is head of the home, his role is modeled after the role of Christ as Head of the church, who "loved the church and gave Himself for it" (Eph. 5:25).

PORTRAIT PICTURE

PORTRAIT PICTURE 

 

The Gospel of Christ is the True Portrait of Him

 

2 Cor. 5:16 “Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more."

[Portrait of Christ] Since God is not interested in putting on a dazzling display with outward appearances (Isa 53:2) neither are we interested in those either. I would rather look at the inner man. People want a picture of Christ Himself, wanting to know what He looked like. They want to have a portrait, a painting. They want to have a shroud with His outline on it. They've got to see the image of Jesus and Paul said to forget that as he had. There is not one word from Gen. to Rev. concerning what Jesus looked like. That is deliberate. Though Paul and the apostles knew Him after the flesh that did nothing for their spirituality. They had forgotten that. We are saved by faith, not by sight. Thousands saw Him and said crucify Him. But millions have never seen Him and have entrusted their eternal destiny to Him. Jesus said, "Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed." (John 20:29)

UNDERSTANDING

UNDERSTANDING

 

 

"And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship." Exod. 31:3
Wisdom is capacity, where understanding suggests progress and the capacity acting in apprehension of the idea presented while knowledge is the ultimate attainment of skill resulting from intelligent action of capacity. All this results from a man being filled with the Spirit. See John 7:17. "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself."
There is nothing more dangerous than misunderstanding for the one who misunderstands who believes he understands and therefore in many cases zealous error is the result. Not only do they believe it is true but they will defend it with their lives. False religion today.
 What is understanding? It comes from two words put together. It is a grammatical construct. The two words are under and stand. To "stand under" means to submit to another Person's mind, which we have the mind of Christ; you stand under their mind. You use their thoughts, lose your own opinion and take on theirs. Therefore you become one with another. It is a form of communion. To understand is also translated communion. Communion is also a grammatical construction of two words, common and union. The word common means same, union means one. Common union therefore means to become one with another person. That is God's number one goal, communion with us. He wants to commune with us. That has been His cry from the beginning. To tabernacle with the people of God. Jesus prayer was to the Father to make us one (John 17:21). "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." To understand therefore means that we are to catch the intent of another person, not just their words. You can't understand a Person until that happens. You then become their friend (John 15:15). "Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you." God's intention is found in the constitution. The all consuming purpose and intent of God in creation was to establish a Kingdom on the earth, in which He could display His glory in the Person of His Son. This display of His glory was to be made to creatures made in His image, and therefore, capable of apprehending, appreciating, and applauding His glory. The unfolding drama of the Bible depicts the movements of God in the accomplishment of that purpose.

GENETIC EROSION

GENETIC EROSION

 

 

Processes and consequences -

Population bottlenecks create shrinking gene pools, which leave fewer and fewer fertile mating partners. As specimens begin to inbreed, both physical and reproductive congenital effects and defects appear more often. Abnormal sperm increase, infertility rises, and birthrates decline. Most perilous are the effects on the immune defense systems, which become weakened and less and less able to fight off an increasing number of bacterial, viral, fungal, parasitic, and other disease-producing threats. Thus, even if an endangered species in a bottleneck can withstand whatever human development may be eating away at its habitat, it still faces the threat of an epidemic that could be fatal to the entire population.

This genetic decline has been going on since Adam and Eve. Their longevity was for hundreds of years but after the fall the curse that God placed on mankind has been showing the effects of mankind’s departure from God and His righteous acts towards the sin of men. The brains activity and available use has declined to where the average human only uses 10% of our brains, with some people attributing Einstein's brilliance to his ability to stretch that paltry figure to 15 percent. Science today denies this fact. Although man’s Artistic talent of every kind is a divine gift (James 1:17). He by whose "breath the skies became fair" (Job 26:13) also created man with aesthetic faculties which, like all the human faculties, were corrupted in the fall.

TRINITY

TRINITY

 

God is tri-unity. This categorical statement may appear illogical to any reader who is confronted for the first time with this truth. The foregoing discussion makes such an effort to emphasize the unity of God, that the reader is now surprised to discover something about God that seems to be in contradiction. At first glance, the title "tri-unity" may appear to be a mistake, since the more common term is "trinity." But the expression "trinity" lays emphasis upon the three persons in the Godhead to the exclusion of the one essence, whereas the word "tri-unity" includes both ideas, and therefore insists upon a trinity of persons in the one divine essence.

The importance of this divine reality dare not be underestimated. Of all the propositions relating to God, this one is the fundamental of the fundamentals of the Christian faith. This differentiates the Christian faith from all other faiths. Without this doctrine there could be no divine Savior and no divine Holy Spirit. Without this truth there could be no incarnation of God in human flesh. There could be no transaction between persons of the Godhead in atonement. And there could be no God of eternal love. It follows that all the distinctive truths of Christianity are wrapped up in this great fact. "Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory" (1 Tim. 3:16).

When Christ became flesh, the tri-unity of God came into full view. In the doctrine of God, tri-unity comes last. This marks progress in revelation. This progress is not from imperfection to perfection, for at every stage in revelation the body of truth was perfect, though at that point it was incomplete. God revealed truth in the same proportion that men were prepared and able to receive it. When at last Christ came, men were then amply prepared and able to receive the crowning truth in the doctrine of God, the tri-unity of God. But this does not mean that there is no revelation concerning the tri-unity of God in the Old Testament. The facts are that this great truth is woven into the very warp and woof of the Old Testament Scriptures, except for the fact that it is not clearly seen because men are not sufficiently prepared to recognize it. The Hebrew word for God in the opening verse of Genesis is plural in number, though it is used with a singular verb. This occurs over and over again in the Old Testament. Notice the use of the word "us" in connection with the creation of man (Gen. 1:26), and his expulsion from the garden (Gen. 3:22). It would appear that the issues were so important that there was need for divine consultation in the Godhead. The answer to the critics of this doctrine is that the complete revelation of the tri-unity of God was given in deeds rather than words. Godly Jews believed in a God who dwelt in heaven. When Christ came, these very Jews recognized Him as God. The coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost was recognized as something different from the Father or from Christ, and when these men wrote the New Testament there was no conscious effort to formulate a doctrine of the tri-unity of God. All they did was to record what happened. "O the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out" (Rom. 11:33). To seal this truth to each believer at the outset of his experience of salvation, he is baptized "into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matt. 28:19), a trinity of divine Persons all contributing to his salvation.

TOTAL DEPRAVITY

TOTAL DEPRAVITY

 

Romans 3

Nobody wants a Savior unless that person is convinced of their need for that Savior. No one would place a value on His blood as propitiation unless they recognize their need for that shed blood. Like a flock of sheep they possess a need. As Adam being the head of the flock all the others blindly follow (Rom 5:12 - universal sin). Every one to his own way. We all re-enact his sin on a daily basis (Rom 3:23 - individual sin). This is known by the theologians as total depravity. Universal sin is explained by the individual sin (own way). Isaiah begins to explain the reason that the King should die and that being a substitutionary death for our sin, not His. The Representative of all sinful men before a Holy God. This 3 verse section of vs. 6-9 is the holy of holies to Isa. 53 of the temple of the revelation of His Scripture concerning the real purpose of His Son. Not even the Gospels in the N.T. give you the information of the Son of God and His purpose as this chapter. All they give you is information of how this happened and under what circumstances.

            No man will admit this need for they are so immersed in sin and conditioned by it that they know no difference. You will hear them say, "I am not so bad." You have just heard a person so immersed in sin that they don't know it. Like a fish in water, they fail to recognize they are even wet. The only way to get them to see their need is and to know how sinful you are? Take one look at Jesus Christ in the pages of Holy Scripture and you will see your need of a Savior. You cannot look in the face of Jesus and follow Him through the pages of Scripture and walk away and say "I am like He is!" This book is a mirror as well as a cleansing agent. It reflects your nature like a mirror that shows you how dirty your face is in the morning. You would never guess it until you look in that mirror. It's also the soap to do something about that dirt. The blood of Jesus is God's cleansing material.

<laid> upon Him. (paga) violent striking causing destruction. No gentleness at Calvary. This is where Jesus cried out "My God, My God!"  There was nothing gentle about this striking. Who killed Jesus on the Cross? It certainly wasn't the Romans or the Jews who told the Romans to nail Him there. It wasn't Satan who told the Jews to get the Romans to place Him there. Gen. 3:15 says that Satan would bruise His heel and through Judas Satan did that work. Heb. 9:14 says that death came to Christ through the Eternal Spirit. The same One Who brings sight and Who reveals the mysteries of God also brings death. See Isa. 40:7 and James 1:6; Psa 39:4-6; Luke 12:5. Jesus said the Son voluntarily laid His life down in John 10:17-18 and this Isa. 53:6 here says that the Father hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all (cf. John 3:16). Apart from Christ's death nobody in the human race could ever be saved. Let us not have our own ideas about what happened on the Cross God's Word can tell us what happened at Calvary.

THINKS THOUGHTS

Thinks Thoughts

2 Sam. 14:14 “For we must needs die, and are as water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him.”

 

"Yet doth He devise means." Literally, the statement is that God "thinks thoughts." Redemption revealed in a sentence. This was the highest argument employed by the wise woman of Tekoah, as, at the instigation of Joab, she sought to persuade David to recall Absalom. The story in itself is a somewhat perplexing one. Opinions widely differ as to why Joab thus set himself to bring back Absalom. These, however, need not concern us now. It is of great interest to observe that this woman knew God, and here uttered one of the most beautiful things, and the truest, ever said about Him. This is the whole of redemption revealed in a sentence.

Man is banished from God by his own sin and that most righteously; and, in the interest of the perfect order of all things, is necessarily banished.

Nevertheless he, the banished one, is not abandoned by God. His love is unchanged toward the sinning man, even though His wrath is kindled against his sin. This is the love that will not let us go.

But how can the banished one be saved from being an outcast? The answer is that "God . . . devises means." In all the fullness of human history we learn how much that statement is worth.

Literally, the statement is that God "thinks thoughts." These must be thoughts of holiness; and they are thoughts of love. Then they are thoughts in which both these combine, and discover a way of rescue, of recall, of restoration for banished souls. The thoughts of God then become thoughts of self-emptying, of sacrifice, and of taking all the responsibility for the wrong of the banished one. Thus guilt is cancelled, and the way of return is made possible. It is a glorious word, this; and introduces us to the unfathomable mystery of the love of God which in its working can never be interpreted; but in which the soul finds its healing and its perfect rest.

We should think like that!!!