Try The Other Side Of Faith: Innovation

Mark 2:4-5 (NKJV)
And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying.

When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”

The four men decided to remove the roof of a house that didn’t belong to them; they didn’t mind about who will repair it or what will be the cost involved; the desire for their ‘friend’ to be healed was more than the obstacles encountered. They removed the roof; I call it innovation; others call it “disturbance” but JESUS instead of rebuking them, HE saw their action as ‘Faith’.

Decide to put your faith into action by doing the unprecedented, take risks in order to achieve your GOD given goals for your life, family and community. Remember: the greatest mistake we can make is to be afraid to make a mistake. There is hope!

Tumwiine Eric

Is It OK for Christians to Live Together Before Marriage?

Is it wrong for Christian couples to live together before marriage according to God?

Living together before marriage is becoming increasingly common, even among Christian couples and for a number of reasons. Before making a lifelong commitment, many couples want a “trial period” to feel out how they both live, and know if taking the relationship to the next level makes sense. Many Christians are adopting the beliefs and practices of the world, and this can be problematic for a number of reasons.

The Bible makes no clear claim that living together before or outside of marriage is living in sin. Given this, many Christians believe that living together before marriage is not living in sin. While there is truth concerning there being no clear claim against it, one of the reasons why an answer to this question isn’t explicitly stated in the Bible is because two unmarried people living together before marriage who planned on being husband and wife was rare, particularly among Jews and Christians.

It is also important that we put “living together” in context. Living together including being in the same space using a husband and wife model, including sexual relations without being married. This is not the same as a man and woman living together in the same space without sexual relations. There is nothing wrong with a man and a woman living together as long as there is nothing immoral taking place. However, this too can be problematic if and when desire and temptation arise. The Bible tells us “But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints” (Ephesians 5:3 ESV). As Christians, we are taught that it is important to break away from not immorality, and the temptation that comes with it. The Bible says “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body” (1 Corinthians 6:18 ESV). When we participate in any sexual relations outside of marriage, which includes premarital sex, it is a form of fornication which the Bible defines as sexual sin.

Another issue with Christians living together before marriage has to do with commitment. Marriage is an up-front commitment. In the book of Genesis we are told that a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh (Genesis 2:24). The Book of Mark also touches on this concept of a man and woman coming together as husband and wife as one flesh. “And the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh (Mark 10:8 ESV). When you are living together and unmarried, there is not the same up-front commitment that you would have with marriage. If a man and a woman aren’t able to share their life together as one flesh in a relationship that is honorable to God, there is not a foundation of trust, and while many will argue that you don’t need a document to define your commitment to someone, thinking that you can be committed to someone without a public profession of marriage is unrealistic.

Glenn Stanton, author of “The Rings Makes All the Difference” believes cohabitation, an arrangement where two people who are married are living together without being married, puts men in the driver’s seat and women at risk, with little leverage in the relationship. In this situation, the man gets what they want in terms of sex and companionship without giving what they fear, and that is commitment. While this take may be a bit broad, it does touch on an important truth. Men long for companionship and a sexual partner and will commit to a marriage when they are ready or desire a particular woman. Women often find themselves with little leverage when they are just living with a man because they are giving themselves without the commitment they would have in marriage. A woman may lose the man she’s living with if he has no interest in commitment.

As Christians, we also have to think about what marriage represents. We can take a look at Ephesians 5:

“Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore do not be partners with them. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. This is why it is said: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

In a living together before marriage scenario, both people have physical access to each other, without an emotional or spiritual commitment.

Instead of just seeing how things work out in a living together situation, God wants us to be emotionally and spiritually committed to the man or the woman we are investing our time in, and many times, this level of commitment is absent from these situations. So many relationships don’t work out because there is no firm foundation. Physical commitment turns into nothing more than selfish gratification of the flesh.

Marriage is one of the biggest steps you will ever take in life. Move in with someone who you are ready to be fully committed, and in union with God with them in marriage. Don’t listen to the pressures of the world. Nothing is wrong with waiting to live together until marriage. If there are any hesitations related to trust and commitment, it may be time to reevaluate where you are in the relationship.

https://www.beliefnet.com/love-family/relationships/marriage/is-it-ok-for-christians-to-live-together-before-marriage

2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (ESV)

Verse Thoughts

Following his introductory greeting to the saints at Corinth, where the amazing grace and abundant peace of almighty God is the heavenly blessing that Paul bestows in great measure on all the congregation there. He turns his wrapped attention and deep affection upon our great God and Father in heaven:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction

When God is ‘blessed’ by psalmist or apostle, by prophet, priest or king, it is a call for His creation to bow low before Him in adoration and worship. When His children are called to ‘Bless the Lord’, we should kneel in humble reverence before His glorious majesty, and worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. When the call to “bless the Lord” comes, we should bow down before Him – the Lord is His name.

As the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ we worship our great Creator. He loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son as the sacrifice for sin, so that whosoever believes on Him would not perish, but have everlasting life. Those who believe become children of God and are made a new creation in Him.

As the God and Father of mercies we worship before His throne of grace, acknowledging that without the spilt blood of Christ alone we would be eternally separated from our God and Saviour. But God in His mercy and love looked down in pity on a rebellious race of prideful men, and purposed in His heart that by His grace and mercy, through faith in Christ, He would redeem this lost and dying race.

He is the God of all comforts, Who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort others that are in trouble… with the same comfort we ourselves receive from God: the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ- the Father of all mercies and God of all comforts.

Let us bow down before HIM – the Lord is His name.

Our Father in heaven has a wondrous array of divine qualities, eternal attributes and godly characteristics that rejoice our heart and calm our soul, but perhaps one of His essential elements is that He is our God of all comfort – our Source of all consolation.

He Who walked this earth and Who learned obedience by the things that He Himself suffered, is more than adequate to identify with our hurt and pain and to empathise with our sorrow and suffering. Oh yes… He is more than equipped to comfort us in all our afflictions.

And yet there is a deeper meaning, a wider purpose and a greater reason that our Father of mercies, and God of all comfort condescends to stoop down and comfort us in our affliction and to console us in our miseries, for He has purposed that we who are comforted of Him, may be ready and equipped to comfort and succour all those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort and consolation that we ourselves have received from our heavenly Father.

Source: https://dailyverse.knowing-jesus.com

The Redeemer

Jesus is a Redeemer, that is his name; he came into the world on this very business, to redeem his people, to redeem them from all iniquity (Titus 2:14 (NIV) who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.), from this present evil world, from our vain conversations. He hath shed his precious blood to purchase us, we are bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:20 (NIV) you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies). We are none of our own, we are his, the purchase of his blood; and we may be confident that he dearly loves us, for he dearly bought us; and if he had not dearly loved us, he would never have given himself for us (Galatians 2:20 (NIV) I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me). That was the highest testimony of his love; he loved us, and washed us from our sins in his blood (Revelation 1:5 (NIV)and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood). He will redeem us from the wrath to come.

John Bunyan

NINTH & TENTH COMMANDMENTS

Exodus 20:16-17 (NIV)

¹⁶You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

¹⁷You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

The tongue is a restless evil. It sets the whole person on fire, James 3 tells us. And so the ninth commandment is aimed in part at bridling the tongue. It’s aimed at bridling the tongue with truth, teaching us to put off falsehood, to put off lying. In our culture, to accuse someone of telling a lie is a serious insult, so many people hesitate to even use the term. I think that this hesitancy reveals fallen man’s heart to shy away from this commandment—as well as his need of this commandment.

What does it mean that we think the command “thou shalt not lie”or the word lie is impolite? It probably indicates that in some ways we’re already shading the truth. We’re already pulling back from a full expression of what’s good, what’s right, and what’s true. And the ninth commandment convicts us of that. It points out our fallenness when it comes to our use of the tongue and the destruction that the tongue represents.

And, likewise, the tenth commandment: “Thou shalt not covet.” If you can imagine the heart having hands, coveting is like the heart grasping for things, desiring things, laying hold of things that don’t properly belong to it. What’s remarkable and beautiful about this commandment—about all of Scripture, in fact—is that even though the commandment addresses something inward (that inward grasping of the heart), it also points out the social implications of that interior grasping. So we have “thou shalt not covet anything that is thy neighbor’s.” Not our neighbor’s spouse, not our neighbor’s cattle, not anything that belongs to our neighbor.

The tenth commandment sets for us a kind of boundary that protects against the way covetousness tends to cross lines. We are tempted to cross the line of desires, longing for things that aren’t properly in our possession. We cross the line of property, grasping for things that belong to another person (your neighbor’s cattle, your neighbor’s spouse). So our coveting actually, socially, does injury to our neighbor. And there’s another line that we cross. When we covet, what we’re actually saying is that God has not apportioned his creation properly because he hasn’t given us everything we desire. And so the heart, in its fallen, sinful way, grasps for things that don’t belong to it and seeks for things that actually belong on the other side of ownership—to the neighbor or to God.

These commandments speak to us, and they call us forth to truth-telling. And not just to truth-telling, but to the truth spoken in love. They call forth a bridling, a restraining, and a channeling of desire to things that are good and right. They call us to things that God has legitimately given to us for our enjoyment, and to be content in how God has distributed his blessing, how he rules his creation. They call us not to go outside of that contentment by taking things, for if we do, we destroy society, culture, and our neighbors. This is true even if the taking of what doesn’t belong to us is only a taking in heart.

Thabiti Anyabwile