Review of Genesis 1-11

Posted on January 20, 2018 by dkoop

Tomorrow in our services we’ll be in Genesis chapter 12 looking the beginning of God’s people.

What the foundation is to the house, what the Constitution is to United States law, and what the periodic table of elements is to chemistry, the Book of Genesis is to the Bible. It’s basic. An understanding of the basic truths of Genesis, especially chapters 1-11, will give us the key we need to unlock the rest of Scripture.

Let’s review some of these basics.

God is real and we can trust Him

The Bible opens with a declaration that God exists: “In the beginning God” (1:1). Genesis presents no philosophical arguments to prove God’s existence; it just puts Him at the beginning of everything. When we open the Bible, God is there, and He was there before the Bible was written or even the universe was created.

The God we meet in Genesis 1-11 is not only eternal, but He’s also wise and powerful. He is a great God, and so great is His power that He only has to speak to make things happen. And so great is His wisdom that what He creates is to be—and it works! From the tiniest one-celled animal to the biggest galaxy, in all creation God’s power and wisdom are manifested.

And yet this great God is a personal God. He pays attention to us and wants to be our Lord and our Friend!

He is a holy God who will not condone sin. He judged the personal sins of Adam, Eve, and Cain, and also the corporate sins of the pre-flood population and the people at Babel. But at the same time, He is a God of love who created us in His image and longs to fellowship with us and reveal Himself to us. Our sins grieve Him, but in His grace, He forgives those who trust Him and will give them another chance.

The God of Genesis has a plan for mankind. He promised to send a Redeemer who would conquer Satan and bring salvation for the human race (3:15). He fulfilled that promise in sending Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to die on the cross for the sins of the world. You don’t really know God until you have trusted Jesus Christ to save you from your sins.

We live in God’s creation

The universe was created by God, not by chance. He made everything and He keeps everything going. The universe is not an accident. It’s the incredible masterpiece of a wise and powerful God who works everything according to the counsel of His own perfect will.

The complexity of the universe reveals the power and wisdom of God, and the beauty of the universe shows His love. He could have made a dull world, but He decorated His world with a riot of color and gave us a variety of plants, animals, and people to enjoy. Day after day and night after night, creation reveals the glory of God (Ps. 19).

Because this is God’s creation, we’re but stewards of what He’s given us. We must use the wealth of creation for the good of others and the glory of God, remembering that one day we’ll give God an accounting of our stewardship. To waste or exploit the wealth of creation, or heedlessly mar the beauty of creation, is to sin against God. It’s not just a matter of ecology; it’s a matter of theology: this is our Father’s world.

God generously gives to us “all things richly to enjoy” (1 Tim. 6:17), and we should thank Him for His gifts and use them wisely.

We are made in the image of God

Men and women are created, not evolved, and they’re created in the image of God. This is a tremendous privilege and a great responsibility. Every baby that’s conceived is made in God’s image and has the right to live, to be in a loving family, to come to know God through Jesus Christ, and to enjoy a life that’s purposeful and fulfilling.

Since God has given us a mind to think with, we need to read His Word and learn His truth. He’s given us a will to decide with, and we must make wise decisions that please Him. We have hearts to love Him, and we show this love by fellowshipping with Him and obeying His will. Our inner being is spiritual, and we need God dwelling within if we’re to have inner peace and satisfaction. “Thou hast made us for Thyself,” wrote Augustine, “and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.”

The fact that we’re all created in the image of God means that we must love and protect one another. God gives life and only God can take it away. He’s given to human government the authority for capital punishment, for the murderer attacks the very image of God.

The image of God in us has been marred by sin, but that image can be restored as we walk with God and yield to His Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18). Since God made us, He knows what’s best for us; and He’s given us His Word as our guidebook for life. It’s the “manual of operations” and we must get acquainted with it. When all else fails, read the instructions.

Obedience is the key to joy and blessing

Our first parents disobeyed God’s Word and plunged the entire human race into sin. Cain disobeyed and became a wanderer. Noah obeyed and God saved him and his family from destruction and blessed them after the Flood was over. Whenever we disobey God, we break our communion with Him and lose the joy of His presence. Obedience is the key to blessing; disobedience is the way to unhappiness.

Satan is real, but is a defeated enemy

Satan is not eternal; he’s a created being. He’s not all-knowing, all-powerful, or present in all places at all times. He’s limited, but he wants you to think he’s as great as God and worthy of your obedience. Satan is very powerful and very subtle, and in ourselves we’re no match for him.

Satan wants to be god in our lives; he wants our worship and our service. He tempts us by questioning God’s Word: “Has God really said?” He promises to make us like God, but he never keeps that promise. The first step in victory over Satan is not to listen to his offers or believe his promises. We need to know and believe God’s truth if we want to detect and defeat the devil’s lies.

Satan has been defeated by Jesus Christ, and through Christ we can claim victory (Col. 2:15; Rom. 16:20; 1 Cor. 10:13).

Sin is Serious 

The world may call it a blunder, a mistake, a weakness, or an accident, but if it’s disobedience to God’s will, God calls it sin. Sin is serious because it leads to death and judgment. Like any loving Father, God is grieved when His children sin, and God judges sin. But God also forgives and provides the cleansing that we need.

When we sin, our tendency is to run away and try to hide, but this is the worst thing we can do. we can’t hide from God. The only thing to do is to repent, confess, and claim His forgiveness. God does give us another opportunity to obey Him and be blessed.

Sex is God’s idea and He knows best how it should be used

God made the first humans “male and female.” He did it not just so they could reproduce and keep the human race going, but also that they might learn to love and enjoy one another and discover their loving relationship to the Lord. His original intent was one man for one woman for one lifetime. The Bible isn’t a “sex manual,” but it does make some things very clear. It’s clear that sexual sins are destructive not only to the body and the inner person, but also to other people, especially one’s mate and family. God created man and woman for each other; any other combination is out of God’s will, no matter what society and the courts might say. God invented marriage, and sex outside the loving bonds of marriage is wrong.

There is one human race.

God separated the descendants of Noah into various tongues and nations, but they are all the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve. By the providence of God, some nations and races have made more rapid progress in this world than have others, but this doesn’t mean these progressive nations are better than other people. We are of one blood, and no race can claim to be superior to another race.

God’s People Have Responsibilities

In the Old Testament God forms a nation of people called Israel to bring his word and his salvation through Christ into the world. This doesn’t mean that they’re better than others, but only that they have God’s call upon them and therefore have a greater responsibility in this world. God chose them because He loved them, not because of their intrinsic worth (Deut. 7:6-11). God called Israel to bring blessing to the whole world, and because of Israel, we have the knowledge of the true God, the written Word of God, and most of all, the Savior Jesus Christ. No Christian should be guilty of anti-Semitism in thought, word, or deed.

God doesn’t change and is always in control

God is still on the throne and always knows what He’s doing. He’s long-suffering toward sinners, but eventually He judges sin and rewards the righteous. Whether it’s the farthest star or the most minute atom, God knows where everything is and what everything is doing; and everything He’s made will ultimately accomplish His will on this earth. God has built laws into this universe which, if we obey them, work for us, but if we disobey them, they work against us. Science is simply thinking God’s thoughts after Him, discovering these laws and putting them to work. The Creator has the right to “break” His own laws and do the miraculous.

Our relationship to God is based on faith

“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Heb. 11:6). We live on promises, not explanations.

Living for God is the most rewarding life possible

God has a different purpose for each of us to fulfill, and He enables us to fulfill it as we trust His Word and obey His will. Whatever He calls us to do can be done to the glory of God. While there are times when it seems like the righteous are suffering and the wicked are succeeding, in the end, the righteous will get their eternal reward and the wicked their eternal punishment.

The Christian life isn’t always the easiest life, but it is the most satisfying and rewarding life.

These are just a few of the basics found in Genesis 1-11, and illustrated and explained in the rest of the Bible. When we give our lives to Christ and build on these basic truths, we build on a solid foundation that can’t be moved. To ignore these basics is to build on the sand and make a life that won’t survive the storms of life or the final judgment from God, Jesus reminds us. Matthew 7:21-27.

I hope to see you tomorrow,

Darrell

Source:  Adapted from the Bible Exposition Commentary (BE Series) – Old Testament – The Pentateuch.
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The Secret Ingredient for an Intimate Marriage

Posted on January 19, 2018 by dkoop

What’s the secret ingredient?  Commitment.  It’s easy to promise but harder to keep.  What does commitment look like? How do I stay committed?  What one decision can I make that will keep me committed?  We will examine those questions in this post.

“A man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife.”  Genesis 2:24.  The word “be united” in Hebrew is “dawbak” it literally means to glue together, to paste together, to adhere to.  It means to stick, to super glue.  Like welding, the bond becomes stronger than the two pieces you welded together. That’s what marriage is to be.

A great illustration is to take two colors of construction paper and glue them together.  That would be an illustration of what the Bible calls “being united.”  Once dry if I were to try to separate these two, some of the color one side would come off on other side. That’s what happens in a separation.  That’s what happens in a divorce.  That’s why it’s so painful.  When you’ve lived with somebody and then you separate, it tells both people, “There’s always a little of you left behind.”

And then we go out to the singles’ bar and we show the good side (the unglued side).  And another person who has been through a separation shows their good side.  They think each other is wonderful.  They don’t realize that on the back are scars that haven’t been dealt with.

To “be united” is an act of commitment.  It means to say “I do”.  The problem with our marriages is that many people who say “I do” — don’t.  Instead of marrying for better and for worse, people ought to just marry for good.  “I do” is a commitment.

What is God saying?  God is saying good marriages are a result of choice, not chance.  They don’t just happen.  They’re the result of choices you make.  Good marriages are a result of commitments, not convenience.

Some of us think, “I am trapped!  And I don’t know how to get out of this relationship.  I’ve got more than I bargained for — false advertising!  What I thought I was getting was not what I got.”  We think we’re stuck.  What do we do?  There’s nothing more hopeless than feeling like you’re trapped in a relationship that you cannot get out of.  What are you going to do?

The first commitment that Niki and I made is that, “we will never, never, never divorce.”  We said we’ll also never, never use the “d” word.   Divorce is not an option, murder? Maybe! But not divorce!

Some of you are already divorced.  I don’t mean your past.  Your past is over.  I mean the relationship you are in now or if you ever plan to be in a relationship. I mean right now. Make a commitment:  “If I ever marry again or if I’m married right now, I will not divorce.”

The other commitment that we made was this: “We will do whatever it takes and whatever it costs for as long as it takes to make this marriage work.”  Whatever it takes, no matter what it costs. That’s what it means to be united.  We’ll go to Christian counseling, retreats, conferences, read books, talk to others, whatever it takes.

Experts tell us that about 75% of all marriages need counseling at least some time in their married life.  Because some people are too proud to get it, they never get the help.  A lot of people will divorce before they go see a counselor.

I prefer Christian Counselors.  A non- Christian counselor does not have the resources available to change a marriage that a Christian does.

We made the commitment — whatever it takes and whatever it costs, for how long it takes, we will make this marriage work!  We usually never change until we get desperate.

“The only way any marriage will stay together is if you will it to stay together.”  It’s an act of volition.  You will it.  You choose to make the marriage work.  It will work!  Whatever it takes.  It’s a matter of choice.  Love is a choice.

The foundation of marriage is commitment, for the sake of your marriage, lock the escape hatch and throw the key away.  Never use the “D” word, it cracks the foundation.  Intimacy is built on security.  You can never be one flesh intimately, totally with your spouse if there’s always the possibility in the background that there is an option of divorce.  When the problems come it’s just too easy to walk out rather than face the problems even though divorce is very painful.

You leave and you be united.  Leaving and uniting are the process.

The Result: Total Intimacy  “be united…and they will become one flesh.”  vs 24

This is a blending of two lives.  God’s talking about more than just sex, although that is a very important part of it. He’s talking about total intimacy.

No situation is hopeless as long as you give the pieces to the Lord and are willing to change.  Change is scary.  Both of you are going to have to change.  So many marriages are missing this emotional bonding, but it can be developed if you follow God’s directions.  Commit to each other completely and throw out the word divorce.

It doesn’t happen overnight.  You can have a physical relationship overnight but to “become one flesh.”  Means it’s a process, an ongoing process.  It just doesn’t happen.  It happens through facing these situations that test our commitment.

In Marriage and Divorce magazine they gave these statistics:  Right now in the United States an average of 1 out of every 2 marriages ends in divorce.  That is not very good odds.  However, in a relationship where the couple were married in a church, the divorce rate is 1 out of 30. [One guy said he was married by the justice of the peace and he’s got neither since — justice or peace.]  In a marriage where a couple attends church and prays together, the divorce rate is 1 out of 1000.  That’s the difference Jesus Christ makes in a marriage!

It’s true that the family that prays together, stays together.

Marriage begins and continues with commitment.  I encourage you to make two simple commitments in your heart.

  1. First commit your life to Jesus Christ. “Jesus Christ, I need Your help in my marriage and life.”  You may be Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Mormon, Moslem, an atheist, an agnostic — it really doesn’t matter what your background is, you need a personal relationship to Christ.  I’m not talking about a religion.  I’m talking about a relationship to the One who made you.  “I need Your help in my marriage and my life.  Jesus Christ, come into my life and help me please.  Save my marriage and my life.”  If you prayed that He’ll hear you and you’ll find a new sense of power that you’ve never known about that will help you make the changes you know you need to make.  Commit your life to Christ.
  2. Commit yourself to your spouse. Would you right now in your heart determine to be united?  Would you say, “I will eliminate the possibility of divorce.  If I’m married now, if I ever marry in the future, I will not marry with the option of divorce.”  Some of you even now with your marriage under tension need to say, “I will do whatever it takes or costs to make it work.”  If you make those kinds of commitments in your life, you are on your way to total intimacy.

Darrell

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3 Things to Let Go of for a Successful Marriage

Posted on January 17, 2018 by dkoop

I want to share you three things from Genesis 2 that we need to let go if we’re going to have the exciting, fulfilling and happy marriage that God always meant for us to have in the first place.

 3 Things We Must Let Go:

  1. We Must Let Go of Parents

“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother.”  We need to leave or let go of our parents.  This is referring to more than geography or moving out of the house.

In Jewish culture during Biblical times, when a couple got married they would usually built a room of the side of the man’s father’s house.  Or build across from a courtyard.  Genesis is referring to leaving psychologically.  Leaving literally means to break your dependence.  It’s to cut the emotional umbilical cord.  Your relationship to your parents changes the moment you’re married. No doubt about it.  God says it.

A brand new baby cannot live if the cord is not cut from the mother.  A marriage cannot make it if you don’t psychologically leave your parents.

We can live next door to your parents and see them everyday and be psychologically independent.  Or they can live 3000 miles away on the other side of the country and be dependent upon them.

When Niki was in Physical Therapy School her last semester and right before we got married she had an affiliation at Brackenridge here in Austin and moved in with her parents.  We they really butted heads.  She was an adult, so she thought and felt her mom and Dad were treating her like a child.  She said when we got married, “Your stuck with me because I’m not moving back in with them!”  I’m so grateful because she didn’t have any place to go when we have had hard times and it forced us to work it out!  It forced us to work on our problems.

What is God saying?  He’s saying that your partner should not have to compete with your parents.  It’s unrealistic.  It puts all kinds of pressure on a marriage and it makes wives feel insecure and it makes husbands feel inadequate.  So let go of parents.

Before couples get married I try to get them talking about these things because we do this without even thinking.  We have expectations based on our own parents that will let us down.

For instance I will say to the husband to be: “So what was a typical Saturday at your house growing up?”  “Well Mom would make Bacon, Eggs and Pancakes then me and dad would sit around all day and watch sports!”  “Cool.”  “Well wife to be, are you going to get up and make a hot breakfast?”  “Heck no!  If he wants a hot breakfast, he can light his corn flakes on fire!”

To the wife to be, “Tell me about Saturday s at your house.”  “Well dad would get up, mow the grass and change the oil in all the vehicles and mom and I would go shopping!”   Husband to be here is mechanically challenged,  he forgets that the car even needs oil.   See the problems?   All based on expectations we learned from parents.

You didn’t marry your Dad.  Thank goodness! You husband is different.  Adam and Eve had an ideal marriage, because they had no in-laws!

Here are two major signs you are too psychologically dependent on your parents:

  1. When your obligations to your extended family take priority over your own marriage.
  2. When your parents can influence you more than your spouse can.

Here’s the second thing to let go of…

  1. Let Go Of Other People in Your Past

 Especially former boyfriends or girlfriends.

I was really stupid about this and didn’t even realize it.  I am a history buff and could watch the History channel all day. I’m also a history person about my family and myself.  I keep letters and cards.  Like an idiot, I had kept love letters from past girlfriends.  Niki said, “if you don’t get rid of that history our relationship will be history!”

Contrary to Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias song, forget “all the girls you’ve loved before!”  Let go of them.  They are gone.  It’s out of the way.  Focus on this relationship. If you don’t let go of other people, you will fall into the trap of comparison.  Old relationships all of a sudden start looking better.  When things start going wrong in your marriage you start thinking, “If only he/she were like…”  “If only I hadn’t broken off that relationship.  Maybe I should have married that person.” We have selective forgetting and we tend to forget the problems in those relationships and why we ended them in the first place.

This is the “Grass is Greener Myth.”  When you’re over here, the grass is seems greener over there.  Frank Freed said, “The grass is greener where you water it!”

Stop comparing and start cultivating. Stop comparing your mate to everybody else — water your own relationship and watch it grow, watch it develop, watch it expand and become all that God wants it to be.

Marriage is an exclusive relationship.  It takes priority over everything else except your relationship to God.  . Other relationships must take second place, even ones in the past.

It’s like the lady who went through four marriages.  First she married a millionaire.  Then she married a film producer.  Then she married a butler.  Then she married a funeral director. Somebody asked her why.  She said, “I married one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready and four to go!”

The third thing to let go of

  1. Let Go Of Problems in your Past

Marriage is going to have enough problems on its own.

Most people are totally unaware of the excess baggage they bring into a relationship when they get married.

There are two kinds of past problems you don’t need to hold onto.  You need to let go of them because you surely don’t need to wreck your relationship on things that happened in the past.

Let go of grudges.  Don’t allow people who’ve hurt you in your past to hurt you today.

God says, “Let go of it!”  “Get rid of all bitterness” Ephesians 4:31

Unresolved anger that we carry into a marriage from the past, we tend to take out on our spouses, whether it’s their fault or not. We have all this anger against a relationship or situation or person or parent that was built up and maybe we don’t express it at the time and so we carry it into our relationship and take it out on an unsuspecting bride or husband.  We emotionally vomit on them.  And they say, “What did I do?”

One little thing can make them so mad.  It wasn’t that one thing but in their mind they’re thinking (and if you’ve ever thought this sentence it means there’s some resentment in your life that you have not cleared up) “You are just like…”  It’s means you’re carrying it into today’s relationship. Let go of that problem or person from the past

Let go of guilt.  Many marriages die from secret guilt.  “If my spouse ever found out I would die!”  So as a result, I build a wall to prevent my mate from knowing me because they might just find out that secret skeleton in the closet.  I never let them get close.

Guilt destroys marriages.  It ruins openness.  It damages trust. It kills intimacy.  It destroys your sex life.  Guilt does all kinds of terrible things.  I meet people all the time who are torturing themselves and their marriage for things that even happened before they were married.  And that’s not fair to your spouse.

There’s only one solution.  Confession and Forgiveness.  We ask forgiveness from God, we accept forgiveness from God and then we offer forgiveness to those who’ve hurt us.

 All of a sudden we feel clean again and can enjoy the relationship.  Don’t let the past manipulate the present.

No good marriages happen without forgiveness.  It’s one of the essentials of a good marriage.  You must constantly be forgiving. Why?  Because we hurt each other.  Sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally. But we still need to forgive.  Forgiveness is the way you let go.

The three things to let go of for a successful marriage:  Let go of your parents.  Let go of other people.  And let go of the problems in your past.

Darrell

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Foundation of a Great Marriage

Posted on January 16, 2018 by dkoop

The problem with marriage is that most marriages start off as an ideal and then they become an ordeal and pretty soon you’re looking for a new deal.

Marriage affects all of us.  Either you are married, were married, thinking about getting married or know someone who is married.  We have all kinds of needs.  God has a specific word for every person.

I heard about a couple, both of them were in their 90’s when they got married for the first time. Instead of throwing rice; people threw vitamin E pellets!

Let me share the foundation of marriage in Genesis Chapter 2:18-25

Adam was put in the Garden of Eden and it was a perfect environment.  He had almost everything that he wanted.  He had a place to live, food, a purpose to live for and a relationship with God. But something was missing.

I read about a neighborhood outside of Chicago.  It was a nice neighborhood, well-kept for a few years.  Before long there were major potholes and the foundations of the homes began caving in.  They called in a team of inspectors and discovered that the entire neighborhood had been built on a garbage dump.  All the homes were built on trash.   With marriage crumbling for many in our society I hope that we can see that God’s plan is good and we have a strong foundation.

The Blue Prints.

 Genesis 2:18 “The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

God looked at Adam and He said, “It is not good…”  That is the first time God had ever said that in his creation.  “….for man to be alone.”  Man’s oldest problem is loneliness.

Is it wrong to be single?  No, the Bible teaches the exact opposite of that.  Singleness is encouraged as a great honor in 1 Corinthians 7:8-9. Paul is single, Jesus is single, Daniel is single.  What He is saying is that God never meant for anybody to be lonely.

Someone joked that the conversation in the garden went like this….. “God I sure am lonely.” Adam says.  God said, “I have the perfect creation called a woman, she will cook and clean for you and never say a cross word.”  “Great!” Adam says.  God said, “But it will cost you an arm and a leg.”… Oh, “What can I get for a rib?”

God made Adam a wife.  First, he let Adam name all the animals. It looks like Eve was an afterthought.  But she wasn’t an afterthought.  What God was doing was helping Adam realize “There is two of everything except me!”   Something is missing!

The Architect of Marriage is God.

 Marriage along with creation was his idea.

Back in the old days of Model T’s a man was broken down on the side of the road, before long behind him pulled a brand new Lincoln.  A well-dressed man got out opened the hood of the model T and made some adjustments and cranked it right up.  The man who was broken down said, How did you do that?!   The man stuck out his hand and said Hi, I’m Henry Ford.  I made this car and I know how it works.

Adam had a need and God met it.

“Then the LORD God made a woman … and he brought her to the man.” Genesis 2:22

“Made” the Hebrew word is “Bana” which means to build.  So Eve was built!  “Wo! Man!” Is what Adam says when he first sees her.

In Marriage there are three ways main ways people obtain a spouse: All of these can lead to long lasting and happy marriages: because is to be built on Commitment not feeling:

  1. Someone else can choose for you. An arranged marriage.
  2. You can choose. Many people feel that they choose wrong or they wonder.  Hang in there you can make it!
  3. You can let God chose. Pray and wait for God’s timing. This is what God did for Adam when he needed it, God brought it.  Several other times in scripture:  Rebecca was brought to Isaac.  Ruth moved to a different town and met Boaz.

The Timetable is God’s.

“So the LORD God caused…”  Genesis 2:21  Notice God caused, God made, God brought.

Everything was on his timetable.  Are you waiting to get married? Just keep praying.  It’s on God’s timetable not yours. Matt. 6:33 “Seek first  a spouse?  No God’s kingdom..”  Marriage is God’s timetable.

 God Provides the Person Suitable for You.

“But for Adam no suitable helper was found. Genesis 2:20

When you do decide to get married you want someone suitable for you.  Not your parents, friends or business associates but suitable for you.

Here’s how Niki and I met.  When I was a Jr. at A&M there were forty thousand students, so at least 20,000 girls and I had no prospects.  I was a little nervous. I had been in the Frat scene and met many Sorority girls, I had been to Christian groups, Campus Crusade, Inter-varsity, BSM.  Dating seemed so fake to me. Finally I said,  “Forget it! I’m tired of washing my car, spending hard earned time and money on dates that don’t work out. It’s in God’s hands.”  So I began praying for my wife and that God would take care of it if he wanted me married.  That was the end of 1989. Five years later 1994, I was in a place of no prospects:  I taught drivers ed. (15 year olds), I was a youth minister(more 15 year olds!) I was in Seminary (no Women there) As O was hanging out with some of my high school buddies, they began teasing me.  Saying, “You’re never going to meet anyone!  You better not at Driver’s Ed or youth ministry! 15 will get you 20!  You need to start going to clubs, or single groups.”  “No, I believe God will take care of this,”  I said.  Sure enough, a few months later on July 4th, 1994, we were having a fourth of July party at church for the youth, I went home to get some matches and there was a college buddy with two girls on my front porch.  He was considering moving in with me.  He was in Med. School and had met two girls from the Health Science Center at a Christian bible study there.  One he liked, and was trying to put some moves on, one was just tagging along.  That was Niki.  So there we met that night and the rest is history.  God literally brought Niki to my doorstep.  I found out later that in 1989 when I began to pray for Niki that was the year that she gave her life to Christ.  God was working in her life and in my life and brought us together at the right time.

If you are single and would rather not be; All throughout the Bible it says that God knows our needs and will meet them to pray to ask.  God will provide; on his timetable with a mate that is perfect for you.

 God’s Design Is For:

  •  Companionship

   “It is not good for man to be alone” vs. 18   Adam God but he also needed human companionship.

  •  Partnership

     “…a helper suitable” vs 18     Do you help your spouse to be all they can be?  Do you compliment them and build them up?  Do you partner together in the trials, tribulations, and challenges of life?

  •  Equality

“from the (side) of the man” vs 22   We get ourselves into trouble when we think that one sex is better than the other.  Both sexes have strenghs and weaknesses. We are to compliment each other.  Rabbi’s have taught that woman was taken from the side of man for a reason:  not from the foot to be trampled under, not from the head to rule over but from the side to be close to his heart, under his arm, side by side.

  •  Security

“be united to his wife” vs 24   This is what makes marriage great!  Security systems are great for cars and houses but more important in a marriage.  The relationship needs to be safe.

  •  Unity

   “they will become one flesh.”  vs 24     Not uniformity, not cloans.  We must be different, but having the same purpose and goals.

  •  Intimacy

     Physical, Emotional, Sexual and Spiritual intimacy

 “The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame” vs 25     Intimacy is to be known and loved.  People try different ways of achieving intimacy: pornography, prostitution, adultery, but they always turn out leaving the person empty and full of guilt.  God’s way in marriage is designed for full intimacy without any shame.

God says in marriage there are some things you need to hold onto and there are some things you need to let go of.  In order to have a marriage that really works there are some things you have to give up and there are some things you have to grab onto.  We will look at these in the next post.

Darrell

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