God Wants Strong Marriages And Families

And did not God make you and your wife one flesh? Did not One make you and preserve your spirit alive? And why did God make you two one? Because He sought a godly offspring from your union. Therefore take heed to yourselves, and let no one deal treacherously and be faithless to the wife of his youth (Malachi 2:15 -Amplified).

 

The will of God is that once you’re married, stay married for life. That is always God’s best. Yes, there are innocent victims of divorce. When a spouse chooses to sin and leaves his or her marriage partner for another, that leaves an innocent person behind. The Father understands the hurt and pain that brings. But if you’re married, work on the relationship! Don’t allow the enemy to pit you against one another!

Children suffer the most when a marriage dissolves. A culture is weakened when a marriage ends. So we must be diligent to keep our marriages strong and we must be willing to weather the storms that life brings our relationship.

 

If you’re married and you’re reading this, let me encourage you to renew your commitment to your spouse before God. The enemy is bringing an all out assault on the family today. Be aware of his desire to pull at your family and hinder your marriage.

 

Marriage is a relationship that can create great personal growth! You’re married to a person with habits, responses, thoughts, opinions, and ideas that may be quite unlike your own! As believers, we are called to walk in love, and that means accepting others at face value. It means treating your neighbor the way you want to be treated. This starts in marriage!

 

We’re called to live an unselfish life. God’s goal for us is not that everything pleases us and that everything goes just the way we want it to go! His goal for us is that we mature in Christ and learn to get along with others even when they don’t please us! He wants us to learn to smile when we don’t get our way!

 

Guard your marriage today by praying for your mate. Ask the Father to make you the spouse that your partner needs! Make a choice before God to do something every day to strengthen your marriage! Take time to communicate your heart.

 

If you’re divorced, don’t allow the enemy to condemn you. Walk in the mercy and forgiveness of the Father. Allow the Father to heal the hurts and wounds. Forgive and release the weight of anger and resentment. Expect the Father to guide you into His best for you right now.

We are watching the breakdown of our culture today. The assault on marriage is affecting our children! The family is being pulled by social pressure to fragment. Pray for those around you. Ask the Father to strengthen marriage. Call couples by name and hold them before the Father.

 

Guard your life and your family. Walk closely with the Lord. Watch what you allow in your eyes and ears! Refuse the social pressure to live selfishly. Be a lover. Be a giver. Be a problem solver. Be a person of integrity. Resist the pulls of the flesh and the world. Commit yourself to the Father every day to be a person that will make the world a better place to live. And let that commitment begin in your home!

The Virgin Birth Brings All Of Creation Back To Its Original Position!

For God has allowed us to know the secret of His plan and it is this, He purposed long ago in His sovereign will that all human history should be consummated in Christ, that everything that exists in heaven and earth should find its perfection and fulfillment in Him (Ephesians 1:9-10-J. B. Phillips).

The Virgin Birth was God’s way of bringing all of creation back to its original position before Adam’s sin. Jesus is called the last Adam. He came to blaze a new trail for humanity. He came to destroy Satan’s works and to restore to humanity all that was lost in Adam’s disobedience.

The first thing Jesus did was to restore our fellowship with God. Through the New Birth we now have boldness to approach the throne of God just as Adam did before he sinned!

 

The second thing Jesus did for us was to break Satan’s dominion over our lives. Jesus defeated Satan in his own territory. He showed the spoils of His victory over the dark kingdom in the spirit world before He was resurrected (Colossians 2:15). His all authority in heaven and in earth has been given to the church. Now you and I have the same power over Satan and demonic forces that Jesus exercised.

The third thing Jesus did for us was to guarantee us a new body at the rapture of the church. God never intended that the human ever die and vacate his body. Before the fall, God’s plan was that we live in these bodies of ours for eternity. The death that sin brought is not the plan of God. Jesus conquered death and brought life and immortality back from the grave for us! At the rapture, each believer will receive a glorified body that he or she will inhabit for eternity. This body will fit us for life both in heaven and in the new earth. It will last for eternity. Read 1 Corinthians 15 for the details.

The fourth thing that Jesus did for us was to make the way for the curse that was placed on the earth when Adam sinned to be removed. This is when God through Christ rids the earth of all rebellion, judges His enemies, and returns the earth to its pristine pre-fall state.

Here’s how it happens. Jesus returns to earth with the redeemed church and sets up a one thousand year reign here (Revelation 19, 20). He rules until all of His enemies are subdued (1 Corinthians 15:24-25). Then He judges Satan and his forces and casts them into the Lake of Fire, their eternal abode (Revelation 20: 10). Then God judges all of the unbelievers of all ages, and they experience the second death. They are likewise cast into the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20: 11-15). They receive the same judgment as their spiritual head, Satan.

Then God autoclaves the earth. He renovates it with fire (see 2 Peter 3). This cleansed earth is called the New Earth (see Revelation 21)! A city called the New Jerusalem comes down from heaven and is suspended between the present heaven and earth. It’s a cube 1500 miles high, wide, and deep. There the saints of God will conduct the business of heaven and earth with the Father for eternity.

The curse is completely removed form the earth (Revelation 22)! And we get to live here in glorified bodies for eternity! We will be able to travel back and forth between heaven, earth, and the New Jerusalem! We will reign with Him for eternity. It will be even better than life would have been if Adam had never sinned.

 

That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:7). But as it is written: Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God (1 Corinthians 2:9-10). O the wonder of the grace of God!

 

Thank God For The Virgin Birth!

For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).

The implications of the virgin birth are far reaching. First, Jesus Christ existed from eternity past as the second member of the Trinity. Before Abraham was, I am (John 8:58). He had all the attributes of Deity prior to His birth in the manger because He was God; all-power (omnipotence), all-knowing (omniscient), everywhere at all times (omnipresence), righteousness, justice, love, etc. He is co-eternal and co-equal with God. Jesus said if you’ve seen Me you’ve seen the Father (John 14:9)!

 

When the Son of God was born, He laid aside His Divine powers, and lived the way we must live, by the power of the Holy Spirit (see Philippians 2: 5-11). He did not rely on His God powers to do anything as a man. He showed us that it is possible to live above the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil!

Jesus was born with total authority over Satan and his demons. Because He was born with God as His Father, He was not subject to Satan’s rule. He was born as Satan’s master! Also, Jesus was not subject physical death when He was born. He was not mortal (death doomed). Physical death is a result of sin. Because Jesus was not born as a sinner, He was not subject to death. He died only when He became our sin and allowed death to seize Him.

 

So here’s the picture. Jesus was born as a full human being that was also Deity. He was the God Man! He was just like Adam before He sinned. Satan tried to have Jesus killed as a child because he knew that Jesus was his master. As Jesus grew up, He came to realize who He was. Jewish boys had to memorize the first five Old Testament books by age twelve. As Jesus read, He came to know who He was! He came to see His mission in life.

 

At age thirty, the power of the Holy Spirit came upon Him, and in that power He ministered for three and a half years. He healed sickness and disease through the gifts of healings; He multiplied food through the working of miracles; He calmed the storm through the gift of faith; He knew what was in man by the word of knowledge; He knew what would happen in the future by the word of wisdom; He saw demonic forces and took authority over them through the discerning of spirits.

 

He developed His prayer life the way we must, through perseverance and diligence. He put His flesh under by fasting. He exercised His faith the way the Father expects us to exercise faith.

 

When Jesus allowed Himself to die, He brought many sons unto glory! What He possessed became ours. He took our sins to give us His righteousness. He took our sickness to give us His health. He took our poverty to give us His prosperity. He defeated Satan to give us His authority. He is seated at the right hand of the Father to give us the same standing in heaven as He! We’re seated with Him in heavenly places in Christ. What He was, we are! As He is, so are we in this world!

 

The works He did, we are to perform (John 14:12). We are the branches, He is the vine. His life flows through us today. He took the sting out of death for us. We are those that live unafraid of anything! We are more than conquerors! Nothing can separate us from His love! No foe can defeat us. We are kings and priests unto God because of Him. We can do all things through Him who strengthens us! Our past is forgotten, our present is blessed, and our future is bright! And in eternity we will rule and reign with Him! Thank God for the virgin birth!

The Virgin Birth Gave Us Back Our Relationship With The Father!

Then Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I do not know a man?" And the angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:34-35).

After Adam and Eve sinned, God had to find a way to bring man back to Himself. He couldn’t just forgive his sin. That would violate God’s morality and would be unjust. All sin must be judged. Psalm 89:14 says that justice and judgment are the foundation of the throne of God.

God must be fair to Himself, to man, and to Satan His enemy. After Adam’s sin, God could not make another man from the dust of the ground and use him to redeem the human race. The dust of the ground was tainted by sin after the fall. Satan legally obtained the temporary control over the earth that God gave Adam. And besides that, if God could have created a human from the dirt the way he did Adam, that human would not be blood related to Adam and Eve.

So here’s God’s problem. Adam, a man, sinned. Now a man must pay the legal price for the mistakes of Adam and Eve. It’s not an issue of whether God loves man or not. Of course He does. But because God is just and fair, all sin must be judged. He has to judge sin to be fair to Satan and fair to His own moral law.

Satan knew this. Satan was kicked out of heaven because iniquity was found in Him. There is no redemption available for Satan. He was a perfect spirit being created by God and he sinned. The payment for his sin is eternity in the lake of fire. Satan is an eternal spirit rebel. If he was allowed to freely travel in the universe he would corrupt it. So his eternal judgment is being confined to the lake of fire.

 

Adam’s judgment for sin had to equal Satan’s judgment for sin for God to be fair. So Adam’s sin penalty is likewise hell, the final judgment, and then being cast into the lake of fire.

Because Jesus was God incarnate, the problem of God finding a suitable sacrifice for sin has been solved! This is the wisdom of God in our redemption! Jesus, born of a virgin, was not tainted with sin. His flesh was sinless, yet He was a man. Satan had no legal control over Jesus. Jesus was a pure Man. He is a spotless Man. Jesus was born in fellowship with God and out from under Satan’s control and out from under the curse. Jesus had the same relationship with God that Adam had before He sinned.

 

Because of all of this, Jesus could legally bear man’s sin penalty. So Jesus lived a perfect life. He faced successfully every temptation that man faces without sinning. Then, Jesus was somehow made to be man’s sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). Then, Jesus experienced physical death. When He died, He went to hell. He stayed there until God was satisfied that man’s sin penalty was legally and completely paid. Then God raised Him from the dead and set Jesus at His right had as man’s eternal lawyer.

The penalty for mankind’s sin has been eternally paid by the innocent Son of God. Satan’s mouth of condemnation toward man has been stripped of power. The Father has proved His loved for us based on His absolute justice. The Virgin Birth gave us back our relationship with the Father!

Why Is The Virgin Birth Important To You And Me?

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14).

 

December is the month the world celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. Without the virgin birth, we would be doomed to spend eternity in the lake of fire. The very foundation of our redemption from sin and its catastrophic effects on all of creation is in the virgin birth.

 

The reason for the virgin birth is something we all need to understand. When Adam and Eve sinned, the entire human race was immediately severed from fellowship with God. Satan, God’s arch-enemy, became the temporary god of this world.

 

The “lease” that God gave Adam over the earth to take care of it and “keep” it was transferred to Satan (see Luke 4:5). He became the “prince of the power of the air,” and set up a system of control over this planet and over humanity. Satan was kicked out of heaven because of a desire to control God. When Adam sinned, Satan took advantage of his failure and fulfilled his desire to control by dominating this planet.

 

Satan may have thought that he had finally done something here that God was helpless to change. He may have thought that his control over the earth and over humanity was beyond God’s ability to reverse, but Satan underestimated the love of God for the human race.

The only way for us to be redeemed was through a virgin birth. You see, a man got us into sin, and a man must pay our sin penalty for us. Satan knew that God was just, and that sin’s penalty must be paid. And he knew that humanity was now a fallen race, and that every human born of two human parents would be born under his control. From Satan’s viewpoint, our redemption was not possible.

But Satan did not understand the deep love that God has for human beings. His corrupted wisdom never considered the price that God was willing to pay to remove sin and the curse from man. The virgin birth was God’s answer for man’s sin from His heart of love.

 

God’s wisdom before the creation of Adam and Eve was that if they failed the test of Eden and sinned, God would incarnate Himself in the body of a human, and pay man’s sin penalty for him.

No person born of two human parents could pay man’s sin penalty because that person would likewise be a fallen, sin bound, Satan dominated being. But the virgin birth meant that Jesus was not born according to the laws of natural generation. He was a human because Mary His mother clothed Him with sinless flesh. The sperm that fertilized the ovum in Mary’s womb came from God Himself! That made Jesus Christ the God-man! He was 100% God and 100% man. That meant that Jesus was born as the first sinless human since the creation of Adam before the fall; the last Adam as He is called in 1 Corinthians.

 

And since Jesus was born sinless and free from Satan’s rule, He could legitimately pay the sin debt of mankind! Without the virgin birth, this would not be possible!

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).

We Should Follow Jesus' Example of Humility!

Let this same attitude and purpose and [humble] mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus: [Let Him be your example in humility:] (6) Who, although being essentially one with God and in the form of God [possessing the fullness of the attributes which make God God], did not think this equality with God was a thing to be eagerly grasped or retained, (7) But stripped Himself [of all privileges and rightful dignity], so as to assume the guise of a servant (slave), in that He became like men and was born a human being (Philippians 2:5-7 Amplified).

Bible Scholars call this passage the “kenosis” of Christ. The Greek Word Kenoo is used here to describe Jesus emptying Himself of the power of His office as the second member of the Trinity. Jesus didn’t empty Himself of His Deity, but separated Himself from His Divine power. He chose to live as we do, by the power of the Holy Spirit and in dependence upon the Word of God. That’s the reason He said in John 14:12 (NLT): I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in Me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father.

Self assertion, self-exaltation, self-energy, self promotion, and self consciousness are byproducts of Adam and Eve’s disobedience to God and have become inherent in human life. Although through the new birth old things pass away and all things become new (2 Corinthians 5:17), the residue of self-centered thinking and living remains a strong force in the life of a believer.

To put it simply, my biggest problem after salvation is self-centered, independent of the Father living. My biggest task is getting me out of the way and letting God have His total way in my life!

Jesus gave us an example of how to put down the tendency towards self-exaltation. He came as a servant, humbled Himself and chose the low road in life. He did this to show us that we can live a life of total submission of the flesh to the will of the Father. We can have the attitude of a servant. We can put ourselves last and put God’s will and other’s needs first.

Jesus provided redemption from sin for you and me, and an example of how to live a humble, God-submitted life in a fallen, self-aggrandizing world.

Make a decision today to humble yourself. Life is no longer about me, it’s about doing the will of the Father, and pleasing Him in all things. Our goals today should include putting ourselves last, and putting others first. Let this same attitude and purpose and humble mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus: Let Him be your example in humility.

The Holy Spirit Is Your Life Partner!

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all (2 Corinthians 13:14).

Paul encouraged the believers to experience God’s grace, to walk in love, and to walk in harmony with the Holy Spirit. The word communion in this verse is the word koinonia and, according to Kenneth Wuest Studies in the Greek New Testament,  koinonia means a joint participation, a belonging in common to, a partnership, an association, an intercourse, a sharing, a relationship between two individuals which involves a common interest, and a mutual active participation in that interest, and in each other.

The Holy Spirit wants to be our partner in life. He dwells in us and has an ambition to make Jesus real to us so that we can grow to be like Him! The Holy Spirit also has a strong ambition to use us to bless others.

For us to experience this communion, this koinonia with the Holy Spirit, we must be on the same page in our lives that He is! We must ask ourselves; do I have a major ambition in life to be like Jesus? Do I want to change? Am I pursuing the goal of changing things in me that are unlike Jesus? Am I asking the Lord to make me a blessing to others? Am I open each day to be a conduit for God’s love? Am I actively seeking to hear the Holy Spirit and be used by Him to minister to those around me?

To be a partner with the Holy Spirit, you must fall in love with the Word of God! He is the Spirit of Truth. The more you involve yourself with the Word by reading and meditation, the more the Holy Spirit will witness to your own spirit. If you’ll decide and purpose to be a doer of the Word, to put the Word of God into practice, then the Holy Spirit will begin to show you many things about your life and will begin to manifest in you the nature of the Son of God.

Once you choose to follow this path in life, joy that you have never known will engulf you. But for this to happen, you must give yourself away to your partner, the Holy Spirit.

I want to leave you today with a quote from Kenneth Wuest’s Word Studies in the Greek New Testament, volume III. Here he quotes a man by the name of G.D. Watson who obviously came to know the Holy Spirit very well:

The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch over you with a jealous love, and will rebuke you for little words and feelings, or for wasting your time, which other Christians never seem distressed over. So make up your mind that God is an infinite Sovereign, and has a right to do as He pleases with His own. He may not explain to you a thousand things which puzzle your reason in His dealings with you, but if you absolutely sell yourself to be His love slave, He will wrap you up in a jealous love, and bestow upon you many blessings which come only to those who are in the inner circle. Settle it forever, then, that you are to deal directly with the Holy Spirit, and that He is to have the privilege of tying your tongue, or chaining your hand, or closing your eyes, in ways that He does not seem to use with others. Now when you are so possessed with the living God that you are, in your secret heart, pleased and delighted over this peculiar, personal, private, jealous guardianship and management of the Holy Spirit over your life, you will have found the vestibule of heaven.

(from Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament, Copyright 1940-55 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Copyrights © renewed 1968-73 by Jeannette I. Wuest. All rights reserved.)