GOLDEN WORDS
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
(1 Corinthians 15:55)
Death is the supreme festival on the road to freedom.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Daily Meditations by Pat Nordman ©
MAY 1
"You were united to your wife by the Lord. In God's wise plan, when you were
married, the two of you became one person in his sight. And what does he want? Godly
children from your union. Therefore guard your passions! Keep faith with the wife of your
youth."
Malachi 2:15 TLB; "Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are
holy." 1 Corinthians 7:14.
So here we have the main reason for staying together: Godly children! God is insulted and
society is threatened and betrayed when two people cannot put aside their differences and
kneel before God and become a trinity. This seems harsh to us who would prefer our own
way, but it is a reality that God's will is for couples to stay one. And when a child is
born of our union, we now have posterity to consider. This grand issue now belongs to God,
to us and to society. This tiny and precious human being becomes an eternal link to past,
present and future.
Jane Sawyer, in her booklet WHY STAY MARRIED, gives us ten commandments for keeping our
union intact:
1.List your spouse's good points only.
2.List your own negative contributions to the marriage.
3.Read God's word together, if at all possible. If your spouse will not join you in daily
devotionals, then read and pray privately. Daily reading: 1 Corinthians 13:47.
4.Use your creative imagination to see yourself as loving your spouse. The moment a bad
thought or image enters, pray to the Holy Spirit. And stay busy!
In tomorrow's meditation, we will continue these commandments for a holy and happy
marriage.
Pat Nordman ©
Excerpts from today's Spurgeon's Devotions |
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"His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers." - Song of Solomon 5:13
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"I am the rose of Sharon." - Song of Solomon 2:1 |
Lo, the flowery month is come! March winds and April showers have done their work, and the earth is all bedecked with beauty. Come my soul, put on thine holiday attire and go forth to gather garlands of heavenly thoughts. |
Whatever there may be of beauty in the material world, Jesus Christ possesses all that in the spiritual world in a tenfold degree. Amongst flowers the rose is deemed the sweetest, but Jesus is infinitely more beautiful in the garden of the soul than the rose can in the gardens of earth. |
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Today's Bible Question ?
What was the name of the first judge of Israel?
Previous question and Answer:
Which wife of David's was unable to bear children because she despised his dancing before the Lord?
Michal (2 Samuel 6:23)
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Getting Exercised by Cathy Vinson
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Recently I had the experience of observing my husband on a weight machine. It exercised him! In the midst of grimaces and contortions, I asked if he wasn't being dramatic on account of me. "No,"...and I could see the amount of weights the pin was under. He had made the choice, but the machine was exercising him. It wasn't a smooth process. He disliked it immensely. Why? Because it was unpleasant. Then why do it? For the result of being "exercised thereby." "to those...having been exercised"...disciplined. I presently see a discipline of God upon me and realize I am trying to get around it rather than "through it." Being preoccupied, busy are ways to try to squirm out from under and make it a weightless machine: one without friction, contradiction, effort, opposition, unpleasantness. "All discipline seems (doxa-to be of the opinion of, reputed) to be unpleasant (lupe-grievous, pain to the mind or body, heaviness) at the time" (12:11). As a weightless machine produces no pain, there is no gain, no "getting exercised." "If you ENDURE discipline, God deals with you as with sons..." (12:7). This dealing by our Father means He is (pros) towards us + (phero) to bring or bear. He bears or brings tailor-made discipline to us His dearly beloved sons and daughters. He bears Himself to us through His disciplines. Dare we squirm out? He intends it. "For whom the Lord loves He disciplines..." (vs 6). Intentional. Going "through" rather than around it, the exercise and pain of it endured upon our tired muscles, promises to profit and to become useful and deliver or give back peaceable fruit (vss 10,11). A friend exhorted to "invest such discipline well." Again, do we really want to bear the loss of squirming out? © Send a note to Cathy Vinson
, the writer of this devotion. |
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