"Marriage"

God is love (I John 4:7-8). To know God is to know love. To not know God is to not love. That should open our eyes to our lives. Presently I am dealing with 3 marriages that both mates are in Christ Jesus and all three marriages are in trouble. If there is not some serious listening to the Lord, they are doomed to fail. Two of the three are not even aware of what is coming. Over the last 30 years, there is a pattern when people get themselves entangled in sin and its power and you can call the outcome because it happens just like the Lord said it would.

Jesus often cried out, "If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!" You can hear the frustration in Him when He was teaching, how little people were really taking to heart. I am nothing remotely close to Jesus and His preaching/teaching and I know the frustration. You speak for the Lord God, giving His word week after week and it falls on deaf ears. People, who sit and taking God's name in their mouth in songs and praise, who pray and fellowship in the Supper yet they end up 'unloving'! The word of the Lord means so little they follow their own thinking, their own emotions and desires and end up with marital problems. Sin in powerful! Sin is deceptive! The devil wants to destroy those who have put on Christ. He could care less about those outside. They already belong to him. He wants God's own children and the sad truth is how many play into his trap.

"Love never fails!" (I Cor. 13:8) Right there. God is love and those who know God love. God's love never fails. Why do marriages get ripped apart? Just put it together! Often I hear of couples speak of not having feelings anymore for a mate. That reveals how little they understand about love. They pour their emotions into a marriage (which is right to do) but somewhere they are hurt over and over and the emotion gets drained. What is revealed is how little they have poured their soul into the love of God. His love is not an emotion! It's a choice, a sacrifice! That choice, that sacrifice will never fail because God never fails! Love is faith responding! Faithless people will not choose to love. Week after week of hearing the word of God preached/taught leads them to nowhere. They simply take nothing to heart but just drift along until one day, the act on the ungodliness they have been practicing. Yes, it's ungodliness that keeps people from grasping the truth and holding it in their heart.

People become so trapped in sin they cannot see any way out. That's why the Lord tells us to stay away from sin and sinful attitudes. Sin will take you captive. It will reign over your being and drive you to do things contrary to God's will. In one of the marriages, both husband and wife think they are well off with the Lord and their relationship with Him is solid but their marriage is being torn to shreds. Something doesn't add up and we can easily figure what is missing. Love you say? No.....GOD!