More What and Why...

Before I give a bit more background on why I am doing this blog, let me address the “what” I am doing with this blog.  This will be more than just me writing what I think (or am pretty sure) that God’s Word has to say about marriage and the many topics related to it.  There may be some posts with links to things I find or have found helpful in my study of what a biblical marriage looks like and I hope to have real life examples of how the model of Christ and His bride are lived out in day to day life by many of you.  As I alluded to in The Beginning post this will hopefully include many issues concerning the preparation of our young people for marriage.  This is usually done in a pre-marital counseling session with a pastor, and while this is entirely good, I think there is a better option.  Fathers, we are called to shepherd our children and the institution of marriage is the one huge thing that has life-long implications or complications, we hope for the first in the lives of the next generation of Christ followers.  Would it not be a great new chapter in the life of the 21^st century American church if all the young couples going to those marriage sessions already knew a great deal about how we can reflect the gospel of Christ in our marriages?  And what if all our existing marriages began to learn more and apply biblical knowledge in real life marriage situations also reflecting the Gospel to those around us?  What a wonderful world that would be, eh?  In fact, I am convinced this would be an excellent thing with immeasurable results.  My plan is to continue to learn from God’s Word and other believers including you and then pass all that knowledge on to anyone.  So what I am doing has a clear direction but is not exactly written in stone, so on to why am I doing this?  First, in light of the great grace of God in and on my own marriage, what can I do but praise Him?  Learning as much as possible, passing what I have learned on to others is what my heart has wanted to do for some time.  Tonia and I are hopeful to be allowed the privilege of helping others, married and not yet married, find the grace that is so completely transforming us.  Second, if for no other result than to prepare our young people for their eventual marriage, this will be a profitable venture for both them and us.  So, I must stress that we hope this is a learning experience for all who care to read or share and we pray that the knowledge gained will become wisdom.  As a new young friend stated earlier this year Wisdom is “properly applied knowledge”, so let’s get wise together!

The Beginning

This is the beginning of a thought I have had for a very long time.  Much can be learned from the beginning.  Looking back to the beginning of a business, friendship, vacation, or most any endeavor, can yield much instruction and knowledge about where you have been, where you are, and where you are going.  The better the thing being examined is, the more we would do well to study its’ origins and apply that knowledge, which by definition is wisdom.  Oh, if only we were all wise…but I digress.  Although I think our culture indicates we are not concerned about this, marriage is no exception; we desperately need to return to the beginning model for our benefit.  In looking to define, transform, build, or completely redeem marriage, we must not pay too little attention to the model that God left us that we would diligently study and learn from it.  Since we now have the further revelation of the mystery that marriage is, we can and most definitely should connect as many dots as possible to the original marriage.  Even if we did not have the revelation of the salvation of mankind pictured in marriage, there is so much more insight, knowledge and possible wisdom gained from carefully examining the original marriage than this generation of the church cares about.  This could be the reason why there are statistics that show the divorce rate among evangelicals to be much higher than the rest of the world.  Of course as Mark Twain told us; “Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable” so I will not dwell on those stats but rather examine the model, the “facts” we should all be true to follow.  If there is an intelligent God (and there is), if He is infinitely superior to us in every way (if He’s not we are in serious trouble), and if nothing takes him by surprise (as if), then His model and plan for marriage is altogether trustworthy.  Our current church culture seems only want to pick and choose the various parts of the first marriage that are easy to mimic.  Only the parts that are most comfortable and don’t make us look like anything less than completely cool and relevant to the culture need apply.  This is unacceptable.  We have the privilege and obligation to speak the gospel to the world surrounding us by being in or working toward the model marriage. What is at stake is the very gospel of Jesus Christ.  Hopefully there are more than one might have thought who are striving to be true to our Father’s model for and of marriage.

Why call this, the Salvation of Marriage?  First, I do not believe that I possess any power to save marriage, not yours not mine, not anyone’s.  However, any follower of Jesus Christ will be able to attest to the failing state of marriage both in the world and in the church.  In the church it is broken without much of a thought for real transformation and redemption and in the world it appears to have reached the status of some old-fashioned tradition that really doesn’t work so well, so why bother?  Even professing believers are adopting the self-idolatry of doing what you have to do to meet the “needs” of your spouse so that in return your spouse can meet your own “needs”.  This is no picture of our Great and Wonderful Savior or His plan of redeeming mankind.  In spite of the mounting difficulties in following God’s Word in, on and for our own marriages, this is our opportunity, we must show a lost and damned world that Christ can and will save in spite of our unworthiness to be saved.  Christ is the goal, pointing as many as possible to Him for salvation.  As believers, our marriages should be pointing in the largest most neon sign kind of way to Him, to the forgiveness that can be obtained by being the bride of Christ.  Because of the gracious redemption of my own marriage and at the encouragement of one friend in particular and with the future marriages of our children in view, I intend here to examine as many aspects as possible of the Salvation of Marriage; how Christ can save marriage and people.  As a new friend reminded me; Iron sharpens iron.  I look forward to any comments and discussions this will bring about.  Please help sharpen me as we look into the great mystery of marriage!

Thanks very much for reading,

Keith