This is my first attempt to write a blog using my Galaxy Tablet. Thankfully I have the keyboard dock to allow me to type as I would on a regular laptop. I'm feeling a little bit better about Sunday's lesson the further I get away from Sunday. Which I'm not sure is a good sign or not.
I've never been concerned with who is, or how many are reading the blog, because it was mainly intended to provide support to those of us who are away from the men's group for whatever reason. What does concern me is a failure to teach the heart and will of God.
As I began thinking about what to say for this mid-week blog, my mind went back to the discussion in our last meeting, of whether our wives are our property. I enjoyed it because it was a primal discussion of something we all think, but are afraid to actually say. Actually the Apostle Paul said it for us in his discussion of marital responsibility to one another. He states in 1st Corinthians 7:3-6, that our bodies are not our own, but belong to our spouses. It is a reciprocal ownership. She owns you as much as you own her. This unique and powerful view of oneness is a spiritual truth that men alone are incapable of contriving. This is a Holy Spirit truth. Our belonging to another is God's plan, not ours. Those who deny ownership will find themselves fighting against the Holy One himself. The marriage covenant is a powerful union beyond paper and beyond legal contract, which is not broken or ended upon the receipt of another piece of paper saying it's over.
I think I like Jesus reply to the teachers of the law when they challenged him on the issue of divorce. Of course they were looking for some way to trip him up, but in seeking to do that, they opened themselves up for being trapped themselves. His simple reply took them past the wickedness in their hearts and directly to the issue of sin. OOOOPS, did I use the "S" word. Jesus went past the law to the attitude we should have toward each other. If we accept as true, that God gives us our wives, there has to be another fact that should be equally as 'true.' She is given to us by the one who knows all and sees all. This knowledge alone should make us all the more assured of her unique 'fit' to God's purposes and intent for our lives. Can we choose a wife that is not God's fit for our life? I am sure we can. If we are rebellious, careless, or even casual in taking a bride, I believe we can find ourselves unequally yoked. Is that a reason for divorce? That is best answered by our Lord and Master. He said: "in the beginning it was not so."
It isn't the fact that he only made one woman for Adam. It was the fact that he made her of Adam's flesh. She wasn't formed of the earth as Adam was, but formed to be joined to him. This joining is described by the Apostle Paul as the 'making of one flesh.' Paul's view of this is even more profound when he asks: 'and which man would hurt his own flesh?' It is here that we realize ownership in this instance is more than the exchange of money for the right of possession. Ownership in this instance is the same as saying: "This is my arm. This is my foot, this is my body." If we truly accept this premise as being God inspired, it makes our own complaints about our wives a joke. We fall back on Adam's feeble attempt to cast the blame for his own evil actions upon the "woman you gave me." Adam's accusation wasn't against the woman as much as it was with God. "It was the woman YOU gave me." I can hear this complaint echoing through the ages as man after man becomes dissatisfied with the gift he was given. You didn't make me right. That she was flesh of his flesh, and that we are flesh of one another's flesh, makes our complaints empty and hollow. AND,,,Women are not exempt from this. There is reciprocal ownership. In today's modern feminist movement, the idea of a man being an extension of a woman's spirit, soul, and body is looked upon as ancient and archaic. In doing so, they break down the very reason for God's purpose in creating her in the first place.
So, what does this have to do with time?
Everything!
If you strip away the veneer of our lives, remove the facades, and masks, you will find that time is the only thing we have to offer one another that is of any value. IN THIS INSTANCE; it goes both ways. My question is: can a marriage survive a time evaluation? Can any marriage withstand the check register accounting of time with the initial balance being the courtship process? Erotic love and familial love are not valid measurements against the more enduring love formed in the furnace of time and trial. The fairy tale courtship before marriage should never be the measure of how much you make each other happy. The weight of child rearing, finances, and the pressure of everyday life make a mockery of 'happily ever after. If you are measuring the amount of time you spend together after one year of marriage with what you spent together during the courtship, you will always come up short. 'Happily ever after,' doesn't account for the 'sorrow and loss in between.'
However, there is hope. We can redeem the time we have left. We can make it better. We can restore the ownership of love.
That will be next weeks lesson.
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