Definition of Marriage

The Definition of Marriage

The PERMANENT God-ordained merging of the lives of a man and woman together, when consummating a sexual act that is, in it's essence, capable of reproducing another human being between them. In many (but not all) present day cultures usually preceded by a religious and/or legal ceremony.

A reality that precedes all religious and governmental influences

A deep rooted concept that has existed for thousands of years and in thousands of cultures and people groups. Even the most "primitive" ones. It is ingrained and built into the very fabric of humanity. All of the 7 billion people alive today on the earth have resulted from either the practice of marriage or the abuse of it's concepts. There are absolutely no exceptions to that fact. An incredible cloud of witnesses.

An Unchangeable Responsibility...

The same principles that govern the concept of "Marriage" (as defined above) also govern the universe, it's function and it's creation. If we could grasp that reality we would be able to see it's simplicity, beauty and importance in the scheme of things in ways we could never imagine. And we would never, ever try to redefine it as something contrary to the universe itself. (Much less the creator of it all) 

I guess what I need to say here considering the current confusion being passed for wisdom in some countries is that "marriage" in it's ESSENCE, in it's FOUNDATIONS for 1000's of years has ONE consistent factor embedded in it's foundation. That factor is NEVER going to change. That factor (already stated in the "definition" above) has not been embedded or created by societal norms or political law or religious tradition. It isn't a matter of anybody's "opinion". It just IS. 

Can society make water dry? Can government legislate the direction that the earth turns? Can religion, no matter how true change the orbit around the sun or remove the stars from the sky? 

There is a lot of emotional debate about "same gender" marriages lately:
 
If physical marriage as defined above were totally eliminated the human race would cease to exist in a short order. If same gender relationships were totally eliminated, the human race would continue without a single blip in its continuity. No society, government, religion can change that. Nor can someone make the two equal. They are diametrically opposed. 

EQUAL?
 

The TRUTH vs Opinion

Saw the below sentence written on someone's facebook page:

"He leads me beside still water which is not contaminated with opinions."

That kind of caught my eye  so I was thinking about this and the expression came to me to explain why opinions can be contaminating.

"Opinions by their very nature are an admission of the inadequacy of the level of Truth in the statement."

The world we live in is FULL of conflicting opinions because we are not searching for the Truth. We don't really want to know the Truth because then we would have to give up our opinions.

Is it possible to state an absolute truth? Sure it is and we do it all the time. If I see an apple tree (especially one that is presently bearing fruit) I can say with all certainty that is an apple tree. That is the truth. It is NOT my opinion. There is no need for an opinion because the truth is self-evident.

Here's a couple TRUTHS...

Eternity: No matter how far back in time we were to go or how far into the future we would travel we would never reach the "beginning" or the "end"...

Infinity: If we were to be able to travel to the very ends of the universe there would be something after that. If we were to travel to the ends of that, there would be even more after that endlessly.

Our temporal finite minds cannot even begin to comprehend those things yet we insist upon trying to instruct with our "opinions", a Being who fully comprehends the depth of those things. A Being who not only understands the Truth. He IS the Truth...

Jesus said something very provocative to the Jewish religious leaders of his day.

"Before Abraham was, I AM."

Now before we go offering any more opinions perhaps we all ought to chew on that for a while.

The Greatest Works

"God chose the weak things of this earth to confound the wise"

It is absolutely true that the greatest works of God that manifested on earth were precipitated by someone hearing the voice of God an obeying Him, more often than not in the most simple, seemingly insignificant act of faith that opened the floodgates of Heaven to pour out God's Spirit on man.

It's not the great buildings and organizations, well choreographed "services", the best worship bands, worldly marketing techniques or even great speakers, that bring down the power of God. The power of God that reaches out to and ministers to people, that changes the outcome of the lives of people and nations.

It's the simple acts of faith in response to God's speaking into someone's heart that further the Kingdom of God. And the beauty of that is it leaves the door open for any believer in even the most simplest or weakest circumstance to be used by God.

None Would Even Exist

Sitting on the deck last night with my 12-year-old grandson in one of those precious moments in life. He thinks differently than most kids his age and sometimes comes up with the most incredible perceptions. Sometimes I think people don't really appreciate the fact that he's becoming a pretty amazing "young man" or the rare giftings that he has. Well, we are talking and somehow the conversation turns to God and in one of the rare moments in my life I find myself telling him a story I have managed to tell only a few people in my entire lifetime:

When I was a young man (23?) God saved me from drowning when my car went into a ditch, flipped upside down and sank with me in it. The car was wedged between the 2 sides of the ditch and I couldn't get out.

So I'm telling him this story and he's asking questions like he does so I tell him that when I started to pass out I suddenly knew "I was going to die" and as I started to "go," for the first time in my life I began to be aware of God (really aware) and His presence. Everything I'd ever done, every thought and every motivation, as revealed by God began to be played out. And the horror of it was that I was found guilty before God. (Who I was convinced up until then didn't even exist.) It was utterly terrifying.

Then suddenly, there was this rush of indescribable power as I was "pulled" out of that car. Pulled through a space no bigger than my arm. I had a new breath of air in my lungs and I was alive and outside of the car as I burst through the surface of the water.

My two friends who were with me, who got out before the car sank, were a ways off sitting on a rock with their backs to the car. I had been down there too long.

So my grandson says to me, "So God saved you from death." and I answered him, "yep!" So then he said, realizing that I have 5 kids and 4 grandkids, him being one of them,

"Wow! If God hadn't saved you from death, then none of us would even exist!"

The thought rather startled me so all I could say was, "yep." Then we both sat there on the deck for a while soaking in that thought.

I honestly had never thought about that...

The Mercy and Foreknowledge of God.