Marriage, The Foundation of the Family.
God decided to make a helper suitable for the man. The suitable woman was a woman taken out of the man. She was a woman in whom the man saw himself. As in chapter one, they were both in the image and likeness of God. Adam fully approved of the woman whom God provided for him. Then we have the foundation of marriage as God perceived it and determined that it should be. "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh."
This is the foundation of the family as God designed it. This is the family which, according to chapter 1: 28, God blesses. This is the family in which the children of the kingdom are to be brought up. This is the family that has dominion in the earth. The family as God designed it is based on marriage.
Marriage is the union by God, of a male and a female who, from God's perspective, are suitable for each other, and whose destiny is ordained by God. Both parties are of God. They are God-given. They are both suitable for each other. God blesses them. He ordains the good of this union. Both parties are in the image and likeness of God. The are to bring forth and bring up the children of the kingdom. They are to have dominion over God's earthly creation and to bring it into subjection; Not over each other.
It is not a male and a female living together. That is not God's design. Both the male and the female are of God. Both of whom are the image and likeness of God. God blesses the union of these two. To these two God Gave power to have dominion in the earth.
To these two God gave the charge to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. That is, these two are to bring up the children of the kingdom. These two were naked and not ashamed. That is, they were clothed in the righteousness of God. These two have the right to be in the garden of God. God is establishing His kingdom in the earth.
Perhaps the most devastating thing to have occurred in the world today, and certainly in the Caribbean is the destruction of the family. There is a widespread and unashamed lawlessness in sexual conduct. Then, increasing numbers of men and women live together, and call themselves man and wife without any legal recognition of their relationship.
Same sex mariages are increasing. Above all, God is left out or thrown out of our relationships, even when we go to the church to receive the blessing of the pastor. Certain organizations have an interest in the destruction of the family as part of their agenda. The destruction of the family is a major part of the destruction of the culture. The media, electronc and otherwise has been playing a major role.
The lack of suitability of many partners in marriage and outside of marriage plays a significant part. We have largely cast out the moral values which made the institutions of sex, marriage, and the famlily strong. In our Social Studies education in the Caribbean we speak of 'Family Patterns.' The ongoing destruction of the family continues to result in a poor quality of personal and social life.
Parenting
Godly Parenting includes far more that bringing forth children. It includes, most of all, bringing up children as children of the kingdom of God. Most children brought forth in the Caribbean are the result of lawless, godless sexuality. Many children are not wanted. Many are unloved. They grow up not knowing what love is. They have never experienced it. This is the root of domestic violence.
Godly parenting begins with children seeing God in their parents, and in the relationship between parents. Children begin learning before they are born. Have you ever noticed how babies keep steering at you? What are they looking at? What do they see? Do they become what they see? Some children want to be like their father or mother. Do they see the image of God in their parents?
That is the beginning of parenting. Children become what they see.
An important factor in parenting is the relationship between parents. What do they see in the relationship between their parents? Do they learn love? They will not be able to verbalize it, but they learn it, and will be able to describe it. Where do boys learn hatred for women? Where does domestic violence begin?
How do parents handle their children? How do they speak to their children? How do they correct their children? All of this goes a long way in shaping the children? Do parents discriminate in dealing with their children? Do they treat some more favorable than others? For instance are parents more fond of their girls than their boys? How do you show love for children?
Here is a survey you might like to do among boys. Ask boys if their father has ever said to them, "I love you." Ask boys, " has your father ever hugged you?" If you get 40% of boy in the Caribbean answering 'Yes' to both questions, that would be highly favourable reflecion on our Caribbean society. How do we expect our men to love, especially to love women, if they have not experienced love themselves?
There is a lot of talk about 'Parenting' these days. It seems to be more talk than anything else. What kind of people are we producing? This is extremely important, because it means 'what kind of nation are we creating.' The family is the womb of the nation. Parenting is about 'bringing up', 'training up' the children of the kingdom as a means of guaranteeing the men and women of the kingdom.
Parenting is about presenting a lifestyle which the children assimmilate, and will manifest. It is about imparting permanent values which will become the foundation of the lives of the people. The family acts as a kind of cell membrane, allowing in those things which are regarded as good and acceptable, and keeping out those things which are unacceptable. This approach is contrary to 'values clarification,' in which there are no permanent values. No permanent values mean no stable society, no stable culture, and no stable personalities.
Parenting is about imparting stable values, and shaping personalities around stable values. In the families of the men and women of the kingdom, parenting is about the shaping of personalities around the values of the kingdom of God, and transmitting those values to succeeding generations.
God, through The Resurrected Church, will Restore the Family as He created it to be, and to fulfil the purpose for which He created it.
Satan's Attack on the Family
There is the kingdom of God. There is also the kingdom of Satan. From the very beginning it has been Satan's plan and purpose to destroy God's purpose. So he attacks the woman, the helper for the man. His aim is to get at the man. Remove the helper and the man must fall. Both of them have disobeyed God and have open themselves up to the devil. Guilt, shame, sin, unrighteousness and all their consequences are brought into the family. From now on the family is a fallen entity that needs to be redeemed.
The First glaring manifestation of this is the murder of Abel by Cain, his brother. Cain became jealous of Abel because his offering to God was unacceptable, and Abel's was. Jealousy to hatred. Hatred is murder, according to the Scripture.
Disbedience of one means obedience of another. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they obeyed Satan instead. They gave Satan power over them. God, their Creator and Sovereign, gave them His law. They had the right to eat of every tree of the garden, except one, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The devil took advantage of Eve's inaccurate knowledge of God's word. God said, "of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat..." Eve said, "of the tree which is in the midst of the garden we must not eat..." There were two trees in the middle of the garden, the tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Which tree was Eve referring to?
Satan tempted Adam and Eve to make themselves like God. They were already in the image and likeness of God, what more was he tempting them to crave after? Was he tempting them to make themselves equal with God? Was he tempting them to elevate themselves to a position similar to God's? It seems he was tempting them to do the same thing that he had done, and for which he was thrown out on heaven. The important thing was to get them to cast aside God's commandment. Disobey God, and they would be like God. They fell for Satan's bait. They disobeyed God, and obeyed the devil instead. They thus gave Satan power over them.
This would become the essence of mankind's relationship with God. Always, mankind disobeys God's word, and obeys the devil's lies instead. Notice the devil's use of half truths and deception. these are still his strategies in our time. It is still Satan's plan to destroy the Family. The most effective plan is same sex relationships, including same sex marriage. It is not only a plan to destroy the family, but to destroy mankind as well. This, of course is disobedience of the most outrageous form. It is impossible to be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth through same sex relationships. Indeed you rid the earth of mankind.
When pastors marry same sex couples, do they ask God to bless that union? How can God bless what is contrary to His plan? In Gen. 1: 31 we read, "And God saw everything that He had made and behold, it was very good." That was at the end of the sixth day, and includes the creation of man and woman. Can He say the same thing about same sex reationships and same sex union? Are they 'Very Good' to Him?
The Resurrected Church and the Restoration of the Family
The Resurrected Church has a major task of Restoring the Family to its original God Design and Purpose. This means that it must first seek true conversation of men and women to Jesus Christ .
It must give them a vision of the purpose and plan of God to establish His kingdom on the earth. The Resurrected Church must give to men and women the revelation of the place of the Family in God's purpose for the Transformation of the Nations.
New Men and women in Christ, must believe that the family is God's creation, for His purpose, and that God created nations from families. What the nations become depends on the kind of families in them. The New Church must not fail to show from the word of God, that from the beginning and at all aspects of the family, It was God at work. Therefore, in the Restoration of the Family after God's Design, It Must Be So. It is God who must restore the family. It must be God working through His Resurrected church, and working in converted men and women, who must restore the family.
Restoration of the Family includes all aspects of Family. It includes restoration of sex and marriage in line with the righteousness of God. It includes readiness on the part of new men and new women to hear from God. They have to discern what God is saying concerning who is suitable for whom, and who is a suitable helper for whom. The apostolic injunction becomes more critical in this age: "do not be unequally yoked to unbelievers." Then, they must be aware of what is God's calling to each one. The matter of marriage and the family thus becomes a matter of frequent prayer, and a deep relatioship with God.
The Family is Central to the Resurrected Church, as it is to the Nation. Indeed, the Resurrected Church transforms the lifestyle of the culture as far as sex and marriage are concerned. These are seen as the creation of a Holy God for His Purpose. More and more people abandon the loose, lawless lifestyle in which they have lived, and bring their lives into conformity with, and bear witness of the will and purpose of God to the world, and the culture around them. The Church becomes a Church of transformed families.
The most critical thing that can happen in the Caribbean through a Resurrected Church is, The Transformation of the Family - a man who is the image and likeness of God, united by God to a woman who is the image and likeness of God, bringing forth and bringing up children in the image and likeness of God. This family becomes a powerful tool in God's hands to transform neighbourhoods, and communities, using all the means available.
This family is the core from which, under God, godly nations spring. It is from such families that the leaders of the nations come. It is from such families that all the workers, of all classes, in all institutions come. It is such families that experience the blessing of God in abundance. It is such families that can exercise dominion in the earth, and bring all things in subjection. They are indwelt by the Holy Trinity. This is where love is.
Contact: Martin C. Roberts
Rose Hill, Marigot, Commonwealth of Dominica, W.I.
Tel. 1-767-613-2201
Email: sendlight@hotmail.com
Copyright@Martin Roberts, Transformation of the Nations
No comments:
Post a Comment