John2vs11
This beginning of miracles did Jesus in the Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed on Him.
Marriage has always been a mystery to man on this side of eternity. Try as we can to figure it out, understand it we always fall short and the best we can do is explain it away by our cultures and customs., and that falls short of the standard and elevation that God had placed marriage. The mystery began at the garden of creation, God did not seek permission from Adam to bring him a wife, God knew what Adam needed and He provided,---------a helper, a friend, a constant companion, lover, co-laborer, partner in dominion and authority. Adam may not have understood every thing about marriage, but he knew one thing for sure she was gift from God, and so he appreciated the one who gave him such wonderful gift. 'This is now bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh she shall be called woman because she was taken out of him.
The wisest man that ever lived Solomon, the great scholar also caught the mystery bug, as he could not dissect it in all his learning and in the making of many books: in Proverbs he said there are 6 things difficult for a man to comprehend, yea seven that confounds the man ' the way of a man with his maiden '. He went to state, houses and wealth a man can leave for his son, but a godly wife or virtuous wife is from The Lord . Through out the Old Testament God's people made terrible mistakes about marriage, because they did not fully understand the magnitude of the relationship they are in.
When the son of God came, He took His time and explained this heavenly covenant relationship between the man and his wife under God. Marriage has nothing to do with our human cultures, it's origin is divine, and it's purpose is also Divine. Marriage without controversy is a God thing. Particularly in the church We should humble ourselves and admit and confess that we do not understand it and seek His help, instead of just bringing it down to the level of our ignorance. Jesus took us back to the beginning to deliver marriage from the destruction by the culture. 'It was not so in the beginning, He made them man and woman and for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife.
The apostle Paul was a little bit baffled himself about it, and in Ephesians 5, declared it's a great mystery, he even went further to compare marriage between the man and his wife to the relationship between Christ and His church.
In the 21st century however anything we can not understand, we make light of it or we seek to destroy it. It can not be overemphasized that marriage is very dear to God's heart. For in marriage He sees our relationship with Him. Our Lord's first miracle could have on any thing and any where. He could have raised the death first, after all He is God. But to the amazement of that generation , and ours as well He choose to reveal Himself at a wedding Feast. I know a lot of priests and rabbis will not attend such feast, because it is not religious enough and as such mundane and beneath them. Even today there are many pastors who have the same mind set as the rabbis of Jesus's day. The reason is not far fetched, they do not understand and were one of the first people to break their sacred marriage covenants. In Malachi, God berated the priests and asked them, 'where is the wife of your youth?. In all of Israel's checkered history, the one covenant broken often was marriage. The returning priests and prophets after the exile had their hands full as they sought to restore the marriage institution back to its original exclusive standard of God.
In revealing His glory at the wedding at Cana Jesus was making a bold statement loud and clear. Relationship was the heart of God's son coming to the earth. God came to restore every broken down relationship, both vertical and horizontal . For sin that destroyed our relation with God also destroyed our relationship with each other on all facets-------husbands and wives, parents and children neighbors ,friends , family. In Malachi 4, God declared I will send again My servant Elijah to restore the hearts of the fathers to the sons and the hearts of the sons to their fathers, else I come to bring a curse upon the earth. Every pastor, every believer should understand by now that , that is God's heart beat. All the names given to the son of God reveals this purpose.-------/Jesus-------for He shall save His people from their sin, Emmanuel -----God is with us. Every parable He gave in His life time on the earth has to do with relationship.
At the wedding in Cana , Jesus saw what the celebrants did not see, the celebration will not last with out the miracle of His intervention. For without His intervention this will be another high profile wedding that will probably in disaster. The couples were clueless so was their family, that they had run out of wine , in that culture a thing of big shame and embarrassment to the family. It took Mary the mother of Jesus with a sensitive spirit of God to notice and alert Jesus who was also invited to the wedding. Where are the Mary's in today's church who will cry to God to God, 'they have no wine '?.
We need more Mary's to cry out to God on a consistent basis to reveal His glory in our marriages. For like Mary Isaiah had cried out, God looked for a man to stand in the gap and build a standard or a hedge so that He will not destroy us. In Isaiah 52vs16; He found none, and His right hand brought Him salvation, the salvation that we desperately needed.
In revealing His glory at the marriage , God has shown us not just His power, majesty, beauty and splendor, but also His purpose and will for marriage :, what shines brighter than any star in the firmament is the revelation of the heart of God. A loving God, who desires to have a relationship with us. I can not fathom what He sees in me, in me is nothing good, He is all that is good in me, I can boast of nothing, just grateful that He choose to love me even me. Then of course it's not about me but Him. Any body who has read John 17, the High Priestly prayer of our Lord Jesus understands and can feel the very heart beat of God: as He kept repeating the same thing "that they might be one, as we are one". It is no surprising therefore that the God Head chose to fashion marriage after the their own relationship in heaven, where the Three in one speak and act as one, this mystery which is difficult to grasped with our finite minds, but only to be believed. How can we then unravel or wrap our minds around the concept of marriage where two individuals different as night and day physically mentally, emotionally can become one indeed, it is impossible without God's help. How can 1+1 become 1 instead of 2 which is the rational thing. For His glory to be revealed we desperately need His people.
In fashioning marriage after their relationship, God Head seeks to share with us the oneness, the intimacy, fellowship, companionship to be enjoyed by the covenant couple. All through scripture God describes Himself as the husband of His covenant people Israel and the church. In Hosea we see God speaking to prophet, complaining as it were a wounded, betrayed,lover husband to His beloved. "Do not call me Lord any more, but husband", because am in a special relationship with you.
We may not fully understand the mystery of marriage but we can trust Him to reveal His glory. His glory will show us how important marriage is to Him, so we can stop taking it lightly, or enter into it carelessly. His glory will help us to receive grace to work at it, with determination that it is for a life time. His glory revealed also protects the union from all that seeks to destroy it within and with out.
In Matthew the disciples had been scared when Jesus began to explain this mystery , and in fear they responded who can marry, if it is like this?. But with miracle at Cana they believed that not only was marriage beautiful, but with God all things are possible.
Marriage is good and honorable , it is a God thing. O God reveal your glory in our marriages, let the next generation see it and believe and do marriage your way, not according to our cultures and not according to the way our parents did theirs, they failed too. O lord our God raise a generation of godly marriages that will raise the standard of God in marriage.
Beloved it's time for us to prepare for the marriage feast of the Lamb, to do so we heed Isaiah's call in 62vs10 Go through, Go through the gates, prepare ye the way of the people, cast up the high way, gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people; for The Lord is coming to reveal His glory in our marriages .
This beginning of miracles did Jesus in the Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed on Him.
Marriage has always been a mystery to man on this side of eternity. Try as we can to figure it out, understand it we always fall short and the best we can do is explain it away by our cultures and customs., and that falls short of the standard and elevation that God had placed marriage. The mystery began at the garden of creation, God did not seek permission from Adam to bring him a wife, God knew what Adam needed and He provided,---------a helper, a friend, a constant companion, lover, co-laborer, partner in dominion and authority. Adam may not have understood every thing about marriage, but he knew one thing for sure she was gift from God, and so he appreciated the one who gave him such wonderful gift. 'This is now bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh she shall be called woman because she was taken out of him.
The wisest man that ever lived Solomon, the great scholar also caught the mystery bug, as he could not dissect it in all his learning and in the making of many books: in Proverbs he said there are 6 things difficult for a man to comprehend, yea seven that confounds the man ' the way of a man with his maiden '. He went to state, houses and wealth a man can leave for his son, but a godly wife or virtuous wife is from The Lord . Through out the Old Testament God's people made terrible mistakes about marriage, because they did not fully understand the magnitude of the relationship they are in.
When the son of God came, He took His time and explained this heavenly covenant relationship between the man and his wife under God. Marriage has nothing to do with our human cultures, it's origin is divine, and it's purpose is also Divine. Marriage without controversy is a God thing. Particularly in the church We should humble ourselves and admit and confess that we do not understand it and seek His help, instead of just bringing it down to the level of our ignorance. Jesus took us back to the beginning to deliver marriage from the destruction by the culture. 'It was not so in the beginning, He made them man and woman and for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife.
The apostle Paul was a little bit baffled himself about it, and in Ephesians 5, declared it's a great mystery, he even went further to compare marriage between the man and his wife to the relationship between Christ and His church.
In the 21st century however anything we can not understand, we make light of it or we seek to destroy it. It can not be overemphasized that marriage is very dear to God's heart. For in marriage He sees our relationship with Him. Our Lord's first miracle could have on any thing and any where. He could have raised the death first, after all He is God. But to the amazement of that generation , and ours as well He choose to reveal Himself at a wedding Feast. I know a lot of priests and rabbis will not attend such feast, because it is not religious enough and as such mundane and beneath them. Even today there are many pastors who have the same mind set as the rabbis of Jesus's day. The reason is not far fetched, they do not understand and were one of the first people to break their sacred marriage covenants. In Malachi, God berated the priests and asked them, 'where is the wife of your youth?. In all of Israel's checkered history, the one covenant broken often was marriage. The returning priests and prophets after the exile had their hands full as they sought to restore the marriage institution back to its original exclusive standard of God.
In revealing His glory at the wedding at Cana Jesus was making a bold statement loud and clear. Relationship was the heart of God's son coming to the earth. God came to restore every broken down relationship, both vertical and horizontal . For sin that destroyed our relation with God also destroyed our relationship with each other on all facets-------husbands and wives, parents and children neighbors ,friends , family. In Malachi 4, God declared I will send again My servant Elijah to restore the hearts of the fathers to the sons and the hearts of the sons to their fathers, else I come to bring a curse upon the earth. Every pastor, every believer should understand by now that , that is God's heart beat. All the names given to the son of God reveals this purpose.-------/Jesus-------for He shall save His people from their sin, Emmanuel -----God is with us. Every parable He gave in His life time on the earth has to do with relationship.
At the wedding in Cana , Jesus saw what the celebrants did not see, the celebration will not last with out the miracle of His intervention. For without His intervention this will be another high profile wedding that will probably in disaster. The couples were clueless so was their family, that they had run out of wine , in that culture a thing of big shame and embarrassment to the family. It took Mary the mother of Jesus with a sensitive spirit of God to notice and alert Jesus who was also invited to the wedding. Where are the Mary's in today's church who will cry to God to God, 'they have no wine '?.
We need more Mary's to cry out to God on a consistent basis to reveal His glory in our marriages. For like Mary Isaiah had cried out, God looked for a man to stand in the gap and build a standard or a hedge so that He will not destroy us. In Isaiah 52vs16; He found none, and His right hand brought Him salvation, the salvation that we desperately needed.
In revealing His glory at the marriage , God has shown us not just His power, majesty, beauty and splendor, but also His purpose and will for marriage :, what shines brighter than any star in the firmament is the revelation of the heart of God. A loving God, who desires to have a relationship with us. I can not fathom what He sees in me, in me is nothing good, He is all that is good in me, I can boast of nothing, just grateful that He choose to love me even me. Then of course it's not about me but Him. Any body who has read John 17, the High Priestly prayer of our Lord Jesus understands and can feel the very heart beat of God: as He kept repeating the same thing "that they might be one, as we are one". It is no surprising therefore that the God Head chose to fashion marriage after the their own relationship in heaven, where the Three in one speak and act as one, this mystery which is difficult to grasped with our finite minds, but only to be believed. How can we then unravel or wrap our minds around the concept of marriage where two individuals different as night and day physically mentally, emotionally can become one indeed, it is impossible without God's help. How can 1+1 become 1 instead of 2 which is the rational thing. For His glory to be revealed we desperately need His people.
In fashioning marriage after their relationship, God Head seeks to share with us the oneness, the intimacy, fellowship, companionship to be enjoyed by the covenant couple. All through scripture God describes Himself as the husband of His covenant people Israel and the church. In Hosea we see God speaking to prophet, complaining as it were a wounded, betrayed,lover husband to His beloved. "Do not call me Lord any more, but husband", because am in a special relationship with you.
We may not fully understand the mystery of marriage but we can trust Him to reveal His glory. His glory will show us how important marriage is to Him, so we can stop taking it lightly, or enter into it carelessly. His glory will help us to receive grace to work at it, with determination that it is for a life time. His glory revealed also protects the union from all that seeks to destroy it within and with out.
In Matthew the disciples had been scared when Jesus began to explain this mystery , and in fear they responded who can marry, if it is like this?. But with miracle at Cana they believed that not only was marriage beautiful, but with God all things are possible.
Marriage is good and honorable , it is a God thing. O God reveal your glory in our marriages, let the next generation see it and believe and do marriage your way, not according to our cultures and not according to the way our parents did theirs, they failed too. O lord our God raise a generation of godly marriages that will raise the standard of God in marriage.
Beloved it's time for us to prepare for the marriage feast of the Lamb, to do so we heed Isaiah's call in 62vs10 Go through, Go through the gates, prepare ye the way of the people, cast up the high way, gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people; for The Lord is coming to reveal His glory in our marriages .
Thank you reminding us about marriage.It is indeed a mystery. For me, it is the most important decision after salvation. God bless.
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