From the Pastor's Desk
Pastor Mark Berlin
(231) 709-1602
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The Trouble with Marriage
Greetings to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christian marriages face enormous pressures in our world today. As a result, many marriages are in trouble. Oh, let’s be honest with each other. My marriage is in trouble. Your marriage is in trouble. How can I say this? Well, I have yet to be or to meet a person that really works at being married. And marriage is hard work.
Marriage is like running a marathon. It takes training and intentional effort. Consider running a marathon tomorrow. Are you ready to run the 24.5 miles? Probably not. If we tried we would end up injured, hurt or even dead. A couple of years ago I started to run (if you can call it that) just one mile. It wasn’t a pretty picture. Just call me the wheezer. Anyway, I hope you get the picture. Many of our marriages are taking our breath away because we haven’t been working on them, intentionally. For this reason, from time to time, I plan on using various programs to strengthen us in our marriages. These programs are not just for troubled marriages. Remember that we are all in trouble. They won’t be just for married people. Single or married, men need to learn about whom women are and women need to understand who men are. As we all know men are from Mars and women are from Venus.
There is a saying, “Laughter is the best medicine.” For this reason, and because I want to keep it light and enjoyable, the first program is called “Laughing your Way to a Better Marriage.” I’ll give you more information on this in the weeks to come. I hope to begin this summer, during Bible Study time. Everyone is invited. And…I kind of expect everyone to attempt to be there.
First, a word from our Sponsor (God) on the topic of Christian Marriage.
What does God say about marriage and in His Word, the Bible? In the beginning, God created men and women to live together with one another as husbands and wives, and through their marriages to bring children into the world. We read in Gen.2:22–24:“The Lord God made a woman from the rib He had taken out of the man, and He brought her to the man. The man said, ‘this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called “woman,” for she was taken out of man.’ For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. ”Our Lord Jesus Christ affirmed the divine institution of marriage during his earthly ministry (Matt.19:5).
Through the Apostle Paul, the Lord revealed that Christian husbands and wives are to love and serve one another, modeling before the world the love Christ has for His bride, the church. In Ephesians 5, St.Paul wrote: “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, His body, of which He is the Savior.
“Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy.… In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church—for we are members of His body.
“‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband” (Eph.5:21–33).
In this powerful description of marriage, there is no room for husbands to “lord it over” their wives, nor for wives to disregard their husband’s role of “headship” in the home. The key is mutual submission to and love for one another, modeled after Christ’s loves for the church and the church’s submission to Christ her Lord.
Love
Pastor Mark
