What Does God Say About it...

Consider this situation:

You have met and started dating a man or woman of a different race.

Hopefully, you and this person are Christians

And you fall in love with each other and start talking marriage.

You want to live in a marriage that edifies God and raise your family to serve Him.

But there is a problem because you are different races.

You want to know if God will honor such a marriage.

So you decide to seek out just what does He think about interracial marriages?

Well, here is a bit of info that you can start with:

What does the Bible say about interracial marriage?

Interracial marriage is really a misnomer. There is only one race — the human race. But, since inter-ethnic marriage and inter-skin-color marriage haven't caught on as alternate terms, I'll go with interracial marriage. Like most of the articles in the GotQuestions.org Top 20, this one can stir up some pretty heated arguments and strong emotions.

In Deuteronomy 7:3, speaking of the Israelites' relationship with the inhabitants of the promised land, God commands, "You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons." There are many other Old Testament scriptures that warned the Israelites against intermarriage with the inhabitants of the land of Canaan. Some look at those scriptures and come to the conclusion that it was a racial issue. I disagree. It was a religious issue. God did not want interracial marriage between the Israelites and Canaanites because, "for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods" (Deuteronomy 7:4). It had nothing to do with skin color. It was entirely a matter of the Canaanites worshipping false gods and having evil and immoral religious practices.

The New Testament nowhere speaks about interracial marriage. It does, however, clarify the Old Testament commands. Second Corinthians 6:14 states, "Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?" First Corinthians 15:33 says, "Do not be misled: Bad company corrupts good character." There is no more intimate "company" than your spouse. There is no stronger yoke than marriage. Just as the Israelites were not to intermarry with those who did not believe in the one true God, so are Christians not to intermarry with those who do not believe in the one true God. Believers are not to marry unbelievers because it hinders our faith and disrupts our relationship with God.

There are some who argue that since God separated the races at the Tower of Babel, the races should remain separate. Problem — the Tower of Babel speaks of God separating people by language, not race. There are some who argue that interracial marriage should be avoided due to the prejudice the couple will receive, whether from their families or from the surrounding culture. Problem — since when do we allow the unbiblical beliefs of others to be the determining factor in our decisions?

So, if the Bible does not speak against interracial marriage, does that mean interracial marriage is always a good thing? Not necessarily. In regards to interracial marriage, I am an advocate of the "eyes wide open" approach. An interracial couple should fully understand the risks of interracial marriage. Whether it is racism, prejudice, discrimination, or simply the disapproving glances, an interracial couple needs to consider these issues and decide accordingly. It is sad that these issues exist, but they have to be taken into account. In some, maybe even most, parts of the world, interracial marriage is strongly discouraged.

Ultimately, interracial marriage is a decision that should be made between the couple and God. Of course, the couple should take the feelings of their family into account, but since there is no biblical command against interracial marriage, it is a matter of Christian freedom.

(source: gotquestions.org)

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My humble thoughts on this situation:

I am certainly not against marriage between different races.

However, it is something that two people really need to consider and pray about before they marry.

Years ago and a young married woman myself, we met a couple in church that were interracial. 

He was black and she was white.

They were such a nice couple and  we could see how much they loved each other.

However, there were problems within their extended family. 

While the black man's family liked her,

the white family did not like him.

Now, please don't misunderstand.

It could very well have been the other way around.

And I am sure it happens both ways in a lot of marriages.

But that is the way it was in theirs.

And it caused a distress for them.

So very sad.

As I think back on that time, 

I wonder what happened with them.

Eventually we had moved to a different area and

lost contact with them.

Did their marriage stand the tests that

came on them?

Or did those tests crumble their marriage?

I don't know.

But, what I do know is

that marriage should never be taken 

lightly. 

No matter what the situation.

And sadly, it too often

it is.

When I was 18 and knew that in a few months

I would be married, I thought it was going 

to be fun. Like playing house.

It makes me chuckle to myself as I think about that.

Because here, all these years later I can.

But back then?

Back then it became all to apparent 

very quickly 

that marriage was not the same

as playing house. 

And the thing was, we were both white.

So we didn't even have those kinds of problems 

that the couple had, that we met at church.

So no matter what, in any situation

don't rush into marriage, no matter what situation you are in.

Take your time.

Do a lot of soul searching.

Above all, do a lot of praying.

And get some good Bible grounded

counseling.

Thanks for coming by today, Friends.

Have a blessed day!

Please note: I am not a licensed marriage counselor of any kind. All of my personal opinions are given from my own experience in my own marriage.

Biblical Marriage

 

Having a Balanced Biblical Marriage

Our marriages need to be balanced, but we often tend to one of two extremes: becoming too "couple-focused" or drifting apart.

Let's look at the selfish-focus first:
Did you know we can take Genesis 2:24 too far? It happens when we use this verse as an excuse to become "couple-selfish" or overly “couple-centered.”

Some signs that we're a selfish couple:

1. We no longer have same-sex friendships and are jealous if our spouse does.
2. We neglect parents, extended family, church and/or community relationships.
3. We accommodate our spouse's selfishness, jealousy, and/or laziness.
4. We always put our spouse’s desires above the needs and desires of others.

Marriage is “becoming one” with a purpose, but the purpose is not selfishness, separatism, or isolation. 

We must "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” Philippians 2:1-2

If you realize you've become too couple-selfish in your marriage relationship, I encourage you to pray for God's help in overcoming that problem.

And that leads us to the second problem which is far more common: the problem of growing apart as a couple, finding less joy in our marriage relationship, and taking our spouse for granted. 

If this is your problem, note the importance that God places on our marriage relationship and how it is tied to important concepts of our faith:

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her… husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself… each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.” from Ephesians 5:25-32

"For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves. They submitted themselves to their own husbands...Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers." from 1 Peter 3:1-7  

I also encourage you to read Shades of Gray Divorce which addresses the common problem of couples suffering an "emotional divorce." 

Marriage allows us to bring a complimentary blend of masculine and feminine gifts to everything we do as a couple.

We can stay balanced if we put God first and seek His daily purposes and priorities in our lives and marriages. If your marriage is out of balance, I encourage you to seek God's help in placing it in proper priority.

(Source: bible love notes)

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Friends, I have to tell you. I wish I had read this article before my husband passed away in 2022. Please take it to heart.

Because if you let things go while your mate is still alive and then he or she passes away, you can live with much regret when God faces you with unresolved issues.

Take it from me.

The good news though, is this:

If you don't work on your marriage before hand, (or you haven't in the past)

and your mate passes (or has already passed) away.

You can confess your part in it and then stand on

the following passage of scripture:

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:1-2

Amen and Amen!!

Thanks for coming by today, Friends.

Have a blessed day in Jesus!

Love: God's Way

 

                                                  Happy Valentines, Friends.

I hope you are celebrating it with those that you love.

Today's content is about love.

Love, God's way.

And according to what His Word says.

Please read on:

What does the Bible say about love?

The Bible has a great deal to say about love. In fact, the Bible says that “love is of God” and “God is love” (1 John 4:7–8); in other words, love is a fundamental characteristic of who God is. Everything God does is impelled and influenced by His love.

The Bible uses several different words for “love” in the Hebrew and Greek, interchanging them depending on context. Some of these words mean “affectionate love”; others indicate “friendship”; and still others, “erotic, sexual love.” There is also a distinct word for the type of love that God displays. In the Greek, this word is agape, and it refers to a benevolent and charitable love that seeks the best for the loved one.

The Bible gives many examples of love: the caring provision of Boaz for Ruth; the deep friendship of David and Jonathan; the poetic, passionate love of Solomon and the Shulamite; the enduring commitment of Hosea to Gomer; the fatherly love of Paul for Timothy and John for the church; and, of course, the sacrificial, saving love of Christ for the elect.

Agape, the benevolent, selfless love that God shows, is mentioned often in the New Testament, including in the “love chapter,” 1 Corinthians 13. There, love’s characteristics are listed: love is patient and kind; love doesn’t envy, boast, or dishonor others; love is not proud or self-seeking; love is not easily angered, doesn’t keep a record of wrongs, and doesn’t delight in evil; rather, love rejoices with the truth; love always protects, trusts, hopes, and perseveres; love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:4–8). Of the greatest of God’s gifts, faith, hope, and love, “the greatest . . . is love” (verse 13).

The Bible says that God was motivated by love to save the world (John 3:16). God’s love is best seen in the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf (1 John 4:9). And God’s love does not require us to be “worthy” to receive it; His love is truly benevolent and gracious: “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

The Bible says that, since true love is part of God’s nature, God is the source of love. He is the initiator of a loving relationship with us. Any love we have for God is simply a response to His sacrificial love for us: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10). Our human understanding of love is flawed, weak, and incomplete, but the more we look at Jesus, the better we understand true love.

The Bible says that God’s love for us in Christ has resulted in our being brought into His family: “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1). Just as the father in the parable showed love to his prodigal son (Luke 15:11–32), so our Heavenly Father receives us with joy when we come to Him in faith. He makes us “accepted in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:6, NKJV).

The Bible says that we are to love others the way that God loves us. We are to love the family of God (1 Peter 2:17). We are to love our enemies—that is, we are to actively seek what is best for them (Matthew 5:44). Husbands are to love their wives as Christ loves the church (Ephesians 5:25). As we show benevolent, selfless love, we reflect God’s love to a lost and dying world. “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

The Bible says that our love for God is related to our obedience of Him: “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3; cf. John 14:15). We serve God out of love for Him. And God’s love for us enables us to obey Him freely, without the burden of guilt or the fear of punishment.

First John 4:18 says that “perfect love drives out fear” (this is again the word agape). The dismissal of the fear of condemnation is one of the main functions of God’s love. The person without Christ is under judgment and has plenty to fear (John 3:18), but once a person is in Christ, the fear of judgment is gone. Part of understanding the love of God is knowing that God’s judgment fell on Jesus at the cross so we can be spared. Jesus described Himself as the Savior: “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17). The very next verse reminds us that the only person who must fear judgment is the one who rejects Jesus Christ.

The Bible says that nothing can separate the believer from the love of God in Christ (Romans 8:38–39). God’s love does not wax and wane; it is not a fickle, emotional sensation. God’s love for sinners is why Christ died on the cross. God’s love for those who trust in Christ is why He holds them in His hand and promises never to let them go (John 10:29).

(source: gotquestions.org)

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Sometimes even after years of loving God, I am still amazed that He loves me. 

Why does He?

I don't understand it.

But I know by His Word

that He does.

And He loves you as well.

Because of His love,

we then can love others.

Thanks for coming by today, Friends 

Monday's s post will be on marriage.

Have a blessed and Happy Valentines Day

New Bible Studies Coming

Hello Friends. I am going to change the direction of my content starting tomorrow. (2/14)

I will be looking up and posting some different topics that I hope will be of interest to all of us.

Since tomorrow is Valentines Day, we will begin with and find out what the Bible says about Love and Marriage.

I hope you will join me. Thanks for stopping by. I pray that you are blessed today as this day continues. 

Prayer Closet Explained

 What is a prayer closet?

After a short discourse on the follies of trying to appear religious in front of people, Jesus talks about prayer. “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:5-8). The Greek used here for “room” is tameion, which means "an inner storage chamber or a secret room." The point being, a public prayer, announced on a street corner, gives the pray-er all the attention he can expect to receive. A quiet prayer, directed at God and not passers-by, will reap spiritual blessings.

Some have taken the admonition literally. They set aside a room or a quiet corner in their homes, furnish it with a comfortable chair, table, Bible, and maybe a notebook, and use that corner for a regular prayer time. That’s certainly appropriate, but the fact that the room Jesus referred to most likely meant a pantry gives us a little more flexibility. A “prayer closet” might be a daily commute, a bench in the back yard, or the kitchen table. John Wesley’s mother is said to have sat in a chair and thrown her apron over her head as a sign to her kids to leave her alone. Jesus usually went to a secluded hillside. The point is that the “closet” is free from interruption, distraction, and listening ears.

Although there are good reasons to have a dedicated space for regular prayer—such as training the family to respect the quiet and keeping prayer-related materials in one place—that was not what Jesus was referring to. The passage in Matthew 6 talks about performing religious acts for the purpose of allowing others to see. Any act, be it praying, giving, or serving, should not be done for the purpose of gaining approval from others. Praying, giving, and serving should be responses to our relationship with God and the mercies He has given us. If a specific, dedicated location encourages prayer, it should by all means be used. If the cab of a pickup or a quiet stretch of beach suffices, that’s perfectly acceptable.

(source: gotquestions.org)

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Hello, Friends

I am not adding a picture of a "prayer closet' to todays post.

The reason for this is, I believe a prayer closet can be any room that is quiet and gives us the ability to pray to let our requests be made to God. 

Or maybe that quiet place can be outside. I pray sometimes out on my patio in the morning as I feed the birds that come to my yard.

However, If you go to pinterest, you can find ideas there that would help you design your own prayer room.

I don't think the place matters as much as just getting alone with God and expressing what is on our heart to Him.

He is always ready to listen to us,

and I believe our prayers to Him are more important than where we are when we talk to Him.

But that is just me. 

Thanks for coming by, 

have a great afternoon and be blessed!

Should We Pray the Rosary?

 

Praying the Rosary has never been an issue with me because this is what Catholics do. And I am not a Catholic. Maybe some of you were Catholic and still pray the rosary. I have a relative that did for years after she got born again. However, are there any scriptures that those that left their Catholic religion can still pray with the rosary? 

Its an interesting question that perhaps you may want to know. So, I go again to gotquestions.org for their answer. Please read on:

Is praying the rosary scriptural?

Praying the rosary is promoted within the Catholic Church as a means of strengthening one’s faith, resisting evil, growing spiritually, and generally benefiting society. While some of the prayer of the rosary is scriptural, the whole second half of the “Hail Mary” and portions of the “Hail, Holy Queen” are blatantly unbiblical. While the first part of the Hail Mary is almost a direct quotation from Luke 1:28, there is no scriptural basis for (1) praying to Mary, (2) addressing her as “holy,” or (3) calling her “our life” and “our hope.”

Praying the rosary involves giving attributes to Mary that the Bible never gives her. To call Mary “holy”—the Catholic Church teaches that Mary never sinned or had any taint of original sin—is not biblical. The Bible calls all believers “saints,” which can be interpreted as “holy ones,” but Scripture says that the righteousness believers have is the imputed righteousness from Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21). In this life, no one is yet sanctified from sin in practice (1 John 1:9—2:1). Jesus is called our Savior repeatedly in Scripture because He saved us from our sin. In Luke 1:47, Mary calls God her “Savior.” Savior from what? A sinless person does not need a Savior. Sinners need a Savior. Mary acknowledged that God was her Savior. Therefore, Mary acknowledged that she was a sinner.

Jesus came to save us from our sins (Matthew 1:21). The Roman Catholic Church claims that Mary was saved from sin differently from everyone else—that she was saved from sin through the immaculate conception (her being conceived free of sin). But is this teaching scriptural? The Roman Catholic Church openly admits that this doctrine is not found in Scripture. When a young man addressed Jesus as “good Master” (Matthew 19:16–17), Jesus asked why he called Him “good” since there is none good but one, God. Jesus was trying to make the young man aware that he was using the term good too loosely. In praying the rosary, Catholics use the term holy too loosely. No one, including Mary, is holy but God. This ties in with Romans 3:10–23, Romans 5:12, and countless other passages that stress the fact that in God’s eyes no one measures up. Never is Mary excluded from such all-encompassing statements.

But praying the rosary has an even more basic problem, namely, that much of the prayer is directed to Mary, not to God. We are never told in the Bible whether anyone else in heaven can even hear us. God alone is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-present. When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He taught them to address their prayers to God the Father. Every example of prayer in the Bible is addressed to God alone. There is never a single example of someone praying to any “saint” or angel or anyone else (besides prayers to false gods). Further, any time that a pious person prostrates himself (in a religious setting) to honor someone else besides God (chiefly to the apostles or angels), he is told to get up, to stop it (Acts 10:25–26; 14:13–16; Matthew 4:10; Revelation 19:10; 22:8–9). The Roman Catholic Church states that it worships God alone but “venerates” Mary and the saints. What is the difference? A person praying the rosary spends more time calling out to Mary than to God. For every one praise of God in the rosary, there are ten praises of Mary!

Praying the rosary also assigns a task to Mary that the Bible never assigns her. Jesus is our Redeemer (Galatians 3:13; 4:4–5; Titus 2:14; 1 Peter 1:18–19; Revelation 5:9), our heavenly Advocate (1 John 2:1), and our one and only Mediator (1 Timothy 2:5). The “Hail, Holy Queen” portion of the rosary prayer calls Mary our “most gracious advocate.” This is a direct contradiction of the clear biblical teaching that only Jesus is our go-between.

Praying the rosary requires Catholics to call upon Mary as the “holy Queen.” The only time in Scripture that the title “Queen of Heaven” is found, the term is used in a negative way (Jeremiah 7:17–19; 44:16–27). The Bible never pictures Mary as a queen; rather, she calls herself “the Lord’s servant” (Luke 1:38). She is never given a crown or authority over heaven and earth. Likewise, is it appropriate, while praying the rosary, to call Mary our “life” and “hope”? Again, these are terms that are used of God alone in Scripture (John 1:1–14; Colossians 3:4; 1 Timothy 1:1; Ephesians 2:12; Titus 2:13).

The practice of saying the rosary runs contrary to Scripture in a number of ways. Only God can hear our prayers. Only God can answer our prayers. We have one intermediary (Jesus), and it is in His name we pray, not Mary’s.

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So, there you are, Friends.

Mary has no authority to answer our prayers. She is not to be worshipped. God did give her the awesome privilege to be the mother of Jesus. But He was not only her Son, He was her Lord. Just as He is our Lord. 

Thanks for coming by today. I have been having problems with my pc so I had to transfer everything over to a new one.

Thank you for your patience.

Have a wonderful and blessed evening or whatever time it is

where you are.