Jesus' Matthew 19 Commandment Under Attack - MICHAEL YOUSSEF/LEADING THE WAY CHARISMA NEWS

Jesus spoke very specifically about marriage in Matthew 19. (Public Domain)

Jesus' Matthew 19 Commandment Under Attack

 2/24/2017 MICHAEL YOUSSEF/LEADING THE WAY  CHARISMA NEWS

Today, we are surrounded by a culture that is constantly attacking God's plan for marriage and family life. The Lord Jesus Christ addressed this crisis in Matthew 19.

Some Pharisees came to Jesus and said, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?" (v. 3). Instead of giving them the grounds for divorce, Jesus gave them the grounds for marriage: 

"He answered, 'Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning "made them male and female," and said, ""For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh" So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no man put asunder'" (Matt. 19:4-6).

When we consider the crisis in our families and marriages today, what should be the response of a Bible-believing church? I believe our response is to trumpet loudly and without fear or hesitation what Jesus said in Matthew 19 and what God the Father said in Genesis 2: that marriage belongs to God's created order. From the beginning, the Creator made them male and female. It is not up to us to mess around with this holy union.

Prayer: Father, I pray that You would forgive our nation for what we have done to the institution of marriage. Help me to stand up for what You have put in place and to be a powerful picture of what a Christ-centered family should look like. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

"... for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. ... Then the rib which the lord God had taken from man, He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man" (Gen. 2:20c, 22).

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COMMENTARY: Are We Working Too Hard For God? | Brian Hennessy ISRAEL TODAY

COMMENTARY: Are We Working Too Hard For God?

Sunday, January 24, 2016 |  Brian Hennessy  ISRAEL TODAY

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Topics:

Bible

Most have heard the expression, ‘Our arms are too short to box with God.” But it’s equally true that “our arms are too weak to work for God.” Which is why every time we tackle a work for Him in our own strength we become exhausted. Burned out. Both physically and spiritually.

To prevent that problem God gave us the Sabbath. He introduced the concept as a day of physical rest at the end of the week under the Mosaic Law. Six days of work followed by one day of complete inactivity. It was His signature piece of legislation upon which all His other precepts hinged. And He made sure everyone understood its importance by attaching the ultimate penalty for non-compliance. “Therefore you are to observe the Sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people." (Ex. 31:14)

But as welcome and God-honoring as that day off was, it was the principle embedded in the commandment Father most wanted us to learn. Our 24-hour rest from physical work was simply a means to teach us about ceasing from unprofitable ‘works of the flesh.’ We became aware of those carnal works when we met the Savior and saw how our best efforts to save ourselves were, to quote Paul, “like dung” (Phil. 3:8 KJV). 

But once saved, many believers stop resting in Yeshua’s salvation. They return to living a divided life, seeing their career and family life as secular and separate from their spiritual life. They work as if everything depended upon them. And their spiritual life continues to be understood as participation in religious activities, even full time, without regard to the leading of the Holy Spirit. They do not yet see they have died in Messiah and are risen with him. That we are no longer our own, but are part of Yeshua’s body.  And in him we are summoned to rest in his completed work 24/7. “For the one who has entered God’s rest [in him] has himself rested from his works, as God did from His” (Heb. 4:9). 

Nor do they consider, that if death was the penalty for violating the Sabbath command given on Mt Sinai, how much more attentive should we be to honor God’s new covenant Sabbath sprinkled with Yeshua’s blood?  For those found working their own programs when Yeshua returns, it will be gut-wrenching anguish. “Many will say to me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons, and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will say to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me you who practice lawlessness'” (Matt 7:22,23). Lawlessness? Yes, they broke the Sabbath!

How then should we live?

When the disciples asked Yeshua, “what shall we do, so that we may do the works of God?” he responded, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom He has sent” (John 4:28,29). In other words, if we want to walk with God, yoke yourself to Yeshua.  “I am the vine, you are the branches, apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). We are in him now! Exhaustion is the early warning signal we are working apart from him.

To each follower, Yeshua continues to call, “Come to me you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matt. 11:28-30).   

Yes, rest for our souls. But at the same time, obedience to God’s Sabbath command, as Isaiah declared: “Turn your foot from doing your own pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and honor it, desisting from your own ways and seeking your own pleasure” (Isa. 58:13). 

I’m convinced we are well into the night of the sixth day. God’s full kingdom rest is about to dawn. Are we learning to rest in Yeshua now so “he may cleanse our conscience from dead works to serve the Living God?” (Heb. 9:14)

Or are we still straining and sweating away?

---

Brian Hennessy is the author of Valley of the Steeples, available at: ketchpublishing/BrianHennessyBooks.htm

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A Word of Love From Sweden - Eva Haglund

Shalom Steve!

I wish you a nice beginning of the new year!

I saw on your blog that there were a man who lived in Peru who did painting. Is he a relative? There were nice paintings! My husband comes from Peru.

You wrote about Rick Joyner. I do not know him so much but have gotten a good impression of him. For instance he talks about love in Body of Christ - fellowship and care of each other.

Not so many talk about this and I think it is important to talk about what Jesus did. He prayed that there will be love from God in the Body of Christ, which will be a testimony to the world (John 17:21.) I think it is, for instance, as in Acts 2:46. The enemy has stolen it from quite a lot in the Body of Christ. Instead there sometimes are as if clubs. In 1 Cor.12 we can read that we need each other much in friendship.

Jesus say in John 15:13, "Greater love has no one than this than to lay down ones life for his friend." Jesus talked about love. Why then are there not so many who preach this. To be hospitalble and have fellowship. That is love - not just a smile. There needs to be much more fellowship.

Jesus says also, "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." Sometimes some Christians have a good heart to evangelize but are not interested in friendship. You also have to have friendship so people who get saved have friends to come to.

We can see that Jesus had fellowship. For instance in John 21 they were eating together, talking and Jesus made breakfast and a warm fire. Jesus is the Friend. You can talk to Him when you eat breakfast or go on a walk. He is the best Friend among friends.

Our heavenly Daddy and Jesus have much fellowship and are not impersonal. They talk to each other.

Christian conferences can be good and it can be good to be at one. But if you want to go to conferences, when is there time to have a cup of coffee with a friend and have time with God? I like to be at a good conference but also to have time in fellowship with God and friends.

Jesus gave time and shared His bread. For me this also means fellowship because I think to share bread can also be to talk with each other around a table. Where there is just a club in the Body of Christ I think God wants to restore so it will become as He wants.

There are also friendships but I think there needs to be more. I think also that we are not created just to do things for God or just to ask God for things but to be a close friend to God.

This I think is where worship comes in because it has to do with the relation to God. Dance as unto God I think is also worshiping Him with the body as Mirjam and David did.

To have a relation with God is to read His Word because Jesus is the Word.

I think the Bible symbol for instance can be bread. Jesus is the Bread, the Life of Bread. (John 6:35)

Jesus did not just talk or preach about love For instance, when He told us to wash each others feet, He did this to show care. He lived love. He was like a servant and gave all in love. He is life. He is love.

Thank you for many good things you write and give on the blog!

Blessings,

Eva

A HEAVENLY TREASURE …

Money.

Love. Love not. What will I choose?

Who is God- a hard God?

A God of love?

The money, the idol in the bank.

Is it worth to live for?

Is money, things more worth than care and love?
Who is God?

Did he keep his love in heaven or did he gave?

He gave his Bread - his life…

He gave ALL he had not because he had to but by FREE WILL…

He preached by his life that he is a God of love.

He gave ALL he had in a deepest pain - NAILED for us…

The pain he carried he carried for us - a love more worth than money-

He the King - thought that we were more worth than all money in the world…

You are rich if you have him…

Eva Haglund.