Paul the Apostle gave marriage counsel to all NT readers. Specifically, he advised Christian couples about their together walk. Each belongs to the other, granting rights to the other over their own body. 1Corinthians 7:1-5, especially verse 5, encapsulates his advice. “Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency [lack of self-control]” (1Corinthians 7:5 KJV). Fasting and prayer protect our relationship with God, while a couple’s together walk or agreement is both manifested and strengthened by their intimacy. LORD, strengthen the marriages of our brothers and sisters that Satan would not cleave them apart in dissension and divorce. Amen and amen.
Author: Ken
Incentive to Seek the LORD
“When He slew them, then they sought Him: and they returned and enquired early after God” (Psalm 78:34 KJV). Survivors became seekers. How does God get us to do something without taking away our ability to make a free choice? God only knows where to draw the line. My choice is choose Him, but satan seeks only to keep Him from being my last choice. Faithful LORD, perform the good work You began in me, to the end. Amen.
O Grave, Where Is Thy Victory?
The Resurrection of Christ is the assurance of our future resurrection from the dead. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory” (1Corinthians 15:55 KJV). If Jesus did not conquer death, neither will we. Atonement is bringing humanity AT-ONE-MENT with God by making amends for our sins. Christ’s death satisfied God’s Perfect Law — “the soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4). His atonement for our sins satisfied Public Justice, where Christ’s perfect sacrifice made possible God’s offer of amnesty to all of us rebels, who now take sides with God against ourselves. Otherwise, the offer of forgiveness of sins to whomsoever repents is an impossibility. “If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins” (1Corinthians 15:17). Hallelujah! Jesus defeated death and arose from the dead! “But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (15:57).
How Is Your Faith?
The only way you can prove you have faith is to presently walk in faith. “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2Corinthians 5:7 KJV). Faith is sensitive to the present. We may have first believed in the past, but we must continue in the present, or there is no faith. We hope to walk in faith to the end, but we must continue in faith in the present to get there. Our great enemy is the deception that faith is not active. We deceive ourselves, when we are not trusting Christ for “all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue” (2Peter 1:3). If we are truly in the faith, then let us avoid shipwreck by allowing Christ to direct our hopes and fears through all the opportunities and troubles of life.
Advice to Married Couples (Part 1)
“Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” (Amos 3:3 KJV). Regardless of any differences of gifts, accomplishments, or attainments, marriage is primarily walking together in agreement. Marriage does not work unless both attempt to walk together in agreement. Sensitivity to the other’s gifts or deficiencies must not hinder the attempt to walk together side by side, for marriage is a together walk in agreement. When either the husband or wife has a struggle maintaining their part of the together walk, then each must be sensitive to the needs of the other. Marriages will be strengthened, when each sees the other’s needs as an opportunity to minister, support, and fortify their spouse. Only when action must be taken, where there is a difference, should the husband exercise the veto power of headship. “For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and He [Christ] is the saviour of the body” (Ephesians 5:23 KJV). LORD, give us strong, Christian marriages in Your body. Amen.
Try the Spirits
Dreams need to be interpreted by the same standard as anything else where God may be speaking to you. “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world” (1John 4:1 KJV). Just as God may be speaking to you through an individual while awake, not all dreams come from God. “If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deuteronomy 13:1-3).
Protect Your Relationship With God
Your riches are what you value the most. Riches are kept where thieves do not break through and steal. “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (Matthew 6:20 KJV), but how and with what? A disciple listening to the voice of God in their thoughts, the “fear of the LORD is his treasure” (Isaiah 33:6). Like Enoch walking with God, he was continually laying up the treasure of the fear of the LORD until “he was not; for God took him” (Genesis 5:24). Your relationship with God is your communion with Him in your thoughts. Protect it, for Satan desires to separate you from the source of your strength and riches, as he separated Samson from his hair. Keep the conversation with God going. Think on these things.
Christian Modesty
Christian modesty is a humble estimate of one’s self before God, not seeking to draw undue attention to self, and not seeking to show off in an unseemly way. “Walk humbly with thy God” (Micah 6:8 KJV). Our conduct should reflect that modesty. “Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips” (Proverbs 27:2). Our manner of dress and clothing should also reflect a modesty, which takes the emphasis off us and points to Christ. “In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest [Greek, kosmios, respectable, seemly] apparel, with shamefacedness [Greek, aidōs, modesty] and sobriety [Greek, sōphrosunē, self-control]; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array” (1Timothy 2:9). As sisters should protect their brothers’ purity by modest apparel, brothers need to protect their sisters from being unduly attracted to them by dressing in “costly attire” (2:9 ESV). LORD, may our manner of life between brothers and sisters be chaste, humble, and may You be the One to whom the attention is drawn. Amen.
When Everything Fails
“Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer: preserve my life from fear of the enemy” (Psalm 64:1 KJV). David speaks for all the godly but especially for Israel in the future time of Jacob’s Trouble in Daniel’s Seventieth Week (Daniel 9:24). It is then, when everything familiar seems out of place and our desperate attempt to resolve the situation is failure. Pray and trust God to do as He always has done — deliver His people. “But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall they be wounded” (64:7). He is the Immutable and Unchanging God Worthy of Our Trust. “The righteous shall be glad in the LORD, and shall trust in Him; and all the upright in heart shall glory” (64:10). Hallelujah!
Obey My Voice
“Obey My voice [Hebrew, qôl, voice, sound, noise], and I will be your God” (Jeremiah 7:23 KJV). The NET and NIV just as correctly translate this as “obey Me,” since the emphasis is on the command. But, do we obey the voice of God? Is that righteous thought in your head the voice of God, which should be obeyed? We have come a long way since we have confined the voice of God only to the inspired, canonized Scripture. We are rightly concerned that anyone can claim God spoke to them in their thoughts; but, are we so biblically illiterate that we cannot discern the false from the true? “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:20). Let us again be a people sensitive to the voice of God, though it be a small voice, in our head.
We Need A Miracle 
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