by Standerinfamilycourt
February 7 – 14 is National Marriage Week.
During this week, there will be much going on that is vital and valuable to our nation, but there will be no getting away from the fact that in the corrupted culture of contemporary evangelicaldom, it will be “finders keepers”, and millions in faux “marriages” which are not holy matrimony, will be encouraged to stay there at the peril of their very souls. The excellent organization, Breakpoint.org promotes it in this audio link dated January 5, 2017.
Talking about marriage “permanence” is politically acceptable to this crowd, but it will not resolve the nation’s problems because it will not touch the root issue. Rather, the message needs to be around the far more relevant and offensive topic of holy matrimony indissolubility, according to Matt.19:6,8 and Luke 16:18. This needs to be in the heaven-or-hell terms that Jesus and Paul unflinchingly cast it.
Some crucial topics not likely to be on this year’s agenda:
– When will pastors stop performing weddings that Jesus repeatedly called adulterous (and tell the congregation why) ?
– When will pastors stop signing civil marriage licenses that reflect the only unenforceable contract in American history, and which since 1970, in no way corresponds to Christ’s Matt. 19:4-6 definition of marriage?
– When will pastors stop smearing and stigmatizing the growing stream of true disciples of Jesus Christ who are coming out of adulterous civil unions in order to recover their inheritance in the kingdom of God?
[1 Cor. 6:9-10; Mal. 5:19-21-KJV)
– When will repealing unilateral divorce in all 50 states become as high a moral priority as outlawing the slave trade, or repealing Roe v. Wade, or ending sodomous “marriages” ?
Given what Jesus and Paul both had to say about remarriage adultery (repeatedly by each), true revival when it arrives, is going to look horrifying to the organizers of National Marriage Week, but it will be pleasing to God. The horror will not be due to the repenting prodigals, but due to five decades of false, hireling shepherds not doing the job the Owner of the fold gave them to safeguard souls first, and then covenant families.
www.standerinfamilycourt.com
7 Times Around the Jericho Wall | Let’s Repeal No-Fault Divorce!
These sermons spoke the truth that Protestantism has created this divorce and remarry culture we see today. Very, very few Protestant clergy will dare proclaim this message from the pulpits. There is fear of what may happen should they do. What is even more compelling is the testimony of the 16 year young lady who dared to tell a remarried Christian woman the truth.
Mrs. L’s grilling of this young ladies conviction was more for self-gratification and conscience cleansing of her own view of divorce and remarriage…perhaps she was trying to justify her on convictions by this young lady “judgmental attitude”, and then defend Mrs. B’s “good works” as if they are worthy enough to cover what God calls adultery. Matthew 7:21 comes to mind…
I heard these same humanistic excuses from the local AOG clergy who approved of his daughter’s “remarriage”. You wouldn’t believe the defense he put up. He questioned 1 Cor 7:10,11 and then did not understand the reason behind church discipline and the appalling thought of his daughter remaining unmarried the rest of her life. It was truly sad to witness. I wish I would have recorded it. I thought I was talking to an unbeliever…the questions he asked.
What is truly sad (an very frustrating because of its hypocrisy from people who claim to be God’s anointed becasue they were “ordained”) is those Protestant clergy who believe, preach and teach the “exception clause” and then “remarry” a person who divorced for anything but the “exception clause”.
I believe this was overall a terrific sermon series with the exception that Pastor Schlamp would probably disagree that just as Protestants invented divorce and remarriage by handing over marriage definition to civil courts, the Protestants also redefined the “church” by believing the clergy/laity system was better than ekklesia.
Sounds like you meant to make this comment on the post about the Pastor Phil Schlamp sermon series, Neil? On the other, hand wouldn’t it be the bee’s knees if for 2018 they butted the Christian Right sponsor of National Marriage Week to the side and put a real man of God in charge?
So Rare Today: They Did It God’s Way…
Widowed Dad Whose Photo Tribute to Wife Went Viral Finds Love Again
by Eun Kyung Kim /MSN
A father and daughter who lost a wife and mother have written another chapter in their lives — with a mom and son who lost a husband and dad.
The young widowed father, with help from his 3-year-old daughter, re-created a series of images he first posed for with his wife, Ali, on their 2009 wedding day. The pictures were captured inside the new Cincinnati home they had just purchased the day before.
Ali died two years later, at age 31, from a rare form of lung cancer. When Ben prepared to move out of their home, he paid tribute to her by having their daughter, Olivia, pose in the same spots as her mom did years earlier, and Ali’s sister, a professional photographer, take pictures.
The photos and the story behind them struck a nerve: Ben received an outpouring of much-needed support, encouragement and inspiration from strangers around the world.
At the time, he felt certain he would never fall in love again.
“I’m going to be this sad single father for the rest of my life. That was just my destiny and I was convinced of it,” Ben, 37, told TODAY in a recent interview. “That sadness and grief was overwhelming and didn’t allow me to see beyond the immediate future.”
But he did reach beyond it, thanks to an old college friend with whom he reconnected after Ali’s death.
Shortly afterward, her husband was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroendocrine cancer. Lesley was eight months pregnant at the time with their first child, Kaizer.
Lesley said she initially rejected Ben’s offers of support because she was determined that her family outcome would differ from his.
“It was probably a month before Mike passed away before I really started to see, ‘OK, we weren’t going to get the happy ending we wanted,'” she said. “I finally reached out to Ben and met up with him for coffee to talk about the ins and outs of being a caretaker.”
Mike passed away in November 2013.
After his death, Lesley and Ben continued to lean on each other. They went to church together with their young children, and met up for brunches and play dates.
“He was one person I didn’t have to talk about what happened with because he got it,” said Lesley, 36. “It was nice to have someone to do things with who understood, and you didn’t even have to explain anything.”
It helped that they shared a long history with each other.
“Even the bad years, when we weren’t talking, even that was something that became a building block for what we have now,” Ben said.
Eventually, their friendship progressed into something romantic.
“That’s the thing you figure out when you’re dating someone. What are they like? What’s their true character? How do they handle bad situations, good situations?” Ben said. “We already knew a lot of that. Our friendship and our personalities had already been tested.”
The couple’s relationship received approval from their extended families, said Ali’s sister, Melanie Pace, the photographer whose earlier pictures of Ben and Olivia were picked up from her blog.
“We had known her for years anyway. Had it been somebody else coming into that position, I think it would have been very awkward for everyone, because they couldn’t possibly understand what it was like for all of us. But Lesley just got it,” Pace said.
“Because she had experienced that same loss, she knew she wasn’t there to replace Ali, and fill her shoes. She knows her role. She’s not trying to replace Olivia’s mom. She’s not trying to replace my sister.”
Ben and Lesley were married last June, although the couple and their children had been “behaving like a family” long beforehand.
In November, the couple welcomed another child, Nash.
Both Olivia, now 6, and Kaizer, 4, immediately took to their roles as doting siblings to their brother, who has Down syndrome. The family now share a new Kentucky home outside of Cincinnati.
Ben said he and Lesley are continually amazed by the journeys they have taken. He hopes their story will provide hope and comfort to others mourning the loss of a loved one.
“You can have joy and grief at the same time. That’s one of the big picture things I’ve learned. You just don’t have to just have one or the other,” he said. “And it doesn’t mean you betray your loved one. You can grieve them and also experience love and joy and happiness moving forward at the same time.”
Ben said looking at life based on “blessings we’ve been given versus things taken away” makes it easy to be happy.
“Honestly, it feels weird for me to refer to this as a happy ending because I know it’s not an ending. This is just another chapter in many chapters, and who knows what else is in store, but it’s definitely a happy chapter for sure.”
© Melanie Pace
Thanks for sharing this, Melanie.