Category: marriage

Posted in gay marriage, genesis, homosexual, marriage

‘I am still not getting what I want’: UK Gay couple suing church for refusing ‘wedding’. And, God ordained marriage as explained by Genesis

Posted on by elizabethprata

Part 2: Social media is changing child custody disputes, child-support payments, & divorce
Part 3: Tim Gunn chose celibacy thirty years ago. How about you?

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With the homosexual agenda advancing into so many areas, especially marriage, I have been thinking deeply about God-ordained marriage and why its absence from society isn’t good for society. I have assembled three blog entries that are loosely related to the topic of marriage in these days of apostasy.

photo credit: jakebouma via photopin cc

Great Britain recently became legal in Engnland and Wales. The story below from last week notes that the legislation hadn’t yet been signed off on by the Queen, but she has approved it by now.

Prime Minister of the
United Kingdom, David Cameron

England’s Gay Marriage Law To Become Legal After Lower House Approval
Gay marriage is to become legal in England and Wales after the lower house of the British parliament approved the final changes on Tuesday to a law that had Prime Minister David Cameron’s backing but split his ruling Conservative party. The law had the support of both Labour and the Liberal Democrats, Britain’s two other main political parties, but damaged Cameron’s standing within his own party with many of his own lawmakers criticising him for being too liberal. … After a two-hour debate, the House of Commons passed the bill, meaning it now only needs to be approved by Queen Elizabeth, a formality.

Prime Minister Cameron had promised that though homosexual marriage would become legal, churches would not be forced to perform them if it went against their beliefs.

However, this did not deter the gay lobby. They are now suing the Church of England to force them to perform gay marriages. As one gay man said, “I’m still not getting what I want.”

And isn’t that exactly what sin is all about. Pursuing your ungodly lusts no matter the cost to yourself or others. Jude 1:16a says, “These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts;”

Barrie Drewitt-Barlow, left,
with boyfriend Tony. (source)

‘I am still not getting what I want’: Gay couple suing church for refusing ‘wedding’
“Less than two weeks after the coalition government’s gay “marriage” bill was signed into law, a homosexual man has launched a lawsuit against a Church of England parish in Maldon for refusing him and his civil partner the lavish church wedding of their dreams. Barrie Drewitt-Barlow told the Essex Chronicle that he has launched the suit because, despite the law, “I am still not getting what I want.”  Section 9 of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013, which comes into effect next year, grants anyone in a civil partnership the ability to convert that partnership into a “marriage.” But the law contains measures specifically to preclude unwilling churches from being forced to participate.”

Other articles say that the courts will decide…

You know that satan never stops and he never sleeps. He was given an inch and he is taking a mile. Give him a mile and he will take the city.

Let’s go back to Genesis 1-

Michaelangelo, Sistine Chapel Painting, God creating Adam

In the Creation account, God created the universe and everything in it in 6 days. Each time as the day ended (24-hour day) God surveyed His work and declared it good. (Genesis 1:4, 8, 10, 12, 21, 25).

When He created man, it is the first time we read of the Holy Executive Council together, all three intimately participating in the creation. Until that point we read ,”And God said, And God said, And God said.” But with man, it is recorded, “Let Us make man…” It is an important moment.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26)

After He made man, he said it was “very good.”

So from this we gather that man is the most important of His creations, because he is the only one made in His image. And it was the only creation that God declared ‘very good.’

Now, think for a moment. What was the first thing we read of in the bible that was ‘not-good’? No, it wasn’t the serpent of chapter 3. It is in Genesis 2:18:

“Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

The first thing that was not-good was that man was lonely. He was alone with no society to commune with except God. Then God caused the beasts to come before the man to see what he would name them. And still, the man was alone. We often focus on the helper part of the verse in 2:18. But look at the part that says “fit for him.” Dogs are man’s best friend. An animal could have become a nice companion for the man, as they have done today. But no. Monkeys are funny and sort of look like humans, they are sociable animals, they have opposable thumbs…why wasn’t a monkey a good helper? Because he was not fit for the man. (“The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.” Genesis 2:20).

God made a woman.

Michaelangelo, Sistine Chapel painting, Creation of Eve

“And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:22-24).

One flesh. That is one reason why divorce is such a violent act, it is literally a ripping apart of flesh.

As an aside, notice the comment at the last part; there were no parents yet. No one had a mother and a father. God had just created Adam and Eve. They had no clue about procreation and parents yet. God was ordaining society!

This is the foundation upon which the first society is built. Here we have one man, and it was not good for him to be alone. And all the beasts were brought, and still none helper was found “fit for him.” So God created woman. God then ordained future generations of society and of sexual conduct by declaring how society was to continue: through the man and woman as one flesh. They come together as one flesh and they leave the parents and they build another foundational block of society through their marriage. That is how it works, and it is beautiful.
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Part 2: Social media is changing child custody disputes, child-support payments, & divorce
Part 3: Tim Gunn chose celibacy thirty years ago. How about you? 

Posted in christianity, covenant, marriage, prophecy

Lots of steamy sex affairs will actually save your marriage, says sociologist

Posted on by elizabethprata

Marriage was the second covenant God made with man. (The first was in Genesis 2:16-17 where God told Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.) God made Eve from Adam’s rib and told them to cleave together and become of one flesh. He outlined certain standards of behavior and expectations for them both, and that was marriage, the foundation of society. Why is it the foundation? “Because it is not good for man to be alone, I shall make a helpmeet for him.” (Gen 2:18). Together, they formed the first society.

So of course satan targeted for destruction that good and solid foundation of one man and one woman married and bearing children. Satan immediately incited the woman, Adam followed, and off we go toward the Fall of Man into sin.

From that moment in the garden, we have had a constant and direct attack on marriage, specifically its definition. Any variance satan can get from the biblical definition suits his purposes. Look at this-

The recipe for happiness? An enduring marriage and an affair with lots of sex
In an extract from her new book, the controversial sociologist says it is time to redraw marital rules – with a radical rethink on fidelity
“As dating websites open up a global shop window of sexual possibilities, as life expectancy continues to rise and we become increasingly sexually aware, how can we still take the crushing old rules of fidelity, that turn marriage into a prison, for granted? Why should we not be able to recapture the heady thrills of youth, while protecting a secure home life? The time has come, alongside the technology, to redraw the rules of marriage for the 21st century. Just as the Pill opened up premarital sex in the Sixties, the internet is opening up a whole new culture of affairs among married people. Sex has become a major leisure activity of our time, accessible to everyone, married or not, rich and poor. It’s time to start honing our seduction skills and join the playground. Yet it is the most puritanical nations, including Britain and America, that have traditionally resisted the notion of adultery most rigorously. Here, couples endure the challenges of child care, work pressures, mid‑life crisis and dwindling marital sex against a backdrop of repressive Anglo-Saxon hang‑ups about infidelity, seen always in pejorative terms such as “cheating”. “

How’s THAT for a total repudiation of everything God stands for in marriage??

Like:

  • fidelity
  • trust
  • vows
  • promises
  • self-sacrifice
  • modesty
  • resistance to temptation
  • purity
  • unity

From the Center for Christ and Culture, we read from the article published in 2006, “Why is Marriage Important?“

“Marriage is far more profound than our contemporary culture would lead us to believe. It is a life-long commitment that restrains self-centeredness, self-indulgence and self-gratification. It is the one relationship that effectively prepares and conditions us for community. By restraining self-centeredness and promoting love of another, marriage becomes the foundation for social order. When this commitment labeled “marriage” is reduced to nothing more than a mere contract between two consenting persons, or worse just another option, it ceases to restrain our self-centered passions. Self-centeredness harms not only that relationship but also others as well until it spreads throughout society like ripples in a pond. Abandoning the “others before self” concept of marriage for the self-serving concept of contractual relationships between autonomous individuals makes us increasingly narcissistic, ultimately leading toward moral and social collapse. Across America the institution of marriage is being assailed, reduced to nothing more than a sentimental ceremony between consenting adults, radically redefined, or simply abandoned altogether.”

Yup. All that abandonment is contained in the article we read above and what we see enacted every day.

In the distant past, we were given biblical verses about how the world would be in the far future. There are specific prophecies about the coming perilous times, and there is no doubt we are living in those perilous times now. Conditions that we see all around us that did not exist at all or didn’t exist to the degree we see them today, such as the blatant and constant pressure to dispense with traditional marriage, are all around us. This disposal is a tragic and irreversible mistake.

That satanic urge to dispose of marriage the way God intended does not come only from the homosexual agenda but from all quarters, as we saw above. Once the foundational block of society is done away with then all else can crumble. Is this not happening now? Of course it is. The excessive narcissism that homosexual or triadic or polygamous or adulterous marriage definitions promote lead inevitably to societal collapse. And thus, society is collapsing. Paul wrote of the conditions we were to expect:

“Godlessness in the Last Days

1But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.” (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

You notice the last part of verse 5 says “having an appearance of godliness”. The people perpetrating the perilous acts will be people who seem good, having a godly appearance, pious and sincere. Yet they will be in the inside, brutal, selfish, without-self control.

The article about marriage I linked to above concludes:

“Marriage is simply the highest of all human relationships and therefore must never be entered into lightly. It is the means of procreating humanity, nurturing and training subsequent generations, producing social order and for the Christian, the best means for perpetuating the Gospel. … If marriage is allowed to die in America as it is in other Western nations our posterity will inherit a godless culture.”

I maintain that THIS GENERATION is the inheritor of the godless culture. The constant barrage of marriage redefinitions (among other horrifying conditions) hath wrought godlessness in the last days. The only good news to this statement is that as the culture becomes ever more like it was in the Days of Noah (Matthew 24:37) and the Days of Lot, (Luke 17:28), it means the Day of the Lord is even closer and that means the rapture of the saints is even closer than that! But for the sinner, The Day of the LORD is near, said Zephaniah! Consider his words, ye sinners!

The great day of the Lord is near,
near and hastening fast;
the sound of the day of the Lord is bitter;
the mighty man cries aloud there.
A day of wrath is that day,
a day of distress and anguish,
a day of ruin and devastation,
a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick darkness,
a day of trumpet blast and battle cry
against the fortified cities
and against the lofty battlements.
I will bring distress on mankind,
so that they shall walk like the blind,
because they have sinned against the Lord;
their blood shall be poured out like dust,
and their flesh like dung.
Neither their silver nor their gold
shall be able to deliver them
on the day of the wrath of the Lord.
In the fire of his jealousy,
all the earth shall be consumed;
for a full and sudden end
he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth.
(Zephaniah 1:14-18)

Posted in cowan, marriage, mayo clinic

Older couple at Mayo Clinic charms onlookers

Posted on by elizabethprata

The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, is famous for its medical expertise and care. They installed a grand piano in the atrium of the Gonda building which is used often by people who want to share the gift of music. This older couple did just that. Fran and Marlo Cowan, married 62 years, played Old Grey Bonnet to the great joy of the people in the atrium. Some who where there were using walkers, others were in wheelchairs. The couple’s playfulness with each other and joy of life lifted the spirits of the people who were waiting there, some for cancer treatments. Fran turned 90 in February…but his energy and joy was contagious.

This is a snippet from the Mayo Clinic blog of a daughter who had brought her mom for a cancer treatment and they both watched and heard the couple play the song.

“And then we heard the piano and the laughter. From the balcony we could see an older couple sitting side by side at the piano playing together and entertaining a host of people. Some were in wheelchairs, others were sitting with canes beside them or standing. Everyone was smiling with all burdens forgotten for the moment. The joy was absolutely indescribable. When we asked them to play one more for us, Fran and Marlow Cowan, who have been married for more than 62 years, treated us to an exceptional performance that is now a “youtube” sensation.”

Turning attention to the married couple, 62 years together and counting, it is God’s way that marriage should be loving and playful and committed. He set it up that way.

“The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.

But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then 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.”

That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:18-24)
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Posted in al and tipper gore, end time, marriage, prophecy

So Al and Tipper separate. Why the hoopla?

Posted on by elizabethprata

So after forty years, Al and Tipper Gore are separating. A very public marriage fails after four decades, and the world is stunned. Immediately, the fallen seek to make sense of this failure, and attribute all sorts of reasons as to why the marital cement should crack after so many years of apparent solidity. “Why do marriages fail?” asked David Arp in Time Magazine. The possible reasons were listed throughout the article, speculated over, wondered about to the best of fallen man’s ability. Here they are:

What often happens is that the fun goes out of the marriage
The two of them decide they just can’t do this anymore
They took a detour onto the Appalachian Trail, (adultery)
They went though life change
It is a burden being in the public eye
A union of more than 35 or so years is not always pretty to behold.
They decided they did not enjoy the view.
They grew apart and the chasm was too wide to bridge.
After all these years of pretending, they can finally admit they never liked each other.

All those are external, superficial reasons. Life change? It happens to everybody, so if that is the criteria then no wonder half of all marriages fail! It is burdensome? Life is burdensome! Burdens happen to everybody. If that is the criteria then no wonder half of all marriages fail! It is typical of man to be so casual of his own sinful reasons for a sacred failure. “It’s not fun”, or “I don’t like the view” are horrific statements. But we know all this. We read from  2 Timothy 3:1-5, “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.” We know man is fallen and getting worse each decade. We know that men trivialize the sacred, including marriage. We know that most are ungrateful and selfish. The above statements indicate the truth of the prophecy. So what else is there to say about this failed marriage? Let’s return to the national reaction for a moment for the deeper reason:

The Chicago Tribune said the “news came as a shock“. The Washington Post as “stunned.” The Huffington Post reports that friends are “dumfounded.” Tampa Bay Online reports that friend Chris Downey is “beyond shocked“.

Did you ever stop to think why, in this day and age, people are shocked and stunned at the failure of a 40-year marriage? After all, isn’t marriage ‘just a piece of paper’? And isn’t marriage, well, anything we want it to be, since men can marry men, women can marry women, and triads are the next thing? Can’t marriage end through ‘no fault’ these days? Dennis Hopper, who just died, was married 6 times and one of those was only for 8 days. Hollywood marriages, they call them. Women are discarded for the “flavor of the week”, men are “sugar daddies”. When illegals marry a citizen to become a citizen themselves marriage is simply a vehicle to citizenship. There are marriages of convenience, and when no longer convenient, we are told the just tear up ‘that piece of paper.’ Marriage is scorned, ripped, trivialized, redefined, used, and discarded. So why the shock? Sadness? Why the hoopla? If marriage is ‘nothing’ as our culture keeps telling us it is, then why aren’t people just saying, ‘oh well, too bad’ for Al & Tipper and move on?

Marriage is sacred, that’s why. Though the secular world denies it as sacred institution, marriage is in fact, a spiritual state to which our soul longs. Why? Because Jesus is in the middle of it. We long and thirst to fill that emptiness with Him. We are born with that emptiness and that thirst for Him, our Groom. Every sinner longs for the spiritual mirror of His security that Jesus provides for us through marriage and family. God so loves marriage that He uses it as a picture of the relationship Jesus has with His believers, the bride, and wants to have with unbelievers, His lost. That’s why marriage is sacred. That’s why we seek its enactment and mourn its failure, despite our culture’s apparent trivialization of it.

Marriage is described in the bible as a union becoming “one flesh” (Genesis 2:23-24). This relationship is not centered on self with statements of “me and my” but on sacrifice toward the other, “us and our.” It is where our up and down relationship with Jesus translates to our back and forth relationship between husband and wife. A marital relationship without Jesus will ultimately fail, either publicly like the Gores, or spiritually, privately. A Godly marriage is a spiritual blessing. An ungodly marriage is man’s palest and worst presentation of fleshliness, doubled.

The world is “shocked” because at heart we, the bride, are empty without our Groom.  Deep in our souls, the only Person who can fill that emptiness inside us is Jesus. Marriage is sacred, no matter how the people try to sweep it under the rug. And the reaction to the Gore’s failed marriage shows us that despite man’s best attempts to crush marriage as a sacred institution, the thirst for the Divine is in all of us.