Matthew 19:1-12 Remember that every time the Pharisees test Jesus with a question, it wasn't because they wanted the answer, it was to test Him. So the question they ask is purposely a binary choice. A question with intentionally so, only two possible answers, yes or No. In Jesus’ day there were two schools of thought on the subject of divorce. The liberal school taught that divorce was permitted if your wife burned breakfast. Yeah, literally that's in the language of the scholarly books. The conservative school taught that divorce was not permitted, at all in any way but only permitted in cases where the spouse was unfaithful, so it was two extremes on opposite ends. So the Jews test Him, because either answer isolates half of the population. So Jesus answers the fundamental issue under the question will God allow divorce? And Jesus's answer is very firm, at marriage, two bodies are joined into one flesh. And God considers the marriage indelible, permanent from the beginning. The truth is no, God doesn't want divorce for his people. God never intended divorce to exist. He allowed it to exist because of the hardness of the hearts of the people. However this does not say that an abused spouse must stay in such a relationship because to divorce would be a sin. It does not suggest anything close to that. If a spouse or child is being abused for that there is no good excuse. But Moses gave the Israelites an out. If your husband is unfaithful, a divorce frees the wife to remarry. And vice versa with the wife being unfaithful. Remember too that in cases where someone commits adultery there is likely a death penalty coming. So a divorce may not be called for simply because the guilty party is taking a dirt nap after being rocked to sleep. How serious is Jesus's advice? He's telling the men that the question of marriage being permanent is truth and as God intended. So they say, “If the relationship of the man with his wife is like this, it is better not to marry.” And they were right. Then Jesus contemplates eunuchs. Eunuchs were men who were so dedicated to God that they had their sexual organs removed, and anesthesia had not been invented yet. And please understand that Jesus isn't advocating for sexual organs being removed He is saying, “men, if you can't resist the urge to commit adultery, you're better off not having it.” In other words, get a grip on yourself if you can't resist temptation, learn to control yourself as a single or as a married man. And yes, there are some people who God gifted with the talent and personality to remain single. Sadly, sometimes those people marry anyway in defiance of God's plans. And the beginning of trouble in their life occurs when they realize their mistakes. There are others who feel they are on the opposite end of that position, people who feel incomplete or lost if they aren't in a relationship. These people hop from partner to partner looking for the “one“ but never actually finding them. Then you have the partners that are never satisfied with their partner. Nothing is ever enough for them. Wives who would sacrifice their family for their own happiness while their man will sacrifice his happiness for his family. This seems to be a trend of modern women for whom the end goal in life is their happiness. Jesus Is saying that divorce is a horrible thing that was never supposed to exist. That for some it is better to castrate themselves than to marry. It should serve as a reminder that the decision to marry should not be taken lightly. [1] When Jesus had finished these words, He left Galilee and came into the region of Judea beyond the Jordan; [2] and large crowds followed Him, and He healed them there. [3] Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?” [4] And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, [5] and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? [6] So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no person is to separate.” [7] They *said to Him, “Why, then, did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away?” [8] He *said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way. [9] And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.” [10] The disciples *said to Him, “If the relationship of the man with his wife is like this, it is better not to marry.” [11] But He said to them, “Not all men can accept this statement, but only those to whom it has been given. [12] For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother’s womb; and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by people; and there are also eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who is able to accept this, let him accept it.”

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Hey everyone, if you haven't already, please check out my blog, A Closer Look. My name is Jeff Miller, a pastor and author, finding a way through this blog to articulate the array of stuff running around inside his head. Things like: People are searching for a deeper understanding of Christianity. Is it true? What makes it true? Is the Bible historically reliable? The postmodern generation has many questions. Here, we’ll examine some of those questions and more. We’ll also examine and give insight into our culture through the lense of a Conservative Christian worldview. Please subscribe so that you can receive posts directly into your inbox. https://acloserlookjm.wordpress.com/

Daily devotion for July 16th What Does It Take To Obey? Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him. John 14:21 To read this, Obey Me, and you will love Me, produces a mechanical, dry Christianity with no warmth or joy or glory. But what Jesus says is, If you love Me, you will obey Me. It is easy to do, not difficult. Notice that it is not, If you love Me, you will have to keep My commandments. No, it is cause and effect: If you love Me, the result is that you will keep My commandments. That is the secret of all proper behavior in the Christian experience. The proof of our love is obedience. If it takes love to obey, what produces love? That is the issue. If you see a Christian disobeying Christ or you are tempted to disobey, what is it that will turn you around and make you obey? It is love. How do you produce love? What will make you love Him? This is what ties together verses 20 and 21. It is that basic secret of our identity that creates love--the Spirit in us, releasing to us the love of Jesus, awakens love from us in return. Remember how John puts it in his first letter: We love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19). Remembering this awakens love. Or, as Paul puts it in Romans 5, God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us (Romans 5:5). Therefore, the way to produce love is to remember who you are, to whom you belong, and who He is--His death, His resurrection, and His unity with you, His present indwelling life. You cannot remind yourself of that without experiencing a renewed sense of His love and feeling gratitude to Him for who He is and what He has done in your life. When that love begins to flow, then you are being motivated to obey. Much of the mythology of the ancient world was based upon biblical truth; some of our modern fables reflect that truth as well. For example, no one ever expected anything out of the ordinary from Clark Kent, that mild-mannered newspaper reporter. But whenever there was a sudden demand for action far beyond the ability of mere humans, he always stepped into the nearest phone booth, stripped off his conservative business suit, and emerged, complete with bulging muscles and spectacular costume, as Superman--able to do what otherwise he could not do. That is exactly what the Word of God is teaching us. We are to retire to the phone booth of our identity with Christ, to remind ourselves of who we are, to whom we belong, and who is within us, and immediately we find love and motivation and power available to us. We are able to do what otherwise we could not do. This is what our Lord is teaching His disciples at this moment: If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Lord, teach me to retreat to that place where I can renew my mind with the realities of my identity in Christ--that I am loved with an everlasting love, filled with Your Spirit, and able to obey by the power at work in me.

Pastor Loran Livingston is not an obscure voice. He is the longtime pastor of Central Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he has served for more than four decades. That makes his recent remarks all the more significant. When a pastor of his experience and influence declares that America has never been, is not now, and never can be a Christian nation, his words carry weight. They also merit careful examination. Pastor Livingston recently argued that America cannot rightly be called a Christian nation because of its many sins. He cited the killing and displacement of Native Americans, the evil of slavery, the carnage of the Civil War, the slaughter of the unborn, gender confusion, the mutilation of children, and the promotion of same-sex unions. Much of what he condemned deserves condemnation. No Christian should defend the mistreatment of Native Americans, slavery, abortion, sexual confusion, or the redefinition of marriage. These are not minor matters. They are serious national sins. But Pastor Livingston’s conclusion does not follow from his evidence. Livingston acknowledged that godly people came to these shores seeking religious freedom, that great Bible preachers thundered from American pulpits, and that some who helped build this country were godly. “But,” he concluded, “it has never been a Christian nation — and never will be.” That may sound bold. It may even sound prophetic. Nevertheless, it seeks to answer an argument many serious Christians are not making. When thoughtful Christians speak of America as a Christian nation, they do not mean the United States is the Church. They do not mean every American is saved, every Founder was orthodox, every law was righteous, every war was just, or every public act was pleasing to God. Only individuals can be redeemed by the blood of Christ. America is not the Kingdom of God. However, that is not the full question. The real question is whether America’s founding principles, moral assumptions, legal traditions, understanding of liberty, and concept of human rights were significantly shaped by Christianity. On that point, the historical record is extensive. The Declaration of Independence appeals to “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God,” asserts that men are “endowed by their Creator” with certain unalienable rights, appeals to “the Supreme Judge of the world,” and closes with “a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence.” Those words do not make the Declaration a church confession. But they do show that America’s founding was neither secularist nor atheistic nor religiously neutral. Rights were not treated as gifts from the government but as gifts from God. Government was not the source of moral authority. It was answerable to a higher authority. This understanding is not a recent invention of conservative Christians. In 1892, the United States Supreme Court recognized this historical reality in Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States. After reviewing numerous public acknowledgments of God and Christianity in American life, the Court concluded that these declarations contributed “to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation.” That statement meant then what many Christians still mean today: America’s laws, customs, institutions, and moral assumptions were profoundly formed by Christianity. Pastor Livingston points to America’s sins as though they erase her Christian inheritance. They do not. They only reveal how often the nation has betrayed it. A nation may possess great religious light and still rebel against it. Israel worshiped idols, oppressed the poor, shed innocent blood, and rejected the prophets. Yet Scripture still recognized Israel’s religious identity while condemning Israel’s sins. Nor should we speak only of America’s sins while ignoring the immeasurable good this nation has done because it has adhered to Christian principles. Under the influence of those principles, America has helped advance human dignity, moral accountability, ordered liberty, charitable service, education, hospitals, orphan care, prison reform, abolitionist efforts, civil rights appeals, and countless ministries to the poor, the addicted, the hungry, the sick, and the forgotten. America has often failed to live up to her own ideals, but when she has lived nearest to the Christian truths that gave those ideals moral substance, she has been a blessing not only to her own citizens but also to the world. In their book 'What If the Bible Had Never Been Written?', the late Dr. D. James Kennedy and Jerry Newcombe observed that claiming America is, or ever was, a “Christian nation” has become “fighting words.” They noted the irony that in a country so profoundly molded by Christians, believers now find themselves on the defensive. The secularist who attacks Christianity in America, they wrote, is like “a petty ingrate standing atop a large pyramid constructed by the sweat and blood of Christians, hurling stones at their descendants.” That is a powerful image. But it is even more grievous when one of our own Christian brethren repeats an argument that, however unintentionally, does similar harm. Pastor Livingston surely does not intend to aid secularism. Still, his argument undermines the sacrifices of countless faithful Christians who labor to reconnect America with her religious moorings. Those moorings are part of why preachers like Livingston and all of us have the liberty to stand in a pulpit, open the Scriptures, and proclaim the Gospel without fear of government reprisal. Those moorings are also what secular forces in our day are working tirelessly to erase. That is why Pastor Livingstone’s argument is troubling. It tells Christians, in effect, that there is nothing to return to — that America was never meaningfully shaped by Christianity, never possessed a Christian moral foundation, and can never legitimately be described as Christian in any historical or cultural sense. That is simply not true. No serious Christian claims America is a redeemed nation or that citizenship is the same as salvation. The debate is not whether America has always obeyed God. She has not. The debate is not whether America’s history contains grievous sins. It does. The debate is whether America’s founding ideals were rooted in a moral order derived from the Christian understanding of God, man, law, liberty, and justice. They were. The very sins Pastor Livingston names can only be rightly judged by a standard higher than the shifting opinions of men. Why is slavery wrong? Why is abortion evil? Why is the mutilation of children wicked? Why is marriage not whatever the culture says it is? Why should the poor, the veteran, the unborn, the stranger, and the weak be treated with dignity? Why should civil government protect the innocent, punish wrongdoing, and recognize moral limits at all? The answer is clear: because there is a just God in heaven, because man is made in His image, because His law is righteous, and because no government has the authority to redefine what God has established. Granted, America is not saved by patriotic sentiment. America needs the Gospel. Americans need to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, nations remain accountable to God and will be judged by Him. A nation can expect to prosper when it honors righteousness and be ruined when it celebrates evil. The Scriptures say, “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34). That verse does not say righteousness exalts only the Church. It says righteousness exalts a nation. Any nation. And sin is a reproach to any people. Therefore, Christians should not become discouraged and give up the effort to call America back to truth. In recent years, after many years of political advocacy by Christians, old ground has been retaken. There is still much work to be done. It is a serious error to argue that America has no Christian heritage simply because she has often sinned against it. America’s sins prove that she desperately needs to return to the same Christian truths that provided her with her highest ideals — the very truths she has so often betrayed. See Related Article by Rev. Mark Creech: Navigating Faith and Civic Responsibility: Pastor Loran Livingston’s Controversial Sermon https://www.renewamerica.com/columns/creech/240506 If you found this article helpful or meaningful, please share it with others. You can read this article, as well as many others by Rev. Mark Creech at RevMarkCreech.org

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