crochet1949 wrote:
Marriage is Both a spiritual and legal union.
I guess so. In general, that's what it is. However, it may also be just one or just the other. The godly union is recognized by God and doesn't require legal sanction for God to recognize it. A purely legal marriage - such as those of the kings of Israel - or modern marriages of convenience, are certainly not recognized by God.
(Marriage licenses do not exist in my jurisdiction. They sound like a tax grab...!)
Hold everything lightly. If you don't, it will hurt when God pries your fingers loose as He takes it from you. -Corrie Ten Boom
+ + +
If they had a social gospel in the days of the prodigal son, somebody would have given him a bed and a sandwich and he never would have gone home.
Young man stayed in city then working & start going to church
He keeps his Bible as well and still prayed to GOD in his secret room.
LORD, HE built this man's life freshly. He had new life & new goal & new family & dedicated one, his wife who can walk with him. Because HE's redeemer. However he lost many things from his life but he tried to walk with his GOD by all his strength & faith even he was nothing in passed years, Then GOD listened, totally recovered the life of this scratched man.
Job 42:10
Trust the past to God’s mercy, the present to God’s love, and the future to God’s providence. -St Augustine
I don't know Where the legal marriage license came from. But - at least in U.S. A. -- society expects Used to expect - - it Used to be assumed that a guy and gal date, get married , and have their family. It was / Used to be a Shameful thing for guys/gals to simply move in together / shack up together / the gal gets pregnant. The child would be considered illigitimate. It also Used to be that the pastor marrying the couple would say - at the alter -- would say with the authority of the 'state of Iowa -- I pronounce you to be husband and wife. He could legally marry people. People go to a justice of the peace to get married. In a pastor's office -- after the ceremony -- the pastor and two witnesses sign the license and it is sent to the proper office to make them 'legal'. Just the way it is -- Both spiritual - and legal.
I believe it was RickD who commented about the legal things -- children, wills, who gets called in an emergency in a hospital -- next of kin, etc. Laws are Needed and should be obeyed.
And Sure there are people who get together -- never marry-- committed to each other for their lives. They get along fine in the community, don't make it Known that they aren't married. But there are Also those who are determined to be Vocal about it -- more a political point -- Their Right to live their lives anyway they Choose to. And it Is true -- people Can live however they choose to -- their Rights end at the other person's nose -- so to speak. So - what message are we giving to those around us.
"Those things which were assigned to nature when it was well established in its beginning belong especially to the law of nature. Now the indissolubility of marriage is one of these things according to Matthew 19:4, 6. Therefore it is of natural law. Further, it is of natural law that man should not oppose himself to God. Yet man would, in a way, oppose himself to God if he were to sunder 'what God hath joined together.' Since then the indissolubility of marriage is gathered from this passage (Matthew 19:6) it would seem that it is of natural law."
- St. Thomas Aquinas ("Summa Theologica," 13th century A.D.)
- Matthew 19:3-9
divorce is a very serious matter. God brought you together. it is for this reason :
they two shall be in one flesh. Therefore now they are not two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.
how do separate one flesh ... the very flesh God has placed in your path for your well being ? how do you, as a christian, put asunder anything God has joined ?
Trust the past to God’s mercy, the present to God’s love, and the future to God’s providence. -St Augustine
Yes, divorce IS a very serious matter. So is marriage. People get married for a variety of reasons and divorce in that respect also. And, at some point in the future we Will answer to God for our actions. Sometimes divorce is necessary and sometimes simply convenient. No easy answers.
