{"id":5797,"date":"2018-01-16T14:02:20","date_gmt":"2018-01-16T20:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/?p=5797"},"modified":"2018-01-16T14:02:20","modified_gmt":"2018-01-16T20:02:20","slug":"grandpa-say-marriage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/2018\/01\/16\/grandpa-say-marriage\/","title":{"rendered":"What Would Grandpa Say About Marriage?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jim Mettenbrink<\/strong>
\nRecently, Grandpa gave advice about personal responsibility. There is perhaps no greater decision that will affect your earthly life and happiness and possibly your eternal destiny than whom\u00a0you will marry. And that decision has tremendous responsibility and must not be treated lightly in any way. Unfortunately, most folks follow their attractions and passion, rather than what is rational and\u00a0Biblical.\u00a0<\/span>
\nGrandma said frequently, “We got married for life;\u00a0there was no option.” This brings to mind something\u00a0Grandma said in the mid 1950s when I was a boy. To my mother, she hardly whispered audibly, “She\u2019s divorced,” as if it was unmentionable. In fact divorce was a scourge of society. Until I left home at age 19, I did not know anyone who was divorced. On my\u00a0father\u2019s\u00a0and mother\u2019s side of the family, no one in their generation was divorced. With only two exceptions (death),\u00a0all of them enjoyed\u00a060 years of marriage each to\u00a0one<\/b>\u00a0spouse.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\nGrandma said when her sisters\u00a0married,\u00a0they simply went to the minister\u2019s house for a short ceremony exchanging vows, a commitment made between them before God that lasted over 60 years. Ironically today thousands\u00a0of dollars, even tens of thousands,\u00a0are spent on an elaborate ceremony, with a high risk that in a few years the couple will divorce.\u00a0<\/span>
\nThe preciousness and sanctity of marriage has now become the disposable tissue of society. If you don\u2019t like it, throw it away and get another. Because of lack of respect for God and His law of marriage, the lack of commitment and because of selfishness, the risk of divorce is very high. Of those who divorced, 65% of the women and 50% of the men were 24 years old or younger when they first married. Recently, I watched an interview with a U.S.\u00a0elected official during which a comment was made about the serious consequences of broken homes in our society. The man said his parents had each been married four times and he\u00a0had\u00a0lived in 17 houses in his childhood. God said, “I\u00a0hate divorce” (Malachi 2:16).\u202f\u00a0<\/span>
\nAdditionally, about 20 years ago, a survey conducted among\u00a0churches of Christ revealed that 80% of Christians who married non-Christians fell away from the faith. In other words, they lost their eternity in\u00a0Heaven with Jesus. These stats and God\u2019s attitude should cause all people,\u00a0especially young people, when their passions and emotions cloud and even blind\u00a0their\u00a0common sense and reason, to be extremely cautious in selecting a lifetime spouse.\u00a0<\/span>
\nThe devil is an expert at deceiving folks into believing that how they “feel” in their heart is right or they even think it comes from God. God said through the prophet, “The heart is deceitful above all things….” (Jeremiah 17:9). You must beware you do not deceive yourself. Such is like the fruit Eve and Adam ate\u2013\u2013it was irresistible and deadly. They were deceived by the devil and their own desires (deceived themselves).\u00a0<\/span>
\nTo be sure, God created us with emotions, and physical attractions, but He also gave us a brain\u2013\u2013intelligence\u2013\u2013to work through these attractions to come to a decision that is in harmony with God. So how does one avoid this disastrous pitfall\u2013\u2013divorce? And have a reasonable assurance of happiness in this life?\u00a0And eternity!\u00a0<\/span>
\nAside from preventing fornication (1 Corinthians 7:8-9), marriage has one primary purpose\u2013\u2013bring the next generation into the world (Genesis 1:28; 9:1). You as a parent will have the responsibility to lead your children to\u00a0Heaven\u2013\u2013that means both parents have the responsibility to teach them God\u2019s way (Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Ephesians 6:4). Logically, Christians must be faithful to God and marry only faithful Christians if they expect to be successful in rearing their children with the desire to love the Lord, following Him as a Christian. When the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, he commanded widows to marry “only in the Lord,” that is a Christian man (1 Corinthians 7:39). Why?\u00a0Because wives are to be in subjection to their husbands (Ephesians 5:22).\u00a0If this\u00a0is\u00a0God\u2019s will, would it not be for all Christian women?\u00a0If not,\u00a0why not?\u00a0The question is, “Will you be a faithful and responsible Christian?”\u00a0<\/span>
\nLife is full of uncertainty. In fact the only thing that is certain is uncertainty. However, because God has given us freewill\u2013\u2013that is the privilege to choose\u2013\u2013we must make choices that give the best possibility of certainty. In the case of marriage,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0whether your child goes to\u00a0Heaven or\u00a0Hell. Nearly 30 years ago, an older preacher who saw that the risk was so great of children being lost eternally told me, he would never bring children into the world today (1985) because of the challenge to rear them so they would want to be faithful Christians and go to\u00a0Heaven and not\u00a0Hell.\u202f\u00a0<\/span>
\nBy marrying a faithful Christian,\u00a0your children have the best opportunity of going to\u00a0Heaven. In contrast marrying some one who is not a faithful Christian gives the devil the best opportunity to take your child to\u00a0Hell? The ultimate question becomes, “How much do you love your future children?”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jim Mettenbrink Recently, Grandpa gave advice about personal responsibility. There is perhaps no greater decision that will affect your earthly life and happiness and possibly your eternal destiny than whom\u00a0you will marry. And that decision has tremendous responsibility and must not be treated lightly in any way. Unfortunately, most folks follow their attractions and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[59,26,66],"tags":[1271,25,1352,1353,1334],"class_list":["post-5797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-living","category-marriagehomosexuality","category-think-excerpts","tag-jim-mettenbrink","tag-marriage","tag-may-2013","tag-responsibility","tag-what-would-grandpa-say","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Would Grandpa Say About Marriage? - Focus Press<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/2018\/01\/16\/grandpa-say-marriage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Would Grandpa Say About Marriage? - Focus Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Jim Mettenbrink Recently, Grandpa gave advice about personal responsibility. 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