We are to love all people; lovers, users, haters, persecutors, cursers, etc with the love of God. We are to bless them, do good to them, and pray for them (Matthew 5:43-48). Responding with love where love seems underserved is one way we grow and mature in love (agape).
Can we briefly reflect on the things that meant all things to us before the onset of COVID-19? Looking back now, can we say like Paul that we indeed abounded and still abound
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Proverbs 18:9 associates a slothful person with a destroyer, suggesting that being slothful is destructive.
This scripture suggests a progressive work and walk towards attainment of the exemplary Christian personality. It starts with the foundation of faith towards a purposeful and progressive addition of other virtues
“… ‘Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. And when she saw, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, ‘Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and shalt call his name JESUS.” Luke 1: 28-31 KJV.
MARY
How does a young virgin respond to being told by a man she’s meeting for the first time that she has found favor with God?
Michael sure didn’t look like an angel when he appeared to Mary. No! he came to her in human form; as a man.
Flip that scene to today’s realities; a good-looking man walks up to a young naïve and innocent Mary declaring that she’s found favor with God….? Chances are that Mary could smile sheepishly, blushing all over considering her naïvety and gentle nature, or she could blow her tops, wishing he never appeared anywhere in her vicinity again.
In today’s world, not many top-level women get to prestigious positions through sheer brilliance, creativity or hard work. Not many get there because they’re innocent, naïve and gentle. If you got the charms, use it or burn with your brains and talents.
That is not the case for a select distinct group of persons who received a blessed Jesus born by a highly favored and blessed Mary. Ask Elizabeth about how favor permeated the air to reach her from a favored Mary such that she became filled with the Holy Ghost and prophesied (Luke 1: 41-43). Jesus Christ is no longer in Mary’s womb, no! He lives in us. We are blessed and highly favored.
Favored means to be treated or thought of with greatness, preference or partiality. Having special gifting, talents and advantages. Privileged.
Oh! I proclaim that because I received Jesus Christ as Lord and Master over my life, I am blessed, highly favored, greatly gifted and talented. God is bias in my favor and He thinks of me with greatness because I am an offspring of a Great God. He is partial towards me and so I am constantly being preferred in the things that line up with His will and plan for my life.
Thank You Faithful Father.
Mystery #1: A greatly blessed child born of a highly blessed and favored mother got me great favor and blessings!
This is a new blogpost series and I already see it taking us several weeks to conclude. I find this topic to be surprisingly very controversial. Surprising for me because, coming from a premise that the topic is centered on a ‘Christian man’, I have some expectations.
Should a Christian man have more than one woman?
Let’s start from the beginning. What do we mean by ‘Have’ in this blogpost?
We are told in 1 Corinthians 7:2;
“But because of (the temptation to participate in) sexual immorality, let each man HAVE his own wife and let each woman HAVE her own husband.”
And in Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:5, and Ephesians 5:31
“For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined (and be faithfully devoted) to his wife and they shall become one flesh.”
So “HAVE” here simply means being married, faithfully devoted and committed to one woman or man. By the way, ‘man’ as used here is not generic but specifically refers to a male human!
Somebody says; ‘Grace your references are from the Bible!’
And I say; Yes! this is a Christian Blog site 🙂 and so though we try to adopt a rounded approach to life’s issues, our final reference is the Bible. And do I love the Bible? YES indeed! 🙂
In simple terms then, the questions we are looking at providing answers to in this blogpost series are; should a christian man be married to only one woman or can he have as many wives as he chooses? Should a christian man share his commitment and devotion between 2 or more women? Should a christian man keep concubines with or without his wife’s knowledge?
Because I counsel people and also have a blog site that focuses on providing Godly perspectives to everyday real life issues, when I meet logical and analytical men, I try to engage them to get their perspective on specific man/woman issues.
I have in recent times therefore, tried to understand why men cheat on their women. And it’s been very surprising for me, in fact almost unbelievable, that most men that I talked with (Christians and non-Christians) strongly believe that a man’s physical build and biological constitution constantly predisposes him to ‘having’ more than one woman. This then begs the question; is this assertion true, if true, is it exclusive to men or can women claim same for themselves?
Further questions for me though are: is God not unjust in expecting a man to be joined, committed and faithfully devoted to only one woman (as we see from scriptures cited above), if He created man with an insatiable sexual appetite? And why the emphasis on keeping away from adultery having put unbridled and fierce passions and desires in a man?
If this is really true, then I say it, that God has not dealt justly with the man!
In part 2 of this blogpost series, we’ll see from the scriptures if God has given man an irrepressible and unquenchable passions and desires towards every woman.
My love always……
