Being Childless: Bible's Perspective, Part 5

For part 4 in the series, please click, Being Childless, Part 4

Does it mean that all the other barren women in history are sinful? Of course not. Does it mean that all the other barren women in history failed to have the divine intervention in their life? We do not know. God while executing his wonderful plan of bringing glory to His name in the lives of these five barren women, He also revealed that a barren woman is not cursed. I talk to the believing women and not to the unbelievers. If you have not repented of your sins and have not given your life to Jesus Christ, God’s wrath is on you. You are cursed, whether you have a child or you do not have a child. Will you be able to bear a child, once you repent? I do not have the authority to say that. You may, you may not. You don’t come to Christ because your needs are met, you come to Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.

God’s redemptive work is complete. Through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross and His resurrection on the third day, God has completed the redemptive work. God’s Word is complete. We cannot add to it, neither can we subtract from it. All the examples of the Old Testament are for our exhortation and not to increase our suffering. That is why He commanded in Matt 28: 19, ‘to go and make disciples.’ You do not make disciples by continuing to wait for the Lord to help you conceive. You do not fulfill the command by wasting the best years of life wallowing in self-pity, medication, suffering, humiliation, loneliness and pain.

Were we not saved by grace? Are we not adopted ones? After the redemptive work was complete, only then did He adopt us to His family. Right? Originally, we are not a part of his family but because of the work on the cross, we can call Him, ‘Abba’, ‘Father’. Don’t we? Then, how is it that you refuse to adopt a child into your family and provide a child with parents? How is it that you do not want to give a child the opportunity to call you ‘Dad’, ‘Mom’? Do you want to start in grace and finish with the work of the flesh? Is the work of Christ in vain? Did you not receive grace that you refuse to be gracious? Have you not receive mercy that you refuse to be merciful?

We spend our whole lives preaching and proclaiming the gospel of Christ. And after all the effort, the soul of an unrepentant sinner is not in our hands. God gives repentance. He opens the heart of individuals to repent and turn away from their sins and come to the saving knowledge of Christ. I am yet to claim even one individual as my child in Christ as a result of my preaching.

Is it not wonderful, that God has made you barren and given an opportunity to save an orphan from this wicked world, rescue him from hell, provide him/her with godly parents, raise him/her in the fear of the Lord? Are you so ignorant that you do not know, understand the purposes of God? You who have children, are not excused, refuse to adopt children, when you have sufficient resources to provide and care for the child. I talk to Indian Christian parents.

You decide. Is it not easy for a child to be rescued from hell than a man with all the knowledge, sinful experiences and influences that pull and drive him? Will not the child spend the first eighteen years of life under your care and influence? Will you not be able to impact his/her life through your prayer, study of the Word and love?

We live in a period of grace. Miracles were designed to happen along with the preaching of the gospel, to enable the world to see the hand of God behind the preaching of the Word. God is not in the business of opening wombs but in the redeeming of sinners from hell. He is not in the business of performing physical miracles but spiritual miracles. He died and rose again to change people’s heart.

God wants you to be happy. He wants you to be satisfied. His command is that you be content. You have a choice to be on His side or your own. You are not ‘incidentally childless, you are not ‘unfortunately childless’. God designed your family life that way. He is in control. He has occasioned that you be happy and content by adopting in your family a child and bring glory to his name by helping the child to see, know and experience God’s love, redemptive power, and grace. At the same time, fill your life with joy, thrill, excitement, energy, love and desire for each other.

My joy is complete when I know that you obey God’s Word. Continue in grace.

Abusive Marriage: Biblical Perspective, Part 3

For part 2 in the series, please click, Abusive Marriage, Part 2

So, how do you deal with an abusive spouse in an abusive marriage?

Purpose

Number one is by knowing that marriage is not all that there is to the life of a Christian. You have not been created and saved to suffer in an abusive marriage. You have been created to serve God. Col 3:24b says, ‘for you serve the Lord Christ.’ Eph 2:10 says, ‘For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.’ See, we have been created by God to serve Him by doing good deeds/works. Also, we have been saved to serve God. II Tim 1:9, ‘Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling.’

Understand this folks, you have been bought with the precious blood of Christ, which means through Christ’s death, we’ve been bought. I Pet 1:19. You are not your own. I Cor 6:19b.

You are not your own

You are God’s property. Your identity and being is in God. You were and are married with the purpose of serving God through the help and support of your spouse. You live for Christ as Paul said in Phil 1:21, ‘For to me, to live is Christ.’

Do not remain stuck in an abusive marriage for the sake of retaining your marital status. Run the race like an athlete laying aside every weight with endurance the race that is set before us. Heb 12:1

Position

Suffering in futility

Husband and wife are co-heirs of the grace of life I Pet 3:7. ‘Grace’ simply means a ‘gift’, and one of the best gifts life has to offer is marriage. Thus, Bible gives equal status to both the man and the woman. A woman is not a slave to her husband and a husband is not a master to her. You do not have to suffer mental and physical abuse, humiliation, assault, harassment, and be neglected. Do not consider such abuse as suffering for Christ. Don’t pat yourself on the back that you are enduring suffering for the sake of Christ.

Pain

The more you suffer and endure it, the more you will accumulate hurt feelings, harbor grudge, bitterness, hatred, and anger against your spouse and the more difficult will it be for you to forgive and move on or reconcile with your spouse in the future. Talk to your spouse of the pain that He/she is inflicting on you. If he/she accepts her/his sin, you’ve gained your spouse. If he/she does not, confront your spouse with few members of the church. If he/she accepts, great! But if he/she does not, take the matter to the church. If he/she still does not accept his/her sin, then let the church consider such as sinner and throw him/her out of the church. Matt 18:15-20.

Peace

In I Cor 7:15 Paul says, ‘But God has called us to peace.’ Again, he says in verse 5, ‘Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.’ What a beautiful advice for a Christian couple in conflict! Separate for a while, with mutual consent for the purpose of giving yourself to fasting and prayer (for seeking God's grace and guidance) and come back together so that due to the lack of your spouse, you fall into temptation and commit sexual sin. As Peter said in I Pet 3:7b, ‘that your prayers may not be hindered.’

Our Lord Jesus Christ abhors the concept of divorce except on the ground of infidelity. Even in the matter of sexual immorality, a Christian spouse may forgive his/her erring partner in grace and love. ‘Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.’ Matt 6:12

For part 4 in the series, please click,