Husbands and Wives (Proverbs)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/19/2013 9:05 AM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus: Husbands & Wives

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  (Proverbs)

            Message of the verses:  In today’s Spiritual Diary we will begin to look at “Family, Friends, and Neighbors,” which is the title to the eight chapter in Warren Wiersbe’s commentary on the book of Proverbs.  I have explained in previous SD’s that I follow the outline of Warren Wiersbe’s “Be” series that he has written on every book of the Bible.  In the book of Proverbs we studied the first nine chapters in a verse by verse format, but now we have moved into more of a topical type study on Proverbs. 

            Introduction:  Dr. Wiersbe writes:  “The book of Proverbs is the best manual you’ll find on people skills, because it was given to us by the God who made us, the God who can teach us what we need to know about human relationships, whether it’s marriage, the family, the neighborhood, the job, or our wider circle of friends and acquaintances.  If we learn and practice God’s wisdom as presented in Proverbs, we’ll find ourselves improving in people skills and enjoying life much more.”

1.       Husbands and Wives 

We have to go back to the first book in the Bible to see two of the human institutions that God established.  The first was marriage and the home that we see in Genesis 2:18-25.   Later on we see the human institution of human government in the ninth chapter of Genesis. The last institution is the Church which had its beginnings in Acts chapter two.  As we look at these three we can determine that the most important is the family, for as the family goes in a country so goes the government and the Church.  All we have to do is look at human history to find out that this statement is true.  Dr. Wiersbe writes “The biblical views of marriage and the family have been so attacked and ridiculed in modern society that it does us good to review what the Creator of the home has to say about His wonderful gift of marriage.

Marriage:  I suppose that as we look at the life of Solomon and the 300 wives and 700 concubines that he had we would not think that he would be the best one to write something on marriage, but we do have to remember that it is the Holy Spirit of God who is the author of the Bible and He used humans to put on the pages of Scripture exactly what He wanted there.  Solomon’s personal history is also a part of the Scriptures, and we would not want to follow that history when it comes to the family.  I suppose that it was because David, Solomon’s father had some turbulent times in his family that the apple did not fall to far from the tree.  The one incident of David’s adulterous affair with Bathsheba caused many problems in David’s household, but it began when David started to multiply wives and he would then have similar problems that his forefather Jacob had when he had four wives.  In the book of Genesis we saw that God created one man and one woman and this established the blueprint for a marriage.  Marriage is under attack in this country and as we look at the things that the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans one that lead to the downfall of a nation we see that our countries view of marriage when it comes to the homosexual view that it is leaning to is one of the very last steps that happens to a nation before it completely falls.

I want to quote what Dr. Wiersbe has to say about how marriages in times past began:  “In ancient days, marriages were arranged by the parents.  Our modern ‘system’ of two people falling in love and getting married would be foreign to their thinking and their culture.  In that day, a man and woman got married and then learned to love each other; they expected to stay together for life.  Today, a man and woman learn to love each other, then get married, and everybody hopes they’ll stay together long enough to raise the children.”

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I know that the problems that we see in our country today are problems that have a lot to do with the family.  It is an old plan that Satan uses to destroy a nation, and it works as he begins to attack the family with the same lie that he told Eve in the garden, and that lie was “Did God really say,” and that lie puts into the mind of Eve that God was holding something back from her, that God was not fair.  Well we do not really want God to be fair now do we?  For if God was fair then we would all be heading to hell.  What we want is God’s grace and God’s mercy, and we have that if we know Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  That God would give me the grace and mercy each day to serve Him in a way that would please Him and that I would follow the teaching of His Word to bring honor to Him.

Memory verses for the week:  Psalm 32:1-3

            1 How blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sin is covered!  2 How blessed is the man in whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit!  3 When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.

Turning Points Wisdom for Today:  “If I take care of my character, my reputation will take core of itself.  (Dwight L. Moody)  “Don’t lose your grip on love and loyalty, tie them around your neck; carve their initials on your heart.  Earn a reputation for living well in God’s eyes and the eyes of people.  (Proverbs 3:3-4 The Message)

 2/19/2013 10:17 AM