¹The Lord reigneth, he is clothed with majesty; the Lord is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself: the world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved.
2 Thy throne is established of old: thou art from everlasting.
3 The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves.
4 The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea.
5 Thy testimonies are very sure: holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, for ever.
Please pray for my nephew, Tyson. He injured his knee about 7 months ago and then his other knee a few weeks back. He saw the surgeon yesterday and will need surgery on both knees. He is just 17 and an avid hockey/sports player. This has been a difficult year for him.
I’m teaching in about an hour on Matthew 19-20. A new member of our study is in the middle of a messy, awful divorce and several others in the group have had divorce touch their lives. I’m nervous about my ability to present Scripture plain and leave it there.
The lecture that comes with our Lifelight study is absolutely terrific–emphasizing Jesus and what it means to be a disciple, not flailing anyone because of decisions made in the past which would appear to be in contradiction to the passage.
If you could pray for God’s grace, mercy and love to be the foremost part in the minds of all of us, I’d be very thankful. And anything else, of course. 🙂
Prayers, Michelle. We had one lady in my Bible study go on and on, quite forcefully, about how Christians should not divorce, etc, etc. While I agreed with her for the most part, we are human and I believe one of our group is having marriage trouble and will not share with the group anymore. This is a tough subject to address, even though Scripture is quite clear.
Prayers for Tyson. Hard especially for those young, active kids to get slowed down with injuries. Second Arrow wasn’t too happy when she had to stop ice skating for some time after getting a concussion.
Michelle, I saw your request before your study and prayed at that time. I find Matthew 19:9 an especially difficult passage. I am troubled that there are many modern versions of the Bible that leave out an entire section of that verse. For example, note the difference between the KJV and the NIV:
KJV: 9 And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.
NIV: 9 I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.
There are a lot more versions besides the NIV that lop off that last phrase, totally eliminating an entire category of adulterous relationships (not only those who seek and get a divorce, then remarry, but also those who marry the ones left behind by the divorce).
I wonder if that is why remarriage after divorce is so much more common in the church these days than formerly (it seems to me, anyway). It’s a hard teaching that seems unfair to our human reasoning, that if someone didn’t want a divorce, but ended up that way, anyway, that he or she would be causing another to commit adultery by marrying him/her (except in the case of fornication). And then if there is no teaching on that part of the verse because it’s not present in the Bible version that is used in one’s church or personal study or wherever…well, we can’t apply what we don’t know.
But also, those who have remarried following divorces that weren’t due to fornication, who didn’t knowingly do contrary to that part of scripture (sorry, way too wordy), they should know that they don’t have to get a divorce to get out of what they didn’t know constituted adultery. There is grace and mercy that God extends, and so should we, as you say. Someone said one time that she heard that some people teach that people should get a divorce when they discover they’ve entered into adultery through marriage under those circumstances. I don’t see any biblical basis for that assertion.
Anyway, all that to say I understand the struggles in lovingly addressing the scriptural teaching on divorce in the presence of individuals who have been divorced and/or remarried, with the various, and yes, sometimes messy circumstances surrounding their situations. Tough topic.
Thanks for your prayers. The woman I was concerned about had a sick child and stayed home. The rest of them (three were divorced), handled it very well–probably because the lesson itself focused on grace.
That is a hard passage. I am from California and divorced. I remember the night he left, the next morning I called a legal aid place and my question was: Can you be divorced against your will? The law in California is no fault divorce and if your spouse wants to divorce you there is nothing you can do to stop it. You can protect your rights, but you cannot stop the divorce. When the divorce went through, I was depressed because I knew that God hates divorce. But He gently told me, that this, too, was for my good.
Wandering Views 
Please pray for my nephew, Tyson. He injured his knee about 7 months ago and then his other knee a few weeks back. He saw the surgeon yesterday and will need surgery on both knees. He is just 17 and an avid hockey/sports player. This has been a difficult year for him.
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I’m teaching in about an hour on Matthew 19-20. A new member of our study is in the middle of a messy, awful divorce and several others in the group have had divorce touch their lives. I’m nervous about my ability to present Scripture plain and leave it there.
The lecture that comes with our Lifelight study is absolutely terrific–emphasizing Jesus and what it means to be a disciple, not flailing anyone because of decisions made in the past which would appear to be in contradiction to the passage.
If you could pray for God’s grace, mercy and love to be the foremost part in the minds of all of us, I’d be very thankful. And anything else, of course. 🙂
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Prayers, Michelle. We had one lady in my Bible study go on and on, quite forcefully, about how Christians should not divorce, etc, etc. While I agreed with her for the most part, we are human and I believe one of our group is having marriage trouble and will not share with the group anymore. This is a tough subject to address, even though Scripture is quite clear.
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Prayers for Tyson. Hard especially for those young, active kids to get slowed down with injuries. Second Arrow wasn’t too happy when she had to stop ice skating for some time after getting a concussion.
Michelle, I saw your request before your study and prayed at that time. I find Matthew 19:9 an especially difficult passage. I am troubled that there are many modern versions of the Bible that leave out an entire section of that verse. For example, note the difference between the KJV and the NIV:
KJV: 9 And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.
NIV: 9 I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.
There are a lot more versions besides the NIV that lop off that last phrase, totally eliminating an entire category of adulterous relationships (not only those who seek and get a divorce, then remarry, but also those who marry the ones left behind by the divorce).
I wonder if that is why remarriage after divorce is so much more common in the church these days than formerly (it seems to me, anyway). It’s a hard teaching that seems unfair to our human reasoning, that if someone didn’t want a divorce, but ended up that way, anyway, that he or she would be causing another to commit adultery by marrying him/her (except in the case of fornication). And then if there is no teaching on that part of the verse because it’s not present in the Bible version that is used in one’s church or personal study or wherever…well, we can’t apply what we don’t know.
But also, those who have remarried following divorces that weren’t due to fornication, who didn’t knowingly do contrary to that part of scripture (sorry, way too wordy), they should know that they don’t have to get a divorce to get out of what they didn’t know constituted adultery. There is grace and mercy that God extends, and so should we, as you say. Someone said one time that she heard that some people teach that people should get a divorce when they discover they’ve entered into adultery through marriage under those circumstances. I don’t see any biblical basis for that assertion.
Anyway, all that to say I understand the struggles in lovingly addressing the scriptural teaching on divorce in the presence of individuals who have been divorced and/or remarried, with the various, and yes, sometimes messy circumstances surrounding their situations. Tough topic.
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Thanks for your prayers. The woman I was concerned about had a sick child and stayed home. The rest of them (three were divorced), handled it very well–probably because the lesson itself focused on grace.
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That is a hard passage. I am from California and divorced. I remember the night he left, the next morning I called a legal aid place and my question was: Can you be divorced against your will? The law in California is no fault divorce and if your spouse wants to divorce you there is nothing you can do to stop it. You can protect your rights, but you cannot stop the divorce. When the divorce went through, I was depressed because I knew that God hates divorce. But He gently told me, that this, too, was for my good.
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My ex remarried three days later.
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