Thursday, August 31, 2006
THE FIRST COMMANDMENT--Know the Three M'sThe goal of marriage is oneness. "This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one." (Genesis 2:24 NLT) The Bible uses the word "know" when referring to husband and wife having marital love. This is because God's beautiful intent for marriage is that husband and wife truly know each other not just physically, but emotionally, mentally and spiritually.When a man and wife are not growing into oneness in all major areas of their lives including direction and purpose for living, it is very hard to live a joyful married life. Therefore, the first thing a single lady needs to know is that there are three major decisions every human being makes, whatever religion or worldview or background she may have. These decisions will shape the direction of her life. These three decisions each begins with the letter M.MASTERThe first one answers the question "Who will be the Master of my life?"Every human being on earth makes this decision either consciously or unconsciously. By the way a person lives she follows a certain master. The master can be herself, a spouse, a parent, money, success, a boss, a sibling, a friend. It can be Buddha or Mohammed, Karl Marx of Communism, Joseph Smith of the Mormon Religion, teachings of Hinduism or any other religion; or it can be Jesus Christ. Each human being follows the will of somebody - whether it's her own or someone else's will. The one for whom we live is the master of our lives. The person or thing or philosophy whose validation we aim for is the master of our lives.When a person decides to accept Jesus Christ as her Lord and Saviour, she makes a decision to let Christ direct her life. This involves a moment by moment decision to keep surrendering her will to Jesus, trusting God indeed has plans for her... "plans for welfare and not for calamity, to give her a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29:11)"When we look to God as Master, He is faithful to provide all that we need as He promises. At times He would bring us what we ask for immediately, at times He would delay His answering our prayer. He delights in blessing us His children, "For the Lord God is our light and protector, He gives us grace and glory. No good thing will the Lord withhold from those who do what is right. (Psalm 84:11)"to be continued..
went to the stars @ 2:55 PM
Monday, August 28, 2006
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF CHOOSING GOD'S BEST
By Leah Marasigan DarwinYou are a single person. You want to marry someday. You look around you and find that one out of 2, or maybe 3 out of 4 of the marriages your friends or your parents' generation have are not working out or have altogether failed. You do not want to end up like them. You know that this decision called marriage is one you don't want to make a mistake at.Well, you are brilliant picking up this book. Not because in this book you will find a crystal ball that will show you exactly who the gentleman is that you need to marry. Not even because this book will guarantee that you will end up with the perfect mate. No, for I don't think there are any guarantees in life. However, what this book may do is to give you some wise signs along the way, give you yellow lights or actual red lights in choosing the right mate.I have been a missionary and pastor's wife for more than 24 years now. In my own marriage I have seen how God has lovingly led me through the years that I was single. In my encounter with countless women all over the world, I have found that many unhappy wives would say something like: "If only I had known what he was like inside," or "I saw signs before, but I didn't pay attention to them" or "I should have listened to my parents."But this is not a book for married women, it's a book for single ladies: teenage, 20's, 30's, 40's or even older, but single, who are still seeking God's will for their lives as future married women. It can also be for women who are singled again after marrying once before.88888888888888888888888888888888888888888He made my heart flutter. Every time the phone rang my heart would leap hoping it would be him on the other line. We were inseperable. We wanted to get married, and if our parents didn't approve, we were ready to elope. We were madly in love.Then we graduated from high school, and we went to different universities. My beloved boyfriend and I tried to maintain our romantic relationship but it became harder and harder. At the same time I was getting more and more involved with Campus Crusade for Christ where I was starting to be trained as a leader on campus, able to stand up for my faith and bring other students to the knowledge of Jesus Christ.It was during my freshman year in the university that I attended a seminar that was to shape my future choice of a marriage partner. I did not know how significant it was then, but God used that seminar to give me wisdom to know how to choose my future mate. It was entitled TEN COMMANDMENTS OF CHOOSING GOD'S BEST. The beautiful missionary lady who gave the talk was Campus Crusade for Christ staff member named Diane Hutcheson. With her permission I wrote this book, hoping to share with you the same blessing that I have received from her. I have added, subtracted and mixed some of Diane's original points with my own, according to how God has worked in my life.So, with a heart given to the Lordship of Christ, and with a soul surrendered to the sovereign working of all details of our lives by our Master Jesus Christ, let's learn together and listen to what God may be telling you as a future godly wife.That was the intro of the draft manuscript of the book. My classmate, Kaye Ordinario, shared it to me. I was really moved and my faith was renewed. Now, I want to share this wonderful lesson to all single women out there. Next time, I will be posting the first commandment. It will be nice!
went to the stars @ 10:34 PM
