Wives & Husbands

Ephesians 5:22-33

Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

What kind of world are we living in?

Stephen Baldwin:

I certainly need you in the future for one challenge I have in mind, Pierce, and that’s you really give your life to Jesus…

Piers Morgan:

I’m a Roman Catholic educated by a group of nun, so don’t start preaching to me preacher boy…
I could just do less preaching when the behavior doesn’t live up to the preaching. Your life is just sickening into praying, you have to somehow craw out a bit and find something peaceful in your life.

We are living in a world where materialistic things and entertainment consumes our mind. The world is coming to a point where we can ignore God’s teaching and continue to live the life that we think is the best, as long as we follow the earthly law.

It even comes to a stage where sinful behavior like gay, lesbian, adultery becomes a norm.

In Genesis 18:20, the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous…”

When God sent the two angels to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham ‘negotiated’ with God to spare Sodom if there’s at least 50 righteous people living in there, then 45,40,30,20, and finally 10.

In fact, God knew what Abraham was thinking. Abraham’s nephew Lot and family are living inside Sodom. Gen 19:29 so when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.

In the process of rescuing Lot, we can see that the people in Sodom have reached a sinful level of no return. “All men from every part of the city of Sodom – both young and old – surrounded the house (Gen 19:4). The people of Sodom demands Lot to bring out the two men (angles) so that they can have sex with them. After some struggling, even Lot himself offered her two daughters to the people outside “Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them” (Gen 19:8).

They are so used to the world they are living that they hesitate to leave their comfort zone (Gen 19:16), even the angles need to grasp their hand.

In order to preserve the family (Lot’s wife became a pillar of salt), the two daughters get Lot drunk and slept with him, and later beared a son each, which lead to the two clan Moabites and Ammonites of today (Gen 19:34-38).

In Deuteronomy 23:3, “No Ammonite or Moabite or any of his descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, even down to the tenth generation”.

After hearing a sermon from Pastor David Chee, I am really amazed how deep and amazing God’s work is. The plan to rescue Lot actually leads to the birth of generations like Ruth (a Moabite), King David, and eventually, Joseph, who married Mary, and Mary, as a virgin, give birth to our Lord Jesus Christ. It tells us that as long as we have faith in the Lord, no matter whom and what we are, we will be saved and blessed in His name.

This is how God’s perfect plan works. Abraham’s prayer was heard, and indeed God blessed Him and his family for the generations to come, and to the salvation of mankind.