Keeping our hearts right,
Now I’ve lived some years
And still each day I find
That through my pain and tears
The Lord is always kind.
There’s healing when I’m hurt,
There’s rest when I can’t go,
Though dazed or quite alert,
He helps me, high or low.
So my advice is this,
If peace and grace you need,
Is keep your heart in His,
And follow God’s sure lead.
Seven Devils. How they had plagued her. Seven months with the Master. How he had healed her. And now he was gone. The tears kept falling. She just stood there, outside the tomb that had held her dearest Rabbi and friend. What was she to do? She had seen him crucified with her very eyes. She stood with his grieving mother as he said “It is finished.” Yes, it all seemed over now.
I clearly remember 58 years ago today. It was a Thursday night and I was upstairs in my parents’ bedroom. Everyone else watched another TV show downstairs, and I was up watching my favorite “Ironside” with Raymond Burr, which started at 7 p.m. It was interrupted by a news bulletin. Martin Luther King Jr. had been shot in Memphis, Tennessee.
Good Friday. I had a nice chat at the YMCA on Wednesday with a young man about WHEN Jesus was actually crucified. He was surprised to learn that Jesus may have died on a Wednesday afternoon [at the very time we were chatting], and not on a Friday according to tradition. Here are some of the things that I shared with him.
One of the great challenges of marriage is to become “one flesh” as God promises we can.
Genesis 2:24:
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
The Bible speaks of “children’s children” or grandchildren. What do grandparents have to do with their grandchildren’s lives and godly behavior? A great deal. God’s mercy lasts forever and our grandchildren can be righteous. Keeping God’s Word ourselves and then raising our own children so they teach their children in the scriptures is a key to seeing God’s grace and mercy in our families. We want our grandchildren to learn, remember, and do our Father’s commandments. As we taught our son, “Listen, Remember, Obey.”
One couple in the early church who kept God at the center of their marriage was Aquila and Priscilla. They are only mentioned in the Bible together, never separately. This dynamic married couple grew in their spiritual understanding together as they lived with Paul and supported his ministry.
The Bible shows us how to live according to God’s plan. It also shows people who did not love God and obey His will in their lives. That includes Cain who killed his brother [Genesis 4:1-8], Balaam who sought bribes [Numbers 22], Saul who preferred worldly prestige and riches to serving God [1 Samuel 15], Solomon who was deceived by the idolatry of his many wives [1 Kings 11:14], and Judas who betrayed his Master for worldly power and money [John 12:6].
Peter is well known as an apostle and leader in the early church. He was married to a wonderful woman who supported him, and Jesus, in their ministry.
Joseph and Mary are another believing example of a married couple who did God’s will. In their lives we see: Mary’s immediate obedience to God, God’s care for Joseph’s concerns, how they obeyed the law they knew to fulfill a prophecy about the Messiah, God encouraging them by other faithful believers, God showing Joseph how to protect and care for his young family, their teaching Jesus the Scriptures so he could grow in God’s grace, and God blessing them with a big family.