Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries |
Abraham teaches us that in the selection of a mate, you need to understand why relationships fail.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
a. Ur = separation from glamour.
b. 600 miles north up the Euphrates river is Haran, the trade center between Syria and Egypt, and it represents the dried spiritual life.
c. Canaan = the place of blessing, the place of positive volition, and the place of spiritual advance and blessing.
d. The Negev = not rejection of doctrine but neglect of doctrine.
e. Egypt = the place of rejection of doctrine.
First comes the Negev and then comes Egypt; and both came after Canaan, the land of promise.
This of course is an old custom that goes back to the nature of the male; he is to be the aggressive one; he is to do the taking, the wooing, or the charming.
A woman in response is aggressive. She does not have to stand around and wait for the right man to be aggressive, because he does not have to be the aggressor on every occasion.
1. Bad decisions in the selection of a mate, PRO 12:4.
2. The inability to handle personal problems before, during, and even after the marriage. 1CO 7:28 But if you should marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin should marry, she has not sinned. Yet such will have trouble in this life, and I am trying to spare you.
3. Failure to learn and apply the problem-solving devices. PSA 119:63 I am a companion of all those who respect Thee, And of those who keep Thy categorical doctrines or precepts.
4. Most relationships fail because of taking bad advice from friends, ministers, mommy, daddy, etc. PSA 1:1How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
5. Disloyalty or unfaithfulness on the part of one or both mates.
6. Relationships fail because of no personal sense of responsibility on the part of one or both mates. 1TI 5:8 But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever.
7. Relationships and marriage are not designed for perfect people, but for people with old sin natures, so don’t think there’s a perfect person for you.
8. The only thing wrong with marriage is not the divine institution of marriage designed by God, but people.
9. No woman can be successful in any relationship unless she has learned to entertain herself.
10. No man can be a successful lover of a woman and at the same time be a lover of himself.
11. No man can exercise his authority properly without honor, integrity, and virtue.
12. No woman can respond to authority without humility, integrity, and virtue.
13. Beauty, health, and attractiveness, are not necessarily permanent; the only permanent thing we have in this life is truth or doctrine.
14. Because the body is related to the soul, only the right soul can satisfy the body of the woman or the man.
15. Beauty is not the basis for recognition of the mate God has for you! Recognition signals are not related to the body but to the soul. 1CO 7:9 But if they do not have self-control, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.
16. Recognition signals are revealed in the soul, so how are you ever going to find the right one if you are touching the body and not the soul? GEN 2:18 - the Lord says, “I will continually make a responder for the man.”
PRO 18:22; 19:14; GEN 2:22; ECC 9:9; 1CO 7:17.
17. Identification is made in the soul, but there is also a physical attraction to you because God has designed it.
18. The right woman is never shocked by the good or bad points of her right man and vice versa.
Sarai’s name is very meaningful; it means contentious, a fighter, domineering.
Ten years younger than Abraham, Sarah was his half sister; they had the same father but different mothers,GEN 20:12.
By the time she is 65 she is “para meodh.”
Para = beauty
Meodh = to the extreme
She was extremely beautiful.
Abram married a nagging woman.
Women can hide their true soul and personality from the man who is attracted to them.
Beauty may fade, but the soul goes on and on and on.
The barrenness of Sarai is mentioned because it constitutes a test to determine if the circumstances of life are more real than the attributes of God.
“What’s more important to you, what I say,” says God (and I back it up with My attributes, My word, My character),
“or your circumstances?”
One of the things that Abraham had to overcome through doctrine was that God is more real than adverse circumstances.
God must become more real than adverse circumstances or you will be miserable all of your life.
The persistence in learning doctrine causes the believer to seek Him who is invisible.
HEB 11:6 And without doctrine resident in the soul it is impossible to please Him, for he who is occupied with the God must be convinced by resident doctrine that He is, and that He becomes a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
If God is not more real to you than people, then you will never discover the true meaning of life. Is God more real to you than all of the things that you suffer? God must be more real than the nightmare of undeserved suffering.
Doctrine has to be real to you; it has to be more real to you than anything else in life or as
HEB 10:35 says “you will throw it away as trash.”
When God becomes more real to you, and Christ becomes more real to you, and the power of the Holy Spirit becomes more real to you, all of this will be because Bible doctrine has become more real to you than anything else in life