My heart is set on keeping your decrees to the very end. Psalm 119:112
Ambrose.J. Chakre
Every commitment made in the truth will not fail to receive its due and every wedding ring worn in love is a sign of all that is to come. The covenant of marriage is a rare jewel and whoever honors it will not come to poverty but whoever defiles it may be judged with adulterers. The word marriage means a relationship between a man and a woman and it is a hint to all that is to be in eternity. The Word demands sexual relationship only between husbands and wives, not with anyone else and the rejection of this warning will only invite greater judgment against adulterers. The Book of Hebrews says “Marriage should be honored by all, the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral”. (Hebrews13:4) The great waves of love and the destructive fury of God’s wrath are also evidenced in the scripture and the signs of it are evidenced in the tragedies of the past and present and the future signs will be even greater than the present. Trust me, I am not trying to endorse destruction on adulterers but these written truths are to convict the ungodly of their ungodly acts and to praise the wisdom of the wise.
The point I want to stress here is that the foolish ones needs wisdom, while the wiser ones still needs to keep on growing as they set their hearts on where their treasures are. The sacred covenant must always be remembered, for jealousy arouses a husband’s fury, and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge. He will not accept any compensation; he will refuse the bribe, however great it is. (Proverbs 6:34-35) This demands total attention to every warning inscripted in the Word and it will be to the fool’s folly to reject the message of the Word. There are million cases of adulterous affairs and thousands have met their fate in tragedy and thousands may also be in hell because of it. Sadly the doctrine of love and faithfulness is very less preached in so many churches and there is an urgent need to preach more of it.The Book of Job signals this urgency and it is in the interest of the Church of Holiness to preach this with greater passion for a greater relationship with God and each other. Taking a strong stance to his integrity Job stood firm even in the midst of unrighteous accusations lashed against him. This is what the Scripture states in regard to his commitment “ I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl. If my heart has been enticed by a woman, or if I have lurked at my neighbor’s door, then may my wife grind another man’s grain and may other man sleep with her. For that would have been shameful, a sin to be judged. It is a fire that burns to Destruction, it would have uprooted my harvest (Job 31:1-9-12). True love is this, to remember the wedding vows even in hardships, sorrows, in sufferings, in births, in deaths and even in success . The great thing about Job was that his commitment to the truth not only glorified God but it also brought him greater success in the later stages of his life.
The successes he experienced were, his vindication against his learned friends and the birth of more sons and daughters by his wife and what added to his joy apart from his great wealth he received was that his daughters were the most beautiful in their time. That was their time and this is now our time and it is only in the truth that we can receive vindication and even success from the Lord. Trust this, marriage is not for everyone, though it may be for those who are destined for it but whatever the circumstances are, God’s people must not commit adultery. Even in regard to the married there are some couples who fights daily, while there are those who loves daily. The other category of husbands and wives is that, there are some who gives less time to God while there are those who devotes most of their time to God. The greater desires must be desired and the greater passion must be embraced. Abigail , the former wife of Nabal did not deserved to be the wife of a heartless man and his death only created her more chances for her to be united with a man who truly loved her. The marital relationship she had with David must have bought her greater joy and greater intimacy. The unique thing about Abigail was that she was not like Jezebel (Ahab’swife) rather she was like a woman of God who honored God, her husband and children. So many of her life’s statements were in harmony with the new commands of the New Testament. God’s statement is that husbands are to love much and wives are to submit much.The Epistle of Ephesians thus accounts “ 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 the same way husbands ought to love their wives as their 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 become one in flesh. This is a profound mystery- but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each of you must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband”. ( Ephesians 5:23:33 ) This speaks of love and faithfulness in the lives of the married but a greater wedding which is to be will determine the eternal destiny of all the inhabitants of the earth.
The point is this: As far as our flesh and blood is concerned, at its appointed time all of this will be turned to dust but our spirits will live on. And just as we are clothed with the temporal now, we shall be clothed with the eternal in the future. This eternal clothing we speak of has only two dimensions, the clothing of either heaven or hell. The tragedy of the ones who will be in hell is that they will be infested with worms being tormented night and day by the eternal fires of hell. While for us who are of the truth we shall be clothed in white, in holiness, in righteousness and in the glory of Christ. If this speaks a language of eternal consciousness to you, we trust you to rise higher in faith as we await the second coming of Christ. The Word’s promise to His Bride is this “I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord”(Hosea 2:19-20). This is the honor to be bestowed to the Bride of Christ and if we are truly ‘His’ our commitment will only be to one Husband, one King and one Lord. The truth has to be honored, purity has to be revered and Holiness has to be worshipped. God is the Husband of the Bride of Christ. We are eternally engaged, spiritually pledged to spend eternity with Christ. The lines of the eternal journey has already begun and we trust and expect the best to happen. God is the answer to everything, to every desire and to the commitment of the Bride of Holiness. God is our desire.
N.B: This is written in honor of our members who are link to God and to us through the Holiness of Christ. Slaves, that is what we are of holiness and as we pursue righteousness, we desire to impact and transform lives through His Spirit. The lost will be found. As we continue in this we will remember all that we did for God, for each other and for the sinners. The moments of the present will become the memories for the future. God loves the Church of Christ.
