The Bible expresses the God-view of himself and his creation and all men without exception are, an expression of these views mostly in the form of conduct and prose. The immediate conclusion is, what am I talking about, doesn't the Bible condemn and reform and exhort us to a more God-like living, yes, and these are in accord I'd say. All know the requirements of God from us especially in the conscience's #work and specifically in the area of relationships for chief amongst the exhortations of the Bible is a return to God, renewal of the broken #relationship and the fundamental analogy, marriage, akin to #Christ and his church see Ephesians 5:30 - 31, hence the theme of marriage for this discuss. It may appear disjointed but I hope the relevance and cohesiveness of these #subparts would be visible to all who lend me their ears.
This affects all of us in a measure, we are mostly naïve in fostering relationships unless of course we heed guidance and are schooled in Scriptures, mighty in prayer and supplication for then shall we prevail though we are observant, our conclusion are somewhat overlooking of the severity, of those little nuances we notice see 1 Corinthians 7:25-40.
When we analyse relationships in our day and firstly conclude that there is indeed no fear of God before the eyes of men in #general and relationships in particular as many have made their own rules around this. There are some things I would like to highlight peradventure we may be brought to the right view of relationship with God through a bird's eye view of the state of relationships with men, made in God's image yet so far away from him as expressed in our relationship views. I could take a specific part of the Bible to speak on but I hope you would forgive this rather scurrying and disjointed #approach. Love is strong, therefore breaking it is not #love, the love between Christians should reflect in some measure that of Christ and his church, unbreakable, bending, fractious, grieving but not breaking see Ephesians 5:25. The worldlings, well, they haven't the #Spirit therefore are open to folly.
My approach is to align this with the stages of relationship, highlighting the warnings, biblical views and perspective, the omissions and how to return - this will always take the form of repentance as a stranger to or #backslider from, the #kingdom of Christ, within the particular context. So to begin the courtship stage of relationships, involves an expression of love towards each other regardless of how this manifests. Some say love blossoms over time, others that it is like been hit by a truck, suddenly, kind of the same view expressed, with been saved and seeing been saved, is the cessation of relationship with one order and commencement of relationship with another. And there are some in-between these extremes, yes love if acquired and expressed, though even at this early stage we can begin to see cracks. There are feelings that are confused with love, #lust, a strong desire for a partner, societal pressures, love, but not of the #person, of other things associated, like #wealth, status, #physique, culture, refinement and education, just to mention a few see 1 John 2:16. Some advocate how to detect these, mostly by what is said speech or action (which as you know is said, to speak louder than voice), looking at the person's comfort zones - who they interact with, what they find most fascinating or enthralling, whether they are restless or settled, are they bold to display disrespect at that early stage, expressing strong tendencies toward unfaithfulness and the list is a long one. It is remarkable how these bear a striking resemblance to our relationship with God. Our #associations, conduct, frequency (as in where we visit frequently), fleeting moments of pleasure as we dart from one pleasure
00:00 Intro
00:33 return to God
00:56 all affected
01:19 analysis relationship today
01:56 love is strong
02:16 the approach
02:35 courtship stage
03:00 love with creak confusion
03:25 how do you know real love?
03:51 resemblance to God's relationship
04:16 courtship in the Bible
04:52 ancient of days
05:07 youth aged
05:32 our ability
05:42 marriage relationship stage
06:05 view of marriage
06:30 the adulterer
07:00 the best judgement
07:42 was restored the man
07:52 let it not once
08:14 can we fall easily, excuses
08:46 be not deceived
09:20 bible say one man one wife
09:44 backslidden state
09:59 other signs of apostasy
10:28 refrain from joining them
10:47 positives Joseph
11:20 contentment and godliness
11:58 renewed reborn souls
12:22 explore believers of old
13:07 blind man healed in stages
13:31 Job's example
14:06 David's example
14:31 Solomon and his wives
14:54 Peter lack of faith
15:27 Paul his ailment
15:57 Barnabas
16:27 Samson troubled judged
16:53 Eleazer his hand clave to the sword
17:19 Esther the harem member
17:38 Spurgeon v modern preachers
18:09 Calvin/J Wesley
18:40 Hymn days of judgement day of wonder
