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Married Life. “Two are better than one…” ECCLESIASTES 4:9. LAODICEAN.CHURCH.AGE - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Married Life“Two are better than one…”
ECCLESIASTES 4:9
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2-9-
2014LAODICEAN.CHURCH.AGE
51 "A good woman is a jewel in a man's crown," said the wisest man on earth. A man ought to honor a good woman. "But an evil one is water in His blood," and His blood is his life. You men that's got good wives, you don't know how you ought to thank God for a good wife.
For if God could've give a man anything better for a helpmate, He'd have done it. But a woman is the best helpmate that God could give a man.
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Cultural Sources of Weakness in Relationships:
• We lack an understanding, appreciation and respect for what is feminine and what is masculine.
• Standing in the way of satisfying and happy marriages is the level of selfishness that has become acceptable in our society.
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2-9-
2014STATURE.OF.A.PERFECT.MAN 62-1014
8-4 I believe that God gives us a mate; that's true. And then we become part of each other. And before a man gets married, he should think these things over; study it. Now, before you're married, everything's just fine and dandy. But after you get married, then the toils and trials of life come in. That's when you've got to be so in love that you understand one another. When you're disappointed in her, or she's disappointed in you, you still understand one another.
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2-9-
2014COUNTDOWN 62-0909
34 Now, here's a natural body, and the body was made to reproduce itself, which was children… See how it reflects, all the natural things reflecting the spiritual things. We take, for instance, the marriage for union. We find out that the marriage; we find the courtship, and the agreements, and then the marriage. That should settle it for all the time.
Now, that's the same thing it is with Christ and the Church. A courtship, God calling to our hearts; we surrender; the marriage ceremony, and the Bride takes the Bridegroom's Name. There it is; that makes it Bride. Now, always the bride takes the bridegroom's name.
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Two Kinds of Love • Early (or Romantic) Love:
Loving how another person makes you feel.
• Mature Love: Loving the person as he or she is.
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2-9-
2014Prediction:
When we anticipate something, we try to state or make a declaration about something in advance. Take the case of a weather-forecaster: he might predict that it will rain tomorrow, and he might be correct.
But this does not mean that he has some kind of personal interest in seeing it rain; nor does it mean that he can make it rain.
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2-9-
2014Vow vs Prediction:
A vow is a guarantee of a commitment. There are two important differences between a prediction and a vow. First, vows involve personal commitment with reference to the future. Secondly, they imply power over the future.
To make a marriage vow, then, is to say that in the future I will stand in a certain relation to another person. I commit myself to being a certain type of person, one who will be faithful to another. The man who makes a vow makes an appointment with himself at some distant time or place.
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Marriage In Stages
• Stage 1: Honeymoon
• Stage 2: Settling In
• Stage 3: Family
• Stage 4: Just You Two
• Stage 5: You Did It
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Stage 1: HoneymoonUsually the first year or
two (or three, depending on the arrival of children and other factors) is a passionate period that’s all about the two of you and your intense focus on the attraction that made you want to walk down the aisle to begin with.
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A Challenge:As much as this stage is full of lovely things
like affection and discovery you’d be wise to also use this time to begin to establish your “household for God.”
What is our first priority? How will we handle money? Setting direction: What things can we take
care of now that will help in the future?
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Stage 2: Settling InThis encompasses the
“realization stage”, during which you learn things you might not have known (or
happily ignored) about your spouse’s strengths, weaknesses and personal habits.
Also in this post-honeymoon, pre-children stage, and children stage and everything we experience here is new!
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The ChallengeAs the shine fades a bit
and reality sets in, you need to safely navigate what can be the first difficult experiences. After a couple of years, too many couples find that their values aren’t always on the same page.
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Attraction & Conflict
Father
Others
Mother
Others
Mother
FatherHim Her
"Abraham, I want you to separate yourself from your people, from all that unbelief…“ Living in an environment of unbelief will certainly do you a lot of harm. (Jehovah Jireh 57-0106)
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Stage 3: FamilyWelcome to the “meat” of marriage — the
years most couples spend raising their families, buying a home, building and/or changing careers and all-around trying to hold a busy, crazy modern life together.
You may have a couple of kids, a mortgage, demanding job — this puts enormous strain on the resources of a marriage.”
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The ChallengePay close attention to your marriage. Don’t
assume your relationship will be OK if one or both of you is on autopilot. One thing that’s essential to building an enduring marriage is open, honest and tender communication.
Give yourselves a chance to communicate by scheduling together time or planning a regular night out.
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2-9-
2014THE.UNWELCOMED.CHRIST
“But we got other things to do. The children has got to be taken care of. We can't go to church, too many kiddies to get ready." Take them, anyhow. "Well, the neighbors will say something." What do you care what the neighbors says?
Use every opportunity. Get to Jesus; that's the main thing. Don't be took up with the affairs of the world. We spend too much time on those things. Make your way to Him. And when you get there, pour out your soul to Him.
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2-9-
2014I CORINTHIANS 7:5
Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.
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JEHOVAH.JIREH.1… You've got to be forgiven. And all of you
accept it and believe that God forgives you of your error, and from this night henceforth, by the grace of God, you'll live for Him the rest of your life, and do everything that this Bible teaches for you to do, and you believe that God gives you the grace to do it now, by forgiving you of your past; raise up your hand, say, "I believe it with all my heart." God bless you.
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Any Time: Upset!This is not so much a stage,
but can happen at any time in a marriage. It’s when major life stressors interrupt the forward motion of life together — such as:
Fertility issues; A Move, Relocation;A death in the family;Major illness;Loss of a job or Serious Economic Upheaval;Spiritual Priorities;
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Stage 4: Just You TwoSome call this stage the
“empty nest,” but that implies that your home is devoid of love (i.e. empty) after your children grow up and leave. Hopefully, it’s not that way (though it can be).
In the best scenario, this stage is about reunion.
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The ChallengeAssuming you’ve weathered
the earlier storms of marriage, this time can be exhilarating. But many couples find it a struggle to be together again with nothing else to concentrate on. Spend some time figuring out things you can do together and apart.
If you’ve ignored resentments toward your partner while you were busy with work and kids, you’ll need to be honest about these thorny problems.
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Stage 5: You Did It!You’ve enjoyed the love, the
good and the bad, and come through the chaos of family life in the face of troubles.
You’ve reached “a completion,” a stage that retired, empty-nest couples who still enjoy being together can bask in for the rest of their lives.
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The ChallengeContinue to show each other
affection and attention. Remember, if you’ve remained a harmonious couple, you won’t have an empty nest for long. Children and grandchildren gravitate back to the happy home they remember.
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2-9-
2014I PETER 4:7-8
7 But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. 8 And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.
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ISAIAH 55:6-9 Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye
upon him while he is near:7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and
let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will
abundantly pardon. 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the
LORD. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and
my thoughts than your thoughts.
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