Almost every time that I counsel a couple who are planning to get married, they ask the same question, "Is there a guarantee that we can have so our marriage will not end up in a divorce?” More and more couples who come to get married know people, parents, friends, acquaintances, strangers, whose marriages all started with love and good intentions of having a marriage that lasts "as long as we both shall live.” The casualty rates today are about the same for Christian and non-Christian marriages. This is the reason why many couples think that if they live together before they get married they can find out if their marriage will last. This doesn’t work because there is no"Marriage Covenant” which gives stability and security in the relationship. The rules are different. God is not involved. Many times people who have been living together, come to ask for marriage counseling. I have to inform them that marriage counseling only works for people who have been married. But, I am happy to say that there is a guarantee that people can and must have in order to have a marriage which will not end in a divorce and in which the honeymoon does not have to end. This is the reason why we have just completed a book for people who are looking for a marriage partner, engaged or married couples so they can have marriages "made in heaven”. In such marriages, problems and hurts turn into the fuel of love that does not diminish over the years but continues to grow. Our new book is entitled, "The Forgotten Key To Christian Marriage.”
The key is a personal relationship with Jesus empowered by the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Since marriage was God’s idea, in order to have a long lasting and exciting relationship in which love does not disappear but increases and grows, Jesus has to be involved and love is renewed by the power of the Holy Spirit. The results are quite fascinating. Then, enhanced by God’s agape love (Rom. 5: 5) the relationship grows daily so much that, looking back a couple can see that their love has grown so much more than when they started with. They will be surprised that it had been so small to begin with. With the Holy Spirit’s help, forgiveness makes it possible to actually forget the past hurts and build their dreams with which they started.
Marriage becomes a place of ministry and a preparation for Eternal Life. A Christian family (Jn. 3: 3, 5, 7) becomes a place where each member: father, mother and children minister using the Gifts of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 12: 6 - 8; 1 Cor. 12: 8 - 10) and pray "in the Spirit about everything” (Eph. 6: 18). There is a "New Testament Model for Marriage” that has been lost and excluded any relationship with our Heavenly Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Any marriage relationship in which the couple’s love for each other has been lost, the love and marriage can be restored to a better relationship than they had to begin with (1 Cor. 13: 4 - 8). Our homes are supposed to be places of ministry where every family member does ministry resulting in "Signs, Wonders and Miracles”. St. Valentine’s Day is a reminder that married love is revolutionized by God’s agape love. Valentine was a priest who ignored the Roman law that prohibited Christians to marry but to live in an unmarried state of fornication (Gal. 5: 19).He secretly married Christians (Matt. 19: 4 - 6) and was martyred because he chose to "obey God rather than men” (Acts 5: 29). Let’s do the same and "let’s have a greater harvest again in 2010".
