THE BEST THING GOD GAVE US -- Devotional for June 11, from "Good Seeds"

(to my readers: In case you didn't get the message below, today is Karen's and my 43rd wedding anniversary. He doesn't love us any more than He did back then, but it sure feels like it! And we know we love Him, and each other, more now than ever before! I hope this entry makes that point -- and I hope it finds you basking in His love, too!)

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled. Rejoice in the wife of your youth; let her breasts satisfy you at all times; be exhilarated always with her love. Such an excellent wife is the crown of her husband. I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me. Let his left hand be under my head, and his right hand embrace me. Put me like a seal over his heart, for love is as strong as death. I became in his eyes as one who finds peace. This is my beloved, and this is my friend. (Hebrews 13:4; Proverbs 5:18; 12:4; Song of Solomon 7:10; 8:3,6,10; 5:16)

The Bible tells us to honor God as our Creator, and Christ as our Savior. But right up there with fearing God is the instruction to “submit ourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution.” This means that not only are we to “honor the king” but also to “love the brotherhood.” And to guarantee no one is left out, Peter concludes with, “honor all men” (see I Peter 2:13-17). But there is one institution God placed over us that is far nobler than all others: marriage! This one-to-one relationship of intimate companionship between a particular man and woman is a gift of God’s grace second only to that of new life in Christ. No wonder Satan works so hard to counterfeit this gift, for this is how he steals man’s worship away from God to himself. When God told Eve what the sole source of life would be, the devil came by with a far more attractive offer: “Hath God said?” he whispered, and then suggested she and Adam turn off the restricted “God-road” and try the more interesting “Man-Road” to life. They didn’t know this was “the broad way of destruction” Jesus described in Matthew 7:13. This glitzy Hollywood highway of unholiness has everything to do with the desecration of marriage, which Hebrews 13:4 says has two lanes: adultery and fornication. Look around today and see the devastation of our nation, through its families, in the unfaithfulness and brokenness that has diseased and destroyed its marriages. Nearly every crime and social evil in the world stems from the best thing God gave us being turned into the worst thing Satan could do to us, in the desecration of the marriage bed! I’m happy to point out to others the beautiful passages of Scripture about the wonder and beauty of married love, but I can take it one step further: I can say, with Paul, “Be ye followers of me, even as I am of Christ” (I Corinthians 11:1) − and by this I mean, “I’m not just preaching cold doctrine about marriage here, for I’ve experienced warm married love myself, for 43 years – as of TODAY! So I speak from experience when I say my wife is the best thing Jesus gave me after He gave me my life!