Amen!   My children and I talked about this the other day... and we are joyfully anticipating! 

    

How fortunate 'Red' is to have your love and patience.  I've prayed that peace and answers come to your situation..

Good morning everyone~

After reading this list... 'I am' ready to meet the day.   

Good afternoon, Tom and Am...

Philippians 3:10 comes to mind,  thinking of those who pay a price to follow the Lord:

'That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death...'

What a powerful thought,  that we have a deeper 'fellowship' when we suffer for His cause.    If more people understood this,  what a difference it would  make in their 'worlds'. 

Blessings!

~Firelight~

Surrendersacrifice said:  ...our trials and challenges in life are our rewards, because, through them we get close to Jesus (who underwent trials and suffering for our sin) and allow Him to purify our soul.

Wonderful truth!   It makes me think of the 'battle cry' of the Moravian missionaries as they boarded the ship that took them to the island they knew they would never return from.   

With raised hands the missionaries cried in unison: 'May the Lamb that was slain,  receive the reward of His suffering!'

[There is so much scripture to prove this I dont even know where to begin]

quoting foc: (Firelight): 'His divorce from Israel did NOT change that,  it did NOT seperate His bond from them."
 
He ENDED the covenant He made with their forefathers out of Egypt.
There is so much scripture to prove this I dont even know where to begin

Jeremaiah 3:14 references God's heart AFTER He had 'divorced' Israel  (vs8),   'Return, O backsliding children,  saith the LORD,  for I am married unto you...'   God's divorce,  according to Jeremaiah,  did NOT seperate His bond from them,  and did NOT alter God's faithfulness.

An interesting side note from another's comentary is that God's action of 'divorce', simply put Israel out of His presense to operate on their own, apart from God's blessing.   It was a corrective action,  intended to bring them back into repentance and fellowship with Him  (as Jer. 3:14 eludes).  ( It didn't break the bond God had with Israel.)
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Edited to add:   We'll have to agree to disagree, foc... in the interest of preventing repititous dialogue.   

foc said:  God being faithful does not mean that God must 'keep' an apostate.
You seem to not be grasping this fact at all.

'...God must 'keep' an apostate'~   let's look at this a minute.   Pictures of God forcing someone against their will, to walk with Him,  come to mind...like a parent holding the hand of a wandering disobedient child, dragging them along where they want them to go.   

I know of no one who believes God is this way.    God forces none to walk with Him... but when they choose to (even after sin)... He will MORE than accomodate them. 

I have to thank you, foc... for giving me one more opportunity to worship the Lord Jesus for His faithful salvation 

His Promises to me regardless of how many promises I break, how many times I stumble and sin, and how many times I miserably fail. This is why man was in desperate need of a Saviour, and the work of Salvation was finished perfectly on the CROSS about 2,000 years ago. No man can add anything to it nor take anything from it.

Amen!  I also add that 'amen' to your thought that the 'cross' is central to all of time... the focus of the ages.   People of the OT looked forward to this event,  as NT people look back on it.

~foc~

I've stated my views based on scripture (Galatians),  and hold those truthes to be valid.   I find your last couple responses inflamitory and disrespectful, at best. 

I'm new to ChristiansUnite,  and rather like the forum.   I won't risk warnings or banning, responding to your hurtful remarks. 

May you prosper as your soul prospers.   

The problem with this theology is that God was 'faithful' even before this covenant.
Do you believe taht God WASNT faithful to Israel in the previous covenant?
Of course He was....and this faithfulness does not alter the fact that that covenant was indeed finally ended.

My point IS and HAS BEEN,  that God is FAITHFUL.   (YOU are the one implying He is not... that HE allows remarriage after divorce.)  His divorce from Israel did NOT change that,  it did NOT seperate His bond from them.   To twist scripture to say it has,  and that divorce and remarriage are permitted today because of it~  is ERROR.

Again,  the old covenant of the law was a temporary 'tool' to show us our need of a savior.   It facilitated the new covenant of 'faith in Christ'.   It's not an 'allegory' of marriage.   And it most definately does not provide 'loopholes'.

I beg to differ friend...blaspheme His Holy Spirit and rest assured you WILL find yourself 'divorced' (apostate).

Assigning the same definition to both 'apostate' and 'divorce'  does not provide the 'loophole' of remarriage you imply it does.   Even if one becomes apostate,  it does NOT change the faithfulness of God... and if it were POSSIBLE for the apostate to return to Him,  God would most definately receive them.

Hi All~  I live in a' little house on the prairies' of the Dakotas...   

While nothing can take us from His hand....WE have the choice to jump from it...to fall away, for whatever reason.

Because of Peter I dont believe this happens in a moment of fear and doubt, in simply saying we dont know Him...but in purposeful, intentional rejecting and renouncing of what we had begun with Him...with His covenant.

Folks dont have to agree with me, but scripture presents it as true.

This falls in perfect alignment with His words in Matt 5:32 and 19:9....that harlotry (adultery/apostacy) against ones marital is cause for divorce.

The focus of our salvation is in this part of your quote: 'While nothing can take us from His hand....WE have the choice to jump from it...to fall away, for whatever reason.'

Even IF one DOES walk away from the Lord... HE remains faithful.  He does not 'divorce' Himself from us,  nor find another 'wife'.   Rather,   He let's us make our painful (especially to Him) choices,   and works with us to help us see the error of our way. And when we do... welcomes us back into His loving grace.

Quoting foc:  If we do WILLFULLY apostate ourselves from this covenant, Hewbrews shows that there is no sacrifice remaining for our sin from that point.
If the spouse willfully apostates themselves from the marriage covenant.....it is in perfect agreement that Christ has permitted an exception that ends this covenant entirely.

Just so we're on the same page... I understand this apostasy to mean, in essence, the person is NOW renouncing the Blood of Jesus that they once had genuine faith in as the only means of their salvation... they truly have a regenerated heart.

I can't imagine the heart condition of a person that is in that situation... of having TRULY known the riches of God's glory,  to then renounce the Blood that saves them.   Once this person REFUSES to trust,  there is no other way of salvation.   I think the person who finds themselves truly  'apostate'  is extremely hardened,  and would find it the closest thing to impossible,  to overcome the bondage to ever trust again.   But... IF they could... I believe Jesus would receive them back into His grace. 

We are saved by His faithfulness. (In the Revelation, He is given the title~ 'Faithful and True'.)

quoting foc:  After the old covenant was ended tho, no one comes thru that economy put away.

One of the most rewawrding studies I've done has been in the book of Galatians... I'm still 'feasting' there.      

Chapter 3 is  most enlightening in teaching what the 'old economy' was.    Verse 19 states the law was 'added' temporarily, to act as a teacher showing the impossibility of human 'sin natures' to keep the law~  that we desperately needed a redeemer.    However,  people where 'kept' under the law (that included a 'measure' of mercy)...  until faith was revealed through Christ Jesus (vs22-23). 

The promise  made to Abraham  (that in his 'seed' (Jesus) would be his inheritance)  was given to him 430 years BEFORE the law was given.   Rather than over riding Abraham's promise,  the temporary giving of the law helped facilitate it. 

I understand Galatians to show us that law was intented to be temporary, showed us our need for redemption,  and ushered in the 'economy of faith in Christ Jesus'.   This was God's plan of salvation all along,  the plan of promise (given to Abraham).

I had heard this, as well.  Truly exciting times we're living in~  a time to make sure our election and calling,  and to be about the Father's business.