Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Daily Devotional Thought--Wednesday

Collect of the Week (Proper 16-C)
O Lord, You have called us to enter Your kingdom through the narrow door. Guide us by Your Word and Spirit, and lead us now and always into the feast of Your Son, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Mark 10:6-8a (Congregation at Prayer verse of the Week)
6 But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ 7 ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, 8 and the two shall become one flesh.’

Catechism: The Fifth & Sixth Commandments
What is the Fifth Commandment?
            You shall not murder.
What does this mean?
            We should fear and love God so that we do not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body, but help and support him in every physical need.

What is the sixth Commandment?
      You shall not commit adultery.
What does this mean?
      We should fear and love God so that we lead a sexually pure and decent life in what we say and do, and husband and wife love and honor each other.

Devotion
In the name of T Jesus.

The Lord has given the Sixth Commandment, for the sake of the Fifth Commandment.  Let me say that another way: The LORD establishes marriage and the family in order to protect the gift of life.  And to say it one last time: The gift of marriage is the institution given by the LORD for the giving and nurturing of life.  So by keeping the Sixth Commandment, we also keep the Fifth Commandment.

It also follows, therefore, that in abusing the gift of marriage, we fail to help and support our neighbor in his physical need.  How is this so?  Because where the family dissolves, so too, dissolves the honor given to life.  Where man and woman do not live together in holy matrimony, the life of our neighbor is also not honored, crime increases, and society declines.  Indeed, the failure to honor the institution of marriage results in a failure to honor and serve our neighbor in his/her body.

On the other hand, in Christ’s work of redemption, we see a picture of the love of husband and wife.  Where Christ gives Himself for His bride—the Church—so too, is the husband called to give his life for his own bride—the wife.  And likewise, as the Bride of Christ receives the gifts Christ freely gives to her, a wife receives the self-sacrificial gifts her Christian husband bestows on her.

But this even goes further.  Christ dies for his bride, loving her with his own self-sacrifice, and what is the result?  Life!  So too, in the marriage, when the husband loves his wife, and remains faithful to her, even giving himself in the most intimate of ways.  And what is the result?  Life!

So, you see, Christ has fulfilled both the Sixth Commandment and the Fifth Commandment.  In Christ we see the love of marriage personified, and through Christ, who dies for the bride, life is given and protected.  In Christ, we see that the Sixth Commandment is given for the sake of the Fifth.  Marriage is the gift by which the LORD gives and preserves life.  By His Spirit, may our own marriages do the same.  In the name of T Jesus.

Prayer
O Lord God, at the creation of Adam and Eve You instituted and blessed marriage as the union of a man and a woman and commanded that it be held in honor by all. Grant Your blessings to all married couples, that their life together may be blessed with wisdom, purity, self-sacrifice, and love; through Jesus Christ, our Lord (Collect #242).

Daily Prayer (For Wednesday)
We pray…for marriage and family, that husbands and wives, parents and children live in ordered harmony according to the Word of God; for parents who must raise children alone; for our communities and neighborhoods.

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