Blessed Hope Bible-Presbyterian Church
500 Upper Bukit Timah Rd, Singapore 678106
The husband with an unbelieving wife is not to leave his wife. He becomes a Christian after marriage as such his wife still an unbeliever. In such a situation, the Apostle Paul advises the man to keep the marriage. It may be that the wife is an idol worshipper still living in great unbelief and darkness.
The Apostle Paul observed that in the situation where a wife leaves her husband, she should remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband.
Hymns: RHC 43 God Is Still On the Throne 256 The Bible Stands 243 The Comforter Has Come
Study of the Book of Ecclesiastes
(Remember Now Thy Creator)
Living Well
Ecclesiastes 9:1-10
1 For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them. 2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath. 3 This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.
The Apostle Paul encouraged the heart of wives who may be contemplating leaving their husband, breaking the marriage covenant, to honour their vows before God. God will bless them in being faithful to the vow they have made.
For the Apostle Paul, God has given him the gift of singlehood whereby his focus was the ministry God entrusted to him as an apostle to the Gentiles. He explained that not everyone is called to the same state of celibacy. He addressed the unmarried and widows that if God gives them the strength to remain single, they may continue as they are.
There are times in a marriage when husband and wife give themselves to fasting and prayer. During those times, they would abstain from their marital rights, refrain from any physical intimacy by mutual consent. But such times are observed only temporarily.
Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians Knowing Your Privilege in Christ (2) “The Origin of the Church” (Ephesians 1:1-14) 1Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful …
(1) Am I a Soldier of the Cross?
A Painful Memory
Isaac Watts had painful memories of his early years. His parents were dissenters, people whose religious affiliation was outside of the Church of England, the state church. Dissenters often suffered persecution in the seventeenth century.
His father, a deacon in a Congregation Church, was arrested and imprisoned several times. When Isaac was an infant, his mother would sit on a stone opposite the jail and nurse her baby while visiting her husband. Fifteen years later, the Toleration Act of 1689 granted freedom of worship for Dissenters. Isaac was old enough then to remember the persecution when religious freedom was denied.
Acts 12:1-17 Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church. And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.) And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people. Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains: and the keepers before the door kept the prison.
William MacDonald observed well, “In marital union there is a dependence of the wife upon the husband and vice versa. In order to carry out God’s order in this holy union, both husband and wife must recognize their interdependence.”