Greetings in the matchless name of the son of God I hope our article this month finds you all experiencing God's best in every area of your life. This month I would like to share some encouraging words with those who need to make some right now adjustments in order to stay married. Often when traveling through space, the shuttle team will discover a problem, not being able to land right then to repair the problem they are forced to make some in flight repairs. That is what MAGIC is all about, us making the necessary repairs to continue the journey! Our repair kit is taken from Exodus 21:10-11. In our marriages we often have break downs in communication. These are serious problems, that if left uncorrected will lead to other problems. Many of these problems are only detected after large gaps of time have expired and there may be a sense of hopelessness that has now set in. They try to communicate and find that it only leads to arguments, maybe even fights. Perhaps one or both parties have stopped trying to communicate. Many couples feel they have reached the point of no return. The verbal assaults have led to the disrespecting of one's partner. There needs to be respect in the manner in which we talk to one another, lest we lose hope. These verses teach that we need three things to continue in a marriage.

• Provider
• Protector
• Partner

Chapters 21 - 23 of Exodus are known as the Book of the Covenant. They are a series of laws that expand on the Ten Commandments. They are not an exhaustive list of behavior in any and all circumstances - but they gave the Israelites guidelines in how to treat each other and how to worship God. An Hebrew might be made a slave through poverty, debt, or crime; but at the end of six years he was entitled to freedom, and his wife, if she had voluntarily shared his state of bondage, also obtained release.

Should he, however, have married a female slave, she and the children, after the husband’s liberation, remained the master’s property; and if, through attachment to his family, the Hebrew chose to forfeit his privilege and abide as he was, a formal process was gone through in a public court, and a brand of servitude stamped on his ear for life, or at least till the Jubilee. - Psalm 40:6 (KJV)

God included provisions for the hardest, hearted man in this ordinance that if the man chose another wife also, then he had an equal obligation to his maid servant. We don't practice what Eastern cultures practice, it is God's perfect union that one man and one woman be married for life. I use these principles for the conditions necessary for continuation, or growth. Was God condoning slavery? No. It was a practice already in place which God is regulating to protect the slaves. God also did not condone divorce but regulated it to protect the woman.

I must mention that these verses are talking primarily to the man, the husband; but wives you must be willing to accept his offer in order for the marriage to continue. We are bond slaves and have given ourselves over to Christ.

In order for our marriages to grow we must remember our responsibilities, we have a responsibility to God and we have a responsibility to our spouses. I pray we will follow our responsibilities not our feelings, feeling (they change) with the weather. If we give in to our feelings we may give up on our responsibilities. The primary responsibility that was orders was to be a provider, the provision would include food, shelter, clothing and marital rights.

Ultimately God is all three of these to all of us. God is our provider and he is a great provider. Then God is our protector, he has established these and other principles to protect us. Lastly, he is our Partner when my mother and father forsake me then the Lord will take me up. I could expand that to say when my husband, my wife forsake me then the Lord will take me up. He will never leave us nor forsake us. Until next month keep Growing in grace.

- Pastor J