Being a pastor has often challenged me to know what to say. Like when I was trying to give some marital counsel to a couple who had so much sandpaper in their relationship that harmony seemed impossible.
Finally they confided that their marriage had been built on the foundation of lust, beginning with fornication; there was rebellion against parents, against the church, against God. He had nothing to do with our marriage, they said; so it seems to us that our marriage has always been hopeless. It now seems duty to separate.
I sat there stymied; then I offered a silent prayer: “Lord, please help me know what to say!”
Then I thought of Psalm 87, which had always been obscure to me until I had chanced to read it in Moffatt’s translation: “Rahab [Egypt], and Babylon, ... Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia; this man was born there.” What’s the point?
Then Moffatt steps in with his idea in translation: you were born in some heathen country around the world and grew up separated from the Lord God of Israel; but when finally you turn your heart to Israel, to God’s people, the Lord alters your very birth certificate and writes that you were BORN in Zion!
What does that mean?
Even before you knew Him, He knew you; Christ redeemed you since your mother’s womb. Even though you went about things in the wrong way, the Lord overruled because of His much more abounding grace. He has “covered” you since the womb; you DO belong together, it was He who overruled and brought you two together; now stay together and be happy in the Lord who has saved you both.
The last I heard those two are still together, and happy.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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