Article by DesiringGod.org

You don’t have to get married to be happy. In fact, until we realize that we don’t have to get married to be happy, we’re really not ready to marry.

Disclaimer: I am now happily married. If you’re single, you may be ready to click away, and I can understand why. Too many married people have too much to say about singleness. To be sure, not every married person knows your particular pain and circumstances, but some do. And they may have a perspective on singleness, dating, and marriage that none of your single friends have.

I was drunk in love more than once, infatuated in dating, mesmerized by marriage. I started dating in middle school, followed by one long serious relationship after another through high school and college. I thought I would be married by 22, and instead I got married almost a decade later. I said things I wish I could unsay, and crossed boundaries I wish I could go back and rebuild. I’m not some married guy writing to single you. I’m writing to single me. I know him better than I know my wife — his weaknesses, his blind spots, his impatience — and I have so much good news for him. And for you.

When I say that you don’t have to be married to be happy, I say that as someone who devoured romance looking desperately for lasting joy — and who knows what it feels like to end up further from it after each breakup.

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By Author & Blogger Tim Challies

There is no source of comfort as true or as good as God’s book, the Bible. For millennia, God’s people have turned to its pages to find solace, to find hope and encouragement. Sometimes comfort is found in unexpected places, in unlikely words. I found it this morning in a simple sentence written by Jesus’s dear friend John: “Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you” (1 John 3:13).

Every Christian has endured times when we have been hated, when we have faced the scorn, the fists, or the swords of those opposed to God. We who put our faith in Jesus agree to bear the cross of Jesus. That cross comes with inevitable suffering and shame. We who follow a hated Savior cannot be surprised when we experience a measure of his suffering, when we bear a measure of his shame.

But why? Why are we hated? Why is it that we should be not surprised when the world turns against us?

Because Cain hated Abel. Just one verse earlier John has spoken of these two brothers and asked why one murdered the other. Cain murdered Abel “because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous.” Abel’s goodness exposed Cain’s badness. Abel’s righteousness convicted Cain of his unrighteousness. Abel’s love for God silently declared Cain’s disregard. Cain responded with the ultimate manifestation of hatred—he murdered his own brother.

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 Frank Retief was pastor at St James Church Cape Town for 31 years, having planted the church in 1968 with his wife Beulah.  He became the Presiding Bishop of the Church of England in South Africa until he retired in 2010.  Frank remains active in ministry through preaching, teaching, pastoral work & writing, and has authored a number of books.

Truth – Hidden & Revealed

Luke 1- v 21. “At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.”

Here we are presented with an amazing truth – one we are apt to forget. Understanding of Jesus and his Salvation is not “attained” by us, but rather is given to us by the Father. He reveals his deep secrets to “little children”. This was a title Jesus used to refer to those ordinary people who are not well schooled or sophisticated.

Notice the reference to the Trinity in v 21 – Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Father!  Let us never forget that our God is truly Father, Son, Spirit. We may be bewildered by this but it is true.

What’s more, we have an illustration here of the great truth that by nature we know nothing of God and His ways. We are born spiritually ignorant, we live like that and we would die in this same ignorance if God did not intervene. And in grace and mercy he does indeed intervene. But notice to whom He reveals his truths.

The “wise and the learned” mentioned here by Jesus does not refer to the ordinary wisdom and true learning available to people, but to those proud and arrogant people who are so full of their own self-righteousness that they make themselves unteachable. They learn nothing from anyone. They have shut themselves off from God because they consider themselves as already possessing a full knowledge of God and they do not want help.

This is a sad and dangerous condition. To be unteachable is to be caught up in one of the saddest mind-sets in the world.  It means an inability to grow or learn.

On the other hand the  “little children” referred to by Jesus does not refer primarily to small children but to those who are naive and unlearned, but recognize their helplessness and welcome somebody coming to instruct them and lead them.

God works in ways that are contrary to the world. The world honours those who are full of confidence and arrogance, but God honours those who are of humble and contrite spirits.

And why does He do this? Because, says Jesus, it was his good pleasure. His Divine Will works for the downfall of pride and for the good of those who accept His Word by faith in Him.

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