Don't Ya Just Hate That?!

Good Wednesday! Note the inspired use of the interrobang in the title. Yesterday, an article may have slipped by you. So, I will yank the chain on your headlong rush toward ignorance, and bring it up again. This was a good news article, so we shouldn't miss it.

I can attest to hearing the bad news from more than one pulpit. Many of us can witness to the same thing. Here it is: 50% of marriages end in divorce, and most are unhappy. At one time, I thought that was just true of Sidney (the one in Nebraska), because Paul Harvey, no less, called it the divorce capital of the U.S. on a broadcast. Where did this 50% figure come from? Well... therein lies the lie that has been repeated by the pastors of America. Don't ya just hate that?! That figure was a projection based on trends seen in the 70s and early 80s, and the expectation (didn't we address those recently?) that the new no-fault divorce laws would increase the rate of divorce. But, we have the good news. Not true it seems, never made that figure, didn't come close to it. Praise the Lord.

Look for the new book, The Good News About Marriage, by Shaunti Feldhahn and read some better news about her research and what her team found through stopping to look, as opposed to repeating an untruth. Hold it! Let's address that bit about catching the Church, the bride-to-be of Jesus, in the wrong. It's going to happen.

In the early days, just after Jesus ascended to Heaven, the church was born and lived in infancy. Paul, Peter, and the gang of apostles worked to grow the new church in the power of the Holy Spirit. Just short of 2,000 years later, maybe the church is no longer an infant, but even as a young adult church, so to speak, we the church are quite likely to make mistakes and be caught in the wrong. Only God is perfect, we as the growing church are going to make mistakes and repeat an untrue statement now and then. Jesus will make sure His bride is ready for the wedding of the Lamb. Somehow, all those brothers and sisters in Christ with our disagreements on this or that bit of theology, the misquotes and mistakes, and even those groups who concentrate too much on one aspect of God at the expense of His other qualities, will be brought together as the spotless bride to our great Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. Yes, the church can grow from a few mistakes, just as each Christ-one does through the Spirit of God.

Have a Spirit-growing day in the grace of Christ Jesus!
Bucky