play and love together. A home is conceived in love, in spite of all the failures, scandals, and filthy immoral behavior of men in what they call love—-love is that God- given impulse which compels a man and a maid to forfeit all else if need be and join hands and hearts for all of life, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, and live as one. Real love often compels one to leave the comforts and pleasures of a parental home and live in a tent or a cottage just in order to be together, to live, suffer, and die if necessary for the good of the one loved. Real love is not getting something but giving oneself to the object of his affection. It was love that moved the heart of God to give His only Begotten Son for us that we might be saved if we but believe. How much real love is there in your home? You can never have happiness in your home without having love. A little boy once asked his mother, “Mommie, what do you do to get married?” And mother, of course, seeking to evade the issue, put the little fellow off. With the determination of the aver age little chap, he pressed his question all the harder and finding his mother evading the answer again and again, he suggested an answer by saying, “Well, Mommie, do you promise to love each other?” She said, “Yes, Johnny, that’s it. When you get married, you promise to love each other.” And the little chap retorted, “Mommie, you and daddie aren’t married very much of the time, are you?” God's Order for Marriage Those who have disregarded God’s order and law have paid with a life of sorrow and shame. Frequently couples come for advice and counsel, and while they have discussed and agreed upon their financial, their physical and sexual problems, they have seemed, on the surface, to be considerate of one another and said, “We have de cided not to interfere with each other’s religion.” This is most unfortunate because in the very conception and birth of their home they have disobeyed God. Secondly, they have sown the seed of unhappiness in their home, failing to agree upon that which could bring the greatest happiness to them, namely, the spiritual life in the home. Thirdly, history proves that a vast majority of such in short time drop their religion and church completely. Not wishing to be separated in their religious endeavors, neither one attends any service of any church regularly. When children are brought to that union, they are al ready in a state of confusion. Early in life they see the disunity in their home between father and mother, and consequently follow their parents by doing nothing in the spiritual realm. God cannot and will not bless such a home. A Christian, therefore, has no right to marry one who is not truly bom again. Why? Experimentally, it doesn’t work. Having counseled with hundreds and thou sands of folk who have defied the laws of God and have dared to try to be happy, I have yet to find the first one who is supremely happy when they have disobeyed God in marriage. Secondly, when one realizes the fact that an
unsaved person is one who rejects Jesus Christ and is dead spiritually—one who is led of Satanic forces and lives a selfish life and bound for an endless separation from God, and the Christian is the exact opposite, one who accepts Christ, is alive spiritually, living for God and is led of the Holy Spirit to live a new life and is bound for heaven; it is impossible for these two characters to live together in peace and happiness. Marriage of such a couple is not in the spiritual but only in the physical. Sorrow and trouble are the results. Enemies to the Home Many homes have been mined by alcoholism, others by the modern dance, some by jealousy, by dishonesty, deceit, impurity, and such like. Perhaps the greatest foe, however, is the wide disregard for the sanctity of the home and the sacredness of the marriage relationship. The glamorizing of illicit love, divorce, remarriage of screen stars has greatly influenced public opinion. And again, the cheap, vulgar literature on the public news stands, the regular television shows often feed the flame of passion and lust which add their toll to the causes of breaking up the home and bringing unhappiness to un told thousands, both young and old. Happiness for You Regardless of your situation, your problems, or the conditions in your home, there is hope for you, and, my friends, you can have happiness in your home. Your home can be either a little bit of heaven or a little bit of hell. With this absolute assurance from a wide experience of all kinds of problems and homes, I invite you to read carefully and to consider prayerfully these important truths. Remember, nothing is impossible with God, and God can and will bring happiness to your home, if you will let Him. The first necessity is that you see your need and that you admit in all honesty your need of help. I recall, upon one occasion, when I was called into a home where both husband and wife were past fifty years of age that there was such anger and hatred between the two that neither would stay in the same room with the other. It was impossible even to get the two together, so for several days it was necessary for me to speak first to the one and then to the other in private. It was a hopeless task to try to iron out their difficulties and problems and to go back into the background and to explain the things that had been so misunderstood. He called her “ Jezebel” , and she called him “Hitler” , and when you get a Jezebel and a Hitler together you have fireworks. However, after much prayer and pleading, after about ten days, it was our happy privilege to see these two kneel together at the couch in their own living room to ask God’s forgiveness and to ask Christ to come into their own hearts and into their home. What God has done for those and for scores of others, He can do for you. Let God bring happiness into your home.
Dr. Kraft and his family. Dr. Kraft is pastor o f the Twin Lakes Baptist Church o f Santa Cruz, California.
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