God’s creates man as male and female and then ordaining marriage as the relationship in which a male leaves mother and father and cleaves to his wife in covenant commitment. This act of creation and this ordinance of marriage seeks the revelation through Christ and his church, and Christianity as the revelation of the mystery.

Complementing each other means that the differences of male and female will be respected and affirmed and valued. Male and female will not try to duplicate each other, but will highlight in each other the unique qualities that make for mutual enrichment.

Why would God come to the man first, and call him to give and account instead of going to the woman first, especially since she ate the fruit first? The most natural answer is that God gave to the man a primary responsibility for the moral life of the garden and therefore man has a primary accountability for the failure to live by it.

It now becomes clear why the first parable, the parable of the soils, is so important. It not only describes the measured advance of the Kingdom in terms of varied human responses, but implicitly challenges the hearer or reader to ask what kind of soil he or she is.

We can’t play around with the Word of God. God’s Word is powerful, and if you fall back into disobedience and unbelief as they did, then you stand under this Word which brings its own judgment.

The first commandment is to love God with heart and soul and mind and strength; the second is to love our neighbors as ourselves, but these people are characterized first and foremost by loving themselves

No matter how much you have, if you’re discontented, you’re really poor. Sometimes we want things we don’t need. Sometimes we need things we don’t want, and we get all mixed up.

True fear comes from faith; false fear comes from doubt. True fear is joined to hope, because it is born of faith, and because men hope in the God in whom they believe. False fear is joined to despair, because men fear the God in whom they have no belief. The former fear to lose Him; the latter fear to find Him. BLAISE PASCAL

It takes the strength and resolution and perspective that only God can provide to live above changing, difficult circumstances. But to live above circumstances, utterly content in Christ Jesus, is to ensure that you will never give up the Christian walk. Resolve to learn the secret of contentment.

He was a slain lamb. “Ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.” (Exodus 12:6) prophecy of Mary’s Lamb that would one day be butchered on a cruel Roman cross.