<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="CENTER">“<b>TWO
ARE BETTER THAN ONE” MINISTRIES</b></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="CENTER"><b>Jim
& Marie Watt</b></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="CENTER"><b>Tel:
<a href="tel:253-517-9195" value="+12535179195" target="_blank">253-517-9195</a> - Email: <a href="mailto:jmbetter@gmail.com" target="_blank">jmbetter@gmail.com</a></b></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="CENTER"><b>Web:
<a href="http://www.2rbetter.org/" target="_blank">www.2rbetter.org</a></b></p><p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="CENTER">February 29, 2012</p><p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="CENTER">
<br></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="CENTER">(“<font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><b>TWO
ARE BETTER THAN ONE” MINISTRIES</b></font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="CENTER"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><b>Jim
& Marie Watt – Beth Chesed, Tacoma - October 11, 2006)</b></font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="CENTER"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="CENTER"><u>“<font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><b>MARRIAGE:
BOTH A PARABLE & A COVENANT”</b></font></u><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"></font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="CENTER"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">In
our Western Culture, Separation and Divorce in marriage has reached
proportions that often show little difference in statistics either
within or without the church. How could such a state of events come
to pass? First of all because of ignorance of God’s point of view
on this. And secondly – because in America we have lost our
understanding of the distinction between mental belief and
discipleship.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">Look
for instance at the high calling of a man and woman into marriage as
outlined in Ephesians 5:21-33. When a man and woman take the solemn
vows of living together as husband and wife, they are illustrating as
one flesh – what Christ is to His church as “one spirit”.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">Everything
Moses acted out by God’s command as he recorded in Genesis through
Deuteronomy, was a shadow or type of the New Covenant to come – as
Christ would fulfill it. Because Christ would die but once for the
remission of our sins – Moses broke this type by striking the rock
a second time. Because he failed to honor God before Israel in
correctly acting out the type, he and Aaron lost the privilege of
entering the Promised Land. Joshua took Moses’ place for this
honor.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">So
what does God think when married couples break the type and shadow
pointing to Christ and His church – by so easily settling for
divorce? On this JESUS IS ADAMANT: Saving for the cause of
fornication -- illegal sex outside of the marriage relationship –
there can be no divorce in the eyes of God. Fornication includes
adultery, the illegal act of homosexuality, bestiality, and all other
acts of perversion. For such, divorce is permissible.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">So,
marriage as a parable according to the above passage of Scripture,
makes it far more highly important than most of us are aware of.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">But
– what of marriage as a Covenant? Some years ago, just preceding
his second marriage, Derek Prince wrote a book entitled, “The
Marriage Covenant.” It is a pity that this book is not more widely
known and practiced. For Covenant is one of the 4 great Words of the
Old Testament. To understand it (B’rith) plus “Chesed” –
“Covenant Love” or Grace or Mercy – would completely transform
our thinking on this matter – and enable our mind to be renewed and
come into conformity with the thinking of God.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in">“<font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">Chesed”
– or Covenant Love – is the glue that holds the Marriage
Covenant, and all other Covenants – together.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">In
Malachi 2 God talks first about the Covenant that He made with the
Levites and Priests. He carries on in sharing His deep upset with
their lifestyle. He says, You cry out, “Why has the LORD abandoned
us?” I’ll tell you why! Because the LORD witnessed the vows you
and your wife made with each other on your wedding day when you were
young. But you have been disloyal to her, though she remained your
faithful companion, the wife of your marriage vows. </font><font style="font-size:8pt" size="1">15</font><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">
Didn’t the LORD make you one with your wife? In </font><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><u>body</u></font><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">
and in </font><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><u>spirit</u></font><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">
YOU ARE HIS. And what does he want? Godly children from your union.
So guard yourself; remain loyal to the wife of your youth. </font><font style="font-size:8pt" size="1">16</font><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">
‘FOR I HATE DIVORCE!” says the LORD, the God of Israel. “It is
as cruel as putting on a victim’s bloodstained coat,” says the
LORD Almighty. “So guard yourself; always remain loyal to your
wife” (Malachi 2:14-16). And of course in our enlightened culture
with equality of the sexes – the same words today apply to the wife
for her loyalty to her husband!</font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">One
might say – “But that is Old Testament, and we are freed from law
and are under grace.” Oh? But the moral law contained in the Old
Testament has been repeated by Jesus and His apostles in the New
Testament! And Jeremiah states that God will make a New Covenant with
Israel, and write THE WORDS OF THE TORAH (the moral law) on our minds
and hearts by the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit within us will live out
through us the moral law in the spirit, which Israel could not keep
under the Mosaic Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-40). And remember – You
and I who are non-Jews but Gentiles, have been grafted into Israel’s
roots, and with them are “One New Man” in Christ. Romans 9-11
clearly states these truths, and show that in God’s thinking the
Church has not replaced Israel. Rather, because of the benefits the
church has received through our Jewish Hebraic Roots – we have the
privilege of praying Israel who has returned in unbelief to their
land – into a nation to be born again in a day, and to receive
Jesus as their Messiah – the One they rejected 2000 years ago.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">Just
how does the Marriage as a Covenant impinge upon us? We in the
Western world have much to learn from the Middle East and from the
Third World countries. Stanley found David Livingstone in Africa
because of “The Blood Covenant.” See E. W. Kenyon’s book with
this title.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">Watkin
Roberts demonstrated the power of this concept. God garnered this
Welshman into His Kingdom during the Welsh Revival of 1904. He went
to India as a missionary in 1910. In response to his gift of the
Gospel of John to every Tribal Chieftain in Assam, Manipur and the
other 3 NE Provinces of India, the Chieftain of the Senvon village of
Assam invited him to come and tell his Hmar people more. A problem:
the chieftain had taken 600 British heads in one day 40 years
previously, and that part of India had been closed to all Europeans
since 1870.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">Mr.
Roberts however prevailed upon the Maharaja of Manipur in Imphal, to
let him go to Senvon for 10 days. The first 7 days of his preaching
was fruitless. His interpreter told him that if on the way in – he
hadn’t talked so much about Westminster Abbey and the Tower of
London – he, the interpreter, could have told him of the customs of
his people, which would have served as Kingdom principles. As
conditions existed, the people of Senvon hadn’t understood a thing
the missionary had said during the first 7 days.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">Roberts
humbled himself to his interpreter, and begged for help. “Well”,
said the interpreter, “there’s not much time left, but here is
one of the most significant customs of all the 300 tribes in these 5
Provinces. It is called ‘The Border Crossing Sacrifice.’ When
tribes are not taking heads from outsiders, they are taking heads
from one another. When one Chieftain tires of this, he goes to the
border between the two warring tribes and signals the other chieftain
by blowing a horn, or beating a drum. The message says, ‘I’m
tired of taking and losing heads. Are you too? Come meet me at the
Border, and we’ll settle this thing.’</font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in">“<font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">If
the other Chieftain agrees and responds, they come and face each
other across the Border. Their elders flank them in a semi-circle,
and do the palavering. Should a solution be agreed upon, they kill a
sacrifice on the Border. The two Chiefs then reach down into the
sacrificial blood, and smear one another with it. They then take a
cup of wine, cut themselves in their wrists – drip a few drops of
their own blood into the wine, stir it, and both then drink of it.
They then take a very solemn vow or oath, that if either breaks this
Covenant, their own elders will do to them what happened to the
Border Crossing sacrifice. They also exchange gifts.”</font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">Watkin
Roberts shared the above story with the Village people that 8</font><sup><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">th</font></sup><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">
night. They immediately brightened up for the first time in 7 days.
“Oh, the missionary is getting smart,” they said. “That’s a
very good story! That’s exactly the way we do it!” For the first
time they understood him. He then applied the story as a parable. The
great God of Heaven who created all things: heaven and earth – all
living creatures including man – has great sorrow in His heart,
because mankind has moved away from Him. So without a drum sound or a
horn – He came to the border between God and man. There He
sacrificed His only begotten Son. Then He blew the horn and beat the
drum and announced: “All who meet Me and embrace Me over the blood
of My Son – I will forgive him, restore him, and bring Him into my
family again.”</font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">Five
young men responded. Chawnga Pudaite, son of the chieftain, was one.
He memorized much of the New Testament and taught it to his people.
Today over 80% of the Hmar, his former head-hunting tribal people,
have embraced God over Jesus, God’s Border Crossing Sacrifice.
Within a few years, 15 other tribes were evangelized.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">Now
consider the Marriage Covenant! A solemn vow is given by the groom to
the bride, and then by the bride to the groom. On Saturday, October
7</font><sup><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">th</font></sup><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">,
the 1</font><sup><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">st</font></sup><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">
day of the Feast of Tabernacles, my grandson Seth heard me say,
“Seth, will you have this woman to be your wedded wife, to live
together after God’s holy Ordinance, in the Holy Estate of
Matrimony? Will you love her, comfort her, honor and keep her in
sickness and in health; and, forsaking all others, keep yourself only
unto her, so long as you both shall live?” Seth answered, “I
will.” Then in turn Jennifer answered affirmatively to the same
question.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">Then
they solidified the above Question and Answer, by this exchange of
vows, following the joining of their right hands: “I Seth, take you
Jennifer, to my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day
forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and
in health, To love and to cherish, till death do us part, according
to God’s holy ordinance; And to this I give you my pledge.” They
then separated hands, and upon rejoining them, Jennifer repeated this
vow to Seth.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">Often
in a marriage ceremony Communion (Eucharist or the Lord’s Supper)
is celebrated. This speaks of the Border Crossing Sacrifice.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">Then
in a double ring ceremony, an exchange of rings takes place, with a
further vow: “With this ring I thee wed, And with all my worldly
goods I thee endow: In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit. Amen.”</font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">Next
comes the Covenant Prayer of Confirmation: “Lord, SEAL this
Covenant Marriage with its exchange of rings, and with its exchange
of vows. Let Your Blessing be upon this marriage. And may the LORD
bless you and keep you: The LORD make His face shine upon you, And be
gracious unto you. The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, And
give you peace.” (Before Stanley found Livingstone, he went through
this with a Chieftain far south of Livingstone.)</font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">Then
there is the ceremony of lighting the “Unity Candle” from two
servant candles, which are then put out, signifying that two lives
have now become one flesh.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">The
cutting of the wedding cake, sometimes done with a sword – could
signify the cutting of the Border Crossing Sacrifice. </font>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><u><b>NOTE:
</b></u></font><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">My oldest
grandson Seth and Jennifer his bride, asked if I would give the above
as the Homily at their Wedding. Some would not know of the Solemnity
and Importance of Marriage, and they felt it would be good for them
to know. Others present would know, but perhaps it could deepen their
understanding, or stir up their minds in remembrance.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">Many
came up to me following the service to thank me for the enlightenment
they received in seeing so clearly how Marriage is both a Solemn
Parable and an Important Covenant. I had to tell them: “You must
thank the Bride and Groom – It was at their request that I gave
this Homily for their Wedding. They had read together Derek Prince’s
“The Marriage Covenant”, which we had previously given them as a
gift. My wife Marie had lent them 8 other books on Marriage, of which
they had already read four.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">THIS
is the way to enter into the “Halls of Highest Human Happiness” –
a Peter Marshall synonym for “Marriage.”</font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">King
Solomon agrees with Peter Marshall. In Ecclesiastes 9:9 (NLT) he
says: “Live happily with the woman you love through all the
meaningless days of life that God gives you in this world. The wife
God gives you is your reward for all your earthly toil.”</font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">Both
Marie and I believe that to enter into Marriage like Seth and
Jennifer – based on the above two-fold understanding – is a
wonderful foundation and safeguard.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">In
our regular mailings – we seldom mention personal or family
matters. But I was so impressed at the request of Seth and Jennifer
for the above Homily, that I felt it deserved an exception.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">Your
friends – Jim & Marie Watt</font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">P.S.
Five of our grandsons were present for the above occasion. One of
them had a question for me after the ceremony. “Grandpa – what
has all the taking of those heads to do with marriage and a wedding
ceremony?” I tried to tell him that the Border Crossing Sacrifice
was an illustration of “The Blood Covenant”. Marriage is a
Covenant, and all covenants are based upon the Great Shedding of
Blood by Jesus. Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” is
apropos in this respect. The background of the Headhunting Hmar tribe
of N.E. India was partly an illustration of Covenant, and the actual
detail leading up to making a Covenant would not in Marriage be fully
Germaine to the subject – yet would be valid as the background of
the illustration.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">His
response was: “I still don’t get the connection.” But at least
it shows that this pre-teenager is a serious thinker! He will
eventually take it in his stride. But just think how THIS will
prepare him for his own marriage one day! Marie felt this P.S. would
be an important addendum. J & M.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
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