Welcome to the Prayer Motivator Devotional Broadcast #767. This is Daniel Whyte III, president of Gospel Light Society International. The simple purpose of this podcast is to encourage you, exhort you, and motivate you to Just Pray. This podcast is not necessarily for people who already know the secret and power of prayer and who actually practice genuine prayer on a regular basis, rather it is for those who may find it difficult to pray or for people who claim they do not have time to pray. I am convinced that most Christian people do not need to learn how to pray; they need to Just Pray! If I can get you to just pray, all sorts of wonderful things will begin to happen for you, your family, and whatever God has called you to do. We do not pray based upon our subjective feelings, we pray based upon objective facts in the Word of God.

Our prayer motivator passage from the Word of God today is Matthew 6:11 which reads: “Give us this day our daily bread.”

Allow me to share with you some important points regarding this passage from Matthew Henry’s Commentary:

4. Give us this day our daily bread. Because our natural being is necessary to our spiritual well-being in this world, therefore, after the things of God’s glory, kingdom, and will, we pray for the necessary supports and comforts of this present life, which are the gifts of God, and must be asked of him, Ton arton epiousion —Bread for the day approaching, for all the remainder of our lives. Bread for the time to come, or bread for our being and subsistence, that which is agreeable to our condition in the world (Prov. 30:8 ), food convenient for us and our families, according to our rank and station. Every word here has a lesson in it: (1.) We ask for bread; that teaches us sobriety and temperance; we ask for bread, not dainties, not superfluities; that which is wholesome, though it be not nice. (2.) We ask for our bread; that teaches us honesty and industry: we do not ask for the bread out of other people’s mouths, not the bread of deceit (Prov. 20:17 ), not the bread of idleness (Prov. 31:27 ), but the bread honestly gotten. (3.) We ask for our daily bread; which teaches us not to take thought for the morrow (v. 34), but constantly to depend upon divine Providence, as those that live from hand to mouth. (4.) We beg of God to give it us, not sell it us, nor lend it us, but give it. The greatest of men must be beholden to the mercy of God for their daily bread, (5.) We pray, “Give it to us; not to me only, but to others in common with me.’’ This teaches us charity, and a compassionate concern for the poor and needy. It intimates also, that we ought to pray with our families; we and our households eat together, and therefore ought to pray together. (6.) We pray that God would give us this day; which teaches us to renew the desire of our souls toward God, as the wants of our bodies are renewed; as duly as the day comes, we must pray to our heavenly Father, and reckon we could as well go a day without meat, as without prayer.

Our featured prayer motivator quote is from Daniel Darling. He said, “The third thing this prayer forces us to do is to live in daily dependence on God for our physical needs. We are to pray ‘give us this day our ‘daily’ bread.’ It means something like, ‘give us what we need for tomorrow.’ Wondering if we will have enough food or shelter or necessities for our daily existence is not something many of us have experienced. Most of us have never been in a position where we literally do not know where our food will come from today or tomorrow. But even though we don’t understand this, we are still called to live daily. There is a certain importance to living in dependence upon God, of praying, ‘God give me today what I need for this day.’ God wants us to bring our everyday, seemingly trivial concerns to him. I have to admit that I struggle to live this way. Maybe it’s a feature of being young, but my default position is to try to get myself through the day, with my ingenuity and planning and grit. This might explain why I often stress or get frustrated. What if we said to God, ‘God I’m going to depend on you?’ What if we took our deepest needs to the Lord and trusted him to provide, every day? This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t engage in long-term planning and intentional living, but we should hold our plans loosely. We should recognize that we need special grace and provision for today, then new provision for tomorrow.”

My personal encouragement for you today is this: You may ask me, Why do I need to pray more? My friend, isn’t it strange how that when God pours out His blessings upon us, instead of our getting more on fire for the Lord, we get cooler and cooler? And so, therefore, even with God’s blessings, you need to pray more. You need to understand that you don’t have the power to manage your life successfully. You need God’s direction, you need God’s power; you need His leadership in your life. No matter how much Bible you know, no matter how many Bible schools you have attended, you had better open your mouth and pray to God.

Our prayer motivator devotional today is titled “PRAYING MEN AT A PREMIUM” part 4 from the book, “The Weapon of Prayer” by E.M. Bounds.

E.M. Bounds goes on to say:

God began His early movements in the world with men of prayer. He chose such a man to be the father of that race who became His chosen people in the world for hundreds of years, to whom He committed His oracles, and from whom sprang the Promised Messiah. Abraham, a leader of God’s cause, was preeminently a praying man. When we consider his conduct and character, we readily see how prayer ruled and swayed this great leader of God’s people in the wilderness. “Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God,” and it is an outstanding fact that wherever he pitched his tent and camped for a season, with his household, there he erected the altar of sacrifice and of prayer. His was a personal and a family religion, in which prayer was a prominent and abiding factor.

Prayer is the medium of divine revelation. It is through prayer that God reveals Himself to the spiritual soul today, just as in the Old Testament days He made His revelations to the men who prayed. God shows Himself to the man who prays. “God is with thee in all that thou doest.” This was the clear conviction of those who would fain make a covenant with Abraham, and the reason for this tribute was the belief commonly held concerning the patriarch that, not only was he a man of prayer, but a man whose prayers God would answer. This is the summary and secret of divine rule in the Church. In all ages God has ruled the Church by prayerful men. When prayer fails, the divine rulership falls. As we have seen, Abraham, the father of the faithful, was a prince and a priest in prayer. He had remarkable influence with God. God stays His vengeance while Abraham prays. His mercy is suspended and conditioned on Abraham’s praying. His visitations of wrath are removed by the praying of this ruler in Israel. The movements of God are influenced by the prayers of Abraham, the friend of God. Abraham’s righteous prayerfulness permits him to share the secrets of God’s counsels, while the knowledge of these secrets draws out and intensifies his praying. With Abraham, the altar of sacrifice is hard by the altar of prayer. With him the altar of prayer sanctifies the altar of sacrifice. To Abimelech God said, “Abraham is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live.”

Now, friend, it is time for us to pray…

Remember, the announcer will provide the information for you to send in your prayer request at the end of this broadcast.

Please join me in prayer……..

We pray collectively and individually for the following:
> 3 million people to come to know you as Saviour
> the revival of the church
> the healing of families
> the healing of this nation
> blessings and guidance for all pastors, church leaders, and missionaries
> Salvation, leadership, and wisdom for the president and for all governmental officials who run this country and all other countries.

Now, Lord, we pray for three people who have sent in prayer requests:

Name: Gale
Please give her a financial breakthrough

Name: Jason
For the salvation of his grandson, that he will be delivered from depression and being a negative influence to the family

Name: Tammy
Please deliver her husband Jonathan from the spirit of adultery and fornication, abuse, lying and manipulative behavior; save him, free him, humble him, convict him and help him to come to the end of himself; for the woman that he is involved with to get saved and leave him alone

—-

Holy Father God, we pray for the following people who have accepted you into their hearts. We pray, Lord, that you would confirm them in the faith and have them grow in the faith to become the Holy Spirit-filled Christians that you want them to be. We pray specifically for —-

Shamar
Arup
Harry

Now, Lord we pray for the following people who have been saved for a while but who have recommitted their lives to You. We rejoice with them in this decision and pray that they will keep their commitments to you and be strengthened in the faith. We pray specifically for —-

Celestino
Bryce
Keziah

***

Now, if you are listening today, and you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, allow me to show you how.

First, accept the fact that you are a sinner, and that you have broken God’s law. The Bible says in Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

Second, accept the fact that there is a penalty for sin. The Bible states in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death…”

Third, accept the fact that you are on the road to hell. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 10:28: “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Also, the Bible states in Revelation 21:8: “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”

Now this is bad news, but here’s the good news. Jesus Christ said in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Just believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died for your sins, was buried, and rose from the dead by the power of God for you so that you can live eternally with Him. Pray and ask Him to come into your heart today, and He will.

Romans 10:9-13 says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Until next time,

Remember, friend, Pray, Think, Do! God Bless You!

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Mainland China reported 1,886 new virus cases and 98 more deaths for a total of 1,868 in its update Tuesday, following a report that 80% of cases have been mild, prompting guarded optimism from health officials.

The latest figures come after health officials in China published the first details on nearly 45,000 cases of infection with the coronavirus that originated there, saying more than 80% have been mild and new ones seem to be falling since early this month.

A total of 72,436 cases have been reported in mainland China as of Tuesday, although a spike in recent cases was due to a broader definition in the hardest-hit region based on doctors’ diagnoses before laboratory tests were completed.

Monday’s report from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention gives the World Health Organization a “clearer picture of the outbreak, how it’s developing and where it’s headed,” WHO’s director-general said at a news conference.

“It’s too early to tell if this reported decline will continue. Every scenario is still on the table,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

China may postpone its annual congress in March, its biggest political meeting of the year, to avoid travel while the disease is still spreading. The standing committee for the National People’s Congress will meet Feb. 24 to deliberate on a postponement of the meeting due to start March 5.

The new disease, called COVID-19, first emerged in December in Wuhan, the capital of central China’s Hubei province, and has spread to more than two dozen other countries.

The new study reports on 44,672 cases confirmed in China as of Feb. 11. The virus caused severe symptoms such as pneumonia in 14% of them and critical illness in 5%.

The fatality rate for these confirmed cases is 2.3% — 2.8% for males versus 1.7% for females.

That’s lower than for SARS and MERS, which are caused by two similar viruses, but COVID-19 ultimately could prove more deadly if it spreads to far more people than the others did. Ordinary flu has a fatality rate of 0.1% yet kills hundreds of thousands because it infects millions each year.

The COVID-19 cases include relatively few children, and the risk of death rises with age. It’s higher among those with other health problems — more than 10% for those with heart disease, for example, and higher among those in Hubei province versus elsewhere in China.

Cases seem to have been declining since Feb. 1, but that could change as people return to work and school after the Chinese holidays, the report warns. Beijing has sought to forestall that by extending the Lunar New Year holiday, imposing tight travel restrictions and demanding 14 days off self-quarantine for anyone returning from outside their immediate region.

Hundreds of cases have been confirmed outside China, with a significant number on a cruise ship quarantined at a port near Tokyo.

Japanese officials on Monday confirmed 99 more people were infected on the Diamond Princess, bringing the total to 454. The Health Ministry said it has now tested 1,723 people on the ship, which had about 3,700 passengers and crew aboard. Outside China, the ship has the largest number of cases of COVID-19.

Japan has 518 confirmed cases, including the 454 from the cruise ship, and one death from the virus.

The U.S. evacuated 328 American passengers, with most of them now in a 14-day quarantine at military bases in California and Texas. Fourteen of them have the virus and were taken to hospitals in California and Nebraska.

Any quarantined passengers who shows symptoms of the virus will be taken to a hospital off the base “for containment and specialized care,” according to a statement from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesman Scott Pauley. The CDC rather than the Department of Defense is responsible for all parts of the quarantine operation.

Copyright 2020 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 

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A problem of biblical proportion is munching its way across East Africa. The UN warns of regional famine as desert locusts devour and destroy, moving in swarms the size of major cities. What are desert locusts?

“I’m 35 years old and I’ve never heard of any invasion like [this]. It’s new to all of us; it has never occurred [here] for the past 25 years,” Compassion International’s Girum Getachew tells MNN. Getachew serves as Public Relations Specialist for Compassion Ethiopia.

“In one kilometer square [of a locust swarm] you find 150 million individual locusts, and it destroys what 35,000 people can eat per day.”

Compassion and its local church partners are meeting needs in Christ’s Name. Learn more here.

If not contained, desert locusts can quickly spread to South Sudan and Uganda in the weeks to come. As explained here, the outbreak primarily affects Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya right now. According to the World Food Program, the upcoming rainy season would prompt another breeding cycle and the crisis could spread even further.

Between 13 and 25 million people in the region already suffer from severe food shortages. Now, locusts are destroying any vegetation left standing. The laws of supply and demand lead to drastic price increases on basic food items, putting a strain on struggling families.

SOURCE: Mission Network News, Katey Hearth

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In a first since the Reformation era, Protestants are set to receive communion during a Catholic mass at a historic Cathedral in Geneva, Switzerland, John Calvin’s adopted home.

The historic Swiss church, Saint-Pierre Reformed Protestant church, will hold a Catholic mass on Feb. 29, leap day, and Protestants have been invited to attend and take part, including in receiving communion.

Although open communion is forbidden by Catholic doctrine, the practice is reportedly common in Geneva, according to Protest Info, a Swiss Protestant news outlet.

The church became the home of French Protestant Reformer John Calvin, whose famous triangular chair continues to be kept beside the pulpit.

“The decision to invite Fr. Desthieux to say mass in Saint-Pierre began as informal talks followed by an ecumenical service in the cathedral, which then “matured” into a discussion and a council vote, said Parish Council President Daniel Pilly,” LifeSite reported.

Pilly told Protest Info that he faced no opposition to the idea.

“The idea appealed because it corresponds to our desire to make the cathedral a meeting place for all Geneva Christians. A space that transcends confessional boundaries,” he said.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Brandon Showalter

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The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of BCNN1. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author(s).

It’s true – time really does fly.

Eight years ago, I wrote an article entitled “The Tragedy of the Dumb Church”, which struck a nerve with a lot of people. It was circulated widely on the web and also resulted in invitations to speak on some nationally syndicated radio shows.

In the article, I talked about how a friend of mine, who has a real heart for grounding youth in the faith, contacted all our community churches about conducting free-of-charge apologetics training for their young people. His gracious offer was sadly met with a talk-to-the-hand response from every local church.

Now it’s my turn.

Because I continue to see data suggesting that many people leave the church or consider it irrelevant because it fails to answer the tough questions that are thrown at it, I contacted the mega-church I go to about starting up an apologetics ministry. Because I’m formally trained in apologetics and theology, I offered to spearhead it and help train a volunteer staff who could serve as a group ready to answer people inside or outside the church who struggle with questions about Christianity.

I spoke with five(!) campus and ‘connection’ pastors about it, and also offered to teach formal culturally relevant classes at the church where these issues could be openly discussed. This time, I was the one who got the shrug-of-the-shoulders response or simply ghosted on email.

That experience got me thinking – could it be that between the last time I wrote on this subject and now, things have gotten worse on this front for the church?

The fact is, it’s ugly out there and getting worse.

Data from the Barna group has identified a number of disturbing trends that should cause all Christians concern. Gen Z teens are much less likely to assert religious identity than generations before them with a rise in espoused atheism also being witnessed. Almost half of practicing Christian Millennials (47%) believe that evangelism is wrong, and my bet is that their lack of confidence in not being able to answer hard questions from their unbelieving friends plays a role in this.

Who can blame them? In the worldview ring, the opposing corner of Christianity has an impressive array of challengers that is certainly intimidating.

First up is the current post-truth culture. Postmodernism was one thing, but dealing with a secular mood that acknowledges something is true and yet rejects it because it goes against their personal preferences or interferes with their social/political activism is an entirely different beast.

Then we have scientism, which is the default fall back foundation for those who reject spirituality. Scientism is critical to and for the non-religious in order to, as Richard Lewontin puts it, “not allow a divine foot in the door.”

For some, scientism devolves into something more antagonistic – something I call hatetheism. Think of it as atheism with healthy doses of snideness, contempt, and a willingness to do anything needed to make religious faith appear idiotic and even dangerous. For example, Victor Stenger does just this when he says, “Science flies you to the moon. Religion flies you into buildings.”

Last but not the least is the relatively new voice of apatheism. On its opposition to Christianity, authors Paul Rowan Brian and Ben Sixsmith state: “The greatest threat to Christianity is found not in the arguments of the atheist but in the assumptions of the apathetic. The danger is not a hostile reception of belief in God but an incurious indifference to the idea.”

Against these seemingly-powerful opponents to Christianity, who can blame Gen Z and others for being bullied into silence and inaction?

SOURCE: Christian Post, Robin Schumacher

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The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of BCNN1. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author(s).

Censorship. It’s everywhere.

Mainstream media daily silences opposition. Social media giants suppress content and suspend accounts at alarming rates. But the form of free speech suppression that goes largely unnoticed is very public. We’re surrounded by it. Our roadways are adorned with billboards selling services, products and worldviews.

When it comes to abortion, outdoor advertising companies are increasingly promoting pro-abortion lies while banning pro-life truths.

Ten years ago, the organization my wife and I founded — The Radiance Foundation  — was the first to launch public ad campaigns that confronted the leading killer in the black community. Abortion outnumbers the top fifteen causes of death combined yet is celebrated by the Left as “healthcare.” Our TooManyAborted.com billboard campaigns (“Black Children Are An Endangered Species”, “Black and Beautiful”, and “Fatherhood Begins in the Womb”) highlighted the fact that more black babies were being aborted than born alive by an industry birthed in eugenic racism and elitism. We highlighted sources of help (pregnancy centers, maternity homes, fatherhood mentoring programs) and exposed the unaltered DNA of Planned Parenthood. We caused a media firestorm. It was surreal. Pro-abortion activists tried, in vain, to tear down our billboards or have CBS Outdoor (now Outfront) remove them. They failed.

Then, the outdoor advertising companies became the activists.

In 2018, Outfront and ClearChannel refused to allow our latest WhatAbortionReallyIs.com messaging which included text-only billboards that individually stated: “Abortion is Lost Fatherhood”, “Abortion is Regret”, “Abortion is Fake Health”, “Abortion is Systemic Racism” and “Abortion is Fake Feminism”. Outfront Vice President, Patrick J. Smith, wrote in an email: “These are not going to be approved. We find them to be in the nature of attack ads and to be unnecessarily provocative and insensitive.”

These are the same folks that put up PETA billboards and pornographic strip club ads. But ok.

Our campaign was in response to Outfront’s approved pro-abortion billboards aimed at the black community in Dallas declaring: “Abortion is Self-Care.”

In another Outfront billboard, featuring African-American abortionist Monica McLemore, pregnancy care centers were bogusly attacked for their “abortion deception” (aka medically accurate information about what abortion is and how it impacts mother, father and child).

In Cleveland, Lamar Advertising allowed Preterm — Ohio’s largest abortion business — to place 9 of 16 outrageous pro-abortion billboards in predominantly black neighborhoods. The abortion-peddling signs falsely claimed: “Abortion is a family value”, “Abortion is sacred”, “Abortion is a blessing”, “Abortion is safer than childbirth” and “Abortion is necessary”.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Ryan Bomberger

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Bible teacher and author Priscilla Shirer announced that the surgery she recently underwent to remove a node from her left lung was “curative” and praised the Lord for His faithfulness.

“I am recovering well from the surgery,” Shirer announced in an Instagram post over the weekend. “My breathing is still pretty labored so I am working on my lung capacity and getting a little breath back here. But doing really good and recovering well.”

“The surgery was curative, praise the Lord, so I don’t have anything else to do in that regard other than recover.”

The Going Beyond Ministries founder said her family has been extremely grateful for the outpouring of support they’ve received following the death of her mother, Lois Evans, wife of well-known pastor Tony Evans.

Lois Evans died of cancer Dec. 30, 2019. Shirer is one of the Evans’ four children.

“Many of you know that we’ve lost quite a few family members recently, the most recent of which was our sweet mom,” Shirer said.

Just popping in to say hello 👋🏽 I want to express HUGE thanks to every Bible study group, young Prince/Princess Warrior or individual who has been connected to our ministry through books, Bible studies or even movies who has prayed for me & my family, sent a card or gift or posted a comment of encouragement. Please know that I have personally received every single one. You cannot imagine how much of a blessing it has been. 💜 With all my heart….Thank you.

A post shared by @ priscillashirer on Feb 14, 2020 at 2:36pm PST

“Thanks for continuing to pray for us, for our family, as we recover from everything that has gone on,” the “War Room” actress concluded. “Every card you’ve sent, every gift you’ve sent, I’ve read them all, gotten them all, and I’m really grateful. Thank you all so, so much.”

Shirer’s initial announcement about the surgery said the issue was one her doctors had been monitoring. In January, she revealed that three years ago doctors discovered a small nodule in her left lung.

“Several pulmonary specialists and I have watched it meticulously since then. This past summer, it was clear that something surgical needed to be done as the nodule had begun to grow and show signs of dangerous irregularities,” she said.

At the time, Shirer said the past few months had been filled with “difficulty” for her family.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Leah MarieAnn Klett

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The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of BCNN1. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author(s).

On Monday, Americans will celebrate Presidents’ Day honoring the birthdays of the country’s two greatest presidents: George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Washington, the aristocratic southern plantation owner, and Lincoln, the log cabin-born mid-western self-made man. They came from starkly different backgrounds and life experiences, and yet they literally shaped America into the nation it ultimately has become. No other presidents have been as formative and inspiring in molding both the American national character and its form of government, not to mention the presidential office itself.

George Washington was indeed the father of the country. He guided the newborn nation successfully through its formative crisis, the Revolution. Overwhelmingly popular as a national hero, having led the Continental Army to victory over the modern world’s first superpower, Great Britain, Washington rejected offers to become a monarch, and refusing to shackle Americans with the prerogatives of European monarchy.

Most historians believe Washington’s greatest gift to his country was to impose upon himself a voluntary two-term limit on presidential service, surrendering political power and retiring to private life in Mount Vernon. This extraordinary, virtually unprecedented, voluntary surrender of political power bequeathed our country the tradition of the restraint of executive power in the federal government that has served America so well for more than two centuries. King George III is reported to have said when he heard that Washington had stepped away from power after only two terms, “Then Washington is truly a great man.”

Almost all Americans would agree. He helped us forge a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Abraham Lincoln became president in the midst of the nation’s second great crisis —the split over slavery that descended into a horribly bloody civil war, American against American, for four terrible and destructive years. The entirety of Lincoln’s presidency was filled with preparation for war, war itself, and its bitter aftermath, made yet more bitter by perhaps the worse individual calamity to ever befall the American people —Lincoln’s assassination. In the midst of the terrible bloodletting that was America’s Civil War, Lincoln struggled for answers to provide greater meaning and purpose that would justify the agonizing suffering, tormenting the nation, North and South. Elton Trueblood meaningfully described Lincoln as the “theologian of American anguish.”

Lincoln had been a spiritual skeptic in his youth, but increasingly became a man of deep faith as he walked through the fiery crucible of the Civil War where Americans were killing their fellow Americans in horrifyingly heartbreaking numbers. Lincoln declared, “I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me seemed insufficient for the day.”

SOURCE: Christian Post, Richard Land

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The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of BCNN1. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author(s).

The 2020 census is underway, and I suspect one of the most interesting findings will be related to millennials and marriage. If the trends bear out, we will soon know precisely how much the idea of marriage has declined among the generation of young adults born in the 1980s and early 1990s. These men and women are now in their 30s. Previous generations of adults would have prioritized marriage by this age, but not today.

For instance, compared to the generations that preceded them, millennials are more likely to live together before marriage. They are also marrying later in life. The average marriage age has inched upward for years. In 1960, men and women got married in their early 20s. Now that age is much closer to 30.

Multiple factors drive these statistics, from changing gender dynamics to economic trends. But one of the most obvious is staring us in the face: A high percentage of millennials are children of divorce. This taught them to be suspicious of marriage as an institution. They’ve experienced the pain of their parents’ failures, and that makes them anxious about marriage.

In fact, all of us know someone whose marriage has ended. Right now, the lifelong probability that a marriage ends in divorce is just shy of 50 percent.

Imagine if this frequency of failure didn’t apply to relationships but to flights of commercial airlines. What if nearly half of all commercial flights ended in catastrophe? What if the news was filled with stories about air disasters, passenger deaths and horrific injuries?

We’d all know someone who perished in an airline crash — and none of us would want to fly. The idea that fifty percent of planes might crash would certainly extinguish our enthusiasm, even for a potentially wonderful vacation to paradise.

This is the reality with young people and marriage. People like me can talk all we want about how wonderful marriage is, but the bad news is staring them in the face. No wonder they are cynical about their own chances of success!

That’s a shame, because God didn’t create marriages to fail. He intended marriage to be beneficial for men and women — but only when governed by His guidelines. I call these the Four Laws of Love. Honoring these laws is the solution to the marriage problem in today’s society. Even young adults who have soured on marriage can find fulfillment in this relationship that’s so central to our civilization.

The Four Laws of Love are contained in a short passage of scripture. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” (Genesis 2:24-25 NKJV)

SOURCE: Christian Post, Jimmy Evans

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