DISCIPLE

 God has given more attention to the institution of marriage than He has to any other institution that’s in this world. Society never made marriage. Society found marriage. God made marriage, He gave it to mankind, and it rests upon His direct Word. “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Matt. 19.6). God performed the first marriage ceremony. He gave away the first bride, and blessed the first couple.     Marriage is more than just a legal contract. It’s more than an economical arrangement. It’s more than just a union of those with mutual love. It’s an act of God, and it rests upon His fiat command. There are many young people today who think that all you need to get married is a license and a preacher [or a justice of the peace], and then you’ve got it made. My beloved, if you’re going to have a successful marriage, you have to have God. God will have to make it. Otherwise that marriage must go on the rocks.     God has g...

U .S. divorce rates are dropping. Good news? Hardly.      Some have lauded the fact that the divorce rate in America has been dropping for over a decade. The ugly truth behind that statistic is that, rather than marrying, couples are simply living together. Since the 1960s, the number of cohabiting couples has increased 1,200 percent.        The story behind that statistic is simple: Fewer American couples are getting married in the first place. In fact, the number of unmarried couples living together has increased 1,200 percent ( to more than 5 million) since 1960. Today, more than half of all people getting married for the first time live with their sex partners first. An even higher percentage of divorced people who remarry cohabit first.      And watch this trend escalate: A growing number of cohabiting couples have no plans for marriage. Many Americans (high school seniors included) now vi...