I Go Where You Go

RUTH REPLIED, "DON'T URGE ME TO LEAVE YOU OR TO TURN BACK FROM YOU. WHERE YOU GO I WILL GO, AND WHERE YOU STAY I WILL STAY. YOUR PEOPLE WILL BE MY PEOPLE AND YOUR GOD MY GOD. RUTH 1.16.

Once, I was on the phone talking to a young friend whose wedding we attended some months ago. I casually asked her, �How are you and Mike getting along?� Half�jokingly she quizzed me, �Is it always this tough?� We are living in a day when in many Western countries and now in Eastern too, marriages are splitting apart even before the honeymoon is over! An Austrian pastor while conducting a marriage recently said that in his country two in every three marriages end in divorce. Many couples do not want to commit themselves in marriage but would rather prefer �just to live together�!

I consider myself quite modern! I have nothing against the modern trends of the world or that of the younger generation. But I will not budge from the fundamental Biblical principles and practices of everyday Christian life! God-willing, I will still be teaching �Daily Practical Christian living� until the day I rest from my labours or my Lord Jesus Christ comes again in the clouds for me and all those who love His appearing!

I love Ruth! The covenant of marriage was so sacred to her that her commitment even to her mother in law, her late husband�s mother, was total! Today, the younger generation wants to rewrite our old Biblical covenant of marriage, demanding a new freedom for each one to live individually as they like! They also want to separate, if and when things get tough. But, look! Here is a Gentile, non-Christian, idol-worshipping girl who vouched to stick to the promise she made to her husband, though he was now dead! This is �ferocious loyalty� to one�s marriage vows, of which many today know nothing about!

My wife and I got married in 1955. Our only pre-marital knowledge of each other was that we met ONCE, nine months before the wedding day! All the arrangements were done by our godly parents! On the marriage day, we exchanged the solemn marital vows before God and our church. We were exhorted by the Words of Jesus, �You are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate" (Mt 19.6). From that day we knew that our lot was together forever. So we began accommodating each other more and more and we still enjoy our life together!

Young Christian men and women are getting married all over the world everyday. But sadly countless marriages of young and old couples, even that of Christians are also breaking apart! Often the reason is infidelity (unfaithfulness). The immorality, the extra-marital affairs and obscene sexual scenes so rampant in the media are watched by the innocent and vicariously enjoyed by them and they prompt slow and subtle engagement! God save us, our marriages and our helpless children!

Dear married believer, I commend to you, RUTH as your model all through your married life. Read her life-story from the Bible. Repeat the tender words of her immortal covenant once in a while to your spouse in the presence of God! Be true to it and stay together for life and enjoy it!

By the way, do you have such a solemn covenant with your God to begin with? If not make one today! Save your life and your marriage!

Pray and practise with me: Dear Lord, today I make this solemn vow to my spouse, Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.� So help me Lord! Amen.