Stand 4 Marriage: Foundation

Foundation

Stand4Marriage.com is founded on the Biblical principles that stress the importance of marriage between a man and a woman. In the past several decades, marriage in America has taken major hits. The divorce rate has skyrocketed, and many couples are breaking the covenant that is supposed to last a lifetime. This site was developed to provide support to married couples by providing advice, testimonies, prayers, lists of resources and links to other help on the web. We realize the importance of marriage to family life, to the church, to communities across the nation, and to the entire world. Marriage, as designed by God, helps men and women deal with harshness and difficulties in life, so this site is geared toward strenghtening marriatal realtionships of all types. We must realize that God is always the answer to fixing, strenthening and prospering marriages.

God is Love. Without love, and God, marriages do not stand a chance in a world full of lust, greed, and all types of sin. It is important that we base our relationships on what Love truly is, using the Biblical definition of the word:

1 Corinthians 13 (The Message Translation)

1) If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. 2) If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. 3-7) If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
8-10) Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

11) When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.

12) We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

13) But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

OTHER FOUNDATION SCRIPTURES

Genesis 1:1 (New International Version)

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

John 1:1-4 (New King James Version)

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

Deuteronomy 6:4-6 (Today's New International Version)

4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. [a] 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.

Ecclesiastes 5:4-6 (New Living Translation)

4 When you make a promise to God, don’t delay in following through, for God takes no pleasure in fools. Keep all the promises you make to him. 5 It is better to say nothing than to make a promise and not keep it. 6 Don’t let your mouth make you sin. And don’t defend yourself by telling the Temple messenger that the promise you made was a mistake. That would make God angry, and he might wipe out everything you have achieved.

Hebrews 1:1-3 (New Living Translation)

1 Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. 2 And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe. 3 The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven.

Joshua 1:8 (Today's New International Version)

Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

Proverbs 18:21 (New International Reader's Version)

Your tongue has the power of life and death.
Those who love to talk will eat the fruit of their words.