Prayer
O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph. For the LORD most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth (Psalm 47). O gracious Father, we join with your people everywhere clapping our hands in praise unto Thee! Please cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We bow before you as the King over all the earth, Amen!
Today’s Hymn
Words: Charles I. Junkin, 1909. Music: Junkin, George C. Stebbins.
JESUS, FRIEND OF SINNERS
Click here for tune.
Jesus, Friend of sinners, hast Thou love for me?
Son of God the Holy, Man of mystery,
Lover of the children, Teacher of the wise,
Let me read the secret in Thy friendly eyes.
Jesus, Friend of sinners, Thou hast read my heart,
Searching its recesses with a lover’s art;
Naught have I withholden, nothing hid from Thee-
Waste, or want, or folly-things that should not be.
Jesus, Friend of sinners, Thou hast touched my soul,
Not with scornful pity, not with beggar’s dole;
Thou hast not despisèd men that faint or fall,
Tenderer than brother, for Thou knowest all.
Jesus, Friend of sinners, bid me follow Thee,
O’er the rugged highways, e’en to Calvary;
Let me know Thy Spirit, sweet and strong and wise;
I would win the friendship in Thy loving eyes.
Jesus, Friend of sinners, hold me by Thy side,
Till the shadows deepen tow’rd the eventide;
To Thy strength and beauty I would ever bend,
Till, in dawn eternal, Friend shall be as friend!
Thought Provoker
I was recently asked, what I thought the key was to a happy marriage. A family member of a friend of mine was collecting these pearls of wisdom to give to a friend as a wedding gift. Now, if you had to sum up instructions for a happy marriage in a few words, what would you answer? While contemplating this request my mind was immediately drawn to Ephesians 5. Here we find God’s instructions for a happy marriage.
Dad’s Study
Paul uses the illustration of marriage to teach us about our relationship to Christ in His Church. In so doing, His teaching has a double meaning, giving great insight into what marriage is to be like. In a way, verses 22-33 are a double parable, each side teaching about the other. So, what is the key to a happy marriage? It is following God’s plan for marriage by husband and wife each understanding their role in this sacred union and how they are to discharge their roles and duties before God. Here, Paul gives only one instruction each to the husband and wife.
1. Husbands, love your wives (Ephesians 5:25).
Husbands are to love their wives. This command sums up the entirety of the husband’s duties. Paul also gives insight into how to do this:
A. Love your wife as Christ loved the church. This is a self-sacrificing love, one in which the husband gives up any claim to himself, his time, and his interests. The interests of the wife come first that the husband might sanctify her, set her apart to God. He is to instruct and exhort in the Word that she might be pure and undefiled before God, holy and blameless, having no blemish in her.
B. Love your wife just as you love yourself. When husband and wife are united in marriage they become one flesh. Husbands, when you love your wife, you are loving yourself because you are united to her as one flesh. Just as you nourish your own body with food and rest, you are to nourish your wife. Nourish her in the Word; cherish her as the precious gift from God that she is. Protect her and provide for her that she would be blessed.
2. Wives, be subject to your own husbands (Ephesians 5:22). 

Wives are simply to submit to their husbands. Wives are to place themselves under the loving headship, care, provision, and protection of their husbands, who stand ready to give themselves up for them. Wives are to be subject to their husbands in everything. There is no part of their life that is exempt from the headship of their husband. This should not cause fear for the wife, especially when the husband exercises the Christ-like love for his wife that the scriptures command. This is a joyous submission that results in a peaceful and joyful marriage for the wife. This type of submission is made manifest by the wife having respect for her husband (verse 33). When the wife submits to the headship of her husband in all deference, every interaction with or regarding her husband will demonstrate the respect she has for her loving head.
Click here for Matthew Henry’s Commentary.
Truth in Practice
Do you want a happy marriage? If so, husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and wives submit to you husbands in all things In this and this only, will God bless your marriage because this is His plan for a happy marriage. Your children are never too young to learn these important principles.
Catechism
Question 15
Q. Did all mankind fall in Adam’s first transgression?
A. The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself but for his posterity, all mankind descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him in his first transgression (1Corinthians 15:22; Romans 5:12).
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