Are we living in the Past, the Presence or the Future? Part 3: Living in the Future.

Are we living in the Past, the Presence or the Future?

Part 3: Living in the Future.

Today in 2012, we are living in an uncertain world and where the certainties of the past are no longer certain.  Throughout the world we see that we are affected in various ways because we live in a time of uncertainty.

Throughout the history of humanity there have been times of social, economic and political uncertainty, we have seen the decline of old nations, old methods of economic structure and old political systems and their replacement by new nations, new methods of economic structure and new political systems.  Many have tried and failed to hold on to the old in the face of the challenges of the new, then again many have embraced the new and dismissed and destroyed the old. Old enemies have become friends, and old friends have become enemies!

We are seeing the decline of Europe and the continuing rise of the so called BRIC nations, Brazil, Russia, India and China, if anything the replacement of the currencies of some countries in Europe by the single currency or Euro has hastened this decline, instead of making Europe a economic and political superpower, the Europe of 2012 onwards is becoming an ever declining shadow of it’s former glory.

In at attempt to halt this decline we’ve invented new economic structures and new political systems which are really modified old economic structures and political systems, or we have embraced the old ways of doing things because they give us some form of structure in a time when we’re no longer aware of what structure should be!

When we walk down our high streets we see boarded up shops with the for sale or to let signs, we’ve all chosen in the past to forsake our high streets in favour of  the out of town shopping centres or  shopping online with companies like Amazon, because of the word convenience, the religion/s of our fore fathers have been replaced with the new religion/s such as consumerism, our theology and our ethics are no longer guided by religious texts such as the Bible but by the mantras of human rights and equality.

We have turned our backs on the old way of doing things because we have been told there is a better way and a simpler way, and when we’ve travelled this new road. We have found to our cost, that we have been misled.  There are those who would wish to throw the Church and the Christian Faith into the dustbin of history, and see the Christian Faith and Religion in general as an anathema to their new religion of tolerance and equality.

It seems that all hope is gone, and the Church of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God are on their last legs, but as Jesus, our Lord, our Saviour, our Redeemer has said in Matthew 16:18b ESV, “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”

The Old Testament Prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 54:17 NIVUK. ^“No weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and this is their vindication from me, declares the LORD.”

There is hope, there is certainty, we the Church are God’s Messengers of Hope, Deliverance, Salvation , we are God’s Messengers of Transformation, yes we face challenges and difficulties but he is within us is by far greater than he is within the world see 1 John 4:4-6 read here.

I know that despite all the difficulties, the opposition that we face as The Church,  we like our brothers and sisters from past generations  will stand, God has raised the heroes of faith, both men and women, in the past the people like John Wesley, William & Catherine Booth, Smith Wigglesworth and others some unknown and others known,  that despite what politicians, scientists etc say about us and tell us,  that The Lord is coming back for a victorious army not a defeated army, that are waiting on the beaches for a Heavenly Rescue Mission. God will raise us up to take our place as the Church Militant alongside the Church Triumphant

We the Church need to take our stand, hold our ground and advance, one famous military tactician once said, that the best form of defence is attack, so let us take back the territory that we and others in the past have lost to the enemy, let us as we win the lost for the Lord, and are lead and equipped by those God has placed in the forefront,( see Ephesians 4:11-13 read here) advance to recapture lost terriority

Rise up o Church; let us advance for the sake of our Lord, Saviour & Redeemer Jesus Christ and His past, present and future Kingdom.

Yours in His Grace

Blair Humphreys

Southport.Merseyside.England

read part 2 of this series here

Are we living in the Past, the Presence or the Future? Part 2: Living in the Present.

Are we living in the Past, the Presence or the Future?

Part 2: Living in the Present.

Has I sit here writing this post, My mind is thinking about last weekend,  and a very important Rugby Match that that was played at the Millennium Stadium,  Cardiff on Saturday 17^th March 2012. For those who are wondering what he is on about !, it was the Wales v France Rugby Match in the RBS 6 Nations Championship that happens every year and is played by England, France. Italy, Ireland, Scotland and of course Wales!

The match between Wales and France was the decider to see if Wales would win, the Grand Slam which goes to the Rugby Team who have won all their matches.  This would have been the 3^rd Grand Slam Trophy Wales would have won in the last 7 years, Wales having won in 2005 and in 2008.   There was a great deal of pressure on the Welsh Rugby Team to repeat their previous successes and win the Grand Slam. Having already beaten Ireland, Scotland.& England away, and beaten Italy at home. they faced the challenge of beating France at home in Cardiff. I watched the Game on TV, and I could feel the electricity of the Welsh Supporters in the Stadium, and I knew in my heart of hearts, that Wales could and would win the Game.  Just a few days before the game, the tragic news of the death of Mervyn “Merv the Swerve “Davies who had Captained the Welsh Rugby Team in the Glory Days of the 1970’s, was announced. Not only did the current Welsh Rugby Team have to face the pressure to repeat the success of 2005 and 2008, but to win for the memory of Merv the Swerve.

There was great deal of hype,  for Wales to win the Grand Slam again, and to go on to bigger and better success in the future by playing and hopefully beating teams like Australia  and New Zealand in the coming months.  I noticed that both the coaching staff lead by Warren Gatland and the players lead by Sam Warburton focused on the present and not on the past, (the wonderful Welsh Team of the 1970’s or the previous Grand Slam wins of 2005 and 2008), nor did they focus on the future by thinking ahead to playing and hopefully beating Australia and New Zealand, they focused on the present and committed themselves to win both the Triple Crown and the Grand Slam.

This lead me  to think,  that sometimes we focus our minds and past success and sometimes failure, disappointment, hurt etc, and try to live our lives in the past, Maybe it’s sense of regret, a sense of safety, and sense that our best days are behind us, so we set our minds (because we think things can’t, wouldn’t or shouldn’t get better today) on yesterday, then again, because of the disappointments etc of today, we day dream or  dream about tomorrow, hoping and praying that our tomorrow will be better than today, isn’t it better to live in the present ,  than to live in the past or the future ?, because God is in control of our lives,  and despite the pain and heart ache of today, God is blessing and will bless more as we live for Him today.

In 1904, God moved in Wales and tens of thousands were born again, for years since them Welsh Christians including myself have prayed that God would move in Wales like he did in 1904, we make monuments of past success and make our current models of mission copies of the past, But God has a new and better thing and we miss out what God wants to do today because we’re focused on what God did in the past!

I love reading, and for many years I read and re-read books of what God has done so wonderfully in the past, and would dream or day dream that I was in those times and in those places, but I’m not, I’m reading a book at the moment on the great Evangelist Smith Wigglesworth, who died in 1947, it’s great and challenging read but this is 2012 and not 1947. I’m not knocking what God has done in the past, but we’re called to live in today’s world not yesterday’s world.   When I was in my mid to late teens, we sang a song, (don’t worry, I’m not going to sing it out aloud!)I want to serve the purpose of God in my generation, See here for the full words.

The Apostle Paul said in Acts 13:36 ESV, “David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption”

God has called us to love, serve, obey and follow Him by living in the Present, we can praise God for what He has done in the Past, and we can Pray for what God will do in the Future, but we can Praise Him for what He has done in our lives so far, and Pray that He is doing a better work in our lives today than yesterday.

 The Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 3: 20-21,  ESV,” ²⁰  Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us, ²¹  to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.

Let us then, stop trying to serve God’s Purpose’s for past generations, or try to imagine what are God’s Purpose’s for future generations, or try to serve God’s purposes for other places or people, Let us instead serve with whole hearted commitment God’s Purpose’s for our lives, the places He has planted us alongside the people He has called us to walk alongside and share live and faith with. Let us therefore, “Live in the Present”

“I want to serve the purpose of God, in my generation
I want to serve the purpose of God, while I am alive
I want to give my life, for something that will last forever
Oh, l delight, I delight to do your will.”

Yours in His Grace

Blair Humphreys

Southport, Merseyside, England


See Part 1 of this series "Living in the Past" 

One of my favourite Songs, You're Beautiful by Phil Wickham

Are we living in the Past, the Present or the Future? Part 1: Living in the Past.

Are we living in the Past, the Present or the Future?

Part 1: Living in the Past.

I often wonder what is the attraction of TV Programmes like ITV’s Downton Abbey and the BBC’s Upstairs, Downstairs. ? Is it Nostalgia  for an earlier, seemingly more innocent age ?, perhaps with all the upheaval that we both see around us and read about that directly or indirectly affects our day to day lives, is living in or thinking  about the past some sort of safety net?

I live in Southport, Merseyside, and our local radio station Dune FM on Friday night from 7pm to 10pm plays 1980’s Music and I enjoy listening to some great and not so great songs from my younger days ! but I wouldn’t choose to travel back in time, like some Welsh version of Dr Who and try to live in those days.   I grew up in a small village in the South Wales Valleys called Melin Court, and spend time not only there but in other villages like Resolven and Clyne. Overall when I wear my rose tinted glasses I enjoyed my time growing up there, but if I could ask my teenage self the same question what would the answer be?

I enjoy music, and did Cse Music in School, (I also played on one of the School Chess Teams) I had the opportunity to visit the world famous Cavern Club in Liverpool with a friend several weeks ago, it’s one of the places the Beatles played, it was packed and overall I enjoyed my time there, there was a live band playing cover versions of songs by The Beatles and The Who. The atmosphere was electric, but one thing struck me, here’s a young band not playing their own songs but playing the songs of a previous generation!

My time at The Cavern Club lead me to think about why we sometimes try to live in the past, we let the circumstances of  our past, the influence of others,  past hurts, past disappointments,  feelings of hurt and sometimes bitterness govern our lives. We let the things that happened 5, 10, 15 or even 20 plus years influence how we live today, perhaps the hurt of a breakdown of a relationship that has happened in the past we don’t allow ourselves due to the fear of rejection or the fear of a failure to move on to a better relationship. Sometimes we try to eat the fruit of past blessings, happiness, success which like all fruit that was picked and not eaten, has become rotten, instead of picking and eating the new fruit for today.

The Prophet Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 43:18-19b, NivUk

“¹⁸ Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.    ¹⁹ See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?”

It’s easy to try to live in the past, but God calls us to move on and move forward to both bigger and better things.

The Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 2:13-14NivUk

“ ¹³ Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead,    ¹⁴ I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.”

So let us turn away from our past, because it’s a new beginning, a new start and a new season for us all.

Yours in His Grace

Blair Humphreys

*”I have no regrets about what happened in my younger days”

 

Times, they’re a Changing:

The Poet & Philosopher, Bob Dylan wrote one of the most memorable and often quoted protest songs of the 1960’s, “Times they’re a changing”.

When we examine our lifestyles today in the early 21^st Century we are governed by time, the writer of the Book of Ecclesiastes wrote in Ecclesiastes 3:17b. “For there is a time for every matter and for every work” please read Ecclesiastes Chapter 3 for the context.  Yet today we never seem to have enough time.  We often feel like Lewis Carroll’s Character; “The White Rabbit” running ahead of ourselves to make up or catch up on time.

One of the growth areas in the Business World is the concept of Time Management; there is even a Dummies Guide on Time Management.  My late Grandfather was brilliant in many, many ways, one of which was his time keeping, Has a boy I would walk to and from Church with Him, (which was an honour, privilege and a blessing, because it was our time together), people would often say to Him, because they knew that at 9.30am on a Sunday Morning, he would walk past, that they could set their clocks by him, because he would walk past at that exact time on a Sunday.

Time is one of our precious resources and indeed one of our most precious gifts, we all have 24 hours a day,  7 days a week, 4 weeks to a month, and 12 months to a year, the question is how do we use or spend our time,  we all have access to watches and clocks and even our mobile phones have a way to tell us the time, In the New Testament,  there are two Greek Words that are translated into the English Word Time, these are Chronos and Kairos,  quite simply Chronos means normal time and Kairos means an appointed time for the purpose of God.

We all have friends and family, people who we love, care for, support, bless and encourage,  perhaps, today we can all think of those people around us that we can give one of our greatest gifts, the gift of time, which can be emailing, texting. Phoning, sending a message on Facebook or even going to see or meeting up for a Coffee.

Yours in His Grace

Blair Humphreys

To boldly go, where no-one has gone before !

To boldly go, where no-one has gone before !

When I was growing up, my parents and grandparents would take me and my two sisters on holidays to Ifracombe on the North Devon Coast, and more often or not we would go by the MV Balmoral, which would sail between Swansea and Ifracombe in the Summer months, and while there go for boat trips which would sail from Ifracombe harbour, I have more many happy memories of going there as child and early teenager, because of these memories I enjoy spending time by the Coast, although I have not been on a boat trip for a while, I'm fascinated both by boats and the Sea.
I remember a few years ago, while on holidays in Porthleven, Cornwall, spending time in the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth and had an interesting and enjoyable time there, although one thing I noticed more than others that the boats on display, none of them were in their original context , it was fascinating looking at these boats and reading all about them, but all them weren't doing the job they were designed and build for, yes, being on the water. Porthleven is a lovely, fishing village situated near Helston, and has a very picturesque harbour and I noticed that all the boats were doing the purpose they were designed and build for. Like other seaside holiday destinations, Porthleven has several shops selling goods to tourists, some of these shops sell model ships, they look exactly like the originals, but they could never do, the same job as the original ! they were just for display
For centuries Great Britain has been a maritime nation, and many of our national heroes have been sailors, from the historic figures like Sir Francis Drake, Horatio Nelson, Captain James Cook, to the fictional heroes such as Horatio Hornblower, many of our wars and the battles that we fought have involved fighting on Sea, from fighting the Spanish Armada, The Battle from Trafalgar, The Battle Of Jutland, The Battle of the River Plate. Most of our imports and exports travel by sea, the sea has important part to play into our history, present and future as Great Britain. The sea routes used today both for business and pleasure had to be discovered, and the ships that travel those routes use sea-charts to show them where they are going and how to get there, from the smallest cabin cruiser to the mighty container ship. Yet someone had to go out and navigate the sea in order for these sea-charts to be produced. Many of these men, such as Sir Francis Drake and Captain James Cook, stand tall throughout our history.
We see in our Bibles, countless references to sailing and to sea, from Noah's Voyage, to Jonah and we know that the Lord's Disciples Peter, Andrew, James and John were fisherman on the Sea of Galilee, and many of the early missionaries such as Paul, Barnabas, Silas, Mark, Timothy and Luke often travelled by sea to spread the Good News of the Gospel of Salvation to the people of the known world. In Ephesians 4:12, one of the meanings of the Greek Word we translate as equip is prepare a ship for voyage (one of the other meanings, is to set a broken bone).
In the 19^th and 20^th centuries many people left these shores and other shores to travel the world, to spread the Good News of the Gospel of Salvation, following the example of men like William Carey, John Wesley and George Whitfield, I remember growing up in small Pentecostal Church in the South Wales Valley's, and hearing about many men and women who went forth as missionaries, and being inspired by the reports that came back from our missionaries in places like Nigeria and India, I had the privilege not only of having a retired missionary as one of the Sunday School Teachers, and having two former missionary couples as my Pastor and his wife , but also being related to one of the earliest Pentecostal Pioneers from the United Kingdom to Nigeria, who in his later years inspired me to seek and serve God. While a student in Bible School, several of my lecturers had been missionaries, and I know how much they inspired me and my fellow students.
In the early part of the 21^st Century, many of us may not have the same opportunities to travel to other lands following in the footsteps of our brothers and sisters who went before us, there are still opportunities we can take, perhaps in short-term mission trips, we have advancements in technology they didn't have like the Internet, I remember being in School in the 1980's and never thought then I could not talk to people in places like America and Australia via a computer and a phone-line but to count them as friends as well. On the other hand we don't have to travel to other lands to be a missionary, we can be missionaries in our villages, towns, suburbs, cities but most importantly in our communities. I know that in the coming days, the Lord will inspire many of us to become missionaries on other towns, cities and regions throughout our own lands but other lands as well.
In the last 12-18 months, I have been greatly inspired by the writings of people like Alan J Roxburgh, Alan Hirsch, Neil Cole, Martin Robinson and Floyd McClung, especially when it comes to being Missional and being challenged by the concept of mission dei or God's Mission. I may not have the opportunities to travel to other lands to spread the Good News of the Gospel of Salvation, but it doesn't mean that there are no opportunities here in the United Kingdom. I've just read something that David Cameron, the Leader of the Conservative Party here in the UK, said about Broken Britain and Social Recession. (If you would like to read more about Missional, I strongly recommend (Introducing the Missional Church by Alan J Roxburgh). Both my prayer and desire is to see God raise up His People here in the UK and other lands to see the spiritual needs in our own lands, and be willing to follow His direction either to pray, support or go, hopefully to do all, some of us He will send to our neighbours, some of us He will send to our streets, some to our towns and cities, but all He asks are we willing to go to those He will send us ?
Some of us in coming days, He will ask to be Pioneers, and to go where no-one has gone before or for some time, to break into new territory or to go and re-claim territory. I'm now going to share some Scriptures with you, and my Prayer is that God will use these Scriptures to challenge you for the first time or to challenge for you for the thousandth time, and follow his direction, which will not only impact your own live, but impact the lives of others, those who is sending you to.
If you're wondering if my title sounds familiar, it's from Star Trek, the days ahead will be days of challenge, courage and grace but most importantly of opportunity, and I pray that we take the courage and the grace, to take the opportunities those challenges will present to us.
Isa 6:8-9a TNIv

⁸ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"
       And I said, "Here am I. Send me!" ⁹ He said, "Go and tell this people

Matt 28:19-20 TNIv

¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in ^[a]the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Romans 10:14015a NCV

 ¹⁴ But before people can ask the Lord for help, they must believe in him; and before they can believe in him, they must hear about him; and for them to hear about the Lord, someone must tell them;¹⁵ and before someone can go and tell them, that person must be sent.

Yours by His Grace

Blair Humphreys

Equal Marriage : Just Plain Wrong A Christian Perspective on the Gay Marriage Debate in the UK

Equal Marriage; Just Plain Wrong.

Today, both in the United Kingdom and other Countries, we face the challenge in the name of Equality and Tolerance to allow same sex marriage (the marriage of a man to another man or the marriage of a woman to another woman) the equal standing in society that marriage between a man and a woman or a woman and a man has in the 21^st Century.

Yet those calling for Equality and Tolerance, only believe that their view and understanding of Equality and Tolerance is the only valid view and supersedes the understanding of both Equality and Tolerance of those Groups such as Christians that disagree with their view and understanding, rather than an open and honest debate and discussion, they have decided to demonize those who’s views and understanding of Equality and Tolerance differ from theirs, and criticize and condemn them for not showing or agreeing to both Equality and Tolerance, this is indeed a lack of Equality and Tolerance, for by calling those groups who differ from them In-tolerant etc,  they themselves have done  exactly what they accuse other groups of!

In recent days,  I have followed the on-going debate in today’s media both in favour and against same sex marriage and have examined the evidence and have researched the different perspectives and I believe that our standard and indeed our bench mark for all practices that we the Church hold,  is God’s Word  The Bible. It is quite easy to be influenced by the opinions and perspectives of others. 

Romans 12:1-2 the Message

^1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—you’re sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

I’m on Facebook, which I think is one of the best sources of both news and information available on-line and I subscribe to various news feeds . I read with interest and a high level of disappointment and article on Lib Dem Voice by Steve Gilbert is Liberal Democrat MP for St Austell and Newquay.  “Church Opposition to Gay Marriage is intolerant, out of touch and wrong.”  

Mr. Gilbert has quoted that societies in the past such as Ancient China and Ancient Rome allowed Gay Marriage; if we followed the example of these societies today we would still have Slavery and The Death Penalty for various Crimes.  So if we follow the Example of Ancient Rome and all that is involved in that in allowing Gay Marriage shouldn’t we also allow Slavery and turn Wembley Arena into a 21^st Century version of the Coliseum at Rome!  I think not!
-
 To understand why Mr. Gilbert mentioned that practices of Ancient Rome and Ancient China, I decided to examine the evidence and have discovered the following on Wikipedia. (Although Wikipedia is not infallible)

“Various types of same-sex marriages have existed, ^[52] ranging from informal, unsanctioned relationships to highly ritualized unions.^[53]

In the southern Chinese province of Fijian, through the Ming dynasty period, females would bind themselves in contracts to younger females in elaborate ceremonies.^[54] Males also entered similar arrangements. This type of arrangement was also similar in ancient European history.^[55]

An example of egalitarian male domestic partnership from the early Zhou Dynasty period of China is recorded in the story of Pan Zhang & Wang Zhongxian. While the relationship was clearly approved by the wider community, and was compared to heterosexual marriage, it did not involve a religious ceremony binding the couple.^[56]

The first historical mention of the performance of same-sex marriages occurred during the early Roman Empire.^[57] For instance, Emperor is reported to have engaged in a marriage ceremony with one of his male slaves. Emperor Elagabalus "married" a Carian slave named Hierocles.^[58] It should be noted, however, that conubium existed only between a civis Romanus and a civis Romana (that is, between a male Roman citizen and a female Roman citizen), so that a so-called marriage between two Roman males (or with a slave) would have no legal standing in Roman law (apart, presumably, from the arbitrary will of the emperor in the two aforementioned cases).^[59] Furthermore, "matrimonium is an institution involving a mother, mater. The idea implicit in the word is that a man takes a woman in marriage, in matrimonium ducere, so that he may have children by her."^[60] Still, the lack of legal validity notwithstanding, there is a consensus among modern historians that same-sex relationships existed in ancient Rome, but the exact frequency and nature of "same-sex unions" during that period is obscure.^[61] In 342 AD Christian emperors Constantius II and Constans issued a law in the Theodosian Code (C. Th. 9.7.3) prohibiting same-sex marriage in Rome and ordering execution for those so married.^[62]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_marriage

So using the example that same sex marriage was common both in Ancient China and Ancient Rome and had the same legal standing that marriage between a Man and a Woman is not valid and indeed erroneous.

I said earlier that our understanding of issues and our bench mark for all practices should God’s Word the Bible, for example if The Bible supported the idea that the Marriage Union between a Man and a Man and a Woman and Woman was equal to the Marriage Union between a Man and a Woman it would say so, in the Bible there is only one definition of Marriage and that is between a Man and a Woman or a Woman and a Man.  So if we believe that the Bible is God’s Inspired Word we Christians shouldn’t support or agree to a Marriage Ceremony or Union that doesn’t involve a Man marrying a Woman or a Vice a Versa, lets us examine some scriptures on Marriage.

All Scripture Verses are from the English Stand Version unless otherwise stated.

Genesis 2:20b-24

But for Adam^[g] there was not found a helper fit for him.²¹ so the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. ²² And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made^[h] into a woman and brought her to the man. ²³ Then the man said,

“This at last is bone of my bones
    and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
    because she was taken out of Man.”^[i]

²⁴ Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Jeremiah 29:6

 ⁶ Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.

1 Corinthians 7:2B

, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.

Ephesians 5:31-33

³¹ “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” ³² This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. ³³ However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

There are of course many scriptures referring to the marriage between a Man and a Woman, which space wouldn’t allow me to add, I’m sure that the above scriptures will serve as a start to your own personal study.

Further Reading:

1.     Will Churches be forced to conduct Gay Marriage?

2.     The Archbishop of York says don't force through Gay Marriage

3.     78% of the British Public say don't force through Gay Marriage

4.     The Christian Institute

5.     Christian Concern

6.     The Coalition for Marriage