Thursday Giveaway: Smallgroup.com

Each week on Thursdays we highlight a trustworthy discipleship resource that can help you in your mission to make disciples. This week’s post is excerpted from the study “Indivisible”  available on smallgroup.com. Fill out the form at the end of this post by Friday, October 12th at 11:59pm to enter for a chance to win a free year subscription to smallgroup.com! 

The film Indivisible is the real life story of Major Darren Turner and his wife Heather. Darren shared about his and Heather’s early commitment to their agreed purpose in their own marriage: “Heather and I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that God had called us together for one another, and His plan and purposes. Joining the military as a chaplain was a mutual decision for us. We knew that God would use us both to minister together as well as separately to reach those that had volunteered to die for us, if called upon.”

Notice that Darren clearly stated that God had first called him and Heather together for one another. But then he added their mutual decision to follow God’s specific will in their marriage and how they could serve Him both individually and together. For example, when Darren is stationed stateside on a base, as he still is active duty today, he and Heather often serve together to minister to military families. But when Darren was sent to Iraq, he ministered to the soldiers there, while Heather served the wives and children left behind at the base.

There is great satisfaction in being in God’s will in your marriage, while also discovering together a divine purpose that He offers specifically for the calling, gifts, and talents of each individual.

Genesis 2:18-25:

18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper corresponding to him.” 19 The Lord God formed out of the ground every wild animal and every bird of the sky, and brought each to the man to see what he would call it. And whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all the livestock, to the birds of the sky, and to every wild animal; but for the man[a] no helper was found corresponding to him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to come over the man, and he slept. God took one of his ribs and closed the flesh at that place. 22 Then the Lord God made the rib he had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 And the man said: This one, at last, is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called “woman,” for she was taken from man. 24 This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh. 25 Both the man and his wife were naked, yet felt no shame.

Even though the idea of something being “indivisible” is most often associated in our society with the United States Pledge of Allegiance, we can see from this passage that the nation’s forefathers did not create this concept, but rather God Himself, for His divine purpose of marriage.

When the Pharisees were quizzing Jesus on the topic of marriage one day, He connected His teaching back to this Genesis passage.

To offer a simple analogy of being indivisible, becoming “one flesh,” or “joined together,” imagine tearing off two equal-sized pieces from a roll of duct tape. Separate, the two sections are very sticky. In fact, you have to be careful that they don’t bond to something prematurely before you apply them for their intended purpose. If you carefully connect their sticky sides, matching up corner to corner, pressing together all the way around both, you will effectively no longer have two pieces of tape—but one single unit. They have fully bonded to one another. If you try to separate them, you cannot successfully divide the two, but only destroy both for they are now truly indivisible. This is a great visual to represent God’s purpose for the “one flesh” concept in marriage.

The biblical concept of marriage as an indivisible “one flesh” includes what God does in the hearts, souls, lives, and gifts—both individually and corporately—of any couple that calls Him “Lord.” He creates an internal as well as an external oneness that doesn’t exist in the same manner outside of the two partners working together. This is indeed a spiritual mystery that only He can create.

We must recognize the life that our marriages give by being brought together for the purpose of bringing glory to the Lord. As biblical marriage comes further under attack, Christ followers should commit to placing their focus on creating oneness that can only be explained by the presence and power of Almighty God.

This is an excerpt from the study “Indivisible” available now at smallgroup.com.