Comments on: Wedding Vows, Presidential Oaths, and Promises to God

By: ygp

ygp — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 21:05:22 +0000

18 years ago I married to a man from Myanmar. I am from Indonesia. We met in Malaysia. We have our weeding in Indonesia. Due to the visa status, he had to leave Indonesia without me, back to Malaysia. Then he came to USA as a student. I followed him 6 months later, leaving my family and my career as a physician and lecturer in a medical school( I work for my church’s charity clinic). For 2 years we were jobless, while my husband were still paying his foreigner tuition fee. Life had been treating us merciless during those early years of our marriage. On our first anniversary, I cried and prayed and talked to my gracious Lord, that I could not bear it any longer.I suffered from poverty, job rejection, missing my family and experiencing culture shock.I planned to go back to Indonesia without my husband. And yet the wedding vow I declared before Him and the conggregation reminded me that I have to be with my husband for the better and the worse. I thank God that He not only reminded me of my role as a wife, but He gave us strength to endure the adversities and He provided help in due time. Now we have been married for 18 years, living in the USA. God never forsake those who trust Him and depend on Him. The wedding vow is one of many ways of God’s guideline for my husband and I to work together on maintaining our holy instituion.

By: work-in-progress

work-in-progress — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 18:50:36 +0000

Welcome Carmen!

By: Carmen Cortes-deBosques

Carmen Cortes-deBosques — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:17:38 +0000

July 10,2009 at 2:07PM

This is my first time to log in. Hello to everyone.

It has sound alwayskind of bizarre to me the way I behave and make promises to the Lord and then do just like the people of Israel or maybe worst: I come out of my Egypt and promise God all kinds of promises and it doesn’t take days but maybe seconds that I’m worshiping the golden calf not at the foot of Sinai but at the foot of the Cross now…Yes, I seem to tell the same story over and over again…
Nevertheless, I will continue to make promises and I’ll continue to say at the end, “So help me God”. You see I have to depend on my God more and more every day to help me solve the problem. I don’t want the Lord to lower the bar what I want is that my reponsability and accountability in the process riches up to the bar…
So help us Lord!!!

By: pegramsdell

pegramsdell — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:01:11 +0000

Amen, poohpity…..amen sister. :)

By: poohpity

poohpity — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:14:31 +0000

I only know one person that was able to live a perfect life and fulfilled every vow that was made and that is the person of Jesus Christ.

The only vows I can make is that I am going to mess up. I will give it my best to not let the sun go done on my anger. I will not hold anyone to a higher standard than I am able to live which as I said before I mess up a lot. I will look at my own sin while trying not to look at others but I will. I am responsible to Christ Jesus to serve as He has given me an example to do although I will do it in an imperfect way. I will not strive for perfection because it is impossible but I will stay in process to do the best I can do.

If I ever get married I will put God first and my husband second and ask my husband to do the same. I will give my husband permission to mess up and ask that we never go to bed angry which I know will happen. I will give my husband the right to be who he is and not want to change him to something I would like just as the Lord has given me permission to be who I am. I will not talk behind his back and gossip about him but try and work out all our problems and ask for help if we need it which I am sure we will. As old as I am I will probably never get married but I can dream.

By: lilu1314h

lilu1314h — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 02:24:29 +0000

When I first accepted Christ, I was so excited that I promised Him that I’ll do this.. do that… etc. Along the way I find that the nature of my sinful nature has drifted me to another way instead of His way. (Though the will is strong but the body is weak)

But Thank God, He sent Jesus & the Holy Spirit for us. We do not need much “effort” but if “willing” to let go our own way, then He can work in us.

As a new Christian, I’m still learning very hard on this. Depending on Him & not myself in a daily basis. And able to praise Him even in my stormy time.

By: rdrcomp

rdrcomp — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:27:44 +0000

Didn’t Jesus say,”Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.”(Matt. 5:37, ESV) I think He wants us to be people of our word.

It wasn’t that long ago that most people could be trusted to do what they said they would do. Sure, some didn’t, but for the most part, people said what they meant and meant what they said.

A lot of times, It isn’t that way any more. Even, it seems, for many believers who are seemingly serious about living out their Christianity.

Seems to me that we’re all too busy to do everything we say we’re going to do, and we need to simplify our lives. If we’d do that, it would be much easier to be people of our word.

But more than that, if we are serious about living godly, we will want to be counted on when we say something.

By: Your Love Inspires

Your Love Inspires — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:34:19 +0000

I have pretty much walked away in disgust from any organized Christian community because my wife and I both feel like sheep among wolves. Keeping one’s vows is only a bare essential to faith. Left is right, up is down, black is white, and always with a “greater good” attached seems to be the order of the day, always steeped in self righteousness while hiding agendas. Lawyers prosper in such a climate.

Forgive me for raining on your parade, guess I just had to give voice to what appears to be in the bigger scheme of things. Shall we blame it on Satan or “God’s people?”

By: foreverblessed

foreverblessed — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:21:23 +0000

I agree that it is a heart matter, when we lie by a vow or lie by a yes. It is wrong.
But what Jesus added: anything beyond the yes is from the evil one. In fact He warns us here, that with a vow we add the power of the evil one, and so than we are being held hostage maybe without even us knowing about it.
And so it wouldn’t be a bad idea to think over what unhealthy vows we have made in the past.
Pray about it, and let the Holy Spirit show you what unhealthy ties you have made in the past, renounce them, and be free of them.
The freedom that you will experience in doing so is tremendous.
So we can be free as a child of God, and can call Jesus our Lord and Master.

By: chalice

chalice — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 08:43:40 +0000

“Is it worth thinking about to increase our sense of dependence upon the Lord in everything, knowing that–in one sense– Jesus reminds us that, by our own words we will be “justified or condemned (Matt 12:37).”

Whether I say a wedding vow, take an oath of office, or make a promise to God on the one hand, or simply let my yes be yes and my no be no on the otherhand seems to me to make little difference when it comes to the notion that by my own words I will be justified or condemned.

A lie by vow and a lie by saying “yes” is still a lie. A failure to live up to a commitment that is an oath and a failure to live up to a “yes” is still a failure. And a promise broken is no better or worse than a “no” betrayed.

In so much of Jesus’ teaching, it is the underlying heart that is the litmus test. The forms and illustrations serve primarily to illustrate the underlying “heart” issue. If I make a wedding vow to love, cherish and honor my betrothed, only to break that vow some evening because I wrongfully get angry about something we are discussing, is the sin greater than telling someone “yes” when I intentionally plan to do just the opposite as soon as the first opportunity arises? Both are sins. The vow doesn’t make one worse than the other.

On the other hand, if I make a big deal by publicly posturing and making a vow or oath rather than simply saying “yes” or “no” to a given issue, I am likely running afoul of the Biblical teaching on oaths and vows. It’s still the underlying “heart” issue, though, that matters, it seems to me.