Job 19:14 English Standard Version (ESV) My relatives have failed me, my close friends have forgotten me.

Human relationships are complicated. Here is a sad truth. Sometimes we do not know how much we care about another person until we fail them.

While we all want to feel reliable, self-interests often interfere with performance. We get “busy” and lose track of time. We get “immersed” and lose awareness of others. We get “hungry” and forget our partner’s needs.

Placing those words “in quotes” implies that there is more to those words that what is said. We must see ourselves in those moments as being that kind of person. We all do it to some degree. Even being mindful is no guarantee that it will not happen again. We are after all flesh.

Genesis 2:23 English Standard Version (ESV) 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.”

Hurt the ones we love and we hurt ourselves. We should weep when we fail others but if we do not we did not love them as God intended.

Having watched many marriages fail over the years they all seemed to have the same common flaw. God did not bring them together and join them in marriage.

We all are flesh and we will fail from time to time but the ability to get over it and make things right is founded in godly relationships, marriage or otherwise.

We use find sounding words like “committed 100%”, but if that were the case we would lose self and that which God has created us to be would be swallowed up by the other.

We were meant to help each other be all that God wants us to be, not what we want.

Daniel 12:1 English Standard Version (ESV)

The Time of the End

“At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book.”

Who are your people? Daniel was a Jew and as such many of the Jewish faith will proclaim they are his people. That is not very inclusive. That attitude has kept many people from seeking to join “God’s people”.

Acts 4:11-12 English Standard Version (ESV) This Jesusis the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among menby which we must be saved.”

Here again we find exclusion in salvation which is rejected by many and keeps many from coming to Christ.

Allow me to point out one tiny little phrase which might clarify some of the confusion. Those words are “among men”. Salvation belongs to God and He and He alone wrote those names in the book at the foundation of the world and then sealed it so that no one could remove a name nor know what names were written therein.

Matthew 25:34 English Standard Version (ESV) Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

Isaiah 29:11 English Standard Version (ESV)  And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed. When men give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.”

Treat all mankind as if their names might be written in the book. They might be your people.