Dear --------------------------------------------------------------------- Feedback Box:

Stupid Couple who is Considering Throwing Away your Marriage:

I hope things are going well for you! In fact, I pray things are going so well for you that this letter is already out of date! I hope everything I have to say is absolutely useless! Mainly moot!

I just wanted you to know, in case you were thinking of it, that divorce isn't an option for you. I won't permit it. If you want to ask my permission, you will first have to accept dinner with Dorothy and me. And then, after dinner, if you still want to, you can ask.

But you know what my answer will be.

It wasn't until about the time Iowa became a state that Americans began allowing courts to handle divorce, and then the trouble began. Before that you had to go before the state legislature to ask for a divorce. That's what we need again. It would keep lawmakers busy with something important. It's the next best thing Iowa could do to what they do in the Dakotas, where they only let the lawmakers near the capitol every other year.

If your faith ever falters and you question whether there is a real Hell, just talk to anybody who has been divorced. They will set you straight. Divorce is no more than a taste of Hell, but it's enough to deliver the message. If separation from the love of the one you have chosen, above all the people of the earth, to become One with for the rest of your physical life, can plunge you so abruptly into a slimepit of hatred, how much more will separation from the love of the One who created you and died for you, that He might become One with you for all eternity as He is with Himself, plunge you into the depths of Hell!!

If you want to watch a room full of people tasting hell, watch my Uncle Ed. Show which first aired June 20, 2000 AD. I filmed the May meeting hosted by Dick Woods, (Fathers for Equal Rights), where people struggling with the injustices of divorce court bring their questions to a divorce attorney. You don't want to go through that!

You can't speak too strongly against the corruption, the insensitivity, the cold-hearted out-of-touch logic, the sheer incompetence, of divorce court. I know I can't, because I have read 1 Corinthians 6, and I know I can't compete with God's eloquence in making this point. That is a place for any who treasure their peace of mind and sanity, and certainly any Christian, to avoid.

There are about six Biblical grounds for divorce which I have discerned. And some day it is my hope and expectation, in God's promise to answer prayer, that with my own eyes I will see them honored in Iowa law. But when that happens, I am going to make sure the law includes an exception for you two. For you, all you get to read is Hosea and Malachi. Malachi tells how much God hates divorce. Hosea illustrates how hopeless we would all be, if God "divorced" us as soon as He had grounds! Hosea illustrates the love of God for us, that He loves us and will take us back, even after we have provided Him with all SIX grounds!

Then read Matthew 6:14-15, warning us that it is only to the extent that we forgive one another, that God will forgive us!

Then ponder Luke 7:47, after reading the story which surrounds us. This amazing verse declares that our love for God is evidence of how much we have already been forgiven. We already knew from Luke 10:25-37 and Matthew 25:40 that our love for God is manifested through our love for each other; even our enemies -- how much more our own spouses! So if we cannot love our spouse, whom we have seen, how can we love God, whom we have not seen (1 John 4:20)? And if we cannot love God, Luke 7:47 says this proves we are not forgiven!

When God's Word seems to hard, too heavy for you to bear, then read 1 John 5:1-5, which assures you that the commandments of God are not grievous, but keeping them shows your love for God, and though keeping them is a battle, you are offered victory through faith!

Then when you just want a shoulder to cry on through this battle, read 11:28-30 to see how much Jesus loves you, how much He longs to carry every burden for you!

My website, www.panews.org has divorce resources. One is the legislation I propose. Another is a "divorce kit" which either of you can use to actually resist, in court, the application for divorce filed by the other! Using existing law! Not that it will be useful to you; surely your marriage problems are already healed by now by all those Scriptures. But you might study the reasoning anyway, in case you meet anyone else who has gotten that close to the brink of Hell because they won't read the Scriptures. They haven't been "tested" in court yet, but their logic is more or less irrefutable; but their value is also that even before a judge gets to rule on them, they are read by the other spouse, and the information in there encourages repentance.

The reason for you to flee divorce, which personally affects me, is that while your marriage still shines, you are still a light to our community, which would suffer if your light were thrown under a bushel. Just because you have challenges now and then doesnt mean you are losing. It does not mean God has no victories ahead for you! Do a Bible study together on answered prayer, and rekindle your original vision.

I love you both.

In Jesus' Name (Col 3:17)

Dave Leach

PS when are you coming for dinner?

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