Banking Blessings Ministry welcomes you to 2019. Our program this year will focus on understanding government based on people and events described in the bible to learn about God’s purpose for relationships between people and their government. We thank you for participating in our programs as we seek and share understanding of God’s purpose for human interactions and relationships. We thank God for the opportunity to understand his message better this year and live in the understanding to approach closer to his purpose for each of us individually and as member of a community.

The year 2018 ended while we were in the middle of a series on Husband-Wife Interactions, focused on studying the life of couples described in the bible to learn from their interactions among themselves and with God. The series provides lessons about husband-wife unity; family leadership; love, honor, and trust; and bringing all these together to always present the husband-wife union as one before God, such that any potentially dividing husband-wife disagreement will be resolved quickly and permanently. We provide a summary of what we learned in 2018 based on a few selected studies from the series.

New Series for 2019

The series on husband-wife interactions is not done but will be suspended for a while in order to focus on a new assignment for 2019. Developments around the world indicate increasing tension between people and their governments. There appear to be widespread dissatisfaction with government. In several cases, governments appear to have departed greatly from the expectations of the people. Maybe because the people have incorrect expectations, or the people in charge of government have forgotten or did not ever know what the government can expect from people and what the people can expect from their government.

The bible provides information to guide understanding God’s purpose for relationships between people and their governments. To understand the information better and benefit from the guidance it provides, the Banking Blessings bible study program this year will focus on understanding government based on people and events described in the bible and using the accounts to learn about God’s purpose for relationships between people and their government. What should the people expect from their government and what should the government expect from the people? We will find the bible provides answers to these questions.

Selected Lessons Learned Summary from 2018

The study series on husband-wife interactions provides opportunity to learn that God creates marriage as the foundation for a population of people to represent him among themselves and in interactions with the earth and its other living and non-living inhabitants. He creates husband and wife to function seamlessly as a unit and interact with him as one.

For example, in Union of Seamless Complements—Adam and Eve Purpose of Marriage, we learn that God considers a husband and wife to be one and inseparable. He creates marriage to combine a man and woman into a union of fitting complements, well suited to fulfill the purpose of representing him among all creation. He holds a man and wife inseparable in their responsibility to obey him. Both will incur punishment for an act of disobedience, no matter how caused. However, he judges them individually when they disobey and assigns each separate responsibility for his or her punishment.

Our understanding from Adam and Eve is expanded further through the life of Abraham-Sarah, which provides illustrations for husband-wife unity and family leadership. Biblical accounts of Abraham-Sarah are more often about God’s interactions with Abraham, which intertwine with Abraham-Sarah interactions to tell us about God’s view of their relationship, thus adding to understanding his purpose and expectations for husband-wife interactions and relationships. For example, in Husband-Wife Leadership from Abraham-Sarah, we discuss interactions at the call of Abraham to illustrate God considers husband and wife as one and relies on husband’s leadership and effective communication with his wife to guide them toward his purpose. He spoke to Abraham alone about a mission and promise for his family and relied on him to share the information with wife Sarah to lead their unity of purpose and obedience to God toward accomplishing the mission.

However, husband’s leadership of the family is not based on absolute authority. On the contrary, we learn through interactions of the Shunammite couple (Respect Honor and Trust—Interactions Among Shunammite Couple) that family leadership is shared among husband and wife and works best when the sharing is well understood and respected by both. Mutual respect and trust among the Shunammite couple placed them in position to receive God’s blessing. The woman respected and honored her husband as family leader and the man respected and honored his wife as spiritual gateway for the family. Their relationship worked well for their family and brought them abundant blessing through their interactions with Elisha.

Love prepares a couple to understand and respect sharing of family leadership. For example, in Love Prepares Home for God’s Intervention—Mary-Joseph Example, we discuss Mary and Joseph relying on love to deal with human challenges they faced as part of their call to become parents of the Messiah. Mary was concerned about potential effects of the pregnancy on her relationship with Joseph. She surrendered her concerns to God. Joseph, on his part, was aware of Mary’s extraneous pregnancy but determined to protect her from public disgrace in the event of terminating the engagement in obedience to Jewish law. However, God sent him an angel to explain Mary’s pregnancy. Their love for each other prepared their heart to receive and execute their unique call and may well have been the reason they were chosen.

We discuss their shared family leadership in Mary and Joseph Unity in Parenting, where we rely on their interactions to understand parenting as a husband-wife ministry. God called Mary and Joseph to the ministry of parenting the Messiah. Initially, Mary was the primary (or “first primary”) in the ministry and Joseph was the supporter (or “second primary”). Mary’s responsibility at the initial stage was to carry the pregnancy and Joseph’s was to support her wholeheartedly so together they nurtured the unborn child through birth.

However, their roles switched after the child was born. God recognized Joseph as the family leader, communicated child care instructions to him, and thereby charged him with leading the husband-wife team to implement the instructions. They remained united in implementing the instructions, completing each task successfully without any indication of disagreement. Also, their performance indicates they communicated effectively to determine steps toward completing the instructions. Love of each other and love of God led to effective communication, understanding their responsibilities, and performing the responsibilities to accomplish the objective.

One of our great lessons through the series on husband-wife interactions is a sense of urgency in resolving any husband-wife dispute that may threaten their oneness before God. The lesson is based on Abraham-Sarah interactions during the separation of Ishmael from Isaac.

Sarah’s demand that Ishmael and his mother be expelled from the household caused an internal conflict for Abraham. He was sympathetic to Sarah’s demand but felt an internal conflict with throwing out his son because of a sense of responsibility and concern for his well-being. As we discuss in Husband-Wife Conflict Resolution—Abraham-Sarah in the Challenge of Ishmael, God intervened by directing Abraham to accept his wife’s demand and explaining that he will bless each of the two children separately. Abraham obeyed and implemented the directive the following morning.

The interactions illustrate quick and permanent resolution of a potentially dividing husband-wife disagreement so that the husband-wife union will be able to interact with God as one. The potential disagreement regarding separation of Ishmael from the household was resolved within twenty-four hours.

We thank you for participating in our program and promise to do what we can in 2019 to advance our mission of learning and sharing God’s purpose for human interactions and relationships.

May God bless you abundantly!