​God is good! 

In His goodness, He enables us to grow and conform to his goodness. 
Example,  Lynn and I have been planning, for a couple months now ,  a special weekend together for June.  We also have a family member getting married in June, and Lynn casually mentioned today that her sister is coming to visit then. Seems Lynn never connected that it was the SAME weekend. Sigh. (Nor did I.)
Now there was a time <not too long ago> that a situation like this would have led to me losing my temper, berating her, yelling, and generally making a fool of myself, ruining any chance at a pleasant hometime this weekend. 
Instead, God had His hand of peace on me (and Spirit of peace within me), allowing me to just work the problem and come up with the simple (and obvious) solution of just shifting our weekend a week. 
Praise be to God for working His peace into us!

I stopped today at a little roadside area to walk the dog.  Just an abandoned motel site. But I gradually became aware of the absolute beauty and wonder of the place.

There was a little lizard scampering across the side of the building, apparently annoyed at being interrupted in his breakfast.

There was the snow sitting, glistening in the branches of the pine trees. 

There was the sun glittering in the dew of the grass. 

My first thought was to stop and thank God for all this wondrous beauty. My second feeling was sadness.

Sadness for the people who believe the myth that all of creation is merely an accident of nature. The unfounded story that all that exists just happened to come into being and evolve. The fable that says there is no meaning or purpose to this life. 

But there IS purpose. 

God is. 

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Ge 1:1

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. Ge 1:31

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Ps 19:1

The heavens declare his righteousness,for God himself is judge! Ps 50:6

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. Ro 1:20

An ancient Irish monk, Fursey, was once given a vision in which he saw four fires threatening to destroy the world. Some 15 centuries later these same fires still threaten our destruction:

• Falsehood
  
• Covetousness
  
• Discord
  
• Exploitation

Now, as then, Christ is the answer. 

Where falsehood thrives, Christ says “I Am THE TRUTH, seek Me”.

Where covetousness lives, Christ says,  “I Am ENOUGH, trust Me”.

Where discord reigns, Christ says, “I Am PEACE, rest in Me”.

Where exploitation exists, Christ says, “I Am LOVE, love Me and love others too”.

We need to change the label we use for our standard of marriage. 

I just read an article that at heart said so-called traditional marriage isn’t traditional at all. It was portly written, used cherry picked examples, provided no support for its points, and ‘destroyed’ straw man arguments.

In spite of all that, the article was right in one point;

Traditional marriage isn’t traditional.

When we use the term ‘traditional marriage’ we usually mean a marriage built on Christian principles.

So from now on let’s use the term Biblical Marriage. But what exactly is a biblical marriage? It has three characteristics:

1. Both husband and wife are sold out, bible believing, followers of Christ. 
2. The husband chooses to love his wife as Christ loves the Church, willing to set aside his own needs and desires in favor of her, placing her and the marriage ahead of himself. 
3. The wife places herself under the leadership of her husband  ‘as unto the Lord’. She respects and supports him in his godly decisions, even if she disagrees, knowing that he must answer to God.

It really is that simple… and that difficult. 

May God strengthen and guide you in all you say and do.

And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.

For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself

Eph 5:21-28 ESV

If I could prove to you beyond a reasonable doubt that God exists and has made Himself and His plan known to us through the pages of the bible,  would you then worship and follow Him?

There are really only three basic answers to that question, with many variations on a theme.

1. “No, I don’t think I would choose to believe no matter what you told me.”

Ok. You’ve decided, for whatever reasons, to not believe. Maybe it’s what you were taught. Maybe you were hurt by so-called church people. Or a myriad of other reasons. I respect your decision. But I pray that someday you will see past the human failure and   teaching, and see God’s truth in all His beauty and glory.

2. “Yes, I think I’d say I’d at least consider it.”

Great! Let’s talk. I could never hope to answer your very personal questions in a blog post. I might not even be able to face to face. But if you’ll contact me I’ll do my best, with His help, to point you in the right direction.

3. “I already have.”

Welcome brother or sister! How are you doing in your walk with Him lately? Following Christ is so much more than saying prayers and going to church. Let’s start with the very basics:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Love your neighbor as you love yourself.

Mark 12: 30-31

Loving God means putting Him first. It means learning to think and feel the way He does. It means letting God and His word change our mind and our heart to reflect Himself.  It means spending your precious time getting to know Him. It means doing the things He said to do and not doing the things He said not to. Remember all those do’s and don’ts? Yeah, He meant that. Easy to preach, hard to do. But again, more important than what we do or don’t do is who we are.

Loving our neighbor is tougher. It means caring about and for those around us. The ones closest to us. The ones that can’t help us in our life or work. The ones that aren’t like us. The ones that seek to do us harm. Everyone. It means stopping to notice people. It means interrupting our day. It means giving away our three most prized ‘possessions’; time and money and self. 

But always remember, we do these things not to GET God to love us, but rather BECAUSE He already loves us. It is all too easy to slip from a life of gratitude to Christ into a life of rules and lists and have-to’s.

May God grant you peace in your journey and heaven at the end.

I often tell my wife that I wish I had a magic pill that someone could take that would fix their marriage and their life.

As we near our 35th wedding anniversary,  I am amazed and happy at the state of our marriage. Is it perfect? By no means, we fuss and fume all the time. But, I dare say,  it’s one of the best around. Am I content? Again, no. We (and I specifically) work at it continually.

Why? Because we’re just better people? Hardly. We are broken and bent just as much as the next. Is it that we’re lucky? Again, nope. For many years we were headed downhill (read our story here). 

I attribute our success to two things: 

• First,  we both individually then later as a couple submitted to God and his ways. We made a conscious decision to turn our lives over to Him and do whatever He said. And that was tough. It meant admitting that we were wrong, not just a little off but often completely one hundred percent wrong. It meant changing our behaviors when we didn’t feel like it hoping against hope that the feelings would change too. And they did. 
• Second, with God leading us, we sought out His principles for marriage and relationship and living, primarily in the form of books (see our reading list here). By learning how marriage is supposed to work and what makes each of us tick,  we are able to focus on the things that build and minimize the things that destroy.

But back to the magic pill. I believe there is one. But we as a whole don’t really want  one. I have coached several guys through Heartsong and invariably, they have abandoned the path toward healing.

Why? The answer is threefold.

One,  we don’t really think we’re the one that’s broken.

Two, we don’t really believe that God will fix us and our marriage.

Three, we don’t believe that the hard work required to change will be worth the struggle. 

I am willing to make a startling claim: If you and your spouse will take the magic pill your marriage and life will improve. Guaranteed. 

The Magic Pill

Submit to God. Come to the point in your life that you cry out to Him as I once did, ‘do whatever it takes to show me what’s wrong and to fix me.’

Learn and Practice. Read. Study. Listen. Then do. Find out everything you can about godly living and godly marriage. Then with His strength, do it.

Start today. 

​Democracy will not change the world.

Socialism will not make people better.

Libertarian ideals will not free us. 

Science will not fix all our problems. 

Medicine will not heal us.

Psychology will not cure our brokenness. 

Religion will not save us. 

Anti-Religion will not save us. 
The only thing in this whole universe that can truly make a difference is God.

Jesus’ love poured on us and in us,  leading us to turn back to Him in humility, repentance, and submission, saves us and starts the process of redeeming our lives.

Then we get healed.

Then we are free.

Only then can we go into the highways and byways of our life and spread His love thus truly changing the world.

Jesus says;

Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me…

When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am…

I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.

John 14:1, 3, 6 (ESV)

​Names say something special about us. Last names tell which family we belong to, either born into or welcomed into. First names often express a hope that our parents had for us or a link with some other person of the same name. As we celebrate the birth of the Lord Jesus this year, let us reflect on some of the names he was given, so that we might understand more of his significance for us.
More than 700 years before the birth of Jesus, God promised that a son would be born to a virgin, who would call him Immanuel, which means ‘God with us’. The child would be a sign of God’s commitment to rescue and keep his people.
Matthew proclaims the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy and the coming of God in the person of Jesus. As well as being Immanuel, he was called Jesus, because he came to ‘save his people from their sins’.
Angels announced to a group of shepherds that the baby Jesus would be the Christ, the promised king of Israel, who would rule the nations and bring people from everywhere into his eternal kingdom.
Christmas is about HOPE!

This life is full of pain, and sorrow, and trouble. We have accidents. People hurt us. We get sick . Ultimately, we pass from this world.
Jesus came to give us HOPE! Not the kind of hope that is wishful thinking, pie in the sky stuff of fairy tales.
Rather, a hope that is built on the foundation of God’s love.
A hope that can weather all the storms of life and still say, “God cares about me”.
A hope that says, “because He loves me, I can love others, no matter what they’ve done to me”.
A hope that knows that when all is said and done, this earthly life is but a pale reflection of the REAL life that is to come.
A hope that I have already begun to LIVE that real life now, because the life giver is here.
Jesus, ONLY Jesus can fulfill that Hope.
May you be filled with the wonder of Mary, the obedience of Joseph, the joy of the angels, the eagerness of the shepherds, the determination of the magi, and the peace of the Christ child. Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit bless you now and forever.

Adapted from material found at bettergatherings.com

​Some say understanding Christianity is difficult.

Nonsense.

Here are twelve words that outline the faith. 

1. Creation – God made all things good. 

2. Rebellion – Man chose himself above God thus destroying the perfect creation and his relationship with God. 

3. Sacrifice – God requires a sacrifice to heal the broken relationship. 

4. Jesus – The ultimate and final sacrifice. 

5. Faith – Believing and accepting Jesus’ sacrifice.

6. Washing – Repentance (abandoning our rebellion) symbolized by baptism. 

7. Holiness – A life changed and now lived for God. 

8. Remembrance – Celebration at the Lord’s Table of Jesus’ sacrifice.

9. Love – Love God and follow His decrees, and love other people as you love yourself. 

10. Proclamation – Telling others who God is and what Jesus has done. 

11. Hope – Looking forward to the day that all will be made right. 

12. Mystery – We will never fully understand who God is and what He has done and is doing.

These are so simple even a child can grasp them. Of course, to fully understand each of them would require years of study. And therein is the beauty. From the cradle to the grave we never stop exploring His word and discovering new insights that draw us inevitably closer to Him. 

Waffle Houses (at least the few I’ve been to) are normally loud, happy, boisterous, friendly places. The servers calling out the orders and the cook repeating it back creates an order in the chaos. The customers get their food quickly (and correctly) and people are happy.

This morning I was treated (?) to a display of the effects of a lack of communication. First, it was busier than usual. Second, they we understaffed. Most importantly, the usual back and forth communication had broken down. The servers would call out the orders but the cook didn’t respond, possibly because she didn’t hear or she was busy. Consequently orders didn’t get on the grill, customers were upset, staff was angry, and it was an uncomfortable situation for everybody. Because of the busyness and the tension, they hadn’t got around to doing routine prep work so that as the next shift showed up, there were arguments and hard feelings there too. It made me wonder how long through the day the cycle of tension and anger and lack of communication would continue.

The whole situation reminded me how important it is, especially in tense and busy times, to practice good active listening skills:

• First, we need to acknowledge and seek to reduce any tension and stress.
• Next, reduce our internal anger and frustration level.
• Then, relax our posture and tone of voice.
• Finally, the speaker needs to be as clear as possible, then the listener repeats back what was said. The process is continued until both are satisfied there is understanding.

 

A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

Proverbs 15:1 ESV

 

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

Ephesians 4:29 ESV