Four Marriage Tips

High maintenance wives and low tolerance husbands can make for much "distress at the address."   While conflict resolution isn’t always possible in marriage, conflict diminution is.   Here are a few suggestions from the Apostle to husbands:

       First, in order for husbands to understand their wives, they must first undertake to live with them.   Desert lands and house corners (Prov. 21:9) may provide sanctuary when times are rough, but they’ll never produce understanding.   You must live with your wife -- eat her food, sleep in her bed, carry her groceries, put up with her quirks.   Our children will come and go, but our wives are a part of us (Eph. 5:28).

       Second, husbands must understand only their wife.   What makes someone else’s wife mad, sad, or glad is irrelevant.   Another man’s wife might be prettier, smarter, holier, more organized -- but those are not cisterns he drinks from (Prov. 5:15), nor chides his wife to become like.   He accepts her as she is -- not as he thinks she should be or once was.   A woman who marries thinking her husband will change, and a husband who marries thinking his wife never will, are in for an education.

       Third, understanding wives requires knowing they’re wired to think different.   A weaker vessel isn’t an inferior vessel; only a finer one.   Sterling crystal isn’t pewter.   If a husband can’t be gentle in his speaking and patient in his listening, then his prayers will be treated accordingly.   Hindered prayers come from hindered carefulness.

       Lastly, granting honor to wives controls granting answers to prayers.   The initiative in this granting is the husband’s.   He must promote the honoring, which means if there are conflicts, he should promote the reconciliation.   Christ did for His bride.

       How we live with our wives tells others how Christ lives with us -- a true husband who doesn’t live in a desert because of our astronomical maintenance.   He understands our frame, that we are but dust -- a dust cherished enough to die for (Eph. 5:25) and to be made a fellow heir with Him.

~The Bottom Line, by Mark LaCour

Maximum Growth

Tonight while praying with a friend, she said something that was really helpful to me.  She said "you have put us in this place, with these people, to produce the most growth possible at this point in our lives."  Of course I've thought about growth before and recognized that there are different degrees.  But this time it was made so fresh and real.  Thinking about God orchestrating circumstances and moving people in and out of my life in order to produce maximum growth is so precious to me.  It's such a testimony of His sovereignty.  And it creates such conviction when I'm not content with how things are.  If I could grow more as a married person, I would be married right now.  If I could grow more with pleasant coworkers, no more homework, and no spiritual struggles, then that's what my life would look like.  But God in His sovereignty has decided that I will grow more as a single girl with unpleasant coworkers, loads of homework, and a different spiritual struggle for each day of the week.  He decides how to fashion the right environment for my growth.  It is my responsibility to be content and to be eager for opportunities to continue growing.

Recovering Biblical Womanhood - Paul Washer

Psalm 92:12 & 13

"The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord; they flourish in the courts of our God. They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green." I read these verses tonight and thought about what an important thing it is to always be seeking to grow and flourish. We should not fall so easily into complacency or stagnancy. Even for those who are "old" Christians, it is important that they still bear fruit.

A Command and a Promise

My cousin Nathan Rages preached this message in Kirksville today and joy was just radiating off of him. It was obvious that he delights himself in the Lord! His exhortation was to obey the command in the beginning of the verse, then reap the benefits of the promise at the end of verse.

The Compassion of God

Yesterday in my reading I was covering Psalm 78. This Psalm begins as if an older, wiser man was telling the younger generation a story. He begins with the glory and might of the Lord, telling how He "established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel." (verse 5) He goes on to tell of the shortcomings of Israel in spite of God's goodness to them. They forgot His works, they sinned against Him repeatedly, they were terribly ungrateful, and they spoke against God. After a rather depressing start to the Psalm, a real blessing came to me when I reached a special phrase in verse 38. It says "Yet He, being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them..." It was a perfect reminder of two very important things. First it was a reminder of what every Christian deserves. We deserve to be eternally punished for our iniquity by an infinite stream of destruction. We had offended a righteous God by repeating offenses without remorse. Here is the second reminder: He chose to be compassionate! He took totally undeserving sinners and looked on them with compassion. That compassion compelled Him to send His only and dearly beloved Son to atone for our iniquity. The depth of that compassion and mercy should never cease to overwhelm us. It should compel us to spend the rest of our lives serving a merciful, compassionate God. It should also drive us to tell the coming generations of the unmerited mercy that we have received at the hand of God.

The Living God

While browsing on the national geographic website I saw this photo of a Buddhist man carving an idol for himself. These verses came to my mind..."What profit is the idol when its maker has carved it, or an image, a teacher of falsehood? For its maker trusts in his own handiwork when he fashions speechless idols. Woe to him who says to a piece of wood, 'Awake!' To a mute stone, 'Arise!' And that is your teacher? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all inside it." Habakkuk 2:18-19 "Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of a craftsman and of the hands of a goldsmith; violet and purple are their clothing; they are all the work of skilled men. But the Lord is the true God; He is the living God and the everlasting King." Jeremiah 10:9-10 What a privilege it is that we are no longer in darkness and idolatry, but know and serve the living God!

"More," by Stephen Gates

"Self Control", Sermon Excerpt

"Show me a man who is unwilling to exercise self-control and I’ll show you a man who is striding towards ruin. Self-control is a matter of the will. You purpose you will or you will not. That’s the distinction between self control or lack of it. Young people, the sooner you can learn this lesson, the better. It’s a valuable lesson that I would have to rank in the top five maybe of lessons of life to learn: Someones gonna be in charge, someones gonna give the orders. Is it going to be your body or is going to be your spirit? That is the essence of self-control and if it’s your body, then I say you’re on the road to ruin.

The Apostle Paul he didn’t sugar-coat it. Has anyone written more New Testament Scripture than the Apostle Paul? He was responsible for forming and expositing the doctrines, and yet he leaves the possibility open that if he does not discipline his body and make it his slave, he’s going to be, in the end, cast away regardless of how much preaching he’s done to others. That is a weighty statement.

2nd Timothy 3 describes those who are without self control, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, and in the end they perish. They might hold to a form of godliness, but there’s no power in it; we’re talking about self-control here. It’s such an imperative that Jesus said, “If you’re going to be my disciple you’re going to have to daily deny yourself.” The sins of the flesh kill their thousands, but lack of self-control kills ten-thousands. Lack of self control is like a fountain head from which all other sins flow out of."

~Clint Leiter

What Jesus is to Me

Jesus my Redeemer,

My Treasure above all things,

My Father, Brother, Savior,

My Lord, my Love, my King,

My Refuge and my Stronghold,

My Help, My Hiding Place,

My Joy and my Sustainer,

My source of Hope and Grace,

My Promised One, Defender,

My Messiah, Prince of Peace,

My Lion and Protector,

My Perfect Righteousness,

My Way, My Truth, My Life,

My Shepherd, El Shaddai,

My Priest, My Shield, My Light,

My Friend, the Crucified.