The Grand Design for Marriage
For several weeks now, we have been exploring what I have called "The Big Seven." These are the seven key issues that have great potential to either bless or curse a Christian marriage. I guess one might say they can be either the "Seven Deadly Sins" or the "Seven Life-Giving Blessings." I hope you have been reading these posts with your spouses or fiancees, discussing them, searching the Scriptures referenced, and perhaps even using the posts to instruct your children.
Generational Curses (Marriage Matters Post 8)
I believe in generational curses.
For the Love of Money (Marriage Matters Post 7)
My wife and I distinctly remember the time when we made a conscious decision to stop pursuing more money, more stuff, and a bigger and better lifestyle. God brought us to that point through a series of events at my work. At that time, about 8-9 years ago, I worked in materials management and made a real fine living. But promotions and pay raises never quite seemed to line up with what my boss was telling me I was worth to the company. After two years of logging 60+ hour weeks for the company, and pitiful pay raises, the Lord made it clear to me that chasing the American Dream was simply futile.
There's No Place Like Home (Marriage Matters Post 6)
In the previous post, we covered the first part of the gender roles dilemma. We turn our attention now to the latter half of the issue - the priority of the home.
Man and Woman, War and Peace (Marriage Matters Post 5)
"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them" (Genesis 1:27).
Forgiveness (Marriage Matters Post 4)
So far, we've explored two of the "Big Seven" issues that can make or break Christian marriages. First, we learned that when it comes to the source of all our marital discord, "the heart of the matter is the heart." It's the sin in our own hearts (inner lives) that plagues our relationships. So, dear husbands and wives, you do well to focus more upon your own hearts, than to exert most of your energies griping and finger-pointing at all your spouse's weaknesses and sins. If we cannot even change our own hearts apart from God's grace, why in the world would we spend so much time trying to change someone else's heart? We must all, as sinners saved by grace through faith in Christ, be actively removing the logs in our own eyes before we dare to try and help our spouses scrape out the specks in their eyes (Matt 7:1-6). We must all see ourselves as "the chief of sinners" in our marriages.
Don't Feed the Beast (Marriage Matters Post 2)
The first of the "Big Seven" issues that contribute either to marital bliss or discord concerns the Doctrine of Sin. Since I have dealt with this doctrine pretty thoroughly in past posts, let me just summarize here:
Marriage Matters (Post 1)
Having just completed the book Marriage Matters by Winston Smith, the married life has been on my mind lately. As a pastor, one of the primary tasks God has given me is helping couples cultivate strong marriages. I have found it to be rewarding, exhausting, and heart-breaking all at once. For every victory in Christian marriages today, there seems to be a defeat, too. Simply put, we do not seem to be taking back much ground from the enemy when it comes to marriage in the church today.
10 Years Later, Has Anything Really Changed?
Like most people who were older than 6 or 7, I remember exactly where I was ten years ago when Islamic terrorists attacked our country and killed thousands of our citizens, as well as hundreds of citizens of other countries.