Why Is Ministry So Stressful?
When you undertake the work of any ministry, opposition will rise due to the nature of what you seek to accomplish. Oftentimes, the stress originates from interpersonal drama.
Genesis
Fathers, Families, & Politics
With all the ethical battles being waged in our culture, many people remain in a state of political outrage and intense disagreement. While men may speak their minds on the issues, few discuss them biblically in the home.
Defining Successful Parenting
Successful parenting must be defined by what God values most in our children’s lives. Parents must take the responsibility to be the primary evangelists and disciple-makers.
The Necessary Switch in Your Marriage
Marriage cannot work if someone has a higher priority than the spouse. There must be a thorough yet healthy leaving of one’s initial family and a complete and eager cleaving of one’s unique spouse.
Marriage Provides a Healthy Connection
No person can navigate life successfully by attempting it alone. We need one another, and marriage is one of God’s gifts to address our loneliness.
We Need Each Other
No matter how badly we’ve been hurt, we cannot escape our need for others. Relationships are challenging yet key for our survival.
Dragging Behind the Wedding Getaway Car
Before you hop into the getaway car at your wedding reception, realize that you will have some unfortunate baggage. We each carry evidence of Eden’s eviction behind us.
Grace & Guidance
For every single person, our sin disrupts our relationship with God and others. Without intervention, there is no hope for us, but in the gospel of Jesus Christ, we can find mercy for our transgressions and meaning in our brokenness.
Truth & Consequences
When Adam and Eve first sinned, it changed everything for them and us. God counseled them during the event and led them through the fallout. We can’t hide from the reality of what our sin costs nor can we overlook His grace through it.
Shame & Blame
You will sin. Your spouse will sin. What will you do when it happens? The first couple paved the way for us to repeat, unfortunately. They immediately hid from God and framed others in the awareness of their guilt.
Commandments & Compromises
Your marriage would be much easier if sin weren’t in the picture. Unfortunately for you and your spouse, it is unavoidable. Your marriage can survive if you work together to navigate temptation, sin, and restoration when it all happens.
Fruitful & Multiply
God’s original command to the first couple was to be fruitful and multiply. It was a call to take what He had given them in order to use it and multiply it to the best of their God-given abilities. God is up to something, and your marriage can be a part of it.
Naked & Unashamed
To have a healthy marriage, you must consider numerous components. One area that is rarely discussed from a scriptural perspective is the role sexual intimacy is intended to play. We must reorient ourselves to God’s perspective.
Leave & Cleave
Marriage cannot work if someone has a higher priority than the spouse. There must be a thorough yet healthy leaving of one’s initial family and a complete and eager cleaving of one’s unique spouse. It is essential.
Helpless & Alone
God designed marriage to provide a helper because He knew that, even before sin, we needed someone to walk beside us in life. We aren’t wired to navigate life alone. In our need, He offers us a companion.
Formed & Filled
You were created by God for a certain purpose. And every person in this world will either encourage you to fulfill that purpose or discourage you from that calling. Out of all your relationships, there is none more serious than your spouse.
Are God’s Commands Meant to Make Us Miserable or Joyful?
Most people view God’s commands as His attempt to take all the fun out of life. But the more you study His instructions, and consider the pain associated with disobeying them, the more you realize that His commands are actually for our good.
The Devil Can’t Make You Do It
Have you ever wondered why the devil, the imposing leader of a rebellious army of supernatural beings, appeared in the Bible first as a serpent? It may have something to do with the truth that the devil can’t make you do anything.
When God’s Commands Conflict with Your Spouse’s Desires
When you feel the pressure to conform to your spouse’s wishes that conflict with God’s commands, you cannot surrender. For the good of your marriage, you must keep God first.
The God Who Is for You
God is so for you that He actually gave you commandments that will benefit your life if you choose to obey them. Don’t buy the lie that His rules are meant to take the joy from your life.
Why Your Marriage Needs a Healthy Church
We neglect real wisdom when we refuse to be intentional in learning from others. That’s why I cannot overstate the benefit of planting your marriage in a healthy church.
Coupled Companions
Your marriage needs healthy support around it in the form of consistent, Christlike friendships. If you want your marriage to strive, ensure that you have people around you who desire the same thing.
How Old Was the Earth on Day One?
Within broad groupings, the scientific community dates the Earth’s age as older than what biblical genealogies and sorts point to regarding as a timeline. Can these two coexist? Can we know the age of the Earth?
You Are Not Meant to Remain Alone
God designed us to need a healthy community. Within a local body of believers, God provides the wisdom, friendship, and support that we all crave to find.
Don’t Allow Guilt to Cause a Greater Separation
When you sin, don’t retreat further from the one who can help you. Don’t let guilt cause a greater separation.
Human Nature
Mankind’s distinct nature derives from being made in the image of God. As image-bearers, men and women are called to be like God.
Creation
The doctrine of creation is a critical issue for theology because it sets up the foundation for all other doctrines within the Christian worldview. In the Scriptures, we discover a transcendent God who has sovereignly created all things.
The Patriarchs
As God works through a family to usher in redemption to the world, the opening pages of the Bible portray a grouping of fragile people prone to multiple failures. Despite their missteps, God proves His unwavering faithfulness time and time again.
The Beginning
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. With that opening line, the Bible begins and God’s grand narrative for redemption never looks back. Beyond those opening lines, do you know what God is trying to communicate?
Reprioritizing Relationships
Once you are married, you must reprioritize every relationship in your life to be subordinate to the unique and exclusive relationship with your spouse. This shift doesn’t mean that you end all other relationships, but you must reprioritize them.
The Most Important Place in the Bible to Study Regarding Marriage
Our world needs to know God’s Word on marriage. If He created it, then surely He should have the right to define it. Out of all the places you can turn to discover God’s heart regarding marriage, I believe this section is the most important place to study.
Should I Get Married?
So, why do you want to get married in the first place? And what makes you think you have the right person in a world full of potential candidates?
Truth & Consequences
After Adam and Eve’s sin, God did not hide from sharing the truth and delivering the consequences. Sin’s effects on marriage are undeniable, but God’s guidance is unmistakable.
Shame & Blame
When Adam and Eve sinned, they were inclined to hide in shame and point in blame. All marriages can fall into the same trap of refusing responsibility for sin.
Commandments & Compromises
God gave this first couple one commandment, and they quickly made compromises in order to break it. In all marriages, we are called to help each other fulfill God’s Word over meet our expectations.
Fruitful & Multiply
As God placed His stamp upon Adam and Eve, He intended them to spread that image throughout the world. He calls families to be fruitful and multiply through their homes.
Naked & Unashamed
God designed sexual intimacy to be experienced solely within the confines of marriage. Like all gifts from God, it is enjoyed to the fullest extent when it is guided by God’s directives.
Leave & Cleave
A marriage cannot work if someone or someones have a higher priority than the spouse. There must be a thorough yet healthy leaving of one’s initial family and a complete and eager cleaving of one’s unique spouse.
10 Questions for Becoming a Helpful Spouse
Regardless of your marriage situation or how long you have been in it, all of us could make our relationships stronger than they currently are. Here are ten questions to get you thinking as an individual or a couple to strengthen your marriage.
Helpless & Alone
God categorized the only creation made in His image as helpless and alone. Within the gift of a spouse, God intends to meet these two needs for his sole purpose.