Recipe for a Godly Marriage

I wrote this a few years ago when a close young friend of mine married.  It's based on Ephesians 5: 1-33.  Here are the ingredients:

• Imitate God and walk as His children.
• Walk in sacrificial love.
• Avoid all immorality, impurity and evil talk.
• Give thanks in all things.
• Don't be deceived.
• Walk in the Light.
• Learn what pleases the Lord.
• Expose unfruitful deeds of darkness.
• Walk wisely and not unwisely.
• Make the most of you time in these evil days.
• Be filled with the Holy Spirit.
• Make melody with your heart to the Lord.
• Don't be foolish and understand God's will.
• Be subject to one another in Christ.
• Wives be subject to and respect your husbands.
• Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the Church.
• Be holy and blameless by the washing of the Word of God.

Make sure all ingredients are used in full. No substitutions. Mix well and add all of the above to the marriage. Start immediately and wait patiently.  Time will make the marriage even better than at the beginning.  Always rely on the Lord's strength.  Others and you will be blessed beyond measure.

Returning to Dog Vomit

I  it's a gross title but it is scriptural.  Proverbs 26:11 states: "Like a dog that returns to its vomit is a fool who repeats his folly."  My dog Spirit is sick and I am always reminded of this verse at times like this.  Oh how many times I have been like the dog returning to the very things that keep it sick.  We are sin sick. I return to deep habitual patterns of sin from which Christ died to set me free.  I go back to depressed or anxious thoughts that are from my own sinful heart.  God wants me to take every thought captive and to bring everything under submission to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

I think I really want to do so.  At times I am more successful than others. I never realized how easily and deeply patterns of fleshly thought gets encapsulated in our hearts.I love how Galatians 5: 19 -23 contrasts the deeds of the flesh versus the fruit of the Spirit.  Far too often I engage the deeds of the flesh.  But I have seen much progress as I cling to Christ daily and submit to His authority.  I need the body of Christ desperately to war with me. I need the Spirit of the Lord. I need the Lord's Word. Gratefully He has provided all of that.  Psalm 84: 11: "For the LORD God is a sun and shield; The LORD gives grace and glory; No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly."  Praise Him.

Personal Update

I went to the retina specialist today and he said everything looks good with both retina (s) or retina(e).  Whatever.  They did some tests that encouraged me my vision could significantly change for the better.  I am grateful for the grace of the Lord in all regards. As Jerry Bridges says in his book Trusting God..."God is completely sovereign. God is infinite in wisdom. God is perfect in love."

Value of BSF

I was in a situation today where someone needed to know the location of a given Scripture. I knew where it was and the person was somewhat nonplussed.  He said I often can find texts quickly.  I began to ponder why that is.  By the way I am much better able to locate a text in the Word than to apply it.  I think it best to know fewer verses and actually apply them than to know multitudes of them and not have them change and transform your life.  Tonight I realized why I have the ability to know the location of many verses in the Scripture. It's because of Bible Study Fellowship.

This is my tenth year of study over a fifteen year period.  The beauty of BSF is that it is pure Bible Study. No outside commentary just you and your Bible.  You answer about fifteen or so questions about a given text.  Then you share your answers in a group on a weekly basis. So you are reviewing the text a second time. Then you hear a lecture on the same passage and finally you are given a set of notes usually about six pages long that also cover the same verses.  You hear the same Scriptures in four different formats.  It makes it easier to remember where verses are that you have studied.  Tonight we studied Genesis 22 and 23.  Our teaching leader said of Genesis 22 that it is the Mount Vesuvius of the Old Testament. I don't think I'll ever forget that. How grateful I am for Bible Study Fellowship and its influence on my life.

Bite and Devour One Another

Most of you know that I have two dogs. Kellie, the smaller, possesses the deviousness of a dachshund, the visual acuity of a miniature pincher and the heart of a Rottweiler.  Spirit, the larger, wasn't the smartest pup in the litter but she certainly is the sweetest.  It must be the Labrador retriever in her.  She's a committed scent dog since she is mostly an American foxhound. Today we went walking. As is our typical pattern Kellie's looking around for trouble, Spirit has her nose to the ground trailing who knows what. I am the holder of the leashes.  Kellie spied another dog which usually means Spirit has come and bail her out.  Like I said Kellie has the heart of a Rottweiler in a much teenier body.  Spirit got so flustered she rammed into Kellie causing her to roll down the hill for a bit.  She didn't mean to do so. She just got excited in her big lug kind of way. While these two were engaged in rough and tumble the other dog walked calmly away.

This is not an example of Galatians 5: 15: which says: "But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another." That could have occurred had Kellie or Spirit gotten closer to the other dog.  Gratefully Kellie took a tumble down the hill and that innocently so.  I've seen some real bad clashes in the dog world.  In fact, last week a friend and I were walking our dogs in the park.  Both of our dogs got rather viciously attacked by unknown dogs.  It is a scary happening and hard to watch. Gratefully both of the other owners came and got their dogs--which were unleashed by the way (ahem).  The biting and devouring is an ugly scene remembered for a long time.

It's the same way in the church. I've been involved in some pretty nasty church splits.  It shouldn't be that way.  But when the flesh or the enemy gets any ground it can be brutal.  Many people get hurt and some for a long time. I've known bitterness between two parties to span decades and I think that may be part of what the verse means when it says "Take care that you are not consumed by one another."  Unresolved bitterness only destroys the one who holds it in.  One of the ladies at my BSF group said it thus: "Bitterness is when you take the poison and expect the other person to die."  Let that be a good reminder for us all to take care not to bite, devour or be consumed by one another. Rather let us be consumed by God's "one another commands He expects to be a deep part of the local church.

The Joy of the Lord

I've been on a quest the past few months to find the joy of the Lord. Actually I could say it's been a lifelong search. I believe I'm saved and on the night the sweet Lord entered my heart I knew a peace and joy I'd never known.  Since then however joy eludes me.  I mean the great delight that is the gladness of heart.  I long for the happy state that results from knowing and serving God.  I covet that deep, abiding, inner-rejoicing in the Lord or to rejoice and be glad as the Scripture indicts.  That joy of the Lord is our strength. Perhaps that explains the weakness of my faith.  My life, without the joy of the Lord is dull and dry.  It is depressing to the point of despair.  There's the lack of the strength that comes and brings an incredible surge of power in your own daily walk. The Joy of the Spirit is given to those who ask and are in close communion with Him.  The Spirit releases the joy and keeps it running consistently and on a regular basis when you are in sweet fellowship with the Triune God.

I've been reading Charles Spurgeon's "Joy in Christ's Presence."  It is a meaty book stuffed full of truth.  I envy the descriptions Spurgeon makes of his own sweet communion with the Lord and those available to all who love Him.   It seems to elude me however.  The author wrote a chapter on one of my favorite verses, Matthew 11: 28: "Come to Me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest." He speaks of rest for the heart, the conscience and the mind.  He writes that the Spirit who is our Comforter and our Sympathizer is real and present in every form of temptation.  Spurgeon states: "A disciple should know neither grief nor joy that he could not reveal to His Lord."

Spurgeon ends the chapter by giving reasons as to why we should have this rest.  These include that Jesus Himself gives it.  It refreshes us.  This rest improves our focus and is necessary for our growth.  It enables us to testify for the Lord. It also prepares us for heaven and the author states that the "streets of heaven begin on earth."  Spurgeon explains that to get such rest we must come to Christ, yield to Him and learn of Him.  As I LEARN more about the joy of the Lord I pray that I HAVE more of it. 

God's Goodness and Gentleness

I have been meditating on God's goodness and His gentleness the past two days.  His gentleness exhibits a tender mildness and a gracious disposition which is manifested by controlled strength.  Christ was fully human and as such was even tempered, calm, and stable in His emotions, mind and will at all times.  He is just, reasonable, long suffering, moderate and courteous.  He is never rude or arrogant. He is strength under compassionate constraint.  Gentleness pardons confessed offences yet corrects sin.  A gentle person rules his spirit in a godly manner.

Psalm 18: 35: "You have also given me the shield of Your salvation, And Your right hand upholds me;
And Your gentleness makes me great."

Matthew 11: 29: " Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."
James 3: 17:  "But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy."   Matthew 5: 5: “Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth."   Goodness is a characteristic of God that draws people to Him.  Some synonyms include: beneficence, ready to do good and love in action.  Goodness plays out in generosity, kind acts and intentions and charity.  It is kindness, grace and mercy with hands and feet. It is loyal, unselfish, without manipulation and truly treats others as you would want to be treated.  Jesus Christ epitomizes gentleness and goodness.   Psalm 25: 7: "Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; According to Your loving kindness remember me, For Your goodness’ sake, O Lord."   Exodus 33: 19:  ^"And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion."   Jeremiah 31: 14: “I will fill the soul of the priests with abundance, And My people will be satisfied with My goodness,” declares the Lord."   Hosea 3: 5: "Afterward the sons of Israel will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king; and they will come trembling to the Lord and to His goodness in the last days."