Will You Accept the Responsibility?

In the morally challenged society of His day, Jesus taught His followers to conduct themselves righteously as they lived and worked among those around them, maintaining moral purity as they awaited His return to affect real, lasting moral renewal. Their cause was to support a proclamation of good news—of the time when His government would bring the change desperately needed by a society in bondage to moral decay. (Matthew 24:14).

Their responsibility was, as His was, not to make a political stand but a moral one. With the aid of His precepts, they were to navigate the difficult waters of the moral challenges they and their families would face, while living in a society that often opposed godly values. The responsibility rests upon individual believers.

We, as individuals, must accept 

our personal responsibilityfor our own families!

What are we talking about anyway? What are common traits of a healthy and wholesome family? Psychologist Dolores Curran conducted a survey of 551 professionals who are involved with family matters and she came up with the following fifteen common traits of families who tend to be happy and harmonious:

The Healthy Family:
1. Communicates and listens
2. Affirms and supports one another
3. Teaches respect for others
4. Develops a sense of trust
5. Has a sense of play and humor
6. Exhibits a sense of shared responsibility
7. Teaches a sense of right and wrong
8. Has a strong sense of family in which rituals and traditions abound
9. Has a balance of interaction among members
10. Has a shared religious core
11. Respects the privacy of one another
12. Values service to others
13 Fosters family table time and conversation
14. Shares leisure time
15. Admits to and seeks help with problems.   5

If these are the target areas that seem to be the goal of successful parenting, how does one get the training? God has uniquely gifted the believer to lead the family by example. There is no reason why the family should not be super-successful in every area and in all ways. There are plenty of reasons why we can begin to restore our values to Godly standards. These standards will allow the family to truly be happy, healthy, and harmonious. Even though meeting the needs of the family may seem like a balancing act at times, the Lord has filled His believers with the power and the potential to accomplish it.

We just need to learn to Apply, and Exemplify,

so we can Amplify the “fruit flavored family”.

The Apostle Paul spoke of this truth when he wrote in

Galatians 5:22-23:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law”

Seeking God's Wisdom in Marriage

I have just finished Pre-Marital counseling with a young couple and am praying for my youngest son as he and his fiancée go through their counseling as they prepare for marriage. I have had the honor of performing the ceremonies of over 300 marriages in my ministry, so this is not new to me. It is always a joy to take the couples through a required 5 or more hours of counseling in order to make sure they have thought through this Covenant commitment. The Bible, God’s Word, is very clear on the subject of Marriage as an institution. Again, we find the basis of marriage in the book of beginnings, Genesis 2:18, 24

18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone.

I will make a helper suitable for him."

24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother

and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

Marriage is a divine institution designed to form a permanent union between man and woman that they might be helpful to one another.

Jesus also emphasized this truth in His teaching in Matthew 19:4-6

4 "Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' 5 and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'? 6 So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."

Again we see that the Bible is teaching that it is God that has joined Man and Woman

(“male and female”) together in Marriage. It is God who has ordained and set the standard for Marriage. It is the “Creator” God who has instituted this relationship and institution called Marriage. We can seek to redefine these Truths of Scripture, but there is no way we can deny the specifics written here in God’s Word.

When the debates begin, simply refer to God’s Truth. Simply stand on the Promises and Principals of the Holy Bible. As Herschel Hobbs so clearly states: The Scriptures are “a perfect treasure of divine instruction…the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried.” As Peter said in 2 Peter 1:20-21

20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

I guess we all could listen and form our opinions on the wisdom of man, but I think I will continue to seek the wisdom of God and His Truth in His Holy Word. What about you?

Marriage and the Family…A Biblical View

Marriage and the family is a wonderful institution, but one that the world is seeking to redefine and reinvent. I understand the hurts of the broken family and the single parent family and I am sensitive at how we can seek to help, but when the world seeks to make up a definition of Marriage and force that on us, it is time to be vocal and speak forth the truth from God’s Word. My calling as a Minister of the Gospel is to “proclaim the truths found in the Holy Bible”. So let’s begin our study by looking at Marriage and the Family from a Biblical Viewpoint. I am not asking anyone to agree with me and I am sure many will want to disagree. If you read articles from both sides of the subject, they can be very convincing in their arguments. But, in order to do this, the Bible has to be left out. The Bible, God’s Word, is very clear on the subject of Marriage as an institution. So let’s walk through the Holy Scriptures and follow these thoughts.

We begin in the book of beginnings, Genesis 2:18, 24

18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone.

I will make a helper suitable for him."

24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother

and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

This was the beginning of God’s concept of Marriage. Marriage is a divine institution designed to form a permanent union between man and woman that they might be helpful to one another (“a man…united to his wife”). Moses presents it as the deepest physical and spiritual unity of man and woman, and monogamy as the form of marriage ordained by God (also see Ephesians 5:31). Without the marital tie the inhabitants of this world would have been a mixed multitude. It is true that man has disobeyed God’s original plan and substituted his own thoughts, but that does not change God’s Word on the subject. God created Male and Female for the purpose of populating the earth and enjoying one another in a Marriage Commitment. (Genesis 1:26-28) Without this form, the family circle, family instruction, and parental love and care would have been altogether unknown. When we try to think outside the moral absolutes of God’s Word and reason within ourselves what is right and wrong that is where the trouble begins. I am not wanting to get into some political or societal debate with these truths, but asking believers in the Lord Jesus Christ to simply study the Word of God and accept and proclaim the basic doctrine of Marriage found within. Genesis is clear! God says it, I believe, and that settles it…