This video is based on 1Corinthians 7:5 "Do not deprive each other.."
If you are frustrated or defiant in your marriage and not experiencing the joy you expect, have a look and see if you can get the conversation started.
Just cut and paste this link into your browser
http://www.brantcommunitychurch.ca/content.cfm?id=390&download_id=232#attached_content
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
The Best Thing You Can Do For Your Pastor
I whole-heartedly agree that the best thing you can do for your pastor(s) / elders is pray for them. This is a response to http://www.theblazingcenter.com/2012/02/the-best-thing-you-can-do-for-your-pastor.html
Let me state why I am especially passionate about being upheld in prayer today.
God is a God of means. He honors us by using us and making us the channel by which he will accomplish lasting goals. “The” Paul says to Timothy: 1Ti 4:16 “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.”
Which along with John 21:17 "Feed my sheep.” Are life verses for me.
The means by which sheep are kept alive is by being led to green pasture by a shepherd. The means by which Timothy would be saved (sanctified which MUST proceed being glorified) was to watch his life and his doctrine and persevere in them. The means by which his hearers would be saved… (sanctified which MUST proceed being glorified) was again Timothy’s perseverance in a pure life and doctrine.
Praying for a Pastor’s perseverance in these, puts a tool in God’s hand by which He ensures the progress of many towards our heavenly home. Notice Paul says, ”you will save” When I preach and teach and counsel and lead an individual to Christ, biblically speaking, I am saving them, sanctifying them. Just like grass and water may save a sheep. I am being used to save, to sanctify them. What a terrifying responsibility, that keeps me from sloth and pursuing ease. What a high, noble, joyous privilege that I would not trade for ANYTHING!!!
Thank-you for your prayers. They are the means by which I can continue to be a means to lasting joy for you.
Let me state why I am especially passionate about being upheld in prayer today.
God is a God of means. He honors us by using us and making us the channel by which he will accomplish lasting goals. “The” Paul says to Timothy: 1Ti 4:16 “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.”
Which along with John 21:17 "Feed my sheep.” Are life verses for me.
The means by which sheep are kept alive is by being led to green pasture by a shepherd. The means by which Timothy would be saved (sanctified which MUST proceed being glorified) was to watch his life and his doctrine and persevere in them. The means by which his hearers would be saved… (sanctified which MUST proceed being glorified) was again Timothy’s perseverance in a pure life and doctrine.
Praying for a Pastor’s perseverance in these, puts a tool in God’s hand by which He ensures the progress of many towards our heavenly home. Notice Paul says, ”you will save” When I preach and teach and counsel and lead an individual to Christ, biblically speaking, I am saving them, sanctifying them. Just like grass and water may save a sheep. I am being used to save, to sanctify them. What a terrifying responsibility, that keeps me from sloth and pursuing ease. What a high, noble, joyous privilege that I would not trade for ANYTHING!!!
Thank-you for your prayers. They are the means by which I can continue to be a means to lasting joy for you.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
The Risks of Not Loving
C. S. Lewis on the Danger of Love
By Jonathan Parnell | Feb 14, 2012 12:00 pm
If you were having a cup of tea with C. S. Lewis on Valentine's Day, and you asked him sincerely, "Mr. Lewis, am I better not to love because it's so risky?" — he might say something like this:
Of all arguments against love none makes so strong an appeal to my nature as “Careful! This might lead you to suffering.”
To my nature, my temperament, yes. Not to my conscience. When I respond to that appeal I seem to myself to be a thousand miles away from Christ. If I am sure of anything I am sure that his teaching was never meant to confirm my congenital preference for safe investments and limited liabilities.…
There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness.
But in that casket — safe, dark, motionless, airless — it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.
The Four Loves, (New York, Harcourt, 1960), Kindle Location 1541.
By Jonathan Parnell | Feb 14, 2012 12:00 pm
If you were having a cup of tea with C. S. Lewis on Valentine's Day, and you asked him sincerely, "Mr. Lewis, am I better not to love because it's so risky?" — he might say something like this:
Of all arguments against love none makes so strong an appeal to my nature as “Careful! This might lead you to suffering.”
To my nature, my temperament, yes. Not to my conscience. When I respond to that appeal I seem to myself to be a thousand miles away from Christ. If I am sure of anything I am sure that his teaching was never meant to confirm my congenital preference for safe investments and limited liabilities.…
There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness.
But in that casket — safe, dark, motionless, airless — it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.
The Four Loves, (New York, Harcourt, 1960), Kindle Location 1541.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Exhausted
…he pursued… exhausted
Judges 8:12, 15
Gideon and his men pursued their enemies led by Zeba and Zalmunna and though Gideon requested bread from towns along the way, he and his men received none. They pursued, exhausted, yet they were triumphant and displayed that at times we will accomplish what we must only in a state of fatigue.
We like to be well-rested and fed and at the top of our game, but this is not the only condition in which meaningful victories will be won. History is made by weary people who perceive their goals as more important than their performance and keep going, at least for a time, until the opportunities have yielded their potential.
Paul knew the experience of exhaustion in accomplishment.
2 Corinthians 4:8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
He knew what it was to come to the end of his resources and yet continue pursuing, continue fighting. He knew what it cost to win.
February can bring many people into this state of depletion. It is a time to find appropriate rest and enjoyment, but it is also a time to continue the fight for faith and hope and joy, commodities too precious to neglect.
May we continue to pursue, though perhaps exhausted and anticipate victory granted by God.
Judges 8:12, 15
Gideon and his men pursued their enemies led by Zeba and Zalmunna and though Gideon requested bread from towns along the way, he and his men received none. They pursued, exhausted, yet they were triumphant and displayed that at times we will accomplish what we must only in a state of fatigue.
We like to be well-rested and fed and at the top of our game, but this is not the only condition in which meaningful victories will be won. History is made by weary people who perceive their goals as more important than their performance and keep going, at least for a time, until the opportunities have yielded their potential.
Paul knew the experience of exhaustion in accomplishment.
2 Corinthians 4:8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
He knew what it was to come to the end of his resources and yet continue pursuing, continue fighting. He knew what it cost to win.
February can bring many people into this state of depletion. It is a time to find appropriate rest and enjoyment, but it is also a time to continue the fight for faith and hope and joy, commodities too precious to neglect.
May we continue to pursue, though perhaps exhausted and anticipate victory granted by God.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Engaged
After dating for a little better than five months, Tina and I are happy to announce our engagement. We have not set an exact date yet but are aiming for the end of June or the beginning of July. It is an amazing thing for the two of us, both widows, to experience the kind of work that God does. It is He who says, “I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.” Jeremiah 31:13
It is good to have his word as our guide.
1Timothy 5:14
I counsel younger widows to marry…
Genesis 2:18
The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone…
1Corinthians 7:2
Each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.
1Corinthians 7:39
A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. If her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, but only if he loves the Lord.
We are grateful for His guidance and His provision and are happy for the encouragement of so many. Thanks to everyone who has increased our joy by sharing it.
It is good to have his word as our guide.
1Timothy 5:14
I counsel younger widows to marry…
Genesis 2:18
The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone…
1Corinthians 7:2
Each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.
1Corinthians 7:39
A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. If her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, but only if he loves the Lord.
We are grateful for His guidance and His provision and are happy for the encouragement of so many. Thanks to everyone who has increased our joy by sharing it.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
"unlovableness"
Thank-you for getting this. That is my point. "unovableness" is a lie of the Devil planted early on in a child’s life and may become so familiar that it is difficult to imagine ever living without it. We may even come to embrace it, using it as a self-pitying crutch to reject the love of God. We may in fact use it to refuse to live under his loving constraint and guidance and grace. God does love you and me. We are lovable. We are loved. You must choose to either accept His love or reject it and be responsible for that choice. There is no excuse in saying, "I am unlovable". That doesn’t even exist.
Friday, December 23, 2011
Loved
From the depths of my being, at the core of my heart, from my earliest childhood memories, I have found it impossible to believe that I am loved by anyone let alone God.
This didn’t stem from a lack of affection from parents or friends but results from an impenetrable gate leading to my heart that deflects displays of love because I don’t deserve them.
I am unlovable. I am too bad, too ugly, too me. I think this is a lie. It must be. I think it is the cause of joyless anxiety. I think it feeds on every negative that ever occurs and that they strengthen the belief that I am not loved, that God really doesn’t care, that my belief was right all along.
This is a daily fight for me, to believe that I am loved, to allow that belief to fill me with joy and security. I need God’s word every day to remind me that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
There is a love that does not depend on my goodness or accomplishments. It just comes from God because he is love and because he wants to love us and just because he does. He does. I don’t know why, but then, there are a lot of things I don’t know.
This didn’t stem from a lack of affection from parents or friends but results from an impenetrable gate leading to my heart that deflects displays of love because I don’t deserve them.
I am unlovable. I am too bad, too ugly, too me. I think this is a lie. It must be. I think it is the cause of joyless anxiety. I think it feeds on every negative that ever occurs and that they strengthen the belief that I am not loved, that God really doesn’t care, that my belief was right all along.
This is a daily fight for me, to believe that I am loved, to allow that belief to fill me with joy and security. I need God’s word every day to remind me that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
There is a love that does not depend on my goodness or accomplishments. It just comes from God because he is love and because he wants to love us and just because he does. He does. I don’t know why, but then, there are a lot of things I don’t know.
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