Daily Devotional Help

If you find it hard to set aside time to reflect on your relationship with God, perhaps I can help. For several years now, I have been sending out daily devotional thoughts I have gleaned from my devotional life over the internet. I call them, Gems from Pastor Jim. I try to send them out daily. I have now also posted them on my webpage: www.cthroughmarriage.com.
I invite you to log on to my site and check them out. I don't want to encourage you to turn to them in place of your personal reading of the Scriptures. It is imperative for a healthy soul that you are into God's Word on a consistent basis for meditation and application. However, I know that there are times in which you will not be into the Word. When those times come, drop in anytime and see what the Lord may have to say to you for that day. Just click on the Gems link.

Why Thanksgiving?

Like so many things we do, Thanksgiving has lost a lot of its luster. It has become something entirely different than what it was when it was created. Two things seem to capture much of our way of celebrating Thanksgiving: too much food and too much football. We get together with family and friends and catch up on things we have missed in each other's lives because we are too busy to stay in touch or close.
For many of us, we give thanks to a God we don't recognize or know. It is something we instinctively know we should do, therefore thanks is given. We often give thanks with little sincere appreciation for how truly blessed we are. There is little awareness of those who won't have family, friends, or even food to eat today.
Thanksgiving Day is a good day. It should be a day in which we remember our blessings and God who gives them. We should remember that we don't deserve to have the lives we have. We did nothing to be born and to have the opportunities in live we have. We who know how to love and what it is like to be loved did nothing to earn it. We who know what it means to live in a relationship with God don't deserve such knowledge or opportunity in life.
Thanksgiving Day is a good day, but greater still is thanks living. Every day should be a day of thanksgiving as we live out our lives with gratitude to God for the blessings we do not deserve.

A New Day

A new day has begun! I am thankful that I have the opportunity for another day to explore and enjoy the life God has given me. I may not know what today will bring, but I know that I will not face whatever comes my way alone. It is so comforting to know that I have Christ in me and that he gives me all that I need to face life.
I invite you to check out my website, www.cthroughmarriage.com. While visiting there if you think you might be interested in getting on the mailing list for my daily devotional thoughts, please sign up.
I was blessed yesterday with some great news from my family. It appears like some huge changes are happening in the lives of some who have made a mess of their lives for many years. I praise the Lord for his great love and faithfulness!

Update

It has been a few weeks since I last posted anything so I thought I would drop in and let you know what is going on in my world. This summer has been a busy time for us as we traveled to TN for a few days of R&R, took in an amusement park, and made a quick trip to see family out of state.

We are busy homeschooling our youngest son, have a foster child, and help babysit our granddaughter. And, I thought I was going to have it easier once I retired!

The Lord has certainly been kept busy watching over us. He has spared us from some very close calls on the road. It is comforting to know that He is there with us as we come and go. We never leave on a trip without first seeking the Lord's protection on our way.

I have a website up and running now. You can check it out at www.cthroughmarriage.com. If you are looking for a wonderful gift for the upcoming holidays, be sure to check out my book. I believe that it will be a blessing to any married couple seeking a godly marriage.

True love

You will never know what true love is until you can love those who won't, or don't love you back. True love is a matter of the will not the heart. We can determine to love anyone, no matter how difficult they may be to love. Sometimes we have to make the determination to love over and over again until it becomes natural for us to do. But if we make the effort, we will find the ability to love the unloving or unloveable. God is love and is the example of how to love. See I Corinthians 13:4-8 and make the determination to love today.

Grace

There have been a lot of different ways to define what grace is and most of them are good. Let me offer another thought that recently came to me: grace is God-walking. When we walk with God and God walks with us it can't get any better than that! John 1:14 speaks of God coming to earth to live with us and walk amongst us. Jesus is grace--God walking with us and us walking with God.

Time to take a stand

I just recently heard of another marriage that bit the dust. I know of many young couples who don't even consider marriage an option. Many others are desperately trying to redefine marriage to suit their personal preferences. There are many of us who are alarmed and are trying to stem the tide, but unless there are more of us who are willing to speak out in favor of the traditional marriage institution, the battle will be lost. The more we accept society's anti-marriage behavior and attitude, the less likely we are to see marriages that survive for any length of time at all.
It used to be normal for marriages to last until death. Most couples stayed together and survived the many complexities of life together. Today marriage is deemed to be more of a convenience than a commitment.
In order for anything of substantial substance to change, the church must lead the way. Instead of taking the path of least resistance and supporting all who want to be married in her, she needs to take a Biblical stand and refuse to go against what the church has traditionally understood marriage to be, that of between a man and a woman for a lifetime.
If there is enough of us who refuse to bend to the pressures of society, we can reverse the trend. But, time is running out and the time to do something about it is now.

Marriage in the church

This subject is far too huge to cover in this blog. However, I am want to share my concern for how the church handles the subject of marriage. Most churches give little or no attention to providing instructions and resources to help couples maintain happy and successful marriages. Limit time and resources are usually given to preparing those wanting to get married for the realities of living together as husbands and wives. Thankfully this is changing in many churches, but for most it is common to not do much of anything to promote godly marriages.

Shame on us! It is no wonder that marriages in the church are in trouble. Divorce amongst professing Christians is commonplace and widely accepted. The stigma of divorce has been removed. No we are chipping away at the very foundation and meaning of what marriage is. Many churches no longer restrict marriage to that of a man and a woman. Is it any wonder?

Pastors have failed the church! We are the ones who determine the direction of our ministries and the contexts of our messages. We are the ones who fail to put marriage high on the list of our priorites. We are the ones who must change our priorities for the church. No church can be effective in her ministries and survive the chaotic times we live in without a foundation of solid and godly marriages.

The need is overwhelming because we have been negligent in our duty to help one another live in godly marriages and homes. There are Christian counselors and ministries everywhere willing to help broken marriages and I am glad they are. But, they could not exist if the church were to do her job of taking care of Christians who marry. It takes great effort and determination to stay married and we had better wake up to the task before it is too late.

John 10:10 "I have come to give you life, and to give it more abundantly."
I am convinced that Jesus meant for us to have fun in our life in him. I don't see it happening a whole lot. We get so caught up into life that we fail to live. We mold our lives around things that don't really matter. We let life rob us of the fun of living.
It is equally true in most marriges. Part of the privilege of married life is having fun together. Having fun with your spouse is only limited by your imagination. Regardless of your resources, there are ways to keep the spark of love burning bright. If we were to put as much effort into keeping the fun in our marriages as we do in living, there would be very little need for divorce courts or lawyers.
The challenge is to find those things that you and your spouse enjoy doing together and then doing them. It may take some time and effort to discover them, but it's well worth the effort. Life today is very self-centered. We are into ourselves way too much (myself included!), so it will probably take some work to find fun things to do. Be persistent and you will find them. Trust me, you will be glad you did.

Just spent the day getting training for our foster care license. It was very interesting and informative. Two things jump out at me. I have been so blessed to have had the upbringing I had. Although I did not appreciate it at the time, I had it so good. The other thing is that there are so many damaged people out there who need someone to take the time to care and help. We all need to love and be loved and when we are deprived of that, we become deformed emotionally and unable to deal with live positively. My prayer is that I will always have a caring heart for the hurting.

Staying married

We live in a day in which many are opting out of marriage. There is a movement that is trying hard to redefine what marriage is, to the point where anyone who disagrees with them are made out to be weird or prejudiced. What was once considered to be the very foundation upon which society was built is quickly crumbling away. It is not uncommon for someone to be married multiple times.

I am still convinced that the traditional institution of marriage is worth saving. I believe that if we were to put as much energy into saving our marriages as we do destroying them, we all would be better off. Saving marriages will not solve society's problems, but it will go a long ways towards stablizing our thinking so we can deal with our problems.

It is my prayer that my book will help to save many marriages from mediocrity and the divorce court. If it helps just one couple, it will be worth it all.