God’s Road to a Happy Marriage

Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband. 1 Corinthians 7:3

It’s no secret that, as a nation, we are up to our eyeballs in debt.

Yet here in our verse today, Paul would show us a debt we owe that perhaps we never knew we had. This debt is a debt of love that we owe to our spouse, and it’s what the word af-

fection from our verse really means. This isn’t some smoochie kiss; it is D-E-B-T debt!

So Paul has the audacity to talk to us about debt. Husbands, give your wives the debt you owe them. Wives, give your husbands the debt you owe them. No one is left out of this arrangement. But so often it seems we get into our marriages with a you-owe-me attitude when what we really need is to get into marriage with an I-owe-you attitude.

Maybe this sounds crazy to some of you, but I really think this is an awesome thing. And Paul would write something in Romans 13 that helps us understand even more. He says, Owe no one anything except to love one another. You know, right now as a nation and many of us as individuals, we owe people everything except love. We owe our house, our car, our education, our entertainment systems, our computers, and thousands of dollars worth of little stuff put on credit cards. We have a list of creditors a mile long, but in all that debt, do we see our debt of love?

And if we owe a debt of love to everyone, then how much more do we owe our spouse? The point here is that love is a debt that is worth having. This should be your biggest fight in marriage, the fight of who can out-give the other in this debt of love.

I mean, listen, what is the proof of your love? Is it what you get? No, of course not. The proof of your love is what you give. For God so loved the world that He gave, right?

This means selfless service, laying our lives down for one another just as Christ came and redeemed His bride by laying His life down for us.

This is God’s road to a happy marriage, and there is nothing greater in the whole world.

Prayer Father God,

Thank You for loving me so much that You gave! If that’s what Your love is like, then that’s what my love should be like, too. Please fill me with Your love so that I can love my spouse as You have loved me!

Amen

Faith Lift

Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, Arise and go…’ So he arose and went. Acts 8:26-27

Philip was a good Jew. He had grown up in God’s chosen nation and at some point heard the good news of Jesus Christ. He received this news with joy and his life was hijacked by God. He became filled with the Holy Spirit and wisdom, only to be called upon to wait tables in order to settle disputes between Jewish and Hellenistic believers.

Then, to make matters worse, persecution breaks out and he has to flee. He scatters off to hated Samaria, but there in the least likely of places, he gets his big breakthrough. He preaches the gospel to the city and entire masses of people are getting saved, healed, and delivered. Not bad for your first ministry trip!

But then things take another turn. He’s enjoying this stadium-like crusade, when the Spirit of the Lord says, Philip, it’s time to leave.

He could have said, No, no, no. We’re not going anywhere. Great stuff is happening here. But that’s not what he says. The Bible says that when he got the word, He arose and went.

But check it out. He might have been happy to leave Samaria, but his new assignment is even worse. He has to walk down a desert road by himself. It’s going to be hot and humid and sticky and smelly and hellish. All for what? All so that he can get to Gaza-the land of the Philistines and pagans. It’s like, This is not an upgrade, God, and I thought I got my big break.

And God’s like, I know how good things were there in Samaria, and I’ve got a heart for the crowds that are being saved there. But I also have a heart for the one individual who is lost and lonely and needs me on a road to nowhere. And I want you to go reach him.

Philip obeys God and leaves the Samaritan crusade to go find one single dude. But this dude happens to serve the queen in Ethiopia, overseeing her entire treasury. And here’s the most amazing part of the story: This is the banner story over Ethiopia, that they trace their faith back to the faithfulness of this guy Philip, who meets with one of their ancestors and does so completely out of an offering of obedience.

See, the Ethiopian man went back to his country and spread the good news of Jesus to such an extent that people in that nation who believe today trace their faith back to his testimony. Such was the power of Philip’s simple obedience despite all circumstances.

Your obedience is powerful. Can God count on you?

Prayer Father God,

Thank You for testimonies like Philip’s to encourage me about how powerful my obedience can be! Please lead and guide me, use me as You used Philip, whether to touch one person or change cities. Whatever You tell me to do, I will follow!

Amen

High Noon

And when Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to Him having an alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil, and she poured it on His head as he sat at the table…But when Jesus was aware of it, he said to them, Why do you trouble the woman?…Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.’ Matthew 26:6-7,10,13

What is the most generous gift you have ever given? What were the circumstances that led to you giving that gift?

I love stories of generous giving. Without fail, each one of them is a love story in which someone reveals what is truly important to them in a truly powerful way. Certainly one of the most incredible stories of generous giving is the story of Mary that is told in our verses today.

Mary enters into this story without one thought toward you or me or anyone in the room at the time, her heart of worship set only before the Lord. She takes this alabaster jar-that’s a very fine, thin, beautiful, almost transparent glassand shatters it to pour out this perfumed oil on Jesus’ head, and it flows down and covers His feet as she shows us, truly, the heart of a worshiper.

The bottle represents her life. It represents her identity. It represents her dowry, which means that she was giving up the possibility of ever getting married, and in the culture of the time, that was financial suicide. That bottle was much more than just some little perfume bottle. It was all that she had. And with all that she has, her actions become a legacy of what true surrendered worship looks like.

She didn’t hold anything back. Yet how many of us just continue to sort of justify all that we’re holding back because of this and because of that?

You know what? Mary had absolutely no regard whatsoever for the economy when she broke open that flask, no concern whatsoever of her own personal needs as she opened up that flask.

And if you’re kind of looking at it going, Well, I don’t know if that’s all that smart, that’s what the disciples were saying. But Jesus praises her for it, even declaring that throughout the course of history, her story would proclaim, This is what it truly means to worship.

Are you holding out on God? Because if you’re holding out, you’re missing out. Whatever you’re still holding back is being held back from His blessings.

Won’t you pour out your all to Him today?

Prayer Lord Jesus,

You are so worthy of my everything and my all! When I know Your love for me, how can I do anything but completely give myself to You? As Mary poured out her life to You, I pour myself out to You today!

Amen

Are We There Yet?

Now I pray to God that you do no evil, not that we should appear approved, but that you should do what is honorable, though we may seem disqualified. 2 Corinthians 13:7

What’s the craziest prayer you ever heard someone pray? I mean, something that you thought, Yeah, it’s good he’s praying to God, because it’d have to be God for that to happen!

Paul drops a prayer like that on us in our verse today. Did you see it? He says, I pray to God that you do no evil.

I mean, really? Like, did you even know it was possible to do no evil? Skip to the end of that verse and I think that’s how a lot of us come to church on Sundays, feeling disqualified. But hold on for a second, because as we look through this verse from beginning to end, you’ll see the key to actually living this out.

So first of all, do no evil. I mean, for that to happen, you have to want it. You can’t be sitting there reading this now like it’s just the break you’re taking in between sessions of looking at porn. You can’t just be sitting in church on Sunday, waiting to run out and sleep with your boyfriend or girlfriend. You can’t be waiting to sin and expect to do no evil. It doesn’t work that way.

But maybe you’re beyond just waiting to sin. Maybe you’re going through the motions of what’s right, but you’re heart’s not in it. Maybe you sing with the best of them on Sunday morning, but let me tell you something-there’s a huge difference between singing and worshipping. So where is your heart at? Which one are you doing?

And why are you doing it? Because Paul also reminds us that we’re not expecting to receive something for avoiding evil and living righteously. I mean, we can’t earn our way into Heaven or into approval from God. It’s by grace we’re saved despite the mistakes and sin, right? But that grace doesn’t give us permission to go live doing a whole bunch of evil things, knowing that we’ll be forgiven. That’s missing the point.

Because the point is that you are saved. We need to get this, because when we understand that we really are already saved and we don’t have to work for it, it frees us to do what’s right simply because it’s right. It frees us to do what’s right because who we are has been changed. I mean, if we’re saved then let’s act like we’re saved, not like we’re still drowning in the evil life from which we were saved, right?

Are you saved today? Then live like it, not to earn brownie points, but simply because it’s authentic to who you now are in Christ Jesus.

Prayer Lord Jesus,

Thank You for saving me and changing who I am! I turn away from all my former, evil ways today and I ask for Your help to live out who I truly am-a person who is saved by Your amazing grace!

What Nothing Tells Us About God

Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be a snare in your midst. But you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images. (For you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.) Exodus 34:12-14

You have a stalker. He’s big and strong. He watches your every move. He can even be scary, more frightening than anything you have ever imagined.

His name is Jesus, and He is jealous for you. He is God, and He is so jealous for His people that He told Israel that He was jealous for them six times in just one chapter. And this jealous God has not changed; He is jealous for your heart today just as He was jealous for Israel then.

He’s jealous for your time. He’s jealous for your talents. He’s jealous for your treasures. He is jealous for your heart. He is jealous for the covenants that you’re making with others instead of with Him. He is jealous for you like a groom is jealous for his bride.

And, you know, I think sometimes people want to relegate God’s jealousy to the Old Testament, but God Himself brings it into the New Testament for us. James 4:5 says, Or do you think that the scripture says in vain, The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously’?.

That is the Spirit of Christ. That is the third member of the Trinity still and forever jealous for you, yearning jealously for your time, wanting to walk through life with you, not wanting you to put your trust in any other place or in any other name.

And while we’re in James 4, look at verse 6, But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ In other words, God is saying, Look, I know what you’re going to do. I know you won’t always be faithful. I know you’ll make covenants with other things, with other gods besides Me. But you’ve got to know this about me-I’m a jealous God.

The Holy Spirit yearns jealously to not just be a spoke on our wheel or not just a slice in our pie called life. He wants to be everything for us.

No matter what you have done in your life, no matter where you’ve been, God remains loving, faithful, transparent, and oh so authentic. He will never leave you, remaining jealous for your every thought.

Will you embrace His jealousy for you today?

Prayer Lord God,

Thank You for being jealous for me. If I knew how jealous You are for me, I know that I would care more about being faithful to You. Please show me Your jealousy for me today!

Amen

You’ve Got Mail

I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your works, the last are more than the first. Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. Revelation 2:19-20

How would you like to receive this letter from Jesus? The church in Thyatira did long ago, and there is much we should learn from it.

It starts out well enough, with Jesus commenting on the good things they are doing-

works, love, service, faith, and patience-all things that we need to have as part of our lives. But Jesus didn’t stop there. He went on to condemn the church for their rotten root system. He said, The leaves and the fruit look really good, but they are rotten because your root system is rotten.

The problem was that they tolerated a woman who exalted her own words above the words of God. The church already knew the standard. They knew how to live for God, and it showed in the good things they did. Their private life, however, was filthy with things that had nothing to do with God.

I want you to realize that God does not just give us laws arbitrarily. He has reasons for them! In this case, God is jealous for His church. Sex is an act that consummates a covenant, uniting two people’s flesh as one. Food sacrificed to idols was similar in that these offerings were a sign of a bond between the false god and the person. You can still see this today in countries all over the world.

God was jealous for His church, that they would be faithful. This woman Jezebel, like the Old Testament Jezebel who opposed the prophet Elijah, taught and seduced God’s people to undermine His Word and break faith to their covenant with Him.

It no longer mattered that they had all kinds of good works because their hearts were not faithful to God. Jesus told them that the fruit of those kinds of works would die.

So how is your heart? Are you fudging on God’s Word? Well, it’s okay. I only do it once in a while, you say. Or maybe it’s, I’m not really addicted to porn. Besides, it doesn’t affect me.

Let’s get serious. God sees your heart and your mind, and He will only reward the faithful.

Prayer Lord Jesus,

I repent for compromising in my heart. Please forgive me! I choose to reject the things that don’t line up with Your Word. Thank You for helping me to be free!

Amen

Jonah-Jacked

But the LORD said, …And should I not pity Nineveh…in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left?’ Jonah 4:10-11

You could get seriously dizzy by reading the story of Jonah. That story turns around more times than a dog when it lies down.

First, Jonah is happily going about his life as a prophet of God to Israel, but then God turns Jonah’s call and tells him to go to Nineveh, a city that is filled with every form of abominable evil you can imagine.

Second, Jonah starts with an amazing relationship with God. He hears His voice. He walks in His presence. He delivers His word to the people. But then there’s a turn, and a terrible one at that. Jonah turns his heart away from the Lord and heads in the opposite direction from Nineveh.

Third, God turns Jonah around by stopping his rebellious voyage with a storm. Jonah turns himself in and is thrown into the sea. God rescues him from the waves, but his new situation isn’t much better, as he’s now stuck in the belly of a whale.

Fourth, Jonah has another turn of heart inside the whale. He decides it’s better to obey God and repents, so God has the whale spit Jonah out and calls him again to deliver the word to Nineveh. Jonah goes, and from the moment he steps foot in the city, people start turning from their sin.

Fifth, it takes Jonah three days to walk through the city and by the time he leaves, the king himself has decreed that not even animals get to eat or drink until they know God had turned from His judgment. The whole city has turned around completely.

Sixth, Jonah ditches the city and parks himself on a hillside, hoping God will still destroy the city. His heart has now turned completely back to where he started, knowing that God is a God of mercy, yet not wanting God to turn His mercy toward Israel’s enemies.

Seventh and eighth-the end of the story is the most dizzying part yet-Jonah turns grateful when God makes a plant grow to shade him from the burning sun, and then he turns bitter and angry again when the plant withers the next day.

In all this turning and changing, let’s not miss the one thing that never changes-God’s heart toward people. Through every change and every situation, God is simply waiting for someone, anyone, to turn to Him so He can show them mercy and lovingkindness.

Will you turn your heart to the Lord today?

Prayer Lord God,

Thank You that You always desire to give me mercy and lovingkindness! I turn to You, looking to You alone and not to the things of this world.

Amen