Live my Christian faith

The Power of a Loving Husband

Even if I live to be very old, I will never be able to pay back my husband for his inexpressible kindness to me. I have often thought over the years that husbands have no idea what intense loyalty and deep love they reap from their wives when they sow goodness and mercy. How wonderful it would be if they all understood this.

My husband is a fix-it man and wherever we have lived, our home has been better when we left it than when we came. Some men spend their entire lives destroying what is whole and good—crushing and stomping out the last light of hope in the hearts of their wives. I have a husband that reaches down when something is broken and lovingly repairs it. Whether it is one of our children’s toys or my own broken heart at times, Tom restores it in his own quiet way by giving his time and his full attention to the object in need of repair.

One of the most precious gifts Tom gives is understanding. A wife at times desperately needs someone to just listen and commiserate, especially when something can’t be quickly fixed. Knowing that she has her husband’s sympathy can be a healing balm in itself. What also can be said about a man who has never spoken an angry word to me? Every marriage has moments of frustration, but how do I put into words what it means to a wife to not have had angry and bitter accusations hurled at those moments?

It has been said that because of the oneness of God’s union of marriage, each time a man mistreats his wife, he takes a hammer to his own head. Too many Christian husbands walk around today with marital headaches and yet they can’t figure out why they are in pain. It all goes back to the simple word, kindness.

I want to tell you what a kind husband creates in the heart of his wife. He creates a loyalty that endures a lifetime. Such a husband checks the tongue of his own wife by the sheer power of love. What kind of a monster could lash out verbally at a husband who has done nothing but good to her all her days? The tongue I have struggled to conquer all my life falls into submission with Tom because respect is so firmly rooted in my heart for this husband that God gave me. In short, such men make it easy to obey God’s commands. They make it a delight.

Lastly, my kind husband brings music. My husband literally is a musician and nothing will ever bring such joy to me as seeing him with his trumpet in an orchestra or standing by a powerful organ, with that soaring sound that lifts the hearts of all who hear it. But there’s a kind of music such husbands bring to their wives that has the touch of eternity to it. A loving bridegroom is a picture of Christ. When our husbands love us as Christ loves us, we are given a foretaste of that great day when we will greet our heavenly Bridegroom at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Also, the music that swells in the heart of a wife who is truly loved is heard by her whole household. The offspring of such husbands are the blessed recipients of their father’s love. There are generational consequences.

This Valentine’s Day, discard the cheap and gauzy romantic notions spun by Hollywood, and seek after the self-giving love of our Savior. If you are a husband reading this, realize the power that you wield and use it wisely.

’’How to handle a woman, mark me well, I will tell you sir! The way to handle a woman,
Is to love her, simply love her,
Merely love her, love her,
Love her!
—King Arthur, from the musical Camelot

by: Ingrid Schlueter
Distributed by www.ChristianWorldviewNetwork.com

This is an interesting article from the Christian worldview network.com. I thought I’d share it here.

Truth Is a Strange Sort of Fiction
by: Gregory Koukl
Part 1

Knowledge and Truth

Would you die for truth? Of course you would. Multitudes do everyday. Or more precisely, they die because they don’t have truth.

People don’t believe their doctor’s warnings. They die for the truth of cancer. People underestimate the impact of a couple of drinks. They die for the truth of drunk driving. A pedestrian doesn’t look both ways before crossing the street. He dies for the truth of inertia, mass, and Mack trucks.

People die for truth all the time. They die as a result of false beliefs about important things. They get it wrong. They’re dead.

Truth, then, is often a life and death matter. Whether or not you live or die depends on getting some things right every single day.

This is just as applicable to eternal matters as to temporal ones. Jesus made specific claims about the world. These claims are either true or false. If Jesus was wrong, He—and those who follow Him—can be safely ignored. If He was right, though, that changes everything.

Given the gravity of this matter, it seems odd that so many—both outside the church and inside—are convinced there either is no such thing as truth, or that our understandings of truth have to be so radically altered they’re unrecognizable.

Ambassadors

In light of this trend, we have a challenge: How do Christian ambassadors talk effectively about the One who said He was the truth when much of our culture considers distinctions like true and false completely superfluous? How do we reach people with what we think is truth when many deny truth even exists?

The apostle Paul, the most successful missionary in the early church, had some insight on this. He gave a general guideline, then a warning of danger, and finally an antidote to the danger.

First the guideline: Contextualize the Gospel. Adapt it to culture in every way you can that does not compromise the message. Paul called this becoming “all things to all men” (1 Cor. 9:19-22). As much as possible, be like those you’re trying to reach. Blend in. Be one of them. Incarnate. If something gets in the way, get rid of it.

Paul warned of a danger, however:

See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. (Colossians 2:8)

Beware the deadly ideas. When trying to adapt the Gospel, take care you do not adopt the culture’s deceptive ideas and thus destroy the very foundation of our message.

The antidote? Go on the offensive against the false ideas. Paul said, “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

We must aggressively challenge current ideas that, in J. Gresham Machen’s words, “prevent Christianity from being regarded as anything more than a harmless delusion.”[i]

Here is my concern for the church in a postmodern era. In seeking to be “missional,” adapting our message to an emerging culture, we are in danger instead of adopting the culture’s dangerous ideas.

This is precisely what I think happens in segments of what has come to be known as the “emerging church.” Instead of adjusting their method, some have been, in my opinion, “taken captive through philosophy and empty deception,” sacrificing the message in the process.

This concern is so critical for ambassadors for Christ I am devoting three articles to exploring the ideas of the emerging culture and its influence on the emerging church.

At the heart of this debate are questions about the nature of truth and knowledge. I will address these first. So here is my first question: What is knowledge?

Knowledge

When you think about it, there seem to be three types of knowledge. The first is knowledge of facts. We can know about things. This is also called propositional knowledge, or simply “knowing that.” The second kind of knowledge is knowledge by acquaintance. This is an experiential knowledge based on personal encounter. This is how we know our friends and loved ones, or how we’re acquainted with places we’ve been to, a “knowing who” or “knowing of.” Knowing how to drive a car or write a sentence is yet a different kind of knowledge. This might be called skill knowledge, or know how.

It may have occurred to you that Christianity involves all three. There are certain facts or truths (know that) that when believed properly lead us into a personal relationship with God (know who), after which we grow in personal skill at living called “sanctification” (know how).

Here is something else you may have noticed. The first kind of knowledge is very important to Christianity—indeed vital. Yet it is inadequate to any deep spiritual purpose when it stands alone.

Consider the kinds of things that Christianity (or any religion, for that matter) deals with: who God is, what the world is like, what’s the best way for man to live, and how to fix it when we don’t live the way we should. Isn’t it obvious that the particulars here are important? Do you see that if you don’t get your basic information right, then your relationship with God and your skill at spiritual living is going to be off to a bad start?[ii]

It should also be clear, however, that propositional knowledge on its own is not enough. Christianity is much more than statements of fact. Facts alone, even if you believe them, will not help you (more on this later).

For now I want to focus on the first type of knowledge, propositional knowledge, for two reasons. The first reason is that propositional knowledge is the foundation that the other two kinds of knowledge are built upon. The second reason is that this is the kind of knowledge being questioned in this postmodern era.[iii]

Belief

Think for a moment, about what you mean when you say you “know” something (in the first sense of knowledge).

The first element that propositional knowledge involves, it seems, is belief. When you say you know something you mean at least that you believe it. It would be odd to say, for example, that you knew your car was red, but you didn’t believe it was red. Knowledge involves belief. All the facts you think you know are facts you also believe.

So, what is a belief? Well, minimally a belief is a kind of thought. Since all thoughts are about something (philosophers call this “intentionality”), it’s always appropriate to ask of any belief, “What is this belief about?” What is it you are thinking about when you say you believe something?

The answer is easy when you consider what you mean when you say you believe. A belief is a kind of thought in which you hold that something (the thing you are thinking about) is a certain way. If you believe grass is green, your belief is about grass, and the content of your belief is that grass is a certain color, green, in this case. Simple enough, you say, and you’d be right. But there is actually something quite profound in this simple observation.

Here it is: Whenever you say you believe something, you mean that you think that what you believe is actually so (grass really is green). Put another way, when you say you believe something, you are also saying that what you believe is true. When people say, “That’s unbelievable,” they mean that it’s hard to imagine it could be true.

Why is this so profound? Because there is a tendency today, especially on religious or moral issues, for people to say, “I have a belief, but I’m not saying it’s true.” This is very odd because you cannot have a belief and at the same to deny that what you believe is true. You may not know it to be true. You could be mistaken even, but your belief is that it is true, nevertheless. Indeed, if you didn’t believe your belief was true, you wouldn’t believe what you believe in the first place. You’d believe something else.

Wouldn’t it be odd to hear, “I believe that Washington D.C. is the capitol of the United States, but I’m not saying you’re wrong for believing New York city is the capital”? But that’s the kind of thing people say all the time when it comes to spiritual matters.

Here is the thought I want you to keep in mind when it comes to belief: Everyone thinks he’s right in what he believes, otherwise he wouldn’t believe it. Nobody’s neutral.

Here’s another question: Can we be wrong in our beliefs? Of course we can. Simply believing something can’t make it true? Another way of putting it is belief is not a truth-maker. If belief alone could make something true, there would be no difference between believe and make-believe, fantasy and reality. If belief is not the truth-maker, what is? That depends on the definition of our next word: truth.

Truth

What is truth? This term has been the source of a massive amount of confusion lately. But the confusion is unnecessary because there is nothing mysterious about the meaning of this word. When my philosopher friend Frank Beckwith is asked “What is truth,” he simply responds, “Do you want the true answer or the false one?”

Frank’s response is clever because it shows that no degree in philosophy is necessary to answer the question. We already know the answer: Truth is when things are the way we think they are. When our thinking matches up accurately to what we’re thinking about—when our beliefs are correct—we say they are true.[iv]

Aristotle put it this way: If you say that it is and it is, or you say that it isn’t and it isn’t, that’s true. If you say that it isn’t and it is, or you say that it is and it isn’t, that’s false.

But you already knew this because you use the word “truth” (or one of its derivatives) all the time, and this is exactly what you mean. This is the garden variety definition of truth. It’s what most people mean when we use the word.

We all know what a lie is. We also know that truth is just the opposite. The Bible uses the word “truth” in this way all the time. Paul said, “I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying” (Romans 9:1). John writes, “No lie is of the truth” 1 John 2:21. Sometimes the contrast is between truth and error (e.g., 1 John 4:6), which is basically the same thing.

This brings us back to our earlier question: If belief is not the truth-maker, what is? Answering this question is now quite a bit easier because we have our definition of truth in clear focus. If truth is when things are the way we think they are, then “things”—objects in the world—are what make our beliefs true. Facts of the world are truth-makers.

A true proposition describes a fact. If this is the case, then if there is no truth, there are no facts. When people say there is no truth, this is actually what they’re implying, even if they don’t realize it. Doesn’t this seem strange?

Justification

We have already established that whenever we say we believe something, we are also saying that what we believe is true. But what gives us the confidence we’re right? This question introduces our next concept: justification.

People believe things for reasons. Reasons are our “justification,” our evidence or proof. Usually we believe things because we think our reasons for them are good. If we don’t have good reasons for our beliefs, it doesn’t make sense to say we know them. Without justification our beliefs may be right, but only because we got lucky. That’s why if we have no evidence for our view people say, “You don’t know that. You’re just guessing.” Guessing is not knowledge.

Justification comes in degrees. Sometimes our commitment to a belief is not very strong because we know our evidence (our justification) is not strong. The better our reasons, the stronger our confidence. As our evidence grows, the way we describe our level of confidence changes from probable (over 50%), to likely, to beyond a reasonable doubt, to obvious. The final level, the highest level of psychological confidence, is certainty.

Here’s our next question: Since justification comes in degrees, when does it seem right to say we have enough justification for knowledge? When is enough enough? Is mere probability, 51%, enough for knowledge? No, this does not seem to be sufficient. Does knowledge require absolute certainty? That’s nice when we have it, but it does not seem to be necessary for knowledge. Certainty is too demanding a standard for knowledge.

In criminal law the level of confidence adequate to deprive an offender of his liberty or, in some cases, even his life is “beyond a reasonable doubt.” This seems right. The threshold for justification adequate for knowledge is somewhere between mere probability and absolute certainty. When the evidence gives us confidence beyond a reasonable doubt, it seems fair to say we have knowledge.

Of course, there’s always the skeptic who will say, “But if you don’t have absolute certainty, then it’s always possible you could be mistaken.” That’s correct, but just because it’s possible to be mistaken doesn’t mean it’s reasonable to think I am mistaken.

This is the skeptic’s error. Wisdom, careful thinking, common sense always sides with the odds-on favorite. When the weight of evidence is significantly in our favor, it’s fair to say we have knowledge, even though it’s possible we may be mistaken. Knowledge does not require certainty that is incorrigible, infallible, indubitable, invincible, or absolute. If it didn’t, we wouldn’t be able to know very much

So far we’ve established that to have a belief is to hold that something is true—that it fits the world as it really is—and when our belief does fit, our belief actually is true.

Our justification—our reasons or evidence—give us confidence that we’re right. When our justification rises to a certain level—not necessarily certainty, but more than mere probability—we can claim to have knowledge. That threshold seems to be when we have evidence that gives us confidence beyond a reasonable doubt.

When talking about knowledge, then, we have both truth and belief joined together, and the glue that holds them together is evidence, our justification.[v]

With this foundation in place I want to show you why each of these is absolutely vital to our message and, therefore, crucial for every one of Jesus’ ambassadors.

This I will do in the next issue of Solid Ground.

Putting Your Knowledge into Action

· When you encounter someone who says there is no truth, ask them what they mean by “truth.”

· If they don’t think that what they believe is actually true, ask them why they believe it, then.

·[etc.]

[i] J. Gresham Machen, What Is Christianity? (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1951), 162, as quoted in William Dembski and James Kushiner, Signs of Intelligence (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2001), 59.

[ii] This isn’t true in everything (you can make great toast even if you know nothing about how toasters work), but when it comes to religion, facts are essential.

[iii] Note: When I say that propositional knowledge is the foundation, I am not referring to foundationalism, which is a theory of epistemic justification. At this point I am not saying anything about how beliefs are justified. I’m simply using the word “foundation” in the sense of “logically prior.”

[iv] Put another way, “truth” is when a statement, idea, or point of view actually fits—corresponds to—the way the world is. This is why philosophers call this the “correspondence” view of truth.

[v] If you’re a philosophy student, you might recognize the standard K = JTB formula: Knowledge = Justified True Belief.

Distributed by www.ChristianWorldviewNetwork.com

“then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. He is
” ‘the stone you builders rejected,
which has become the capstone.’ Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
Acts 4:10-12

From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea
Creation’s revealing Your majesty
From the colors of fall to the fragrance of spring
Every creature unique in the song that it sings
All exclaiming

Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God
All powerful, untamable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God

Who has told every lightning bolt where it should go
Or seen heavenly storehouses laden with snow
Who imagined the sun and gives source to its light
Yet conceals it to bring us the coolness of night
None can fathom

Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name
You are amazing God
All powerful, untamable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God
You are amazing God

“since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”

—Romans 1:19,20

And here is the rest of that chapter, because it’s very enlightening as well:

21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

“Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.“

What is your church approving of these days?

Sometimes it gets frustrating. Jesus told us to love, this is true. But we are not to love to the point that we love sin. We are not to tolerate to the point that the message we send is ‘it’s ok, go ahead and do that and don’t feel bad about it.’ Sometimes love means standing up for what is right, shedding light on the truth, and exposing lies for what they are. What frustrates me the most today is that Christians are confusing love with acceptance of sin and false doctrines that are clearly condemned in God’s word.

Imagine a tray with two glasses full of whatever you like. You know that one has been laced with poison. Your best friend appears, thirsty and dehydrated, and quickly reaches for the tainted glass. What do you do? Do you let your friend drink because you love your friend and want their thirst to be quenched? Or do you try to warn them and stop them from doing something that is going to harm them, and maybe cost them their life?

Mary had a little lamb,
His fleece was white as snow.
And everywhere that Mary went,
The Lamb was sure to go.

He followed her to school each day,
T’wasn’t even in the rule.
It made the children laugh and play,
To have a Lamb at school.

And then the rules all changed one day,
Illegal it became;
To bring the Lamb of God to school,
Or even speak His Name.

Every day got worse and worse,
And days turned into years.
Instead of hearing children laugh,
We heard gun shots and tears.

What must we do to stop the crime,
That’s in our schools today?
Let’s let the Lamb come back to school,
And teach our kids to pray!

~ Author Unknown ~

This is an article that I received from a friend…

When we think of Samson, probably the first thing that comes to mind is his incredible strength. He is one of the most interesting and controversial guys that God ever put His hand on, a man with incredible potential that he largely wasted.
Samson could have been one of the greatest leaders in the history of Israel, but instead, his life tragically became an example of how not to live. His life was one of squandered resources and wasted potential and ability. He threw it all away because he made some subtle but serious mistakes. While his story stands as a warning of what not to do, it is also a story that speaks of second chances.

As is typical of someone trapped in sin, Samson ignored the warnings of those around him, believing that no one understood-until he woke up one day, and it was too late. The Bible tells us, “the Philistines took him and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza. They bound him with bronze fetters, and he became a grinder in the prison” (Judges 16:21 NKJV).
That is what sin does. It blinds you. It finds you. And then it grinds you.
First of all, it blinds you. Sin causes people to do completely irrational things. We all know the story: men and women leave loving spouses and precious children to go have their so-called fling. Then they come to regret it one day. I’ve seen it so many times. Don’t be deceived by sin. If it comes knocking on your door, don’t answer. It is a lie. You’re being blinded.
Next, sin finds you. There might be an almost euphoric excitement the first time you cross the line, whether it’s that first sexual encounter, the first time you steal that item, the first time you get away with that lie, the first time you have that drink, the first time you try that drug, and so on. You take the bait and then think you’re getting away with it. But the Bible says, “Be sure your sin will find you out” (Num. 32:23 NKJV). Sin is going to find you.
And then sin grinds you. You eventually pay the miserable price. Your marriage is broken. A trust is betrayed. Your witness is damaged. Your reputation goes down the tubes. Your children are devastated, carrying deep wounds, most likely, for the rest of their lives. Perhaps there is the diagnosis of AIDS or a sexually transmitted disease. Depending upon what you have done, there even may be jail time.
Don’t be blinded by sin. It will blind you. It will find you. And it will grind you. If you don’t believe me, just look at Samson. Once a man of superhuman strength, taking out Philistines like there was no tomorrow, he became entertainment for the Philistines as he was grinding away.
But there is hope, because we serve a God of second chances. The Bible tells us that “the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaven” (Judges 16:22 NKJV). As Samson’s hair began to grow, his strength began to return. One night, as the Philistines were having a drunken feast to their false god, Dagon, someone came up with the idea of dragging out the sightless Samson so they could make fun of him. Samson was guided by a servant to the foundational pillars of the temple, and in a final act of vengeance, he asked for strength from God and pushed the pillars apart. The temple collapsed, and Samson killed more Philistines in one moment than he had killed in his entire lifetime.
You may think, “Way to go, Samson!” Yes, Samson did have the last word, so to speak, but he also died with his enemies. Did God give him a second chance? Yes. Was it a sad ending? Yes. Could it have been better? Yes-much better. But thank God that He still pardons us when we sin. That doesn’t mean we won’t reap the consequences of what we have done. Samson did, after all.
Still, God gives second chances. We all will have our failures and sins. But the question is, can we learn from our mistakes? Can we “fail forward” and not fall into the same trap again?
Are you squandering your life right now on someone or something that has a spiritually destructive effect on you? Are you flirting with sin? Watch out, and learn the lesson of Samson.
_{~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~}

(By the way, the title of the article is Are You Flirting With Sin? and it is by Greg Laurie)

“So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.”
_{~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~}

When we give in to the temptation of sin, it is easier for us to give in to it the next time the temptation arises. This can lead to the eventual hardening of our hearts. Paul, here, is insisting that we not live our lives in this manner! We must do everything we can to live our lives in accordance with God’s will and not give in to temptation! When we do stumble, we should be quick to recognize our mistakes and take the necessary precautions so that we don’t do it again! (And with God’s help, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE!!!) Don’t give in to sin, ask God to help you overcome it!
~_{~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~}

“You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”
~_{~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~}

Here again we are shown an important truth. Yes, we are imperfect people, full of sin, and yes Christ’s sacrifice is sufficient to cover our sins, but does that grace give us the excuse to continue to allow sin to rule our thoughts and actions? Paul tells us that that is our former way of life! We are to put off the old self, and be made new! The new self, it says, it “created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” That certainly doesn’t lend itself to the idea that we are powerless over the sin in our lives! In fact, just the opposite!
~_{~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~}

“Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.”
~_{~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~}~

The truth is, when we sin, we are giving the devil a foothold into our lives. Yes, we stumble and fall in our walk with the Lord. Yes, the blood that Christ shed is sufficient to cover every sin in our lives. But yes, sin gives the devil a foothold. So don’t accept sin! Draw close to God, and strive to live the life He wants you to live!

“*Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.“

—Ephesians 4:17-27; 5:15-17*

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
—Ephesians 2:8-10