Inflamed with Passion? Pursue Godly Marriage

Yesterday, I preached from 1 Corinthians 7 that God says that if we are inflamed with passion “that we should pursue Godly marriage.” I want to be clear about that pursuit. I hinted at it in the sermon, but never came right out and said it. We should not pursue Godly marriage by counting on dating websites, singles ministries, or definitely while HOWS (hanging out with sinners), or other worldly wisdom avenues. We pursue Godly marriage by devoting all of our time to PURSUING GOD. Singles, inflamed with passion, easily step into idolatry (the idea of being married) and make sinful mistakes in this pursuit. Once again, it boils down to the ultimate questions in life, “Is Jesus sufficient?” and “Do I trust Him, that if I spend time with Him - getting close to Him, that a Godly spouse will show up on the horizon.” My experience in watching people walking closely with God is that as they discover His glory, His majesty, His power, they discover that the passion (the urges, the hormones) did not own them quite as much as they thought it did. To pursue Godly marriage, first and foremost, PURSUE GOD -- LOVE AND SERVE GOD. Flee from sin, flee from sexual immorality, go to war with worldly wisdom, and pursue Him with time, service, prayer, fellowship, resources, EVERYTHING. Trust in Him; watch Him work in your life.

Note: I am not against singles ministries. My observation is that many times they are filled with people in idolatrous pursuit of companionship over Jesus. That is unhealthy. There are many healthy singles ministries and many healthy Christians that attend them.

Labor Day Musings -- #2

Had a car in front of me driving through town that had a big sticker that covered the whole back window that stated, "I will only be judged by God!!" In a sense, this is accurate and I am glad. We really don't want anybody except the perfect God Jehovah deciding who gets into heaven and who doesn't.

BUT, that is not really what the statement was getting at. This person was declaring to the whole human race, "Leave me alone; I will do what I want to do when I want to do it." The only problem with that is that it is not Biblical Christianity. The Bible designs the church to lovingly keep each other in check, and we Americans don't like it because that requires judgment. This person needs to study 1 Corinthians, chapter 5, and quite honestly the whole New Testament. Our wicked hearts are prone to wander without loving Spirit-filled hearts to bring them back into line with some judgment.

Labor Day Musings -- #1

Growing and bearing fruit in the Gospel (Col 1:6) brings with it enlightenment. We think differently. I am reading through the entire Bible with The Journey (Darrin Patrick’s church in St. Louis) this year and this morning, I bumped into a passage in Proverbs 11.
When a wicked man dies, his hope perishes;
all he expected from his power comes to nothing. Proverbs 11:7

And, I had an epiphany. Before God straightened out my theology, I really used to think that there were three groups of people. There were: 1) the wicked people, the really bad people who do evil things, 2) the sinners, people who were basically good, but did not know Jesus, and 3) the born again Christians. I now know two things. That there are only those whose hope perishes when they die (we all have a wicked and deceitful heart), and those that Jesus has come and rescued from this hopelessness. And, at one time I was among the perishing wicked. I was not just a sinner that was basically good. Proverbs 11:7 was about me. But, I was washed, I was sanctified, I was justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God (1 Cor. 6:11). So, hope rises this morning!