Seasons of Marriage
For the past 26 years during my journey with my wife Cornelia I’ve come to understand two very important elements of a strong marriage.
For the past 26 years during my journey with my wife Cornelia I’ve come to understand two very important elements of a strong marriage.
If your work has become your all-consuming interest or your greatest source of identity, worth, and security, this lesson is for you. Though it may feel unnatural, sit back, put up your feet, and allow yourself to get a grip on leisure.
Two principles for a happy marriage: severance and permanence. You must leave your old family for your new one, and you must stick with it.
The institution of marriage has fallen on hard times—divorce rates are soaring, men and women are testing the marriage waters by living together first, to say nothing about society’s attempts to redefine marriage to include same-sex couples. But marriage is a divinely designed institution, and if marriage is to thrive in an increasingly hostile culture then we must first consult the architect of marriage…God.
The Devil was blame-worthy for his deception. But he did not make her take the fruit. Adam and Eve gave in to their own desires and made a deliberate choice for which they and they alone were responsible.
The Bible never describes the work of demons in the lives of believers directly in terms of immorality. In other words, to say a believer has a “spirit of lust”—as if his real problem is a demon—assumes something the Bible never teaches.
Two millennia ago, God answered the anguished cry of humanity by making “the problem of evil” His own. God Almighty became Immanuel, “God with us.” He lived as we live, suffered as we suffer, died as we die, yet without sin.
Not having things go the way we want when we want is one of the toughest things in life we have to deal with. Prayers aren't answered right away, loved ones pass away, and bad things happen to good people.
The story of Cain and Abel is tossed around rather generally in both Christian and non-Christian circles. Many folks are aware of the big picture aspect of the account—namely, that the older brother murdered the younger—but beyond that, little is known and even less is applied to everyday life. But woven within and between the lines of this amazing story are several insights that await our discovery.
The path of humanity is littered with the trash of depravity. Instead of being shining examples of beauty, righteousness, and perfection, we have darkened the world with hostility, hatred, and unrest. War and brutality score the history of humankind. Deceit and wickedness make up our story. Even our best—courageous warriors, heroes of humanity, graceful artists—fall embarrassingly short of perfection.