making-your-marriage-great

Click on the above link to download the slideshow  “Making Your Marriage Great”   (636 KB)

Preview:-

A doctor called his patient’s wife out into the hall and said: “Mam, I don’t like the way your husband looks. “Neither do I,” she said, “but he is really good to the kids.”

“What kind of grade would you give your marriage?” You may want to assign a grade to the marriage as a whole. It may also be helpful to ask, what kind of grade would you give your spouse? What kind of grade would you give yourself? What kind of grade would your spouse give you?  Even more helpful, we should probably break the marriage down into components: Fiscal responsibility, parenting, physical attractiveness, spiritual leadership, neatness, helpfulness, romance, etc. When you start to rate the areas, discussion will ensue. The goal is to make this discussion profitable so that you can each improve.

Being a strong Christian in every sense of the word will make you a better marriage partner. Think about these characteristics of Christians that are good for your marriage. Christians are concerned about others. Concern engenders listening and communication. Christians practice love. The Bible tells husbands to love their wives.  Christians have a positive sexual ethic. God created man and woman for the satisfaction and fulfillment of one another in marriage. The Christian appreciates the God given beauty of sex. If this aspect of marriage is missing, we need to study or seek advice from a competent source. Christians can forgive. If you cannot forgive, your marriage is DOOMED! Christians are instructed to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Christians take their responsibility to provide for their own seriously. This does not mean that we will never struggle, but that we will be willing workers for our families. Christians are kind. If there is ever a place where kindness fails, it is in a troubled marriage. Christians, like Christ, learn to live unselfishly and for others. To sum it up, when we try to live the Biblical ethic, we will be adding those traits that should make for a happy marriage.

First and foremost, to have a happy marriage, Make a commitment. The ceremony says, “Till death do us part.” What God has joined together, let not man put asunder.

Make marriage a Priority. Put is first over your parents. Put it first over your kids. Put if first over your job. Put it first over getting rich.

You must continue to work at marriage through all its stages. When the kids leave home, if you do not love each other, you will be lost. Retirement takes other adjustments. There are some big adjustments when the kids come along.

To be happy and successful in marriage, we must deal with our demons. All of us have things that detract from our marriage. Some things can destroy a marriage. We must find out what is doing harm to our marriage and heal it. Financial irresponsibility is terrible on a marriage.

Perhaps the most important tip today about marriage is to have God at the center of your life. From God we learn the marriage skills of kindness, forgiveness, unconditional love and faithfulness. God is our model for love.

Best of all, when we place God at the center of our lives, he will help us through times of difficulty.

Let each of us make a commitment today to do all that we can to have a stronger marriage and a more Christ like commitment to our partner. With God’s help-We can!

christian-communication

Click on the above link to download the slideshow  “Christian Communication”   (189 KB)

Preview:-

Eph 5:1 : Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children.

Eph 5:2 : Live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.

If being a Christian does not affect our behavior, we are not much of a Christian.

Prohibition: “In your anger do not sin”….Positive: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, Rationale:  and do not give the devil a foothold.

Eat a third and drink a third and leave the remaining third of your stomach empty. Then, when you get angry, there will be sufficient room for your rage. —-Babylonian Talmud tractate gittin.

Anger in the World Today:-

1.Road Rage
2.Sports Rage
3.Communication Rage

Be angry, but do not sin! We must stay in control of our emotions. But they made me do it! We cannot blame others-we must control ourselves.

Signs of Anger in Communication:-
- Stomping out of meetings.
- Firing off angry letters.
- Yelling, screaming and shouting.
- Refusing to speak or communicate.
- Name calling.
- Refusing to listen.
- Belittling, put downs and sarcasm.

Words can be like baseball bats when used maliciously. ——Sidney Madwed
Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind. —–Rudyard Kipling

Prohibition: He who has been stealing must steal no longer,
Positive: but must work, doing something useful with his own hands,
Rationale: that he may have something to share with those in need.

Prohibition: Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths,
Positive: but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs,
Rationale: that it may benefit those who listen.

Positive: Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children
Positive: and live a life of love, (Literally: Walk in love)
Rationale: just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Prohibition: But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity,
or of greed,  Rationale: because these are improper for God’s holy people.

Prohibition: 5:4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking,
Rationale: which are out of place,
Positive: but rather thanksgiving.

Prohibition: No immoral, impure or greedy person- such a man is an idolater-
Rationale: has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

For you were once darkness, (Past, negative)
but now you are light in the Lord. (Rationale)
Live as children of light (Exhortation)

christian-relationships

Click on the above link to download the slideshow  “Christian Relationships”   (528 KB)

Preview:-

True Christianity positively affects our relationships. Christianity is not all about doctrinal disputes but about how we live. Christianity should affect our home and work relationships.

Submit on one another out of reverence for Christ. The Christ-like spirit is not being interested in getting all that you have coming, We are all to be willing to submit to one another. This is not matter as to what our status may be, we are to be willing to give in and back down for the sake of Christ, so that the kingdom of God can be advanced. In our relationships, if we both yield, it may takes a little doing to work it out. But if both refuse to yield, there can only be disaster.

Consider eight categories of relationships : wives to husbands, husbands, fathers to children, children to parents, slaves to masters, and masters to slaves. We do not have slaves and masters today but we do have employees and employers. The principles that govern these relationship also govern workplace relationships.

Paul tells wives to submit to their husbands. In each of these relationship categories, we find the instruction to the people and then the reasoning or logic behind the instruction. Here, the analogy is that the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church.

Since wives are to submit to their husbands then the next part is very important. Husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Sometimes husbands are very quick to insist upon submission from their wives. When husbands invoke the rule do, they must take the whole package. This includes husbands being as loving, kind, and self-sacrificial as Christ was to the church. Remember that Christ gave his life on both a daily basis and in one great sacrificial offering for the church.
Maybe we are instructed in the part that is the hardest. So, wives are to submit and husbands are to love. If a husband loves his wife with the tender and sacrificial love that Christ loved the church, it will not be too hard to submit to him.

We need to understand that authority and power exist. This authority exists in the world, the home, the church, and the family. We do not want to exist in the absence of power, but in the Christian regulation of power. Acknowledging the existence of power is not excuse of abuse. Abuse must not exist in the family or in the work place. This principle is best summarized in the instruction to children. Discipline is not to provoke but to instruct.

Along these same lines, Christian authority implies love and Self-sacrifice. Christ and his life is the model for the Christian in everything. In this passage, it is clearly shown how much Christ gave up for us. He is the model of sacrificial leadership and authority.

If one follows the model of Christ, the Christianity eradicates and regulates abuse.

Changing subjects slightly, these instructions tell us that service is to the Lord and not to men. Others may not appreciate you diligence and sacrifice, but Christ certainly does. We are to do all things as if we were doing them for the Lord and not for men.

The next principle is that we are to treat others as you would like to be treated if you were in their place. Sound like, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you, doesn’t it?

Christianity must affect our relationships. If it doesn’t, it is not much Christianity!

How have you been treating others? If you have not been treating other well in your relationships, isn’t it time to change?