Christian ??? Marriage

It was about two AM when the phone rang. The Raymore Police needed the Police Chaplain to report for a domestic disturbance call. As I walked up the front steps I could hear the loud arguments and shouting at the police. An officer met me at the door and explained the situation both were violent and neither wanted to press charges. Could I help? 

When I walked in to the house everything got real quiet. Those two officers were impressed with the power of the cross on my collar. What the officers didn’t know was I knew the couple; I had married the couple only three years before. They were embarrassed to have me see them like this.

          I ask the officers to leave and assured them that I would be all right. The couple and I began to remember their wedding and how much they loved each other. I ask how could such a loving couple get in to fighting this way? Several months of counseling followed. One of the problems in that relationship the husband thought that the husband had the right to punish his wife if he thought that she had disobeyed him.

          Many are the men who remember that somewhere in the Bible it says that a wife should be subject to her husband and that the husband is head of the wife. They are correct but they don’t remember enough about that scripture.

          Note how Ephesians chapter five verse twenty-one starts us off; “Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.”  Be subject to one another is an important concept in the Christian Marriage. For the Apostle Paul to say this in a very male dominated world is astounding.  Yet through out this section on Christian marriage that theme predominates.

On Fire For Jesus

A church member complained to a church secretary about being burned out on church work. She replied, “Honey you can't be burned out - You’ve never been on fire.”

There is a difference between doing church work and being involved in a ministry for Jesus. That difference is the passion one has or doesn’t have for Jesus. It is a spiritual, emotional and committed passion that takes the first place in your life.

I believe that to be a Disciple of Jesus means I have a passion to love and serve God. That means my number one priority is a burning desire to please God in everything I do.

New Life With A Change

Sadly my lovely yellow rose bush planted in 2006 died in 2009 after producing these lovely yellow flowers for three years. So I cut the bush back to the ground with plans to purchase a new rose bush to replace it.

Last year to my delight the bush grew back but did not bloom. This year rose buds appeared and when they began to open I did a double take - the flowers are RED.

I am amused with this change. The company that produced the yellow rose must have grafted yellow plants on red roots. Cutting the bush back to the roots when the bush died gave the original plant a chance to be reborn in its natural color.

When a child is conceived a physical body is grafted to a spiritual soul and blooms in this world with what ever color and shape is provided by the two parents. For all the years of physical life what is perceived is one thing to the world and and another to God. When the physical dies the immortal soul returns to God in its original form.