This is where we will categorize our general blog posts.
God's Love in The City of Angels
On Valentine’s Day in LA there were two premieres: The Valentine’s Day movie and Truth According to God on Love, Sex, and Marriage. In downtown LA on Broadway, the heart of culture influencing media, the gospel of Jesus Christ and His design for romantic relationships was communicated.
Pastor Mark Driscoll shared from the Bible, his heart, and his experience as a pastor on how God is the creator of our bodies and souls and just how messed up our lives can get when we try and figure out sex and marriage on our own. If we base our lives on the world’s advice, or anything other than Christ and His Word, true fulfillment in relationships and sex will never be ours. Sex is good, not gross. Sex is pure in the sight of God and encouraged by his very direct words in Song of Solomon: “Drink friends and imbibe deeply.”
Marriage between one woman and one man is greatness, and it takes a lot of work. A poignant quote from Pastor Mark to the women: “Single ladies, if he will not work to get you, what makes you think he will work to keep you?”
Most men want the ladies to do all the work, or perhaps the man is willing to work to get her, but then he says, “I got her, now it is back to my career.”
The underlying theme throughout the day can be summed up in these two lines: God is the author and creator of life, sexuality and marriage, not the world, so stop looking to others who are just as flawed as we are.
Secondly, in marriage, be a Servant Lover. Marriage is based upon unselfishness. Therefore, in sexuality, in money, in raising kids, in all areas, be a servant. If you will by God’s strength and power set out to be a servant lover, chances are you will be just as fulfilled as your spouse who you have been faithfully loving and serving.
God is with you in your situation no matter what the cirucumstances look like at this very moment. There is hope and there is redemption for Los Angeles and the world.
Tommy Nelson – Song of Solomon – Conflict Series Part IX
Conflict Series (Part 9): Resolution to Both Parties Feel Harmed
At the end of December, we were discussing how both Solomon and his bride were feeling wronged by a conflict they were having. This is the time when a conflict can most easily be resolved.
How? You can determine that you do not need to react as your mate has reacted. If your mate has hurt you, you do not need to hurt your mate. Whatever your mate has done to you, you do not need to respond in kind. The apostle Paul stated it this way: “See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all.” (I Thess. 5:15)
You do not have to reciprocate or mirror what others do to you or say about you. Your mother probably taught this principle to you in the way my mother taught me: “Two wrongs do not make a right.”
Your response is subject to your will. You do not need to be hateful, angry, or cruel to a person who hurts you. You can respond with the love and patience of the Spirit of God rather than the revengeful and impatient spirit of man.
Strife begins at the point when you allow yourself to have hurt feelings and then you choose to nurse that hurt and wallow in it. Proverbs speaks often on this subject:
A wrathful man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger allays contention. (Proverbs 15:18)
More next week on how to work through conflict.
My Question For You:
Is your first response when you are hurt to try and hurt your spouse back or do you respond with love and patience?
My Challenge For You:
Consider the wisdom from Proverbs above and be slow to anger – it will be to your benefit.
Want to watch the SOS Classic Study? You can buy the DVD Series here or Rent one Session at a Time here.
Debt Kills Intimacy
When a marriage is strapped with debt, I can almost bet you that the couple is having less intimacy, joy and sex. Sex inside marriage takes energy. Debt kills energy.
The old proverb, “the best things in life are free” is correct, but somehow our pride, and this culture, tells us we need more. Bigger house-bigger payment. Newer car-bigger payment. More toys-bigger payment. Private education-bigger payment. I am not saying that any of these in and of themselves is a bad thing, even God said in John 10:10 “…that he came that we might have life to the full”, but I don’t think he meant full of things. If you are spending more than you earn, then you are beginning the process of setting a noose for your marriage.
Debt and finances are consistently ranked 1, 2, or 3 at the top of reasons for divorce and divorce first hurts you, then it hurts your kids. What we really want and need is not anything more, bigger, newer, more exclusive, more expensive. What we need is a fun, lively, honest, secure, laughter-filled relationship.
What your kids need is not newer shoes or the latest gadget. They need mom and dad enjoying each other, not stressed to the max with debt.
I know this falls into that category of easy to say and hard to live, but don’t most things that make life worth living fall into that category?
So, pray and do what it takes to get out of debt. I guarantee you the ‘intimacy’ will be better and more often.
God is with You.
Listen to Mark Driscoll Interview about Song of Solomon
On Thursday January 14th Mark Driscoll recorded a quick interview with Faith Radio Network. In this interview he discusses Love, Sex and Marriage and his upcoming conference in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Singles, Married and people who are Married with Children and want to learn how to talk to their children about sex should listen to Mark Driscoll’s Song of Solomon message.
“Marriage is for our happiness and our holiness.” – Mark Driscoll
Listen to the message for some great information and at the beginning of the podcast find out how to win a free trip to see Mark Driscoll in Minnesota.
Matt Chandler – Philippians: The Worthy Life
Employment evaluation with a supervisor is no one’s favorite. It is difficult to sit down toe-to-toe with him or her and hear whether or not you have measured up to expectations. It is easier to simply assume everything is OK, focus on your personal strengths, and never have anyone point out your blind spots.
It is easier, but it is not best.
Every so often it is helpful as an employee to evaluate if you are worth what they are paying you. It is healthy and appropriate to determine: are you worth it? Are you worthy of the paycheck you are receiving? Are the actions and results you produce in your daily job, worth what you are being paid?
If we would be doing that for something as silly and temporary as a job, why wouldn’t we do that with our faith? It should be a wonderful checkup for us to evaluate our lives, examine our hearts and see if we are living a life worthy of the gospel.
Are we?
Want the whole teaching series on Philippians for your next group study? You can either it buy it on DVD or rent/buy one session at a time with our exclusive digital delivery service. Click Here to Learn More. This topic is featured in Session 2 of Philippians.
I got to find something for our small group now!
I love to play basketball. The nice thing about being in your 40’s, I am currently 43, is that I am finally getting over the fact that I am a mediocre bball player and have given up the dream that I am actually better than I am. You could say it has taken me a bit too long, but finally, expectations have met reality.
Anyone else out there relate? If not, then you either played at a D-1 college, that means big and good school, or maybe one of you actually played on TV.
Well after playing in what we call our ASL, that stands for All Suck League, (I hope that does not offend anyone, but it’s the best description for our level of play) last night, we had an awesome discussion about church, Bible preaching, small groups, music and worship trends. It was a lively, inspiring and encouraging conversation.
Two of the guys began asking me more about The Hub and who is our market and what do we do. As I shared with them that our passion is to walk closely through the Bible and to share tools that have a long shelf life becuase they focus on the meat and potatoes of the 66 books of scripture, one of the guys said, “have you ever heard of J. Vernon Mgee?”(http://www.thruthebible.org/site/c.irLMKXPGLsF/b.4104125/k.B262/Dr_J_Vernon_McGee.htm) I said, you do know that he died more than 20 years ago, right? God is using J. Vernon perhaps more today than when he was alive. Why? Why do you think?
My opinion is that his teaching was ‘through the Bible’ and at the end of the day, if you want to know God and His love and will for your life, you must and will end up in His Word, the Bible.
These two young guys said, “Hey, this stuff would be perfect for our guys group. So often we never know what to study or what to go through for our time together. This way, we can have sweet Bible teaching from an amazing communicator, we will know that it is accurate, inspiring and challenging and we can still have our sweet discussion time with the questions from the guide.”
Exactly! The Hub exists for church and parachurch leaders, home groups and anyone who wants to engage in spiritual growing through the Bible whether in a group, or at home, in your own personal study.
And, with the digtial downloads and the ability to rent many of our resources http://www.gotothehub.com/digital-downloads/ now you and your group can access these resources for about $4 or $5 per session.
So, get your fellers together and have a Hoops & Bible night. Now that’s getting it done!
Doug
Romance, Relationships & Religion
Guess what? These 3 words are in the top 50 of all internet topics being blogged about, searched for on Google, Youtube, podcast, and any other traditional or new communication method.
My question for you is simple. Why? Why do we have more access to information than we have ever had before and yet the core issues, Romance and Relationships, Religion, Politics and Money?
Are you content with how much money you have/make? Was your childhood with religion a positive or negative thing? Did you judge others in your home or did you feel judged? Was your home a happy place with a mom and dad who had a good, healthy, kind relationship and therefore home? Or was your home icey cold, volatile hot, or just empty?
Ever wondered why these issues get our blood boiling and minds moving? It’s quite simple. God!
He created us with the desire and capacity to share, experience and enjoy romantic relationships. He created the desire within man/woman to create, work, design, build, grow and therefore earn a way to provide for ourselves and family units. He created us in His Image and therefore to have freedom, responsibility, community, and safety.
So, it is God who has created and given us the desire and need for Romance, Relationships and Religion (I will define this as the need for a personal relationship with God, everyone’s Creator).
Am I saying it is as simple as belief in God will solve all Romance, Relationship and Religious issues? No. I am saying that trust and belief in The One who made us is the source to find fulfillment in all these areas and the source of strength and courage to work through our differences.
These issues will always been in the TOP 10 of internet, magazine, newspaper, blogs, or whatever form of communication our God given minds will create. Because, until we stop searching the internet, magazines, newspapers, blogs, or whatever form of information our God given minds develop and start searching His Written Word, The Bible and pray for His best in the areas of Romance, Relationships and Religion, there will always be turmoil in our lives and therefore our world.
God is with us – thank goodness. Happy New Year from The Hub.
8 Ways to Thrive (not die) with Family
As we continue our series on conflict, what an opportunity many of us will have this Christmas. 🙂 Yes, we all know family is a blessing and wonderful, but quite honestly, most of us know it can be very stressful as well.
Here are a couple of reminders as we enter what should be restful, sweet, good, memory making times.
1. Take a deep breath – Is what your mother, brother, or sister-n-law said, or going to say really worth ruining the sweet time you have? I know that words are extremely powerful, but for many of us, we need to learn how to ‘give them less power.’
2. Watch your tongue – As you have heard and will hear many times, An OUNCE of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If most of us would just take a deep breath, relaxe ONE moment before we speak, we would either say less damaging things or when someone says something Potentially damaging to us, we choose not to react.
3. Stop thinking of the past all the time. This is huge in family. Whenever someone in our family makes a comment to us, we see it in light of the previous 20, 35, or 50 years. It’s time to forget some of that (I know it’s hard, but it’s necessary). A short memory can be quite helpful in these situations.
4. If your comment does not build someone up, then keep it to yourself. Many times in family, we think it is our job to ‘share all the difficult stuff.’ You know what, unless you have an active, ongoing, close relationship with a family member, chances are ‘more critique’, or ‘less positive’ opinions should be shared by a person’s friend, not a family member.
5. Unsolicited advise is almost always received as criticism, not help.
6. We only have a few days together. Let’s be friends:) Friendships are positive. Let’s let our family times be positive.
7. Christmas is about Christ’s generosity of Spirit, not a spirit of negative, stress, hurt, history. If we will slow down enough to get the right perspective on our eyeballs, then He will gives us what we need to make it much more enjoyable.
8. Don’t stay too long! Proverbs says,’Don’t stay too long in your brother’s house.’ That’s from the wisest man who ever lived. Amen.
Remember this week, God is with you.
Merry Christmas from all of us here at The Hub!
Both Parties Feel Harmed: Conflict Series Part VII
Conflict occurs when both parties feel in some way wronged, denied, misunderstood, or unappreciated. We find a perfect example in the conflict between Solomon and his bride:
I sleep, but my heart is awake; It is the voice of my beloved!
He knocks, saying, “Open for me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one;
For my head is covered with dew, my locks with the drops of the night.”
(Song 5:2)
She speaks back in Song 5:3:
I have taken off my robe; How can I put it on again?
I have washed my feet; How can I defile them?
Solomon had been working late. After a long day in a hard world, he longed to come home to some tenderness and appreciation. She, on the other hand, had pretty much given up on his coming home at a reasonable hour and had gone to bed.
Keep in mind that in those days, a man and a woman often had different bedchambers so he was knocking on her door in hopes of joining her. Her response, in modern-day terms, might be, “I have a headache.” She says poetically, “Not tonight, I’ve already taken a bath and am in bed. Yet you want to have sex now?” They’re thoughts and desires are definitely not on the same page and they are set up for conflict.
We’ll see both of their reactions to this situation next week.
My Question For You: Are there any situations you face that you know will lead to conflict?
My Challenge For You: Conflict is inevitable. Are you willing to prepare for it and set yourself up to learn from it?
God is with Matt Chandler
Friends, we have been praying for Matt Chandler, friend of The Hub and Pastor of The Village Church in Dallas, TX. The pathology report is back and the tumor was malignant and they were not able to remove it all. For a full report from The Village, go here.
This is very difficult. For Matt, Lauren, their kids, family and for The Village. Not in my life have I seen God raise up so much love for a preacher in such a short time than I have with Matt.
It is a must that we bend our knees, hearts and minds and look only at Jesus. This does not and will not make sense to our human mind. We are not able to comprehend this kind of pain and suffering.
Do we bend our knees, hearts and mind with hope? Absolutely! As Paul says in Romans, we do not grieve as those without hope.
Matt, family, and The Village, those of us who have been blessed by God using you and His gifts He gave you to teach, we commit to pray for you all.
We will pray for physical healing. We will pray for Christ to be made known around the world so that many others will experience spiritual and eternal healing through this struggle.
It is not our way, but God’s ways are trustworthy, for He is the only true Trustworthy one.
God is with you, and us.
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