January 13

January 13, 2010

Please pray for Haiti. Many of our dear friends at Grace have family living in the earthquake zone. They have not been able to contract their loved ones. It is time to pray!!!

A note of encouragement.... I received more accountability emails last week than any week in 2009. Everyone seems to be off to a great start this year. Beware!!! You will be tempted to skip a day or two very shortly. The difficulty comes in catching up. So stay up to date. Don’t read too far ahead but stay disciplined in the journey. It takes 30 days of practice to create a new habit.

Genesis 29-30 The Original Desperate Housewives.

What a mess!! Rachel and Leah are locked in a cruel contest. In their jealousy and competition they end up using Jacob as a pawn in this game of marital chess. This is not what God designed for marriage. I will buy a night of pleasure with you because I bought you for three Big Mac’s. Come on!!! There is a serious departure from the original plan of God for marriage to be a place of intimacy. These are the words that describe this marriage: Suspicion, jealousy, competition, misery, tears, fighting… where is the LOVE? We can learn from Jacob’s experience that when we don’t follow God’s plan for marriage, we shouldn’t expect happiness. Obedience brings reward and disobedience brings pain… all the time, every time. In our world today… we have most couples living together before marriage… even the non-Christian sociologists will tell you that couples that live together before marriage are five times as likely to have their marriage end in divorce. But people still think they know better than God. Or if marriage seems unbearable right now, the culture tells you … find a new partner, someone who is more compatible with you. What the world doesn’t tell you though is that your new partner won’t be perfect either. Marriage only works when we do it God’s way.