Guidance

Do You Love Jesus Christ with Sincerity? (Unanswered Prayer)

Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen. Ephesians 6:24

People email us and tell us that they are praying every day, seeking God’s will for their marriage, reading all the articles on the ministry, going to church, and yet nothing changes in their marriage. Some of these people become very discouraged because they want to see positive change in their spouse and marriage. Where are the blessings?

For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy! Ecclesiastes 2:26

Wisdom, knowledge and joy are blessings given to us when we live our lives to please God and not ourselves. Do you have Godly wisdom, knowledge and joy in your life?

There are several reasons why we do not see blessings in our life and marriage. You see, we are not on our own time schedule; we are on Gods time schedule, meaning, no matter how often, or how much you

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How to Love Your Spouse

Why do married people need encouragement to love, or have to be told how to love their spouse?

Most married people do not know how to love — they have lost the ability to, or never had the ability to truly love another. Love is all about sacrifice and giving of ourselves. Love is not “what can I get out of this relationship or circumstance or predicament.

Our relationship with Jesus Christ gives us the ability to love others in the right ways. If we do not have a personal relationship with Christ we will have a difficult time understanding the proper ways to love our spouse.

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Five Things We Must Do as Christians

1 Corinthians 16:13-14 NRSV
Keep alert, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.

In the middle of the conclusion of Paul’s letter, in between the “Timothy and Apollos may come to visit” and “Everyone here sends their love,” Paul writes these short two sentences. Perhaps they should have been written at the beginning as the title for this letter (if letters had titles). Certainly, they are important not only because they summarize what Paul has been saying, but because they summarize the Christian life.

Here, Paul tells the church in Corinth to do four things:

  • Keep alert

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Economic and Financial Abuse

Economic or financial abuse is one type of domestic violence. It shows up when the husband or partner refuses to allow his spouse to take part in financial decisions. He tells her or implies that women are inferior. He says they don’t have the intelligence or skills to handle finances.

He insists on keeping the checkbook and all financial records without letting her keep up to date with their financial status. Should he pass away first, she would have no idea how to pay bills, how to keep a checkbook, and how to handle the economic situation. She probably wouldn’t even know where he kept the checkbook and financial records.

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How to Really Heal Your Marriage

And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. Colossians 3:10

What is Marriage Healing? Marriage healing is about individual inner healing and repairing damage done to the marriage, through the workings of Jesus Christ. We desperately need to understand how all of this works and have faith in God’s love for us. We have to believe that what God says for us is true!

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Opening Our Souls to God – The 4th Step

Psalm 139:23-24 KJV
Search me, O God, and know my heart:
try me, and know my thoughts:
And see if [there be any] wicked way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

The 4th Step, taking one’s own inventory, can be quite intimidating. But like many other things in our lives as Christians, it should be approached first and foremost in prayer.

By literally getting down on our knees and praying, much in the same way as the Psalmist did above, several things happen.

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Creating Hope in Our Clients

I have often said that the residential recovery program’s first goal is to create hope in our clients. What are some ways we can accomplish this?

Before people can begin the process of change they must fully understand two basic truths;

1) that change is needed in a certain area of their lives and

2) that change is possible.

In previous articles, I have discussed strategies of breaking through the addict’s denial system, which is the starting point for his or her accepting the need for change. But if we only convince people that their lives are a mess we may leave them in a place of despair. We must create an environment full of hope where they can catch a vision for how their lives could be in Christ, along with giving the tools to build a life of faith and recovery.

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Breaking the Old, Negative Grid System

At MSN I can go to “maps” and, after clicking there, enter the address of my first home ever — in Washington D.C., my hometown. Once I have a map of the city up, I can find Southeast by crossing the Anacostia River and then find Good Hope Road. Soon I am in my old neighborhood via the “birds eye” feature of MSN maps. I can zoom close — so close it is very real. And there is the old neighborhood, seemingly unchanged after 50 years, as if time stood still.

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