I remember back to my grammar school days. (Yes, I can actually remember back that far.) Of course we studied math, science, English, and the other grade school subjects. We worked our way through homework assignments and hours of classroom instruction, reading the textbooks and absorbing information. Then at long last, there would come a day of reckoning. Test Day. That was the day we were put through our paces, our teachers eager to see how much knowledge we had retained. Our test results would help them determine if we were ready to go to Continue Reading
Every Good and Perfect Gift
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” James 1:17 I sometimes think life is a little like being on a long road trip. We encounter periods of smooth sailing punctuated with bumps and potholes. We see exhilarating views of nature and then, just as we begin to relax, the highway starts to twist and turn. We hold our breath, grip the wheel and then find ourselves stopped dead at a fork in the road where we’re faced with Continue Reading
Confident Resistance
“But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the men of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem’s walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry” Nehemiah 4:7 Imagine what my home would be like if I didn't have any doors, and if my yards didn't have any fences. Anyone who wanted to could just come in and open the refrigerator, sit on the sofa and run up my pay-per-view bill. Anyone who wanted to could come into my yard, pick all the plums and enjoy the Jacuzzi. And when I got home with my Continue Reading
His Emotional Ambivalence, Squared
One of the things that I find comes up in coversations with wives over and over again is the issue of a husband's ambivalence towards his recovery. On the one hand they seem to say, "Yes, I'm sorry for what I've done, and I don't like the consequences of it." and on the other side, their actions (or lack thereof) seem to say, "But I don't want to give it up--it feels too good, it's become too important to me". The wife finds herself in an excruciating state of frustration. While he seems to be giving lip-service to what he knows to be right, Continue Reading
Three Obstacles to True Forgiveness
For a wife who is dealing with her husband’s sexual sin, part of the process of forgiveness includes coming to an understanding of what she has truly lost by the betrayal, and then beginning to release the debt of the offense against her. If she doesn’t go through this process, I’m not sure she can truly say “from her heart” she has truly forgiven. (Matthew 18:32-35) But forgiveness can be a challenge because the hurt may still resonate, and the emotions and fears combine to add confusion as to what true forgiveness looks like. Here are Continue Reading
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