Rights! We in the states even call the first 10 Amendments to our Constitution our “Bill of Rights.”

Rights! Our student handbook at Pine Forest High School carried the title, “Students’ Rights and Responsibilities.” Where my son attends we sign a Student/Parent/School Compact that includes the Rights he has a a student.

I have rights! And according to the US Declaration of Independence, some of them come from God. Recently in our Wednesday Bible Studies we discussed one of our God-given rights: the privilege we have to talk directly to God in prayer.

As God’s child, I do not have to have a religious power, an ancestor, or a decease religious figure as a solicitor to God on my behalf. I can talk directly to God.

Consider these scriptures:

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Heb 4:14-16)

So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. (Gal 3:24-29)

My gender, economic status, or ethnicity cannot and do not prevent my access to God. When I by faith put on Christ according to His plan (immersion into Him) than I am God’s child and can speak in the presence of God.

What a great God we serve!

- Scott

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. (Luk 14:26-33)

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. (Col 3:1-5)

Jesus talks about the importance of it.

Paul repeats the same thing.

Abraham had to learn to do it.

Have you?

Have you fully surrendered your life to God?

• “I go to church.” – That’s not what I asked. Have you FULLY surrendered YOUR life to God?
• “I pray.” - That’s not what I asked. Have you FULLY surrendered YOUR life to God?
• “I am a member of _________ Church” - That’s not what I asked. Have you FULLY surrendered YOUR life to God?
• “I am a Christian.” - That’s not what I asked. Have you FULLY surrendered YOUR life to God?
• “I was baptized.” - That’s not what I asked. Have you FULLY surrendered YOUR life to God?

One more passage, “For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,” (1Th 1:9).

So, have you FULLY SURRENDERED YOUR life to God?

- Scott

Christians, we need to be careful about what we allow to enter our homes on that TV.  I am going to give a list of current shows on TV and a list of new names for those shows and let you match them up:

1. The Big Bang Theory
2. The Bachelor
3. The Bachelorette
4. Dancing with the Stars
5. Pretty Little Liars
6. Scandal
7. Modern Family
8. Vegas
9. Revenge

• A) The Harem
• B) Diminutive Dishonest Divas
• C)  Immense Innuendo Hypothesis
• D) The Madam
• E) Mocking Family
• F) Sin SPIN
• G) Gambling Against Hell
• H) Lasciviousness on Hardwood with Has-beens
• I)  Returning Evil for Evil

Now match the answers and then decide if we should be watching.

- Scott

1. My wife (husband) should make me happy.
2. My husband (wife) has to meet all of my needs.
3. My spouse, because they love me, knows my needs without my having to tell her/him.
4. I know how things should be done and my wife (husband) should be willing to do things my way.
5. No matter what I say or do, my husband (wife) should not respond in an irritable or angry tone to me.
6. My spouse should ask me about my day first.

I am sure that as you read the above statements you realized at least two things. 1) You tell one or more of these statements to yourself (or have in the past). And 2) You can see how unfair they are to your spouse.

Take a moment to look over these statements. If you see that you are telling yourself these lies, then learn to see them for what they are and try to think differently. Tell yourself that they are not true and try rewording them as truths. Take number 3 for an example. Tell yourself, “My spouse will only know what I need and be able to help fulfill that need when I communicate that need.”

Have a great marriage!

- Scott

Check Haiku Deck out for yourself at http://www.haikudeck.com

To help us with our communication, take a look at the following passages taken from The New Living Translation:

• Eph 4:15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of His body, the church.
• Jas 3:2 Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way.
• 1Pe 3:10 For the Scriptures say, “If you want to enjoy life and see many happy days, keep your tongue from speaking evil and your lips from telling lies.
• Eph 4:31-32 Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you. 
• Pro 28:13 People who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy.
• Pro 12:18 Some people make cutting remarks, but the words of the wise bring healing.
• Pro 14:29 People with understanding control their anger; a hot temper shows great foolishness.
• Pro 15:4 Gentle words are a tree of life; a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit.
• Pro 15:23 Everyone enjoys a fitting reply; it is wonderful to say the right thing at the right time!
• Pro 17:9 Love prospers when a fault is forgiven, but dwelling on it separates close friends.

- Scott

photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/h-k-d/5640009493/ via http://photopin.com”>photopin   http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/

Amy and I on our 23rd Anniversary Get-a-Way

Everyone of us enter marriage with certain expectations. Some are natural, some are achievable, and some are just plain unrealistic.  These unrealistic expectations have potential to damage your continued marital happiness, so I suggest that you avoid them. Here they are:

1. Our relationship will never change, it will always be the same as it was (is) in the early years of our marriage. I am sorry, this just is not true. The relationship will change, the thrills will be different. Consider this from a FB post I read yesterday, “Falling in love is a passive and spontaneous experience. But after a few months or years of being together, the euphoria of love fades. It’s a natural cycle of EVERY relationship. Slowly but surely, phone calls become a bother (if they come at all), touch is not always welcome (when it happens), and your spouse’s idiosyncrasies, instead of being cute, drive you nuts. The symptoms of this stage vary with every relationship; you will notice a dramatic difference between the initial stage when you were in love and a much duller or even angry subsequent stage.  At this point, you and/or your partner might start asking, “Am I with the right person?” And as you reflect on the euphoria of the love you once had, you may begin to desire that experience with someone else. This is when relationships breakdown.”
2. The Honeymoon Excitement can be maintained or resurrected. I suppose I have to be the one to tell you that you have to go to work, if you have children then the role of parenting will impact that honeymoon feeling, and bills will come in the mail. Your love will have to change from infatuation to intention (read the above quote again).
3. If my spouse loves me they will know my needs and wants without me having to tell them. NO ONE, not even your spouse can read your mind.  Tell each other your wants  and needs. Husbands, follow your wives interests on Pinterest if you want her to think you can read her mind.
4. We should be just alike in everything.  We should have the same likes and dislikes, think the same, and do the same activities. NO! I am not sure I would like Amy if she were exactly like me. You are different people with different backgrounds and different genders – you will have differences.  Celebrate those differences and learn to try new things together.

What are other UNREALISTIC expectations you can think of?

- Scott

Classic!

This week a radio station in our area played a call from listener. This female listener was complaining about her parents. Here is a transcript of the complaint:

“I’m 30, and I’m bringing my boyfriend home to meet my parents for the first time in a few weeks. My parents are weird about stuff like that, so they’re making me and my boyfriend sleep in separate bedrooms. But he’s 36 . . . and it just seems like a weird thing to do. I guess my parents just don’t want to think about us together in their house. Should adult boyfriends and girlfriends sleep in separate beds at their parents’ house? Doesn’t the whole separate bedrooms thing seem a little too old-school in this day and age?”

The calls and comments started coming in and varied between two basic opinions:

1) Her parents need to respect her as an adult and allow them to share a bed.

2) She needs to be an adult and respect her parents wishes and not share a bed with her boyfriend in her parents home. If they cannot be apart for that long, get a hotel.

There is something missing. What about respect for God? Consider these words from God’s Word:

• Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. (Rom 13:13-14).
• Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, (1Co 6:18-19)
• But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. 

  (Eph 5:3)

• For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 

  (1Th 4:3-4)

Sexual intimacy is for marriage only - Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. (Heb 13:4)

These parents are not being “old fashioned” they are trying to help them do what is right and avoid what is wrong.

- Scott