Serving God's Purposes in Our Generation (Acts 13:36b)
Category: Relationship And Marriage

Men and Porn

At the core of consuming porn is selfishness. I will get my fix. No one will know. It is my secret. It is what I do in private. My dad did it. Everyone does it and I am going to as well. Porn is a fantasy designed to do one thing - keep you completely to yourself. It is a lie. Porn tries to tell you what sex should feel like and look like.

Porn Stats

Men Admitting To Accessing Pornography At Work - 20%. U.S. Adults Who Regularly Visit Internet Pornography Websites - 40 Million. Promise Keeper Men Who Viewed Pornography In Last Week - 53%. Christians Who Said Pornography Is A Major Problem In The Home - 47%. Adults Admitting To Internet Sexual Addiction - 10%.

Why Won't/Don't Pastor's Post?

So maybe pastors aren't sharing their life out in the open because they are afraid of the consequences. Let's face it- all we have in ministry is our integrity. Once that is gone, it's gone. Most likely, if you're caught viewing porn or are caught in your addiction, you're toast at your job. This is what we face.

Red Hot Temptation!

In other words, don’t be a Christian who, every time encounters a bad situation will either blame it on God or the devil. James is trying to say that there is some evil in us that manifests from our fleshly nature. That is the reason why you don’t need to teach kids to lie or steal. It's in them.

Marriage

‘The word “love” doesn’t mean you are happy with the person. If it means losing my family, which is more important to me, then I wouldn’t marry someone who was not Gujarati’ (A young Gujarati). Marriage continues to be an important institution for South Asians. For many South Asian parents, their main goal in life is to see their children educated and married, so the pressure to find a partner and settle down,

Tiger Woods And What The Bible Teaches About Sex Addiction

A week after the Tiger Woods scandal broke many folks began saying that Mr. Woods is a sex addict. As reported recently, “Manhattan author and therapist Bonnie Eaker Weil said of Woods’ situation that repetitive cheating is an addiction. ‘What begins with a desire to relieve stress or mute depression easily progresses to a preoccupation with where their next ‘fix’ will come from.’….Pro athletes, accustomed to the rush of celebrity, often look to sex for a similar high.” The article continues: “Dr. Drew Pinsky, host of VH1’s ‘Sex Rehab With Dr. Drew,’ told CBS News that addiction ‘has people doing things that don't make sense.’ [Jaimie] Grubbs claims to have more than 300 text messages from Woods saved on her phone and has released a voicemail she says is from Woods, asking her to change the name on her caller ID, saying that ‘my wife may be calling you.’”

Eight Lessons Leaders Can Learn from Tiger Wood’s Life

The epic saga of Tiger Wood’s fall from being touted as a model citizen and athletic superstar to a reckless, self-centered, out-of-control sex addict serves as a leadership lesson for all of us. The following are important principles we need to take seriously for ourselves and those we are leading. Leaders need to build their lives upon the solid foundation of good character and morals, not on gifts and abilities. You can master the art of making money but miss it in the arena of developing moral standards. This will eventually drag you down. Character serves as the wind beneath our wings carrying us into a successful future! Abilities will give us immediate recognition and possibly fame but will only last a brief period of time!

Monogamy – Is It Realistic?

A friend recently asked me, “Is monogamy realistic in 21st century?” That made me thinking. In an age of divorce, hookup culture and widespread infidelity, “till death do us part’ seems nearly impossible. Celebrities are openly flaunting their extra-marital exploits! With people constantly moving from place to place and changing jobs like they do with clothes, the ‘use and throw’ attitude is creeping into our thinking of how we view relationships like that of marriage.

Ox Weds Donkey! – Do Not Be Unequally Yoked Together With Unbelievers

Many a young Christian has ruined his life because of unholy alliance in marriage. Marriage is a yoke. The Bible forbids unequal yoke (2 Cor 6:14). "You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together" (Dt 22:10). Both the Old and the New Testaments strongly condemn intermarriage with unbelievers. Intermingling the "holy seed" with the unconverted is called as "trespass, transgression, iniquity and guilt" (Ezra 9:1-6). Even a widow who is a believer is not permitted to marry an unbeliever. "She is at liberty to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord" (1 Cor 7:39).

Globalization, Caste and Arranged Marriages

Like every girl, I enjoy a good love story. However, this one was different. As children growing up in Kerala, Marcus and Annamma Chacko lived just five kilometers apart. Their communities never intermingled. Marcus explains, "Though we hail from the same place, her people and my people had nothing much to do with each other because we belonged to two different castes." They finally met in Uttar Pradesh. Marcus was a guest singer at a music hall where
Annamma was in the audience. She instantly felt an affinity to Marcus when he sang in their mother tongue, Malayalam. After a three-minute conversation, they parted ways. Two years later they ran into each other again while working for the same nonprofit organization. Though in separate departments, they couldn't help but admire each other's warmth, energy, and passion for social justice.

Three Things That Make For A Great Marriage!

Marriage is a covenant relationship between three parties – husband, wife and God. A contract made between two parties can be broken by mutual agreement, but the marriage covenant cannot be broken. If the husband or wife chooses to break the covenant, then in addition to breaking their covenant with the spouse, he/she also breaks the covenant made with God. The marriage covenant is important because it is through the marriage that the home is set. The church first begins at home and the five-fold ministry - pastoring, teaching, prophesying, evangelizing and the apostolic – begins at home.

Mom, Dad, Let Me Find My Own Husband

MY Suitable Boy was seven years older than I with a gentle Superman wave of hair at his forehead and broad shoulders that defied the reedy build of our South Indian heritage. The son of a family friend, he often visited us in our northeast Indiana town, a few miles east of the Dan Quayle museum. Affable with dinner guests and handy with sports scores, he was adored by my parents. And I realized quickly, despite my parents' denials, that they wanted me to marry him. . . . . "Suitable boy" is a term used by Indian families to describe a strong marriage candidate — someone who comes from the right religion, region, community and family background. Within my circle of American-born cousins, however, we used the term only to tease each other about our parents' marriage schemes.

Arranged Marriage, Love Marriage and Cross-Cultural Marriage

Arranged marriages, until recently, have been normative in Indian culture. But now the number of love marriages is on the increase. Arranged marriages are an inconceivable idea for the westerners. Eventhough the eastern culture is considered to be too conservative, divorce rate is much less and family ties much stronger here. . . . . Eventhough love marriages are becoming more and more common in India, a recent poll in some of the major cities reveals that nearly 80% of the young people prefer arranged marriages. This is encouraging. However no two young people are alike. Even within a family one child differs so much from the other. 

David – A Man After God's Own Heart

We note that like David, we too can find a special place in God's Heart. David was not perfect. Like all of us he fell again and again. Yet every time he fell, his response was immediate repentance. This act restored his relationship with God. God knows our short-comings. That is why He sent His Son Jesus. He has paid the price for all of us for all times. Once born again all we have to do is to learn to enjoy the very real presence of God in prayer, in the Word and in fellowship. I am confident that since God is no respecter of persons, He will make us people after His own Heart too as we learn to spend time with Him

I'm Christian Dating a Non-Christian Possibly Intending To Get Married. Need Advice

I am a Hindu and have received a proposal from a Christian girl who converted from Hinduism three years ago. Whilst my parents expect her to follow my religion after marriage; I am of the view that she can follow her religion but she has to partake in all my Hindu religious activities; and that we have to have a Hindu marriage. I also respect Christianity and she can go to church etc. with myself accompanying her whenever possible. She has come back to me saying that all the above will be a sin in Christianity and that she will be punished if she participates in my activities. I have been advised by my Hindu priest to participate in her activities where possible. I respect her choice of religion because for me there is only one god; it's just that we all have our own ways of faith.

Father's Love Letter – Unconditional Love From The Father Of Creation

Father's Love Letter is a compilation of bible verses from both the Old & New Testaments that are presented in the form of a love letter from God to the world. Each line in the Father's Love Letter message is paraphrased, which means we have taken each scripture's overall message and summarized it as a single phrase to best express it's meaning. The power of God's Word has the ability to change lives because it is God's Word. The Bible describes God's Word as living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12) and promises not to return empty (Isaiah 55:11). Today we live in a fatherless generation where many people believe that God's angry and distant from His creation. The world is crying out to be unconditionally loved. The Church is crying out to be unconditionally loved. We all desperately need to hear the truth that God loves us and is the Father we have been looking for all our lives.

What Is Friendship?

Dictionaries define ‘friendship’ as a friendly relation or intimacy. Is that all it is? No, it’s so much more then just that. Friendships are made and broken all the time. When they are broken it may be for good reasons or bad. I myself have lost a great deal of friends, and in finishing my 12th year I know I am bound to lose more. Everyone is going there own ways, doing their own things; they are all leaving high school behind them. So I am dedicating this article to the friends I’ve made, the friends I’ve lost, the friends I know I will always have, and the friends that I’ll make in my future.

Beware of Jealousy, Anger and Suspicion

There are many lessons that we can learn from Cain and Abel (Genesis 4:1-12). Cain was jealous and angry with Abel, because it had gone so well with Abel (for God had accepted him). How do you feel when you find it going very well with someone whom you are closely associated with? When you find a fellow-brother who is preaching victory over sin and you find that his life is consistent with his preaching - that there is no evidence of anxiety or anger or impatience in him, but on the contrary, a perpetual spirit of triumph and joy and peace; and in contrast your own life is miserable and gloomy and defeated (because you do not believe that a life of victory is possible) - Do you then find a root of envy creeping in and a desire to see him fall somewhere so that you can gloat over his failure and drag him down in the eyes of others? That was the same spirit that drove Cain.

Meeting God In The Monsoon

When were the last time you cried wanting God more? I mean not some long, fancy, flowery prayer but deep, passionate, heart rending cry for more of God? A child when lost cries out to her mother. For it knows nothing can substitute the feel of her mother’s lap, nothing can equal the comfort of being cradled by her mother. And so should we, like a child, cry out to God for that’s where our real comfort is. Without the touch and comfort of the presence of Jesus we are but cosmic orphans, waifs of the universe, left alone and abandoned. We all have gone through many religious experiences, done many things for God, been there in that mission field, explored those mission courses, taught Sunday schools, preached in churches, poured over Bible. And yet still the heart feels an inconsolable longing to enter into intimacy with God.

Unholy Matrimony – Dowry, An Evil Practice

Most of us pay lip service to condemn dowry as a contemporary social evil, however, this ancient Indian custom continues to destroy families in our present age as well. Before bringing up this issue to the whole world, I believe that this must first be addressed to the professed people of God who are called to be the light of the world (Matt. 5:14). It is for Christians to confront this issue and explore fully to know whether dowry is acceptable or despicable. Let us reason, examine and find out - Is demanding dowry a perverted practice? Do we have any biblical proofs in order to come to this conclusion? Is requiring dowry in marriage unbiblical, or to say further, an anti-biblical practice? This message might be offensive and discomforting to many money-loving readers. However, the fact remains – truth is bitter but makes our lives better. Therefore, I encourage you to read this message with an open mind and a humble attitude.