For Him and Forever - Listen for Him!

Carol and I are reading through Pete Scezzaro's Emotionally Healthy Spirituality as a couple and as part of our Community Group's study.  As we drove to Arkansas recently and as Carol read, I heard her voice Scezzaro's words about silence, meditation, and solitude.

Now I know those aren't exactly the same, but the theme is clear:  "Be still and know that He is God".  This is straight scripture from Psalm 46:10.

Psalm 46:10

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” 

Today I get to be quiet.  I choose to be quiet and stop typing.  I choose to listen - not to music, not to nature, not to my thoughts but to purposefully still myself and ask my Abba Father God to speak.  I will be quiet until or as long as He wishes.  Why?  

For me - of course I benefit, but it is not for me.

For you - of course you will benefit from my life when I am unhurried and patient and loving as He will empower me to be.

For Him and Forever!

The passage says that God will "be exalted among the nations, I (God) will be exalted in the earth."

We need Him so desperately.  I need Him so desperately, and we need each other to exalt Him and love Him and stand in awe of Him individually so that collectively He will be exalted in the earth...all over the earth...in every nation...starting at home...your home and mine.  

No more excuses.  Let's be still and know the God of the universe who loves us so much that He thinks about us all the time, sacrificed His one and only Son to make it possible for us to be forgiven and free to be with Him forever ----starting now and never ending.  

Hallelujah, what a Savior is Jesus Christ the Son of God.

I am now still.

Can It Be True? Marriage Gets Better!

As a teen when I first thought about being married someday, there was no way I could have understood or imagined how life would be at 64.  Could you have imagined it?

Should someone have questioned me about marriage and what I thought it would be, not even then would I have thought much past the first few years.....wedding, honeymoon, work, kids, honeymoon, kids, honeymoon....you get the idea.

Now that Carol and I are almost 42 years into this relationship having 3 wonderful Lewis kids (adults), 2 wonderful in-laws for 2 of our 3 wonderful kids, 7 grand - and I do mean grand - grandchildren, I can honestly say that life is better than I could have imagined back in my teen years.

In fact, it is so great, that I now get to go around the country (even the world) helping Christian leader couples establish effective marriage and family ministries!  Who knew?!

So when culture and media tell you that marriage is mundane, average, awful, sub-par with just living together or "hooking up", and therefore not worth pursuing, they don't know what they are talking about.  Marriage - done in God's great love - is "exceeding abundant" above all I asked or imagined.  It's the hardest, most wonderful thing you'll ever do!

Now, that's what I'm talking about!!