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Unity vs. Disunity in Marriage

An interesting article on FoxNews.com caught my attention today with its title of "Christian Couples Staying Faithful on Facebook, Twitter." The article discusses an apparent trend of sharing email addresses and other forms of electronic communication. It discusses examples in which couples felt led towards such a decision in order to better protect themselves from temptations and communications that might be harmful to their marriage. I think I take for granted the lessons I learned growing up and through Scripture as I prepared for marriage. I always assumed the unity inherent in marriage and valued the wisdom in sharing information and being transparent (no secrets) in my marriage. Although Brittney and I do not share the same Facebook and email accounts, there is never a sense of secrecy or compartmentalization. We each have totally shared access/passwords to all of our accounts and have a spirit of trust in what we communicate. Likewise all of our financial accounts are totally combined so that there is no sense of "my money" versus "your money" in what we earn or spend. Such trust within a marriage is something I greatly treasure. It is hard to imagine a spirit of distrust, compartmentalization, and secrecy within a marriage and the damage that can do in reducing the unity of the relationship. Are there secrets in your marriage? Evidenced by unshared passwords or accounts? Do you have a temptation to have a compartmentalize part of your life that you are unwilling to share with your spouse? Is there a need for confronting agents and areas of disunity within your marriage? Are you giving Satan an easy avenue for attacking your marriage and creating lasting damage? It is my hope and my prayer that we all seek daily to create, cultivate, and protect unity with our spouses in all areas of our life to the glory of God! Psalm 90:8 "You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence." Mark 10:6-9 "6'But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female.' 7'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, 8and the two will become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one. 9Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.""

Quote - Augustine

"We want to reach the kingdom of God, but we don't want to travel by way of death. And yet there stands Necessity saying: 'This way, please.' Do not hesitate, man, to go this way, when this is the way that God came to you." Augustine

Humility & Servanthood

I was reminded of the important of humility in the Christian life as I watched a video of John Piper's sermon this week titled Greatness, Humility, Servanthood. In it he referenced C.J. Mahaney's book, Humility: True Greatness as a focus of their church staff's small group time in the year ahead. I've personally benefited much from this work. Piper's sermon highlighted many great points and I especially enjoyed one statement he made and several Biblical passages he referenced.
  • "Humility is the soil in which everything good grows in the Christian life. If that soil goes away, everything withers" - John Piper
  • 1 Corinthians 15:10 "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. "
  • Philippians 2:3-8 " 3Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."

What example of humility we have in Christ on the Cross. In considering such a sacrifice for sin, how can we be anything but humble?

Video of John Piper's sermon below:

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