— Materialism is a way of
looking at life which insists that only what we can detect by physical
means is real. Because of this, we have lost our ability to understand
what it means to have a spirit and a soul. Spiritual development is God's
sole intent for creating the family.
A Heart of Flesh for a Heart of Stone
— The Hebraic-Christian
view of spirit and body flowing together in oneness. For Christians, the
Spirit of Christ flows through everything we are and do. Nothing is
secular. Our hearts of stone reject physical expressions of love. To
express Christ fully, we must have our hearts restored to flesh.
Man and Woman Becoming One Flesh
— Marriage is a
twenty-four-hour-a-day, 365-days-a-year, exercise in the art of
forgiveness. If a couple are truly married, they will begin to work out
their hassles in Christ. In Christ, our mate is the one person who will
see what we are and still choose to love us. Marriage is a pilgrimage
from individual self-centeredness to ever fuller corporate life.
Animus and Anima
— Left-brain and right-brain characteristics
should be in balance in us. Usually, however, one side or the other is
dominant. We tend to recognize in our spouse those areas where we are
weak and look to him or her for our fulfillment in that area. Unless we
know Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, we will demand too much.
Fathers, Sons, and Daughters
— Everything a father does in
the presence of a son or daughter is an implantation of what the father
is to the children. A child does not become what the father says; he
becomes what the father is. Real teaching is accomplished by what we are
every moment of our lives with our children. If a father has truly lived
the Way in Christ, it is easy for a son to do the same; if the father has
not, our Lord will first have to overcome and bring to death in the son
what the father was.
Mothers, Sons and Daughters
— God has exalted women to the
highest position by giving them the place of greatest service. Perhaps
the greatest theft from women has been their spiritual awareness of the
unique glory of their position and tasks as mothers. Right there in the
constant repetitions of daily unnoticed chores, in the midst of the
drudgery, sparkles the radiance of God's presence, incarnating the life
of Jesus Christ among men.
Part II
The Position of a Husband
— Too many Christian husbands have
heard the call to headship, only to translate the world's concepts of
authority into the home. That has brought control, dominance, and
exaltation of the flesh, not blessing. Headship is actually responsibility
to serve. A husband is given to bless and fulfill his wife's life.
The Importance of a Father's Love
— Fathers' love for their
children is so important that without it a curse comes upon the land.
Fathers impart strength of spirit when they show affection to their
children. Lacking that, children will dishonour their parents. Every
failure in life can be traced sooner or later to the breaking of the one
command, "Honour thy father and mother..."
The Place of a Wife
— A wife knows her husband's heart far
better than he. All her scolding and sharing, teasing and love-making has
behind it the fact that God has locked her heart to her husband's, to do
him good as a full partner.
The Importance of a Mother's Love
— Let it be the earnest
prayer of every mother that she can so rest in who she is in the Lord,
that in all her attempts to love she might eventually love her children
to freedom to become her friends. She must die to her role as mother, and
let her child go, in order to receive again a friend and companion.
Getting at Roots of Bitterness
— Bitter roots are perhaps
the most powerful negative force in all our life, bringing destruction
not only to us but to all our loved ones. Fortunately, nothing is more
sure than forgiveness when we repent of those roots and claim the
fulfillment of the law of judgment in the sacrifice of the Son of God.
Balance Through the Fulcrum of Christ
— Only as Jesus Christ
is the power at the center of our lives can we relate to one another
without strain from the extremities of our differentnesses. Without Him,
we tend to unconsciously try to compensate for what we see as the other's
weaknesses.
Restoring the Biblical Functions of the Family
— Perhaps the
most important gift a father has to bestow is his blessing. God has so
placed fathers that their prayers give Him access or block His graces.
Great blessings descend upon our children the closer we approach to God.
Surviving Parents, Divorcees and Singles
— Counselors are
needed to show God's love to those who are hurting from the loss or lack
of a spouse. The task of these counselors is to do themselves out of a
job. They should point the way to healing through maturity in Christ and
then step out of the way.
A Place for Fantasy
— Imagination is the window of the soul.
Through it we can come to more understanding of our children than most
any other way.
Part III
Death Under the Law, but Life in the Spirit
— The church
must cease to flee from comprehending the depths of grace in the heart,
or today's pressures will succeed in destroying family life. It is
usually those who are striving the hardest in their flesh to be what
Jesus wants who are driving the church and their families to distraction
and rebellion. The answer is not to give up, but to surrender all our
striving to death on Jesus' cross, that His life may truly be ours —
and to be filled with His Holy Spirit.
Nebuchadnezzar's Image
— There is no sin which does not
involve idolatry. When others refuse to bow down to our god (our idea,
our view of the way things should go, our opinion of ourself, whatever),
we blow up in a fit of fury. This anger is a blessing, however, since by
recognizing that it has its roots in idolatry, we can then ask God to
reveal the idol so that we may turn it over to destruction in the cross.
Renunciation or Cutting Free
— Yesterday's good is tomorrow's
evil. We mature and change and yesterday's harness won't fit tomorrow's
task. Our relationships in the family change because we change. If we do
not cut the umbilical cord, the old blood of the old life will
contaminate the new. Whatever our life is, until we renounce it, it grows
and has a life of its own, until it has us.
Forgiveness
— Countless times Christians become enmeshed
again in the same old carnalities because they refused to forgive others;
all that had been forgiven and washed away came back upon them. Whatever
we judge in another we are doomed to become or to reap in our own lives.
And whatever we do not forgive returns us to the mess we just came out of.
Eagle Christians
— Those families that give love and
laughter but do not overprotect create heart. Men and women with natural
heart can stand the breaking and crushing which produces saints. God
wants our families to be the launching pads for that kind of eagle
Christians.
The Family of God
— The production of eagle Christians is
not the end but the beginning. For God gives them as gifts to the church.
God wants whole people who because they can stand alone can submit also
to others, and because they can submit to others can fly alone.
