I am mindful of this at Christmas time, but truly I have been awakened and aware, so aware, of this for the past two years, ever since I took my first trip to Africa.
Pondering this for two years now, I have come to the realization that I truly believe the major problem with most Christians today is severe discontentment. We are in a real crisis in America and the church today and what many do not realize is that at it's root is discontent and greed. It's a problem with most all Americans, Christians or not, however I believe it's worse with Christians because we should know better. Many who do know better simply don't do better in this area.
Unfortunately the lack of contentment has caused a lot of people to make very bad decisions in their personal lives ~ their relationships, home, family, church, job, you name it...the contentment crisis has damaged many lives.
I used to be one of the people who, had this issue not gotten in check in my own life, could have gone careening toward some kind of a crash.
When I came home from Africa the first time, my husband thought I needed counseling. However deep inside I realized, it wasn't me who was upside down...
I was right side up, for the first time.
More on this tomorrow... I will be preaching on this subject the next two weeks on Wednesday night and will post my notes after each message.
I just heard some news today that really inspired me. A church here in Tampa, Relevant Church is doing a new thing this month called the "30 Days Sex Challenge." (I've never visited the church but Pastor Trinity - our children's pastor - has visited or has met some people from this church and he was very impressed.) Realizing that this is a major element missing from some marriages (the frequency factor) their lead pastor, Paul Wirth, has issued a challenge for all the married couples to have sex for 30 days in a row. At the same time he has issued a challenge for all unmarrieds to completely abstain from sex. Of course we know the Bible says that those who are unmarried should not have sex in the first place but the point is, a lot of unmarried's aren't obeying the Lord's command to abstain and this is just one pastor's way of trying to get them to see that indeed, there is a better way! (God's way!) At the same time, many married couples are not
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