I believe in generational curses.

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My wife and I distinctly remember the time when we made a conscious decision to stop pursuing more money, more stuff, and a bigger and better lifestyle. God brought us to that point through a series of events at my work. At that time, about 8-9 years ago, I worked in materials management and made a real fine living. But promotions and pay raises never quite seemed to line up with what my boss was telling me I was worth to the company. After two years of logging 60+ hour weeks for the company, and pitiful pay raises, the Lord made it clear to me that chasing the American Dream was simply futile.

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In the previous post, we covered the first part of the gender roles dilemma. We turn our attention now to the latter half of the issue - the priority of the home.

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"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them" (Genesis 1:27).

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So far, we've explored two of the "Big Seven" issues that can make or break Christian marriages. First, we learned that when it comes to the source of all our marital discord, "the heart of the matter is the heart." It's the sin in our own hearts (inner lives) that plagues our relationships. So, dear husbands and wives, you do well to focus more upon your own hearts, than to exert most of your energies griping and finger-pointing at all your spouse's weaknesses and sins. If we cannot even change our own hearts apart from God's grace, why in the world would we spend so much time trying to change someone else's heart? We must all, as sinners saved by grace through faith in Christ, be actively removing the logs in our own eyes before we dare to try and help our spouses scrape out the specks in their eyes (Matt 7:1-6). We must all see ourselves as "the chief of sinners" in our marriages.

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For what reason will Christ divorce His bride, the church for whom He died?

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The first of the "Big Seven" issues that contribute either to marital bliss or discord concerns the Doctrine of Sin. Since I have dealt with this doctrine pretty thoroughly in past posts, let me just summarize here:

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Having just completed the book Marriage Matters by Winston Smith, the married life has been on my mind lately. As a pastor, one of the primary tasks God has given me is helping couples cultivate strong marriages. I have found it to be rewarding, exhausting, and heart-breaking all at once. For every victory in Christian marriages today, there seems to be a defeat, too. Simply put, we do not seem to be taking back much ground from the enemy when it comes to marriage in the church today.

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Like most people who were older than 6 or 7, I remember exactly where I was ten years ago when Islamic terrorists attacked our country and killed thousands of our citizens, as well as hundreds of citizens of other countries.

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It has been one week since Hurricane Irene blew through my home town. Some 30+ people in North Carolina lost their lives during the storm. And, the east coast is still cleaning up and recovering from the aftermath.

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