What is “Marriage “?

 What makes a good marriage?  One can go to many conferences on marriage and come away with many different ideas as to how to make it successful.  What should be the source or sources to make a determination.  I fear we make it too complicated.

We hear all the time that “you have to work on your marriage”, “ marriage isn’t easy”, “you have to keep it fresh”, etc.  doesn’t that sound a lot like checking boxes and if you check enough you will have success?

I’m going to contend that “Marriage “ is a relationship not a task to be done.

Colossians 3:19

Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.

1 Peter 3:7 (DBY)

Ye husbands likewise, dwell with them according to knowledge, as with a weaker, even the female, vessel, giving them honor, as also fellow-heirs of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered.

This appears to be relationship not work  

Your actions should come because of your relationship not out of duty.

Do you really think that GOD is treating us, his bride, as a duty that HE has to work at?

It is more the case that HE does for us because of HIS relationship with us.

Should we not follow that same model of relationship over checking off boxes; work?

Tale of Two Mayors

The Tale of Two Mayors

A Parable

2020

 

  This is a story of an elected Mayor and a hired Mayor in a small town.

Years and years ago there was a small town that needed a municipal government to carry on the operations apart from the county government.  So they asked for a charter from the state to become a city with a functioning body of officials elected by the citizens of the town.  The citizens formed a body consisting of a Mayor and five city council members.  The Mayor acted as the administrative part and the council the voting part for ordinances and resolutions.  Both of these positions were part time in nature.  As the city began to grow and prosper there arose the need for someone to come along to assist the Mayor CEO in the execution of his office.  They looked at the charter and it contained a portion that provided for just that position.  It was called the City Administrator. 

 

  It was during two previous Mayor’s serving that the position of City administrator was discussed and envisioned to provide much needed assistance to that Mayor.  In the tenure of the most recent previous Mayor’s service that a person was hired to assist the Mayor with his duties; he was only part time and the demands were becoming greater and greater.  The city administrator was charged with general oversite of the employees of the city.  The city administrator in turn answered to the Mayor (per city charter).  It was a good thing for the city citizens with oversite and checks and balances. 

 

  Well, along comes an election with an unexpected outcome.  Up for election was two council seats and Mayor.  The two council seated were re-elected to the incumbents to continue serving with the other three council seats for a continuation of the five council seats remaining intact.  But what of the Mayor’s post?  As you can guess it was won by the challenger.  Now they had five tenured council members and one new Mayor. 

 

  Mayor elect ran on the platform for less spending, slowing traffic, and transparency in government.  Mayor elect was not enamored with having a city administrator, but could work with having an assistant as Mayor elect would be new to this job.  Do you remember the unexpected outcome?  It did come and the established council and staff and outgoing Mayor needed to do something(s).  With two months left in the elected year, some resolutions and charter changes needed to happen.  The pay scale for city employees was raised to comparative levels.  The city administrator would be re-designated as the City Manager.  LOI was issued for $440,000.00 for a park.  One business needed approval for building on a lot; variances needed to be granted.  This and more needed to be done before the swearing in of the new Mayor.  What was the result of some of these measures?  Well, now you have an elected Mayor with authority granted within the city charter and a hired city manager with the same authority as Mayor without voting rights.  One Mayor, the elected one, is part time, the other City Manager/Mayor is hired fulltime at $80,000.00 salary.  So you have Mayor (CEO) and Mayor (CHO) chief hired officer competing for the same authority.  The most glaring problem is the CEO Mayor is the citizens’ Mayor, the other CHO Mayor is the city council and staff Mayor.

 

  Where do they go from here?  All the business of the little city is executed by the CHO Mayor, but ultimately needing approval by the citizen’s Mayor.  The problem is that the CHO Mayor is hesitant to share any city business with the citizen’s Mayor.  As you can imagine there is much confusion at public meetings.  It appears that the citizen’s Mayor has not a clue as to the day to day operations of this little city. Oh, and let’s not forget that the council, and legal team are in communications with the CHO Mayor.  Do you want to know how voting on important matters goes?  Well, that would be all Council to ZERO on any measure the citizen’s Mayor proposes.  He might ask questions, but they will come with replies of scorn and derision; none of which will be in his favor.  The citizen’s Mayor can do no good; the CHO Mayor can do no wrong.

 

    As you might have figured out by now, the CITIZENS are the losers here.  The council is operating under the direction of the CHO Mayor leaving the citizen’s Mayor on the outside looking in.  But wait, guess who has to answer to the citizens when questions arise?  You guessed it, The Citizen’s Mayor.

 

  There does not seem to be anyway out of this dilemma.  On the one hand you have a CEO Mayor elected by the citizens which is mostly PR in the electoral process. This Mayor is the official voice and face of the citizens and surrounding areas.  This Mayor has all the rights of Mayor by charter. The other has been granted all the rights of CEO Mayor with the CEO Mayor with general oversite.  The little city citizens asked the question, “What does that even mean?”.  Well, what it means is the CEO Mayor is impotent.

 

  What should be the moral of this story? 

  The little city should have resorted back to the model of Elected Mayor, Elected Council to run the business of their city.  Since the city had grown the duties of Mayor had grown in execution.  As provided by their charter, he could have hired an assistant to assist in the day to day duties for the city.  That assistant should have been under instruction of the Mayor not act as Mayor.

Let the Mayor be Mayor.

 

 

Fake Christianity

What passes today a "Christianity" in the church is quite fake from what 1st century church looked like. Today it is so much about "ME", respect of persons, entertainment, etc. It is fake compared to true church.
I would say it looks more like 1 century temple than church.
I'm so done with all the falseness.
.

Courage

Conviction, commitment, call to action, Courage

Many of us develop a conviction for a particular subject or idea; be it religious or political or social. We will deepen it and move to a commitment towards that conviction. In many cases there will be a call to action.  Too many times this is where we stall.  We know all about the subject, feel deeply towards it, and even know what to do about it, but this is where it stops.

Oh, that we had courage to take that final step.

I wish many times that I possessed courage to act on my moral convictions.

"Church" for the Un-Churched, Are we not just speaking in tongues?

“The church is one of the few organizations in the world
that does not exist for the benefit of its members.”

                                                             -Ed Stetzer & David Putman
Can someone explain to me how you can have an assembly of redeemed people (true Christian) for un-redeemed?  How will these un-redeemed persons even understand what is being said or conveyed in a true church?  It would seem to them as if the redeemed are truly speaking in tongues.  It would be a foreign language to them.

If the mission of the churches is to exist for the un-churched then where is the church for the churched?  These who advocate for a church for the un-churched would say well you have yours we have ours.  True, but don't those very advocates believe that they have found the right formula?  That would make the others working from the wrong formula.

All one needs to do is read Ephesians 4 to get the answer as to why an assembly of believers exist.

Listen Church

Ezekiel  33: 30 - 33

30 And as for thee, son of man, the children of thy people keep talking of thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from Jehovah.
31 And they come unto thee as a people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they do them not; for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their dishonest gain.
32 And behold, thou art unto them as a lovely song, a pleasant voice, and one that playeth well on an instrument; and they hear thy words, but they do them not.
33 And when this cometh to pass (behold, it will come), then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them. Allen

What god and which city?

Consider the following:
Chris Tomlin " God of this city"

[Verse 1]
You're the God of this City
You're the King of these people
You're the Lord of this nation
You are


[Verse 2]
You're the Light in this darkness
You're the Hope to the hopeless
You're the Peace to the restless
You are

There is no one like our God
There is no one like our God

[Chorus]
For greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
Greater thing have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City

[Verse 1]

[Verse 2]

There is no one like our God
There is no one like our God

[Chorus]
For greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
Greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done here

There is no one like our god
There is no one like our God

[Chorus]
Greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
Greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done here*
* http://www.lyricstime.com/chris-tomlin-god-of-this-city-lyrics.html

Above is a song by Chris Tomlin.
We have sung it in our church, maybe you have in yours.
I do have a question though, since "God" is not defined here it will fit many of the "gods" of this world, what "god" is he talking about?
Which city, people, or nation also?
As I look around this world I can not find a single city, people or nation that Jehovah is claimed  GOD of.  You can be sure that if He were GOD of them, you would surely know it.
Don't you think it would look like heaven? No corruption, no greed, no unrighteousness ?

What are the "greater things yet to be done"?  For that matter, what things have already been done?
This seems to me to be just words.  It makes a catchy tune, but what is the truth in it?
You see, this song could relate to many other gods and still fit the lyrics. All want guidance and hope and peace from their god and their religion.  There is no differentiation here.

We need to be careful with the lyrics we use.  What is the Gospel here?
If it does not rest in Scripture we better be careful that we do not create a new gospel.
Even if there is a back story here, does it fit "your" City, people, nation?
Allen