Daily Devotion from Ryan Marks book Thoughts

Day 135

Lack of Dependence on Each Other = DIVORCE ???

    Dear readers, as much as some of us hate to admit it, we are all dependent on others. For example, I am more dependent on my parents than I let on. They counsel me, bandage my bruises, and instruct me in the way of the Lord; but I still have a choice to make: will I be healthily dependent on them? What I mean is that I need to grow up, get a job, move out and get marred one day. It wouldn’t be healthy to be dependent on them for everything when I’m 40 when I have the capacity physically and mentally to provide for myself and a family.

     Without the same principle of dependence, a marriage is not possible. A husband and a wife are supposed to “become one (Gen. 2:24).” What does that mean? I have heard Kevin Swanson illustrate it this way:  an ax head and an ax handle are both needed to have an ax, right? One piece alone cannot, and will not efficiently cut down the tree. In the same way a man and a woman that have married need each other to “get-the-job-done.”

        When marriage is no longer dependence on one another; but rather, two separate people that just said some vows, live together, and have children, there is no reason for a marriage to continue in many minds. People get bored of a life like that. But God meant marriage to be so much more than what we think it is. It is to be the foundation of the family, yet also an intimate relationship where two people become one in the sight of God. O this is a mystery!

Dear Christians, the divorce rate is higher in the Church than the world!

We do NOT live what we preach and what Jesus taught!

      Young adults, children, young men and women, older boys and girls or whatever you want to be labeled, you need to ground your marriage in God! Both of you being dependent on God together will be the strongest binding force of your marriage. Please, do not just become another statistic in the divorce rates when you get older. You have a role to play in a lasting marriage! When you marry, you have a part to play in the one person that emerges from two. Work together, love each other, but most importantly grow in Christ’s Truth together!

     Dependence is a key to marriage. You must be dependent on each other and God, you cannot separate, that is the only way a marriage can last. Husbands, no other woman will do. Wives, there is no other man for you. You are made for one person. Your vows last the whole lifetime that you are both to spend in this world. Live, learn, and grow in God’s love; grace; purpose; plan and everything else HE has for YOU TWO.

Read 1 Peter 3:1-7.

    God bless, and may this simple description of God’s rules change your life and convict your actions. In Jesus Name, amen.

Daily Devotion from Ryan Marks book Thoughts

Thought 134

Women, fulfill Your Biblical Role

      Women, your Biblical purpose is to be a helpmeet (Gen. 2:18, 20-23). Submission, modesty, and character comprise your helping purpose (Prov. 31, Titus 2, 1 Tim. 2:9-15). God knew that men needed somebody to support them, to help them be balanced, to help train the children, to live closely and intimately with, and a fellow Christian to serve the Creator.

      The subject of submission is misunderstood by many today. Submission is not a man ruling with an iron rod. The best example of Biblical submission is Jesus Christ. Christ was submissive to the Father. Here is how the spiritual chain-of-command works: Christ is submissive to the Father, men are submissive to Christ, women are submissive to their husband, and children are submissive to their parents.

Noah Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language defines submission as: 

1.     Acknowledgement of . . . dependence ; humble or suppliant behavior.

4. Obedience ; compliance with the commands or laws of a superior. Submission of children to their parents is an indispensable duty.

5. Resignation ; a yielding of one’s will to the will or appointment of a superior without murmuring. Entire and cheerful submission to the will of God is a christian duty.

     Scripture tells men that they must live their lives sacrificially for you as Christ did the for the Church. Women, your husbands have it pretty hard as well, don’t think that people are pointing fingers at you telling you to “submit.” The only submission we’re looking at is Biblical submission.

Read Ephesians 5:22-6:9, this explains submission perfectly.

     You have to decide if you will follow Scripture. Nobody else can decide that for you. What will you choose, regardless to how un-cool or counter-cultural Scripture might be?

Daily Devotion from Ryan Marks book Thoughts

Thought 133

Accept the Challenge –Be a MAN!

      Some “men” really are not men. Yet, some “boys” really are men. Let’s look at the Biblical definitions of a man: he provides for his family (1 Timothy 5:8), he is a servant leader (Eph. 5), he is humble (1 Peter 5:5), he is committed to Christ, (Phil. 3:12-14), and he is diligent (Heb. 6:11). There are many more Biblical qualities of a man, but we do not have enough space to go into them all.

Boys, you are not growing into men of God in our culture. You cannot be both a child and a man – you can only be one or the other.

 "No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money." Luke 16:13 NIV

“When I was a child, I talked like a child; I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.” 1 Corinthians 13:11 NIV

Are you obedient, submissive, and dependent to the Father? Are you bold, confident, and sure of your faith in Christ? Men . . . .  and boys, you like a challenge, don’t you? Here’s one: except the challenge of genuine manhood. You can never be perfect, but by God’s grace you can improve, grow and learn (from the Holy Spirit and Scripture). Dwell on these character traits of manhood below, really think about what they mean. You might even want to write down ways to apply the two or three that you need most right now.

Humility                            Initiative                                 Motivated

Loving kindness            Strong Character                     Grounded

Strength                         Providing Spirit                      a Defender

Warrior                              Patience                                 Firmness

Resilience                      Peaceableness                      a Slow Tongue

Conviction                         Frugality                                 Fruitfulness

Willingness to Listen       Diligence                                Responsibility

Commitment

Daily Devotion from Ryan Marks book Thoughts

Day 132

Romans 14-15:13

Please let this text speak for itself. Ask for the Holy Spirit to give you insight into this passage and then listen for His small, still voice.

Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written:

“‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,

‘every knee will bow before me;

every tongue will confess to God.’”

So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.

Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way. As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no food is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean. If your brother is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died. Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.

Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.

So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.

We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.” For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs so that the Gentiles may glorify God for his mercy, as it is written:

“Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles;

I will sing hymns to your name.”

Again, it says,

“Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.”

And again,

“Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles,

and sing praises to him, all you peoples.”

And again, Isaiah says,

“The Root of Jesse will spring up,

one who will arise to rule over the nations;

the Gentiles will hope in him.”

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

 Romans 14-15:13 NIV

Daily Devotion from Ryan Marks book Thoughts

Thought 131

The Spirit of the Law

  Jesus taught that the physical act of sin is wrong, but so is contemplating that wrong in your heart. For example, a man that lusts after a woman has already committed adultery with her (Matt. 5:28). If the man lusting is unmarried, guess what? He has still sinned sexually with that woman in his heart!—he’s not exempt because he ain’t married! Likewise, women are not exempt from lust. It is not just a male problem. In fact, Eve, the very first woman, was the first human to lust when she “desired” the fruit (1 John 2:16, 1 Tim. 2:14).

  Lust and coveting seem to be synonyms, both are extreme and burning desires, longings if you will of want, and they are both tied directly to pride. Both lust and coveting are definitely all about, you, yourself, self-centeredness, it is PRIDE! Therefore, we should humble ourselves and pray in repentance, turning (constantly and consistently) from our wicked ways. Ladies, if you think about a man in a way that you should not and desire him in a way you should not; for instance, because of his strength, then you have sinned as well. Likewise a man or woman who hates another has already committed murder according to the Spirit of the law.

Read Romans 8 & Matthew 5:17-48

  Every married couple is composed of two murders and two adulterers. Why? Because each has lusted and each has hated someone at least once. It’s an uncomfortable truth, but think about it. . . . Some people commit the physical acts of adultery, murder, sex before marriage, sodomy, etc… but Christ died, He was NAILED to the cross, for both the physical acts that I have done and the lustful thoughts that I have had. HE DIED because I hated someone in my heart.

  Do you need to repent today?