Marriage on the rocks!

Success in marriage is hard to come by, these days. Now it may not be very easy to define success in marriage but the opposite is quite obvious to all. When we find couples finding it difficult to be even on talking terms, then we know that something is drastically wrong. Why is this seen so frequently even among the saints? Well, first of all, marriage is a real indicator of how much of self we carry and that has to be addressed first of all. Both the partners should use marriage to discern why is it that we usually want to have our way or our say most of the time. I believe that unless this core issue is addressed, there can be no progress at all. Marriage is the one of the finest ways that God has instituted to expose selfishness and thereby gain victory over it. 
Another important thing we understand through marriage is that love has to be both wide and focused at the same time. We just cannot treat our spouse like we treat everyone else. That is not acceptable. The commonest of all problems today (in my pastoral experience) is though husband loves his wife, he does not know that he has to place her above everyone else. God wants to reveal His oneness through marriage and so, we have to put our spouse on the pedestal. She or he is the love of my life. I will give my all to him or to her. I will have to carry my spouse close to my heart at all times. It reveals my oneness with God in a way that nothing else can.
There is much more to say but let me stop for now...

Is Saul among us?

There is a very important lesson on faith that Jesus gives in Luke chapter 17. He teaches His disciples that mustard seed amount of faith is enough to move mountains when enjoined by them to increase their faith. He then immediately moves into a parable which has a vital connection with what He had just spoken. The slave when he does what is instructed does not require a praise from his master. Similarly when we perform acts of faith, we do not need to boast in it or wait for a commendation from the Master. We have only done what we were supposed to do. Any inner boast will hinder our works of faith.
Another lesson to be learned is that we are supposed to do only what we have been instructed to do, nothing more,nothing less. The safest place to be is to seek out His will and then ask for grace to do what we have been entrusted. Any extra effort or sacrifice from our part will surely bring some kind of secret pride within us. This is the root of all legalism in the church today. The Saul attitude has to be rooted out from our lives. We are all prone to it.