“Why?”

Why would I ever choose to live without you?
How could I walk away from your smile, from the look that you give, only to me?
Why would I want to escape the entrapment of one who knows my thoughts before I speak them?
How could I go on without our hearts entwined?
Why would I depart from you, my foundation, my anchor?
The world possesses hundreds of millions of women who take a man’s breath away, but only you have stolen my breath, and my heart.
Of all the hair that blows in the wind, only yours beckons me close.
Of all the sparkling stars in the vast night sky, your eyes alone have captivated my attention.
Of all the familiar and lovely aromas that drift through the wind, only yours brings me home.
The feel of your skin is more familiar than that on the back of my own hand.
A night started without a shared embrace, is no night at all.
An evening’s slumber is wrestles without the rhythmic sounds of your breath.
Only you, plus me, equals the most beautiful children I have ever seen.
Without you and me, there would be no them.
You are my perfect partner.
The deepest of friends.
The help I could not function without.
What we have is priceless.
For it I would die a thousand deaths.
Be willing to run into the pits of hell.
Be willing to give it all.
We once were sixteen, but now we’re adults.
With responsibilities.
A family of our own.
And the weight of calling from God.
Carelessness was bliss.
But purpose is liberating.
Susan. I love you.
We are living exactly where God wants us to.
And I’m so excited to see where He’s taking us!
And that we are in this together.

When I do something with my married friends, I expect them to put the needs and wants of their wives first, and to check with them before agreeing to do something with me. Most of the time, in order to do something with my married friends, I have to do something with them AND their wives. I expect this. If I never wanted anything to do with their wives, was only willing to hang out with the both of them every once in a while, or was vocal about the fact that I disliked their wives; then I would expect that my friends would no longer want to do anything with me or for me.

I love my wife and my friends dearly, but I love my wife way more. So if my friends didn’t like my wife, didn’t want to be around her often, or didn’t care about whether or not she was doing well; they wouldn’t really be my friends and I wouldn’t want anything to do with them.

Sadly, many people claim that Jesus is the most important ‘person’ in their lives, yet they want nothing to do with His Bride, the Church.

They love Jesus and all He does for them, but when it comes to His Bride, they don’t really care to be around Her. They’ll drop by and visit Her once or twice a month for about an hour, but it’s only to make Jesus happy and to make themselves look like a good friend. They say they’d do anything for Jesus, but when His Bride has a need that they can meet, they’re nowhere to be found. And instead of bragging on their Best Pal’s Wife to others, they’re always pointing out what’s wrong with Her and dragging Her through the mud.

The bottom line is: if you love Jesus, then you also love His Church. You want to be a part of His Church. You want to be among the Church very often. You have great things to say about the Church. You contribute your time, energy, and resources to seeing Her built up and Her needs met. And you realize that your relationship with Jesus is not a “personal” one as we’ve made it in our culture, but that it’s a relationship that’s lived out with His Bride.

Love Jesus? Then you’ve got to love His Church. After all, He loves it, He died for it, and you’re a part of it!

This weekend I will be presenting part two of the series and focusing on premarital relationships and sexuality.

Here’s some of my thoughts on the topic that I’m tossing around and will be presenting this weekend(a preview if you will).

One question that many Christians like to ask is;” How far is too far (for me to go sexually with my boyfriend or girlfriend before it is considered sin)?

But that’s really the wrong question to be asking. A better question to be asking would be;” How can I honor and worship God the most?”

Do you think that God is impressed by your “How far is too far?” question?

It’s like asking Him;” God, what’s the least I can do to be saved?” “What’s the least I can do to please you?” “How can I get to heaven with the least amount of commitment to You?” ” What’s the least I can do to get my ‘get-into-heaven-free-ticket?’ “How much sin can I commit without going to Hell?” “I know You took on my sin and died an excruciating death on the cross, but You don’t mind if I willingly commit the very sins You died for a little more, do You?”

Get the picture? These kinds of questions that we ask, that I ask, are despicable and come at things from the completely wrong approach. These questions are all about us, and not about God! We try to make life all about getting into Heaven. Well maybe that’s not the case. Let me rephrase that; rethink that. I believe that we try to make life all about getting out of Hell.

And it’s not that wanting to go to Heaven is a bad thing (FAR from it!), or that wanting to avoid Hell is a bad thing either. It’s that our primary goal in life should line up with our primary reason of existence: to worship God, reflect Him  well, and to find joy and satisfaction in relationship with Him. And while that desire isn’t something that necessarily comes naturally or easily to our sinful selves, we need to seek God for it and allow God to change our hearts to be inline with where He has ordained them to be. Anything less is essentially self-worship: How can I get this? How can I avoid that? How can I…

This goes back to the essentials of our romantic relationships. It’d be like me asking my wife;” How far can I stray from you before you divorce me?” “How many nights a week can I go to the strip club…?” “How many girls can I sleep with before you…?” In other words, love for someone is not seeing how far we can go before they ‘reject’ us. Love for someone is seeing how much you can do to please them?

So do you want to really please God, your future (or current) spouse, and yourself with your sexual decisions? Ask yourself this;” How far would be too far for my husband/wife to go sexually with another woman/man?” And wherever that lines is; that’s how far you should go with your current boyfriend/girlfriend because someday, they’ll be someone’s husband/wife. Andy Stanley says that sexual purity leads to intimacy (with your future spouse). So keep pure today, so that someday you can be more intimate with the one you will spend the rest of your nights with.

Time is more important than you think.

How you spend your time (or lack thereof) will determine how you spend your life in relationship.

Setting your priorities straight will always benefit your relationship. Put God first, your spouse in a close second, your kids in a very close third, and everyone else in a distant fourth.

Too often a relationship goes south after one of the spouses pours all of their time into their career, their hobby, or their ministry. Once their partner is fed up and tired of getting no attention, it’s very hard to salvage what has already been lost. So choose your time wisely. Make sure that you are spending the majority of your time outside of work with your spouse and your children (if you have them), but that you still make time to do the things you are passionate about individually.

Set expectations before you are married (or sit down now and discuss it if you already are) of what you will choose to do together and what you still desire to do on your own. Once you have done so, make sure that you stay within the boundaries you have set up for time in pursuing your passions. If it is an activity that you can do together or one that you can at least do within the proximity of your spouse so that you can be together and talk, then pursue those things.

Also, make sure that you still allow yourself and your spouse to spend time with same sex friends apart from one another to keep valuable friendships alive. And make sure that you spend time with other married couples together. But often, married couples spend too much time with others and never enough alone time with each other, moving them further and further apart from each other. So always make sure that your time alone always outweighs your time with others.

And finally, it’s also important to note that you and your spouse should spend time with each other’s families, but not too much time without your spouse with you. You need to show support for your spouse in their relationship with their family, and need to show their families that you care about them (your spouse and their family). Spouses who spend too much time with their families apart from their partner, tend to be allowing their family to get far too involved with their marriage- often with out even realizing it. Once you and your spouse realize that your family/families are too involved in your relationship, it is often too late and has already caused many problems in your marriage that are very difficult to repair.

So not only will this marriage not work without Jesus, it also will not work unless you realize that time is more important than you think.

Getting married at such a young age has caused us to go through many changes as individuals, but we’ve done them together. I, without question, love this woman a million times more than I did the day I married her.

She has been my biggest fan, my strongest supporter, my best friend, and my closest confidant.

She is my copilot, my battle partner, and my biggest motivator. She is my lover, the mother of my children, and my constant help when I am in need.

I literally would not be a follower of Christ without this woman in my life, would have no desire to be in ministry, and would be doing ‘God-knows-what’ without her.

Susan Trask is the perfect woman for me and I thank God for preparing her to be my wife. I can’t wait to continue doing life with this woman as God walks us through the chapters of our life together.

Never before have comic books been so accessible in your hands! Pick
what comic you want on the Marvel App (plus many others), purchase it
(unless it’s one of the many free titles), and have it downloaded to
‘the Pad’ in seconds. The comic book is vibrantly colorful on the
iPad’s hi-res screen and flipping pages with the touch screen has
never been easier! Add to it panel by panel viewing and you have an
amazing comic book experience! The only downfall: $1.99 per digital
issue is a little too steep.

Survivor: Heroes vs Villains-

This has been the best season of Survivor ever! My wife and I LOVE
this show and I want to be on it so bad! Watching Russel and Parvarti
run the show is fascinating. I doubt Russel will win, but even if he
doesn’t, he’ll probably go down as the most stategic and skilled
player of all time. Personally, I’m rooting for Rupert.

My Wife:

Obviously I have always loved my wife, but I am beginning to realize
that the longer we have been married,  the more time we share together
being parents, and the more she supports me in ministry- the more I
love this woman!

Sleeping In-

My schedule has been thrown out of whack the last few weeks. I’m a
real regimented guy when it comes to my schedule so I have to figure
out a way to get things back on track again because I’m liking
sleeping in way to much lately. Ok, so I always have bit I want to be
a early riser so I can get things done during the day, and spend 100%
of my evenings with the family.

People wonder why on earth we would do such a thing and assume I must be taking advantage of my employer and making large sums of money illegitimately in order to make such an offensive decision. It causes them to treat my children differently, me differently, and especially my wife differently. They think that she is either an oppressed slave of a woman by her husband, or a lazy bum who sluggardly spends her husbands vast coffers of money.

What is this controversial decision we have made? I’ll tell you sometime tomorrow.

It’s weird to think that my pretty 16 year-old little girlfriend is now my beautiful 31 year-old woman/wife who I’ve been married to for 10 years and have two kids with.

I wouldn’t have it any other way! And I’m hoping for at least another 31 years x 2!

I love you Susan! Happy Birthday!

Then why look lustfully at a naked woman who will never have a relationship with you?
Then why fantasize about a woman that you will never even come close to touching?
Then why satisfy your curiosity by sleeping with some codependent needy insecure woman who is not committed to you?
Then why make passionate unhindered love with your own hand?
And why deny the woman made for you the love, intimacy, and respect that she was created for?

You sick pathetic immature little boy , step up to the plate and love the wife of your youth.