Sometimes it’s not the fight itself that’s damaging, but what happens when the battle is over. Think for a moment about your own verbal spats with your mate. Do they usually result in a time of healing, or are issues left hanging for a “rematch” later on? Do you and your spouse agree to leave an argument behind after you’ve talked it out, or is there a prolonged period of distance and silence?

In unstable marriages, conflict is never entirely resolved. Resentment and hurt feelings accumulate over time and eventually turn to bile in the soul, which then erodes the relationship from within. But in healthy relationships, confrontation allows ventilation that ends in forgiveness, a drawing together, and a better understanding of each other.

After an argument with your spouse, ask yourself these four important questions: Are there things I’ve said or done that have grieved my partner? Do I need to ask forgiveness for attacking the self-worth of my spouse? Have I refused to let go of an issue even though I said it was settled? Are there substantive matters that haven’t been resolved? Then move to put an end to the conflict—before the sun goes down.

Just between us (husband & wife) . . .

•  In our last fight, did we resolve the issue in question?

•  Do our conflicts usually end positively, or with hurt feelings and   unanswered questions?

•  What changes would help us resolve conflicts “before the sun  goes down”?                                                         (DR JAMES DOBSON)

At the first Pentecost, the promised Gift, the Holy Spirit, descended on the disciples. They heard what sounded like a powerful wind from heaven. A tongue of fire came to rest on each of them. Remarkable things began to happen. Filled with the Holy Spirit, they began to speak foreign languages. They proclaimed the Lord Jesus as the one and only Saviour. They were no longer afraid. They gave bold witness to Jesus. Three thousand people were converted on that one day. In short, the infant Church was launched. It was manifested to the world.

The early Church was sent to a world which did not yet know Jesus Christ, His life and work and His message for humanity. The Church had to meet people of various religions and cultures. Not all would receive the Gospel message and embrace faith in Jesus Christ. Their freedom was to be respected. Yet Christians were still called to enter into dialogue with them, bearing witness to Jesus Christ as the Spirit guided them.

As the Church celebrates Pentecost this Sunday, almost 2,000 years after the first Pentecost, the Church cannot avoid asking herself some relevant questions. What is Pentecost saying to the Church today? What progress report can be drawn up about how the Church for the past two millennia has carried out her divinely-given mandate of proclamation, witness and dialogue? How is the Church today announcing that Jesus Christ alone is “the Way, the Truth and the Life” (John 14: 6) and that only in Him do people find the fullness of religious truth and the means to salvation

Moreover, the Church at Pentecost today has also to examine her life of witness. How do members of the Church give witness to Christ by their lives as they find themselves living and working with people in varying situations:  in societies marked by a sense of the sacred, respect for God and religion, or in societies seduced by secularism, permissiveness and practical or even ideological materialism? How do Christians witness to Christ both amid persecutions and in time of consolations?

All Christians are not united under one fold and one shepherd. What can be done, through prayer, study and practical cooperation, to heal the wound of Christian disunity so that common witness may be given?

Society worldwide is marked today by the presence of many religions. How effectively is the Church engaging in dialogue? What is being done to establish good relations of mutual understanding and respect, particularly with people of other religions? In what could sometimes be described as a religious supermarket, how do the followers of Jesus Christ react? How are they to show their fidelity to their Lord?                                                           (CARDINAL ARINZE)

Somewhere between the youthful energy of the teenager and the golden twilight years of a woman’s life, there lives a marvelous and loving person known… as mother.

A mother is a curious mixture of patience, kindness, tolerance, understanding, discipline, industry, purity, and love.

A mother can be at one and the same time, both love lore and counselor to a heart-sick daughter, and a head football coach to an athletic son.

A mother can sew the tiniest stitch in the material for that dainty prom dress, and she is equally experienced in threading through the heaviest of traffic with a large station wagon.

A mother is the only creature on earth who can cry when she’s happy, laugh when she’s heartbroken, and work when she’s sick.

A mother is as gentle as a lamb, and as strong as a giant. Only a mother can appear so weak and helpless, and yet at the same time, can put the fruit jar cover on so tightly that even dad can’t get it off.

A mother is a picture of helplessness when dad’s around, but a marvel of resourcefulness when she’s all alone.

A mother has the angelic voice of a member of the celestial choir as she sings a lullaby to a baby held tightly in her arms; and yet the same voice can dwarf the sound of an amplifier when she calls her boys in for supper.

A mother has the fascinating ability to be almost everywhere at once, and she alone can somehow squeeze an enormous amount of living into an average day.

A mother is old fashioned to her teenager. She’s just “mom” to the nine-year old, and she’s “mamma” to the little two-year old. There’s no greater thrill in life than to point to that wonderful woman and be able to say to all the world, “That’s my mother.”                                                                                             (FRED CRUZ)

One weekly habit that is utterly essential to any healthy, life-giving,  joy-producing  Christian  walk  is corporate  worship.
And it is all too often neglected, or taken very lightly. In fact, I do not think it is too strong to call corporate worship the single most important habit of the Christian life. We may think it’s a new temptation today to play fast and loose with corporate worship, but Hebrews 10:24-25 gives another impression: “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

By clearly delineating a bad habit that we must not develop — “neglecting to meet together” — Hebrews is also making clear what good habit we should cultivate, and feed: meeting together. Today’s temptation to underestimate the importance of the weekly assembly is as old as the church itself. And yet, the great irony is that the habit of meeting together with Christ’s people to worship him is utterly crucial for the Christian life.

But why? What is it about corporate worship that would lead us to think so highly of this as a habit to make?

The reason corporate worship may be the single most important Christian habit, and our greatest weapon in the fight for joy, is because like no other single habit, corporate worship combines all three essential principles of God’s ongoing supply of grace for the Christian life: hearing His voice (in His Word), having His ear (in prayer), and belonging to His body (in the fellowship of the church).

Settle it now. Make it a habit. Corporate worship is too important to revisit each weekend and wrestle, Will I go this weekend, or sit this one out? If you leave it open-ended, as so many do, excuse after excuse will keep you from the storehouses of grace God loves to open in corporate worship. Over time your soul will become dry and shallow because of it. Neglecting to meet together will soon sow and nourish seeds of unbelief in your soul. Of course, unusual circumstances will arise, when you’re out of town, or at the hospital with a new baby, or something else manifestly restricting. But the sad truth is we are far too prone to give ourselves a pass on meeting together, when we really should have made it a habit ahead of time, entertaining only the rarest of exceptions.

And just to be sure, the reason to make corporate worship a habit is not to check the box on perfect attendance, and not because corporate worship alone is enough to fully power the Christian life, and not because mere attendance in worship will save your soul. This is not a call for legalistic going-through-the-motions. The hope is not just to show up and be a shell. Rather, this is a summons to harness the power of habit to rescue our souls from empty excuses that keep us from spiritual riches and increasing joy. Negligence and chronic minimizing of the importance of corporate worship reveal something unhealthy and scary in our souls. Let’s resist it with fresh resolve.

For our deep and enduring joy, there is simply no replacement for corporate worship.                                                                                            (DAVID MATHIS)

For many people, loving others is a nebulous concept. Fortunately, agape love is very clearly defined in the Scriptures. When love is used as a noun in Scripture, it is referring to character. For example: “God is love” (1 John 4:8); “Love is patient, love is kind,” etc. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). Love is the highest of character attainments: “The goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (1Timothy 1:5). Love is the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), the means by which a true disciple of Christ is identified (John 13:35). The attention given to love in passages such as 1 Corinthians 13 and 1 John 4 reveals its importance to God in our interpersonal relationships, of which the family is primary.

Agape love is not dependent on the person being loved, but on the lover. You may like someone because of who he is; but you love him because of who you are. God loves us not because we are lovable but because God is love. If it was any other way, God’s love would be conditional. If you performed better would God love you more? Of course not. God’s love for us is not based on our performance but on His character.

Love is also used as a verb in Scripture. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16). Used this way, love is grace in action. It is giving unconditionally to meet the needs of another.

If you say you don’t love someone, you have said more about yourself than about that person. Specifically, you’re saying that you haven’t attained the maturity to love him unconditionally (Luke 6:32: “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.”) The grace of God enables you to love others in a way that people without Christ cannot. God doesn’t command you to like your family, your neighbors, and your coworkers, because you can’t order your emotions to respond. But He does instruct you to love them. You can always choose to do the loving thing and trust that your feelings will follow in time.
(DAILY IN CHRIST by NEIL T. ANDERSON)

On Sunday, October 25, 2015, I had the once-in-a-lifetime honor of being in the baptismal pool to assist in the baptism of my oldest son Caleb. From outside the water, it may appear that this is simply just the natural progression for a pastor’s kid. But as you can imagine from just merely considering your own faith journey or the spiritual development of your child(ren), the road is filled with ups and downs, highs and lows, and everything in between. So as I continue to reflect on what took place on Sunday, here is what my head and heart are mulling over:

1. I am a Christian father first. My boys are not particularly enthralled by my Masters of Divinity Degree or that people refer to me as pastor or reverend. To them I am just their dad. And like other dads, I battle my own desires of selfishness and laziness. So daily I must pick up my cross and follow Jesus by putting the best interest of my children ahead of my wants. This is not simply about time spent but about influencing my boys for Jesus. Should my life end tomorrow, what would my sons remember about their dad? While I like throwing the football with them, I LOVE pointing them in the direction of Jesus. This must be my main objective every day.

2. Being a Christian father is the most important responsibility of my life.  One day, someone else will be the pastor of this church but no one will ever get to play the role of father to my sons. So while leadership in this body of believers has its place, it does not come at the expense of my wife and sons. Therefore, having the right energy, focus and devotion to leading my family in the Lord is a non-negotiable. I need to be as prepared to love and lead them everyday as I am prepared on Sunday mornings to teach.

3. Being involved in spiritual/church activities with him is essential to both his spiritual development and mine. I have coached Caleb’s basketball team the last two years. We serve together at Lower Lights, take care of various projects together here at Mountview, and we read his Bible together and talk about God at work in our lives. Caleb needs to learn what a Christian man believes and how He honors God from hearing and seeing God at work in me. This is BEST and ONLY done together. He learns and I learn. He grows and I grow. He is stretched and I am stretched. And by the grace of God we mature together in the love and likeness of Jesus.

And so together we stood in the baptismal on October 25. As he went down into the water, God took me with him both physically and spiritually.

~ Physically my hands held him as he powerfully symbolized the death to his old life and his being raised again to the newness of life in Jesus.

~ Spiritually God was again inviting me to rededicate myself to His desires for my life as expressed above for His glory and our good.

God brought us to that moment, not because I am a pastor or because I am the best dad in the world but rather because by His grace, we are walking this road together. I pray this will resonate in your heart and in your life and you will join me in making our families the most important mission field God will ever allow us to go into on His behalf.                                                     (PASTOR KEVIN SNYDER)

Have you ever heard someone say: “Words are cheap”? In a way, that’s true, especially when it comes to love. Because all love worth receiving is love worth demonstrating. Unexpressed love isn’t love at all.

God certainly thinks so. That’s why He demonstrated His love for us through the cross. He didn’t just tell us; He showed us His love.

In the same way, while true worship always begins with the motivation in our hearts, it never stays there. Our love must be expressed in order to be considered worship. And since 55% of all communication is body language, our actions actually do speak louder than our words.

So how do you demonstrate your adoration for God? How do you demonstrate worship? My pastor, Robert Morris, defines worship as “love expressed.” That’s true, but since we tend to be great at finding loopholes, allow me to expand on that definition—worship is love expressed God’s way.

In his book, The Five Love Languages, Gary Chapman states that we all tend to express and receive love in one of five different ways. These “love languages” are words of affirmation (saying nice things), quality time, receiving and giving gifts, acts of service and physical touch.

The point is, we often go amiss when we try to speak our own love language to express love to someone else. We have to learn to speak their love language.

Did you know there actually are some ways you may think you’re expressing love to God but He doesn’t see it as love. For instance, God doesn’t feel loved just because we sing Him a song that says we love Him. I know I wouldn’t feel loved if my wife picked up a Hallmark card, wrote her name on it and handed it to me in passing. I need more than empty Hallmark cards from my wife. So does God.

Fortunately, God speaks all five love languages. Words of affirmation? We Christians call that praise. Quality time? We call that quiet time—prayer, soaking in the Word and private worship. Receiving gifts? That’s tithes and offerings. And “acts of service” speaks for itself. And finally, there’s physical touch. We have a God who still wants to touch, comfort, heal and be near His people. He wants us to experience Him now—in our physical bodies—not just in some sweet by and by, airy-fairy, glorified future.

What great news! We have a God who receives love in all the same ways we do! Take some time today and consider all of the ways God has expressed His love for you. Then respond by expressing your love back to Him. I think you’ll discover your Father is waiting to share a rich, ever-deepening worship           (ZACH NEESE)

Two thousand years ago there were a lot of people who had difficulty with the resurrection of Jesus. It wasn’t just the philosophers in Athens who laughed at the very idea,  even
some of the disciples who had been with Jesus in Jerusalem during the last week of His life and who may well have seen Him nailed to a tree had major problems with it. Execution and death are hard to argue with. So why is it that one billion Christians around the world still gather to mark this event?

Maybe they are all deluded idealists, wishful thinkers who can’t face reality or… maybe not.
Maybe in fact they are people who, one way or another, are in touch with a living and vibrant tradition of faith in the risen Christ that simply won’t go away.

Maybe they are people who in their own lives have been nailed to the cross or been forced to stand by it and who have come through that experience, not broken and embittered, but aware in a very profound and life giving way that God’s love never ends.

Jesus did not simply come on earth to die.
He came on earth to show us how to live and He was murdered for that.

He was murdered for showing that there is always a place for the prodigal at home,
for forgiving people who did not deserve to be forgiven,
for exposing religious bigotry and intolerance,
for rejecting the use of force and the abuse of power.

He was put to death for making a simple connection between our faith and the way we live, for asking us to believe that God’s love is always given and never earned.

In all of these ways and especially in His death and resurrection He was witnessing to the triumph of love over hatred and of hope over despair.

Easter matters because it is God’s yes to the world. In the risen Jesus God affirms all that is good in us and asks us to follow in the steps of His Son by working together to build up the Kingdom that Jesus proclaimed, trusting that the Spirit of Jesus is within us empowering us in ways that go beyond what we can imagine.                                                          (LE CHÉILE SCHOOLS TRUST)