How can I have a happy marriage?

The perfect marriage is a uniting of three persons – a man, a woman, and God. That is what makes marriage holy. And a holy marriage can be a happy marriage. Faith in Christ is the most important of all principles in the building of a happy marriage and a happy home.

Is your marriage in trouble? Is God at the center of your marriage? First He must be at the center of your life. Reach out to Him today. Invite Jesus Christ into your heart. Invite Him into your marriage.

Find Peace With God

Valentine’s Day: Do you feel forgotten and unloved?

Oh Valentine’s Day, but I feel forgotten and unloved.

Everyone is buying flowers and chocolates for someone special, but you feel lonely and left out. No boyfriend or girlfriend. Maybe your spouse pays little attention to you, or your loved ones live far away.

No human can fully satisfy the need to feel loved. Only God can fill that void. You are His child and He loved you so much that He sent His own Son, Jesus Christ, to die for you so you can have eternal life with Him. He longs for a relationship with you and promises never to leave your side if you trust in Him.

With God, we are complete. The Bible says He calls us friends and knows us by name. Invite Him into your heart and experience a truly fulfilling relationship.

Find Love In God

What’s the meaning of Christmas?

There’s more to Christmas than candy canes, great bargains and meeting Santa. Christmas celebrates Christ’s birth.

God loved us so much that He sent His Son, Jesus, to be born on earth and die on a cross. His sacrifice paid for our sins so that whoever believes in Him can have eternal life. The gifts we give at Christmas remind us of God’s gift and express our own love.

It’s OK to get excited about parties and new toys, but don’t lose the real meaning in all the frenzy. Without Christ, there would be no Christmas. Knowing Him can fulfill your life all year long.

Want to find out how?

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http://www.GotQuestions.org

Question: "What is the true meaning of Christmas?"

Answer: The true meaning of Christmas is love. John 3:16-17 says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." The true meaning of Christmas is the celebration of this incredible act of love.

The real Christmas story is the story of God's becoming a human being in the Person of Jesus Christ. Why did God do such a thing? Because He loves us! Why was Christmas necessary? Because we needed a Savior! Why does God love us so much? Because He is love itself (1 John 4:8). Why do we celebrate Christmas each year? Out of gratitude for what God did for us, we remember His birth by giving each other gifts, worshipping Him, and being especially conscious of the poor and less fortunate.

The true meaning of Christmas is love. God loved His own and provided a way—the only Way—for us to spend eternity with Him. He gave His only Son to take our punishment for our sins. He paid the price in full, and we are free from condemnation when we accept that free gift of love. "But God demonstrated His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).

© Copyright 2002-2012 Got Questions Ministries. 

Source: http://www.gotquestions.org/Christmas-true-meaning.html 

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Are we to love the sinner but hate the sin?

Question: "Are we to love the sinner but hate the sin?"

Answer: Many Christians use the cliché “Love the sinner, hate the sin.” However, we must realize that this is an exhortation to us as imperfect human beings. The difference between us and God in regard to loving and hating is vast. Even as Christians, we remain imperfect in our humanity and cannot love perfectly, nor can we hate perfectly (in other words, without malice). But God can do both of these perfectly, because He is God. God can hate without any sinful intent. Therefore, He can hate the sin and the sinner in a perfectly holy way and still be willing to lovingly forgive at the moment of that sinner's repentance and faith (Malachi 1:3; Revelation 2:6; 2 Peter 3:9).

The Bible clearly teaches that God is love. 1 John 4:8-9 says, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.” Mysterious but true is the fact that God can perfectly love and hate a person at the same time. This means He can love him as someone He created and can redeem, as well as hate him for his unbelief and sinful lifestyle. We, as imperfect human beings, cannot do this; thus, we must remind ourselves to “love the sinner, hate the sin.”

How exactly does that work? We hate sin by refusing to take part in it and by condemning it when we see it. Sin is to be hated, not excused or taken lightly. We love sinners by being faithful in witnessing to them of the forgiveness that is available through Jesus Christ. A true act of love is treating someone with respect and kindness even though he/she knows you do not approve of his lifestyle and/or choices. It is not loving to allow a person to remain stuck in sin. It is not hateful to tell a person he/she is in sin. In fact, the exact opposites are true. We love the sinner by speaking the truth in love. We hate the sin by refusing to condone, ignore, or excuse it.

Source: http://www.gotquestions.org/love-sinner-hate-sin.html

Shooting, Massacre, Tragedy

Perhaps you have heard about the recent shooting that happened, CNN reported "A heavily armed gunman attacked an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater early Friday, tossing tear gas before opening fire on the terrified audience and killing 12 and wounding 38, authorities said."

You must know that anytime these sort of things go on we have to know that it's the handy work of the devil. You see the devil comes to do harm but the Lord comes to heal. Yes it's true that God has sovereign control over all things, but it's important to remember that God is not the source of tragedy.

John 10:10-11 says, "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep."

Jesus is the Author of life and laid down His life for us so we can be saved and be with Him forever. We don't understand how or why this evil stuff happens but we know it's from the enemy. Some people become angry at God, but we must not trade in what we know to be true for what we don't know. We know that God is a good God, that He is loving, gentle, compassionate, merciful, forgiving. So based on what we know about Him and have experienced with Him, we know that we can trust Him.

The enemy seeks to get us to point the finger at someone and try to blame someone for the evil going on in the world today. But we are the ones to blame, we through Adam brought sin and suffering and death into the world. It was the devil that thief that came to destroy us in the Garden of Eden and tempted Adam to rebel against God, but Jesus came to undo all of that. Jesus came to give us life, and to rescue us from death. Jesus came to heal our broken hearts. Our only hope, and peace can be found in Jesus.

"Tragic events remind us not only that we live in an imperfect and fallen world, but that there is a God who loves us and wants something better for us than the world has to offer." (http://www.gotquestions.org/meaning-in-tragedy.html). Jesus is coming back soon, and will one day put a stop to all that it wrong. But when people are suffering, it then becomes our responsibility to minister to them, care for them, pray for them, and comfort them.

I would encourage you to join us today to pray for these people and for their family. Pray for healing, for physical, mental, emotional, and most importantly spiritual healing. Pray for their salvation if they don't know God. Pray that as you encounter this type of stuff in the news daily that you can use it to point people to Jesus. Pray that the Lord will come back soon.

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In the video below Mark Cahill asks the question "What if you were at Virginia Tech?" to university students at their chapel. This is a very sobering message, and will encourage you to share the Gospel. (MarkCahill.org)

The Cost of Love - by Answers in Genesis

Our culture packages love in jewelry commercials, flower bouquets, and boxes of confections. Celebrities pair up and break up with such regularity that weekly magazines and gossip websites thrive on the intrigue. Contemporary romantic comedies promote an if-it-feels-good-it-must-be-love mentality that leaves many moviegoers feeling empty—especially when their real life can’t compete.

And maybe that’s where you are. Maybe you feel dead to love. If so, perhaps it’s because you’ve been swindled.

Love—the kind that’s real—doesn’t come gift-wrapped on Valentine’s Day. It’s not the momentary glow of a fresh relationship. It’s not the reuniting of two characters in a sappy movie.

No, real love is explained in the Bible. Real love is selfless, sacrificial, and unconditional. Jesus taught His disciples about love

Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. (John 15:13)
By this we know love, that [Jesus] laid down his life for us. (1 John 3:16, ESV)

In our self-indulgent world, a love so sacrificial and selfless may sound like some impossible ideal—some unreachable gold standard of what love could be—but it’s not. It really happened, and it happened for us.

No Strings Attached

You may have learned from experience that what our world calls love often comes conditionally. If you mess up, it’s gone. If you don’t pay the cost, it evaporates.

But that’s not the real thing. Real love endures. Real love doesn’t keep a record of wrongs. Real love doesn’t seek its own. Real love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:4–7).

And there’s Someone who loves like that. He gave up more riches than you could imagine to come on a rescue mission. Although He didn't deserve it, He was betrayed, whipped, and beaten to fulfill that mission. Soon after, He died by one of the most painful forms of execution that humans have ever invented. He loved us and “gave His life a ransom for all” (1 Timothy 2:6).

The Rescuer—Jesus—died for love. He lived entirely without sin, yet He walked up a hill in Israel 2,000 years ago and sacrificed His life to save sinners from God’s wrath—the punishment we deserve for our rebellion (Romans 5:9). He didn’t put stipulations on His love, such as waiting for us to clean up our act first (Romans 5:8) or only caring for the “best” of mankind (1 Corinthians 1:26). He went all in because He wanted to save us.

Three days later, Jesus rose to life just as He predicted, proving He is the Son of God (Matthew 12:40; Revelation 1:18). He proved that He can indeed give us new life.

The Bible tells us God is love (1 John 4:8) and beautifully summarizes what He did:

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

Source: http://www.answersingenesis.org/get-answers/features/cost-of-love?utm_source=answers-weekly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=cost-of-love