My Wife Is Like A Rubiks Cube

Husbands love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her but the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In the same way husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church.”  Ephesians 5:22-29

         Working in the schools I will occasionally see a student sporting his mad skills with a Rubiks Cube. The same drill happens each time. The student is in the corner flipping the cube every which way, flashing bright colors and intellectual prowess that impresses the other students standing nearby. Eventually a small group of kids will be hanging out with the Rubiks Cube master in the hallway hoping to one day achieve a level of virtuosity akin to the Rubiks Cube master.

   One year a student let me in on the secret, and I realized that once you know a handful of principles and different sets of patterns to apply in certain circumstances this frustrating techno colored cube becomes something more enjoyable to work with and isn’t as difficult as I once thought.

    My wife (and yours as well) is like a Rubiks Cube, beautiful with all of the different colors, fun, but seemingly mysterious when things get mixed up. Our wives are amazing, but can seem complicated unless we have an understanding of some fundamental principles that will make the seemingly mysterious or complicated things much easier to understand. With the help of my wife, I will cover 5 basic principles over the coming weeks, based on Ephesians 5, that will help you and I be better husbands that build our wives up, empower them, love them, and provide for them in the way that they most need. As we dwell on what it looks like to love our wives as Christ loved the Church, my hope is that our love toward our wives will make them shine even more beautiful and radiant as they are supported by us. Our marriage is where Living a Legacy for Christ should begin every day. I need just as much work as the next guy, so this will be to my benefit just as much as anyone else. After all, the point of this whole marriage thing is that we would be greater and more effective because we are together.

Here are the 5 areas we will be covering: 
1. Women want to feel loved and Pursued
2. Women want to feel understood and listened to
3. Women want to feel emotionally secure
4. Women want to feel beautiful.

Christians Are Hypocrites?

   Christians Are Hypocrites.....

   Usually when I have heard this statement it is a rationale for not wanting to be a Christian or not wanting to be labeled with people that serve an all loving God, but don’t always act that way. Fair enough, but this statement is unfortunately rooted in a complete misunderstanding of what it means to be a Christian, why we are Christians, and what it is Jesus accomplished on the cross. Having a personal relationship with Jesus and putting our faith in Him has never, should never, and will never be about us, but rather it is about what Jesus accomplished on the cross, and what God has given us as a result (Ephesians 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast.”) We, as Christians, have come to the realization that we are not able to live a life that is good enough, or perfect enough, to earn us righteousness (right standing with God) and eternal life in Heaven. Christianity is not a group of people saying that we are great and have it all together so we now decide to call ourselves “holy people”. Christianity is a recognition that we are screw ups, we have sinned, fallen short, done wrong things, and cannot live a perfect life; therefore, in our shortcomings, we have accepted a grace and forgiveness that covers all of those things, sets us free from the captivity of the impossible task of earning righteousness by our actions and good deeds. Being a Christian, we are proclaiming to everyone this amazing treasure that is the greatest thing we have ever come to know, that has transformed our lives, that has brought fulfillment and life beyond what we have ever experienced. The truth is that just because the war is over doesn’t mean the there aren’t battles being fought. It is a process for all of us. We will mess up, do things we regret, say the wrong thing, but our hope is that through it all you will see the face of our Saviour, and come to know a truly abundant life by means of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
      The truth is everyone is a hypocrite. The only person that can say they have lived a perfect life and never done something opposite of their moral standard is Jesus. The beauty of Christianity is that we come together realizing that we were once a broken people without a chance of hope in eternity and salvation, and now we are striving to live a life that reflects the grace and love that we have been shown. Jesus lived that life and credited that righteousness to us, that we could be called His children, and approach the throne of Grace with confidence (Hebrews 4:16). That's the best news I've ever heard!

So What's The Big Deal About A Belt?!?

Stand firm with the belt of truth buckled around your waste…   Ephesians 6:14 

     So what is the big deal about a belt? For a long time I found this odd in the listing of the armor of God. It doesn’t seem worth mentioning next to the sword, shield, helmet, breastplate, and other important parts of the armor. After all it says that the armor of God is what we should put on to stand against the powers of darkness, Satan, and the spiritual forces of evil. And the first piece of armor listed is a belt!?!?

      The function of a belt in a warriors armor at this time was actually of great importance. It was the central piece that held together all of the other pieces of his armor. It held all of the defensive pieces in place to guard against attack, and it held the weapons that they would fight with to destroy their adversary. Every piece of a warriors offense and defense hinged on the belt of his armor. The picture of the Armor of God shows us that Truth is what holds every piece of our armor, both offense and defense, and allows us to use it. Without a solid understanding of the truth of what we have inherited and what was accomplished on the cross, goes far beyond Salvation, we will find ourselves trying to hold each piece of the armor on while fighting in the battle...a poor strategy if you ask me. The truth of the Gospel is the point at which we understand fully how to use every piece of our armor. The truth of our identity that is in the cross should dictate our actions each day, be a fundamental piece in how we see ourselves, and be the lens through which we see others. For an overview of this see my previous post: A Look In The Mirror We Should't Forget. 

       Let’s press on living a life that will leave the eternal Legacy of Jesus Christ to be multiplied through generations.

    See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. Colossians 2:8