Sky Links, 7-27-13

Photo: Spacebridge by longobord CC 2.0
Houses and riches may be inherited from parents, but a sensible wife is a gift from the Eternal.
The man who finds a wife finds something good, and the favor of the Eternal is indeed his.
-Proverbs 19:14, 18:22

I read this post, My Husband Is Not My Soul Mate, by Hannah.  I was already thinking about those verses above, reflecting about my own time before I got married.  Like Hannah, I also read some of the books she mentions, like "I Kissed Dating Goodbye".  The one that sticks in my memory the most is, "Passion and Purity", by Elisabeth Elliot.

I had a close friend who read a book on "Soul Mates", and he really believed in the concept, as did another close friend.  I did not.  But when I met my wife, I did realize that God can select a person for you. 

An interesting thing about Elisabeth Elliot is that she has been married to the "right person" several times.  She had a great husband, who died; then another great husband, but different that the first, who died also.  She then was courted again by her third husband.  She only had her first husband for 3 years and the second one for 4.  She has been married to her third husband for over 35 years now.  My point is that we can have more than one marriage, whether it is wonderful, soul-mate-like or not so wonderful. 

Have you been in or ever heard of accountability groups?  Jeremy Meyers wrote a piece called, Why Accountability Groups Don't Work.  I agree with Jeremy's side note, that if it works for you, that is great.


Like Jeremy, I wonder if they are the way to go.  I think that we need discipleship, which accountability groups are trying to be.  I think that in our discipleship, we call each other upward.  I think that in our Christian culture, we have a high percentage of people who are not living a trans-formative life.  The bottom line is that not much discipleship is going on.  Jesus said to us to make disciples, but we build the church; when he said he would do that.

To be blunt, I am heartbroken that surveys have revealed that something like 50% or more of "Christian" men who attend church view pornography during the week.  We have a consumer culture where we do some "drive-thru" sex during the week and then pop in and out of church on Sundays.  Other surveys have shown that 40% of "pastors" view pornography.  These shocking statistics have come out in the age of accountability groups.

The only cure as I see it, is in transformation.  Discipleship is not encouragement towards legalism, but encouragement towards Christlikeness.  Sin is dealt with at the cross.  Jesus' cross is at the place of the skull. Our minds need sanctification.  We need deliverance.  We need to re-discover dying to self and taking up one's cross as we follow Christ.  This is where the rubber meets the road for us.

What if the Christian life was a life of encountering God and being transformed?  When we meet together, we encourage each other in what God has been doing in us during the week to transform us.

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